August 4, 2006 - Chelsea, Michigan - Over 2,200 kilometres, spread over seven days and most of the island of Newfoundland, each September since 2002. For some Canadian car enthusiasts, the Targa Newfoundland road rally becomes the Grey Cup, World Series and Stanley Cup all rolled into one.

What’s the appeal?

Whether you own an historic, classic or modern vehicle, where else can you drive said car on public roads at speeds that would normally cause your local constabulary grief?

What other road racing event runs directly through previously quiet suburban neighbourhoods one day, and unblemished hinterland the next?

Where else can you drive up to twelve hours a day, for a week, worrying about every ten-tenths of a kilometre, or whether or not that ‘veer right’ should have been a ‘hard left’?

In North America, Targa is it.



In fact you would have to travel to the other side of the world—down under to Tasmania, to be exact—to find anything comparable.

Although part of the event’s title—the Targa part—comes from the Sicilian Targa Floria road races from the last century, the modern competitive version was rejuvenated 15 years ago as the Targa Tasmania, which the Newfoundland event has taken inspiration from.

Like most road rallies, each car has a driver partnered with a co-driver. The driver drives (duh!) and the co-driver delivers incremental directions from a provided route book.

Sounds so simple even a journalist could do it, right?

Last year, with our own Graeme Fletcher co-driving, Dan Knott, Chrysler Group’s Vice President of Global Service (and of more relevance, the former godfather of Chrysler’s Street and Racing Technologies [SRT] performance skunk works), drove a Chrysler 300 SRT8.

Being the first Targa for both, Knott was happy just to finish what he calls “an intense, endurance, mind numbing and totally awesome event.”

So when I got the invite to co-drive for Knott at this year’s Targa, the car nut in me said, “ I gotta do Targa!”

Then the reality set in.



Being a Targa virgin, the calls went out to pick the brains of fellow journalists who’ve done Targa Newfoundland before

“You’re navigating? You better go to the navigating school.”

“Co-driving? Go to the school.”

When’s the school?

“Last month.”

Er, all right, getting off on the ol’ right foot and all that, eh?

OK, so no navigation school. No problem. I’ll just download some of the excellent resource material from the Targa Newfoundland site and dive in.

I’ve done local motor sport club time-distance-speed rallies before. But after reviewing the pages (and pages) of Targa regs, and specifically, my responsibilities as a co-driver—dealing with time cards, master base times, speed restriction zones, road section timing and penalties (oh, the penalties!) and did I mention the infamous rally computer—my respect for my colleague Fletcher went way up.  As did my blood pressure, stress level and appreciation for the grade four math I have somehow managed to bury in my middle-aged brain.

With my head spinning with tulip diagrams and mileage factor ratios, Knott decided it might be a good idea to run a test day last week at DaimlerChyrsler’s Chelsea proving grounds. Not only to calm the nerves of his rookie co-driver, buy also to get a feel for his 2006 Targa ride: a new Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8. The same Jeep that spanked the Land Rover Range Rover Sport and Porsche Cayenne Turbo in a recent  Three for the Road comparo.

Already having survived this past May’s One Lap of America, except for added safety equipment such as five-point harnesses and a roll cage, our brute-ute ride for Newfoundland was basically stock.

But stock in SRT language translates to a 420 horsepower and 420 lb-ft of torque 6.1-litre HEMI V8 with a lowered performance-tuned suspension and an electronic on-demand four wheel drive system.



Competing in the Modern Stock Large class, with Porsche Cayennes as the Jeep’s main competition, Knott is counting on the Grand Cherokee SRT8’s ability to deal with the various road surfaces of the Targa stages, whether wet or dry.

After Knott had a few hot laps to get acquainted with a vehicle he had never driven before, like the event itself, we still had a lot of ground to cover in a very short period of time.

For the afternoon, Don Jonikowsky, whose day job is Development engineer for Dodge Motorsports Road Racing, had mocked up a rally stage for me to get acquainted with the route book tulip diagram notes and the rally computer that I’ll need to master before setting out on Targa.

Needless to say, simultaneously keeping track of cumulative mileages, local speed limits, average speed times, looking for directional signage, the mood of my driver, and not barking ‘right’ when you meant ‘correct’, co-driving for Targa is anything but simple.

Despite a ‘hard right’ where a ‘veer right’ was needed, throwing us off course briefly, and constant fumbling with the rally computer’s unintuitive knobs and settings (does Apple make a rally computer?), your co-driver managed to get through the hour’s worth of simulated Targa stage navigation.

In less than five weeks in Newfoundland, I’ll just have to do that with authority eight hours a day for six straight days.

- John LeBlanc, Publisher, www.straight-six.com



© National Post 2006. This article originally appeared in The National Post's Driving.