Rallye R.E.A.L.

What: Rallye Énergie Alternative des Laurentides 2008 (or in English: Alternative Energy Rally of the Laurentians 2008) (A "regularity rally" run over open roads with scoring being based on precision of timing and speed, not outright, full-throttle craziness!)

Website: http://www.rallyereal.com/

When: October 2nd, 3rd, & 4th, 2008

Where: Alma, Quebec City, & St-Jerome - Quebec, Canada

Climate change has became a subject of concern whose stake is on the scale of planet. One cannot ignore it, which is why the promotion of alternative means of transport are from now on of crucial importance. The consequences of the massive use of the car in our cities is well known: air pollution, sound pollution, congestion of the downtown areas, accidents, deterioration of the quality of life of the citizens, to name only a few.

Rallye Énergie Alternative des Laurentides 2008 represents the ideal occasion to see various vehicles driven by alternative energies in action at the time of this exclusive rally open to the general public and to help promote other types of energies that that of gasoline.

The rally comprises two stages, over a 2 day period and adding up more than 800 km. The pilots and copilots will have to navigate, and drive their car conscientiously under optimal conditions to obtain minimal fuel consumption while traveling the splendid panoramic route, and to respect the speeds imposed during each test of regularity.

(Translation courtesy of WorldLingo.com & yours truly)

Unfortunately, the 2007 edition was almost exclusively a hybrid affair. There were 2 electric vehicles... one production based, and one home-brew Chevy Cavalier. The rest of the field was made up of Priuses, hybrid Civics & Insights, and 2 hybrid SUVs... a Highlander and an Escape. (Interesting side note: my strictly gas powered, 175 horsepower, sedan can get better highway mileage then either of the EPA ratings for the hybrid SUVs entered.)

This year the event is open to hybrids (yawn - what else?), electrics (Tesla, anyone? Yes please!) as well as vehicles powered by alternative fuels, including biodiesel, natural gas, LPG, etc.

I'm curious how many smarts might be entered this year. The cdi smart can be run on biodiesel, and it puts out a mere 88 g of CO2/km, which is well under the event's regulated limit for biodiesel vehicles of 100 g of CO2/km. And while they don't have a class for gasoline powered high-efficiency vehicles, the regulations state that any car using more than 30% fossil fuels will be limited to 120 g of CO2/km. The petrol powered smart falls under that limit as well.

Sadly I don't own a smart of either type, I can't even come close to affording a Tesla... and since I'll never be caught dead driving a hybrid, I can't enter this event. However if you own a smart cdi and would be willing to hand over the keys and spend the 2 days as a copilot I'd be more than happy to team up. (I'm not holding my breath...)

I'll try to make it into St-Jerome in a few weeks to catch the end of the event and see if anything besides the jellybean snob-mobiles showed up!