Look at those lines, a little form and a lot of function (and fun). I find old sales brochures can be a great source of information. I bet this one is. Too bad high school French was optional.
What does spring mean? Pothole season, of course. Over the years, I’ve had my share of low vehicles and my share of damage caused by potholes and rough roads. Sometimes my fair share, and sometimes much more than my fair share. I’ve bent control arms bouncing over road construction in the mountains of British Columbia and hooked a driveshaft hoop on Victoria Avenue’s high-center pavement in Regina when slamming on the brakes after being cut off. I left bits and pieces of Corvette front air dam in every parking lot I visited for over a decade and mashed an exhaust pipe flat somewhere around Calgary, breaking the manifold gasket but not the manifold. Sorry to say, it’s not just Saskatchewan that has bad roads, and I’m sure it’s not just me that has bad luck. Based on all the damage that I’ve had incurred over the years, one would assume that I would have learned something, possibly be smarter now, and one would be correct to assume that. No, I haven’t packed my bags and headed south, where the highways are concrete, and a dollar is indeed still worth a dollar. No, I’ve started looking more and more at bigger, badder, more Saskatchewan-friendly vehicles. There’s something about the sound of slapping hockey pucks together provided by big mud tires and the rapping of glass packs that just feels right. There’s also something about being bad, without being that big. For that, there’s the Rallye car.
The Rallye car has to be single-handedly the most dangerous car to watch in action. Spectators line the track, just hanging out between nature and the dirty road, cars whizzing by at incredible speed. Sometimes they’re on the track, and sometimes they’re in the air. Sometimes they’re hooked and in control; other times, they’re completely sideways, directed only with momentum. For those of you who like the idea of this, on a smaller scale, with less danger, the Simca 1000 Rallye might just be for you. The first thing I like is the fact that it’s not conventionally attractive. It’s a rough-terrain race, not a beauty contest. Second, it’s rear-engine, rear-wheel drive, meaning there’s some weight back there to really throw around in the corners. Under the rear deck lies a 1.3-litre engine that makes anywhere from fifty to one-hundred horsepower, depending on options and model year. Inside, it looks like a civilized race car, with those vintage ice cream scoop seats that look comfortable but never are. They were made from the middle-sixties to the late-seventies, and, as usual, I prefer the early version with the big round headlights. There’s probably a ton more information out there for those of you fluent in French, but really, what more is there to know? A fast, fun, lightweight car designed for good times on bad roads. That might have even been their slogan. Like I say, I can’t read French.
-Kelly Kirk
