Video: Co-driving, this is how

Thousands of rally videos are out there, ready and waiting to be found and enjoyed, but you can also use them for educational purposes. For example, you want to kick off your co-driving career – online videos are great resource of information and first-hand (well, okay, second hand technically) experience. Of course, it’s up to you and your driver to find a system which works for both of you and which you can expand and make more complex if needed. In the end it all comes down to trust and confidence and these you get from experience. Think of it like you’re in a new band – it takes time and practice for everything to come together and produce a music, as opposed to this, for example.

This morning I accidentally stumbled upon this great onboard, taken in 2011 Rally Australia in the Toyota of Ryan Smart and John Allen. Onboards are cool, that’s general knowledge, but some of them go beyond just single camera pointing forward, sometimes at a funny angle. This one is actually great because it shows both the crews POV but it also shows both driver and co-driver in a smaller frame. Nothing new or special, I agree, but when you play the video you’ll see why I think it’s actually pretty awesome. It’s the co-driver.

Perfect amount of confidence, perfectly timed “Go”, “Come on” and “Caution” warnings and the mother of it all, the I’ve-got-this request or rather a command “Trust me” while the car is powering over a blind crest. This is a huge thing for the driver and it shows the commitment of both crew members – when a co-driver is backing pace notes calls by saying “trust me” and you actually see that he is right (it takes time for this to click in, all rally crews will tell you that) it’s like having an extra few tens of HP in your engine.

Go watch this video, it’s really badass. This is how you co-drive in a rally car.