Cumberland Motor Club

 What's a TSD Rally?

A Time-Speed-Distance (TSD) rally (a.k.a. road rally) is a competitive automobile tour run on public roads, obeying ordinary traffic rules.  The object is to stay on course, as described by a set of route instructions (e.g. Left on Main St, Right at stop), while maintaining specified average speeds. Other types of instructions, such as tulip diagrams, may be used.

A rally is not a race!  Where autocrossing is a measure of your ability to get from Point A to Point B in a big hurry, the goal of a rally is to get from Point A to Point B in the exact amount of time given by your route instructions.  Your vehicle is timed at checkpoints found along the course at secret locations.  You acquire penalty points for each one hundredth (that's 0.01) of a minute when you pass a checkpoint either behind or ahead of schedule.  Your score is figured by comparing your actual time of arrival at the checkpoint with the pre-calculated time that you should have arrived at that checkpoint.  Like golf, low score wins. 

Just about any vehicle (cars, trucks, vans, those SUV things) can be used to run in a rally, so long as it's street-legal.  Since the speeds are moderate, a high-performance sports car is not necessary.  No special equipment is needed to run.  If you and your partner are beginners, all you need to enter is a watch that reads in seconds (digital is best...), a pocket calculator, a clipboard, paper, pencils, pens, and highlighters.  Novices compete in a class separate from the experienced rallyists.

How cars are classed in CMC Road Rallies...

Review CMC's Rally Rules and Regulations in Adobe PDF format