This is the first in a series of blogs on how a rally car is built and what makes it different from cars you see driving about every day on the roads.
A rally car has to survive being driven at high speed over all sorts of road surfaces. I say roads, but these could range from nice smooth tarmac roads, to rough rocky gravel tracks, covered in ice, snow, mud or dust...it's all part of the challenge that is rallying.
So, how do you go about building a rally car to survive these conditions?
When you see a rally car, it looks pretty much like any car you might see driving down the street. But under the skin it's an entirely different beast!
When cars are built in the factory, all the metal panels are spot welded, usually by robots. Welding in this way is strong enough for general use on everyday roads, but the extreme vibrations on a rally track can cause the body of your car to fall apart! So, one of the most important parts of preparing a rally car is to add extra strength to the body. To do this, everything is removed from the car, leaving just the shell. Then, by hand, a weld (which is really a hot metal glue!) about 3cm long is made every 3cm over every panel on car. This painstaking process is called seam welding, because it looks like a seam you would get when sowing cloth and it can take days to complete.
Spot Welding Robot
Seam Welding
The result is a much stronger body shell, able to withstand extreme vibrations.
Next stage of the body preparation is the roll cage. This is a safety feature that protects the driver and co-driver if the car has a nasty crash, which in rallying is quite frequent! The roll cage is basically a metal cage made up of strong steel bars which are welded together to form strong triangles. This adds immense strength to the body of the car, so if it is involved in a big crash, the crew inside the car are protected.
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