Targa Newfoundland

Watched it on Speed TV last weekend.  I stop surfing when the Targa Newfoundland comes on screen.

It's insane, of course.  1500 miles over secondary roads with zig-zags through residential blocks of small towns.  Ferrari Enzos, and Porsche 911 GT-3's, and 500 horsepower "pro touring" American muscle cars.  (You can run a Miata or a Mini too, if that's what ya brung.)  Jumping culverts and other hazards on roads engineered for passive safety at 30-50 m.p.h.  Guard rails, instead of keeping you out of the ditch, are strategically placed to finish the job.  The guy driving the Enzo flew it into a salt-water bay.  He and his co-driver got out before the car sank.  (They hired a construction crane to winch it out.  Wonder if that was in the racing budget?  If you can afford to put an Enzo on steroids, do you need a racing budget?)

But I love the Targa Newfoundland.  Real, streetable, cars, racing on real roads.  Culvert jumps, where-is-it? apexes, and gravel in the road are part of the job.  You can't drive 10/10's.  Even for a Senna or a Schumacher, 9/10's would be a ton.  Unrestricted speeds over public roads are a completely different animal from circuit courses.  On the Dragon, those of us who like to run hard must keep a margin in hand for two-way traffic.  At low speeds.  Targa Newfoundlanders don't have to worry about two-way traffic.  Two-mile straights are not unusual.  And they can run as hard as their route notes and good sense let them.

In other words, road racing.  It's so dangerous that "legitimate" road races like the Mille Miglia and Targa Florio disappeared long ago.  (The next to go, as I've blogged, were the long "true" road circuits like the Nurburgring and Spa-Francorchamps.)   The Targa Newfoundland is a throwback.  The only comparable event is a World Rally Championship meet when it runs on pavement.

A driver who can run competitively and finish the Targa Newfoundland is more impressive to me than a pro who can win on a modern conventional circuit.  If the Targa Newfoundland were golf, it would be St. Andrews.  If it were football, it would be overtime in a wet blizzard on a muddy field.  Insert own simile here.