How should i go about starting a race track?
First, you start with a big pile of money that you won't mind being a small pile by the time you're done. Seriously--it's a long and expensive process. You'll need a lot of land (even a little 1/4 or 1/3 mile will take up a couple of hundred acres by the time you figure the track, parking, etc). You'll also need to hire an architect to work on the site, designing the grandstands/press box, figuring out the drainage on the site, and a ton of other stuff Once you've got the land and the plans, you'll need to get zoning approval from the city or county. Expect a bunch of people to register complaints at the zoning hearing that it will be too loud, dusty, cause too much traffic, is a hazard in the area, and it will destroy some rare species of newt. To calm those concerns, they'll probably require you to provide an Environmental Impact Report, which you'll have to pay for. Even then, the zoning request might get turned down because the guy worried about the newts is friends will several members of the zoning board (it happens). They will also want to know how you're going to hook up to water, sewer and power (if you're building in an area that is currently "unimproved"). You'll have to pay for running the utilities to your site. You've got to do all that, and probably a lot of other stuff I haven't mentioned, before you turn one shovelful of dirt. That's when the real cost starts. Oddly enough, there is a group locally that is trying to build a set of facilities like you're talking about, except with a mile oval (their plan is the mile oval, a dirt track, and a dragstrip). They figured their costs would be something like $100 million by the time they're done. They've been trying to get things going for a couple of years, and are only at the zoning part of the process. I think it's a cool idea what you're trying to do, but I think it's a job several orders of magnitude bigger than you suspect.
Do professional rally drivers see the stage before racing on it?
Yes they do. The normal procedure of a rally weekend goes as follows:Friday :Reporting and formalities completed. On site registration. Verification of competition license etc. The route map is handed over to the competitors. Saturday :The scrutiny happens. All competitors' vehicles are scrutinized and the start order is decided for the rally based on the classes.Then the competitors are taken by the Clerk of the Course for a Reccee session wherein the competitors go around the route in a convoy at an appropriate speed and the Co drivers add pace notes to the route map. These pace notes become the basis for the drivers to drive in the rally the next day. In case of poor visibility it is these notes that help them navigate through the route. Sunday :Rally day. Rally happens, results announced.
Why do rally cars have switches to release fuel just to start the car?
Many old carburettor cars had accelerator pumps where you could pump the accelerator to pump extra fuel through. Keep in mind not all carburettor cars had accelerator pumps either.However, as for modern EFI cars there is no such thing as an accelerator pump or any such way of pumping extra fuel through. They have computers which take care of all of this.However, they have a running procedure that they remember. If you disconnect the battery for too long in many modern cars I think they will forget this procedure and the next start will be a hard start and often smokey because the car has to relearn the programme again. The next starts after that will be fine though because the programme has been relearnt.
How do you get into driving rally cars?
In the United States rally racing, sadly, is not very popular. That said there are plenty of a few events around and renting or starting rallying for fun is defiantly doable. Before all this I recommend you find some local rally crosses or stage rallys to go to and meet people. See if this is something you really want to do as it will not be easy nor cheap. To start you have a couple of options. 1. The cheapest method to start would be to find a local Rallycross event. This is running your street car through a closed dirt course, delineated by cones. Very similar to autocross but on the dirt. It is very cheap to do and you will learn by doing. From there you can step up and buy yourself a purpose built car and slowly venture into stage rallying. 2. Go to a proper rally school. If you're on the west coast I would recommend Dirtfish (www.dirtfish.com) or on the east coast Team O'Neil (www.team-oneil.com)3 From here I would rent a car from a main team (Vermont Sports Cars is a major one) and discover if its really for you. Stage rally is expensive as you WILL bounce off tress, you WILL crash, and you WILL destroy cars. That's part of rallying. 4. At this point I would either buy a car to run or build your own. Start looking at Rally-America (www.rally-america.com) Find events and go run.