The Overcrest Rally is Overcrest Productions’ annual organized drive through a few of the most effective backroads the US has to supply. Previously run within the states of Idaho and Utah, this yr it cut through Oregon.
In easy terms, the Overcrest Rally is precisely what you’d expect it to be: a road rally, with some dirt and gravel options for anyone a bit braver. But it surely’s not just a drive – the experience itself is so way more.
The genesis of the Overcrest Rally is, in their very own words, “The sum of each road now we have ever driven.”
“Most are uninspiring. Similar to you, we commute, we errand… For people who like to drive, explore, and sacrifice to find roads, places, and relationships that live in us for the remaining of our lives, we’ve created the Overcrest Rally. We scout, toiling for 1000’s of miles to curate the most effective of the most effective roads and scenery in places that almost all have never been.”
The Overcrest Rally is while you Take the Automobile — as the organizers also say — and use it as intended. Over 100 cars were taken this yr. But still, what is it really?
The Overcrest Rally is covering 2,000-plus miles with your mates, sharing sketchy hotel rooms in the midst of nowhere, and praying your decades-old cars don’t leave you stranded on a mountain pass with nothing greater than a pretty-looking route book. Read: no reception.
The Overcrest Rally is exploring the unknown — but this includes discovering greater than the landscapes, roads, curves, or your automobile.
The Overcrest Rally is five days back to back, with roughly seven hours of driving every day (with another participants covering even greater distances to make it to the place to begin and back home again). Alone in a automobile for this long you have got loads of time to let your mind wander, and you may even find some parts of yourself along the way in which.
Temet Nosce
The Overcrest Rally is when the throttle in your ’60s machine decides to stay wide open, and you find yourself finding some un-belonging hardware stuck within the carburetor throttle plates. Who knows how long it had been there before this near catastrophe, however it was nothing a screwdriver couldn’t fix. I feel Vince’s BMW 2002 is the one automobile I’ve seen cover a distance like this and run notably higher when it arrived home.
Actually, Project 345 was also miraculously improved just a little bit along the way in which, with some annoying squeaks silenced and 0 mechanical problems for the whole distance. But with many project updates from the last yr within the queue to jot down about, these notes are for a special day.
I’ll also follow up on this story with the 4 rolls of 35mm film I shot on the rally, but for now…
The Overcrest Rally is discovering a broken alternator bracket in a small Oregon town, and asking the type locals which of their friends has a welder within the garage and a little bit of time to spare. Twenty dollars and half an hour later, Cam was back gripping the old wood steering wheel in his Volvo with a renewed confidence to go the gap, keeping that solid axle in line.
The Overcrest Rally isn’t giving up on yourself, and never giving up on anyone else, either. But in addition knowing the fantastic line between protected and silly – something I could probably use a lesson or two in. (And who could have imagined that an E36 could ever be a support vehicle for anything?!)
The Overcrest Rally is driving from Southern California to the Northeast corner of Oregon in a Porsche 911 RS America – one among only 701 examples produced – and having F*CK YEAH pinstriped across your door on the finish line, courtesy of Bring a Trailer.
Speaking of BaT, the Overcrest Rally is chasing down your old boss in his homologation special on the most effective of backroads. Hanging off the Renault 5 Turbo 2’s rear bumper or seeing it in my mirrors was a special experience in itself, transporting me to a bygone era I never experienced yet feel a curiously strong sense of nostalgia for.
On that note, the Overcrest Rally isn’t giving a rattling when your glass Euro headlights you shipped out of Germany get chipped, broken and beaten from stones flung up by the meaty rear tires of said French rally homologation automobile. Not to say my windshield, which was replaced on Tuesday and had split in half again by Friday.
But greater than all of this, the Overcrest Rally is returning to your roots. A rediscovery of the enjoyment of driving and why we do it. It will possibly even be a rediscovery of self, in case you let or not it’s. Hopefully you discover you’ve come a good distance.
Returning to the street in Portland where I first parked Project 345 after purchasing it out of Montana, I’m not only completely satisfied with where the automobile is, but where I’m. Sometimes through the most difficult situations we actually find ourselves higher for it down the road.
The 2023 Overcrest Rally wasn’t easy, but I wouldn’t have it some other way. So, here’s to two upcoming Overcrest events in 2024, and to the numerous miles of undiscovered roads ahead.
Trevor Ryan
Instagram: analogtrevor
tyrphoto.com
This Article First Appeared At www.speedhunters.com
