I took my trusty Toyota Corolla 4WD wagon to the Press Rally in Lithuania and finished last. It was a challenging but rewarding experience, and I'm already planning to do it again next year. Here's my story.
The Press Rally is a weekend-long event held in the Baltic States, with stages around the country. It's a significant and popular event, attracting competition drivers and media people alike. I've done the rally three times before, and this year, I brought my brother along for the ride.
My car of choice was the 2000 model Corolla 4WD wagon, which I've had for a couple of years. It's a reliable car, but it's had its fair share of issues, including rear wheel bearings and brake lines. However, it's never failed to start, and it doesn't leak any fluids, which are essential for a long rally.
The rally started with a demo drive around the cone course, and we got nowhere. We missed a bunch of cones and generally drove very slowly. However, we set things right on the second run, and we were beaming as we drove to the first special stage.
The Corolla drove fine and didn't scrape its wheels on the arches, nor did it chew up the outer edges of its tires. It corners quite level, and the 4WD surely distributes power to the rear even in asphalt driving.
We made a cone mistake in Panevėžys, but we made up for it in the last two stages on a long downhill street in Nida. We gave it hell and didn't get penalties other than ten seconds for hitting cones on one of the runs.
In the overall results, the Sandero team beat us by two minutes and 22 seconds, with a VW ID.3 from the EV class between us with a marginally slower time than the Sandero. The fastest in any Press class were Renaldas Gabartas and Vincas Gerdžiūnas in their Audi RS3 (Press over 4000cc), with overall victory going to the Porsche 911 team.
It was a great trip, with the Corolla performing superbly, and assisting the other Finns when they most needed it. And in the end, I was happy I got to do the trip with my brother. We haven't done anything like this in ages, and it felt like time well spent.
