Detour #20: Targa Tasmania, Australia
For the past 27 years, the island state of Tasmania has given itself over as playground to a rally quite unlike any other. A rally that plays out like the opening chase scene from Mad Max. A rally with humble drivers that could show – and, indeed, do show – WRC drivers a clean pair of heels.
It’s meant to be about endurance, stamina and skill. But when I chased the rally, the drivers and cars were working harder than one of the island’s miners in a heatwave. Coolant bubbled out onto the road, brake pads billowed smoke, fans clicked in wildly, sweat ran down the faces of the drivers. Any thoughts of a jolly jaunt through picture postcard scenery were wiped out like the bugs on the cars.
There were Mark II Escorts, 2.7 RS 911s and tuneful Alfa GTV6’s dancing before your eyes in a kaleidoscope of rallying through the decades. The contrast with the devastatingly efficient Subaru Impreza WRX STis and Mitsubishi Evos was stark.
Equally stark was the crash rate. Sweeping through the Sideling stage after the field’s come by, we saw an Evo on its roof, Impreza embedded in the trees and, hairiest of all, an Exige upside down in a cow shed. Fortunately, there are no injuries – two legged or four.
Steve Glenney, a past winner of the Targa Tasmania, colourfully painted a picture of roads I’d discover in Tas’. “You’ll be running flat out in sixth, fast as she’ll go, along straights with crests where the car leaps into the air, landing on one side, then leaping over the next, landing on the other side. Then back on the other side, and so on. The roads are just awesome.”
Sure enough, the roads are quite something. And the scenery is as breathtaking, with variety across the island that’s about 150 miles south of the mainland. I drove them in a Honda Civic Type-R, and because we often followed the sweeper vehicles after each stage, it was possible to wring the neck of the VTEC engine through every gear, work the brakes to the point of lock-up and set all four tyres into the most delicious drift, with a carefully timed lift of the throttle entering well-sighted bends.
Some sections served up lunar-like barren land, left naked from decades of mining, others were tropical, passing through lush, dense forest. We paused for breath at beaches, stopped for coffee at lakes and enjoyed a cold beer or three in the evening at any of the small towns we encountered along the route of the rally.
Past years have seen the likes of Jack Brabham, Denny Hulme, Roger Clark, Jochen Mass, Barry Sheene and Walter Rohrl taking part. Running in the inaugural event, Stirling Moss described it as “the best classic drive in the world.” Praise indeed coming from a man who left the field standing in the greatest road rally of them all, the 1955 Mille Miglia.
Of course, you don’t have to visit Tasmania for the Targa. The roads are there to be enjoyed all year round. But if you’re going all that way, way not make it even more memorable and watch the Targa take over Tasmania?
Words James Mills Twitter | Instagram
Photography Targa Australia
Roadbook
Class: Island escape
Name: Tasmania
Route: Targa Tasmania stages
Country: Australia
Distance: over 1200 miles
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