The white-knuckle express

160km/h on dirt? Defence news sent CPL Andrew Hetherington along to the Rally of Canberra’s media day to see what all the fuss was about.

Lowering myself into the tight navigator’s seat of Hiroshi Yanagisawa’s race-bred Subaru WRX STI Spec C, I almost had second thoughts on letting the door shut on my exit point, as I noticed that I could not see the road over the bonnet without stretching my neck.

But as I was strapped in with a five-point safety harness I prepared for what I’d soon remember to be one of the rides of my life as I experienced first hand the exhilarating speeds of an Australian Rally Championship vehicle at Bluetts Forest near Canberra.

My driver, Mr Yanagisawa from the Japanese Cusco Racing Rally Team, who I confess I’d never heard of before, spoke almost no English. But he began competing 15 years ago, and since turning to international competition in 2004, has competed in the Japanese national championship and has had a career-best result of third overall in a rally in China.

So as the buckles clamped shut, I knew I was in for some fun with a driver that would give me a white- knuckle ride, with a no-fear attitude and who would allow me to be fully immersed in the rallying experience.

As we pulled up to the start line he applied the huge, custom-made, blue handbrake and put the vehicle in first gear. We then got the 30-second warning, he brought the engine up to 4500 revs. By this time, my heart rate was slowly rising with the anticipated start fast approaching. The marshals began to count down with their fingers – three, two, one – and, with the release of the blue handbrake, we were off.

Mr Yanagisawa began to take corners and straits at a frenetic pace, sliding to different sides of the road with purposeful finesse.

Stretching my neck to look over the dashboard and the turbo bonnet scoop, I tried to keep an eye on the road, his driving style and the speedometer at all the same time.

I could see this guy was a very smooth driver and he manipulated the handbrake, pedals and steering wheel with mechanical precision. He used every part of the road to his advantage.

I could see huge ruts and pot holes on the road, which at this speed would destroy my 1984 Nissan Bluebird, but this Rex seemed to glide over them.

The course was around 2 to 3km long and it consisted of a couple of small climbs, plenty of tight turns and a few short straights.

Halfway through the ride I began to laugh at the ease the car and driver handled the road conditions and the way the suspension handled the bumps and ruts was nothing short of incredible. The ride was very firm and I could feel some bumps and rocks hitting the vehicle’s underside, but the aspect I was most impressed with was that there was no vehicle body roll. It was very firm.

In all, I think the ride only took about three to four minutes, but it seemed like a nano-second.
The highest speed we reached on the tight and twisty circuit was about 160km/h, with the car frequently sliding around corners at 90km/h.

As we drove back to the pits to have me extracted from the vehicle, I wanted to convey to Mr Yanagisawa how I had appreciated the ride he had given me in words he would understand. I eventually said to him, “You are a Samurai!”

He seemed to understand this and laughed at the comment. He was like a Samurai carving up the hills with his blade – his WRX STI.