Dirt Fish Rally School

My brother, Noel, and I found Dirt Fish Rally School located at an old Weyerhaeuser property in Snoqualmie, WA. They offer many different Rally driving courses. We elected for the half day "Intro to Rally" course. The cars are truly rally modified Subarus with rally tires, hardened suspension, stripped interiors, roll bars, loads of plates, flaps, and guards protecting the underside, and the bumpers were held on with zip ties (I'm sure that is a feature and not a repair...). They are 300bhp, all wheel drive beasts meant for ripping through logging roads and our job was to learn how to drive them sidewise through the corners!

There were six instructors for eight students. We had four cars. Four of the instructors would take the first four out for driving while the other two instructors provided pointers to the four students who were watching. Then we'd swap out. You learn almost as much by watching other people's mistakes as you do from your own. Most of the instructors are not paid! They do this purely for the fun of it, to share their passion for the sport, and a chance to drive the rally cars.

The cars go as fast as you want in a straight line. The challenge is to get the car to go through the corners as fast as possible despite the slippery surface. The key is weight transfer of the car to the front tires by riding the brake at the entry of the corner. The front tires dig in and the back comes around. You wait until the car is nearly pointed in the correct direction and then straighten the wheel, ease off the brake, and roll into the throttle... repeat...

No, I did not take out the cone. I was, however, using all the track that I paid for! They first worked us out on a skid pad to get the feel of how weight transfer affects the affect of steering input. Then we put it to use on the slalom. Lastly, we did runs on The Boneyard, which was a five turn course with a lot of variety simulating an actual race course. We actually didn't wipe out that many cones. Most of the cones on their side are next to a cone pointing to the side of the cone that you are supposed to go.
The six instructors and eight students after a great half day of learning to drive in the dirt!
I even got a certificate. I suspect it will not help lower my insurance bill...

I couldn't mount my camera on my helmet or in the car where it could see out, so I didn't get any video of me driving. However, Noel had a mount in his car, so the first part of the video is of one of his runs through The Boneyard. Then for the last run of the day, after they wetted the track down again, the instructors took the students for a full speed ride through both the Boneyard and the Slalom. Awesome!