What does a rally co-driver do?

Rally driving looks like a rather sensational way to get from part of a forest to another.

As a spectator on the outside, it looks dirty, aggressive and even frightening to some. Cars are hurled passed trees in a seemingly out-of-control fashion, launched over blind crests and even barrel-rolled on the odd occasion – although the latter is usually unplanned.

And, even after you’ve seen YouTube clips and played video games like Dirt or WRC (maybe even competed in a tarmac rally sprint) it can be difficult to appreciate the sheer talent of the TWO people sitting inside the cockpit of a rally car, performing what looks like a perfectly choreographed routine.

Yes it takes two to tango in a rally car. The drivers are among the most skilful wheelmen and women on the planet. But the co-drivers have an integral role to play.

So, to get a good idea of what really goes on inside the confines of a rally car (especially in the co-driver’s seat), Subaru do Motorsport invited us to sit alongside, Australia Rally Champion, Molly Taylor in a WRX STI.

The car we’re using isn’t Molly’s actual ARC car – that lives in the Orange Motorsport Engineering workshop in Tasmania, where it gets stripped and prepped between each round. The real thing is kitted out with Reiger suspension, a Motec ECU and bespoke wiring loom, competition differentials, a Modena sequential gearbox, competition exhaust, a worked motor with a bigger turbo and bunch of other gear.

What we’ve got here is a slightly more ‘family-friendly’ version. But it’s hard to tell the difference, if you don’t know what to look for.

It looks the part inside, with a stripped-down cabin, roll cage and race seats with proper harnesses.

Underneath, it’s also got some pretty solid Murray Coote MCA suspension (not as sophisticated as the Reiger set-up), super strong rally wheels wrapped in Pirelli tyres, performance clutch, brakes pads and rotors, a hydraulic handbrake and a whole heap of underbody protection for the bush bashing this thing has to endure.

After a quick lesson on how to read pace notes, Molly took yours truly for some hot laps through a part of Kowen Forest in Canberra that is regularly used as a rally stage. After a few joy rides, we had the chance to play co-driver, delivering the pace notes she’d prepared earlier through an intercom.

Deciphering the notes gets a little easier after three coffees, but still presents a fair challenge once you’re strapped in and the car actually gets going. I cheated a little beforehand and wrote down entire words next to the page of hieroglyphics she presented us.

“You need to read the pace notes really, really fast,” I was warned by Subaru’s PR Manager.

I can’t read fast under normal circumstances, I think to myself… so I’m glad Molly already knows where she’s going!

As we go hurtling towards the first corner, I begin: “And slight right to crest 20 – turn three left plus cut 30 – late three left cut and flat jump”.

Absolute gibberish to me, but she assures me I’m doing a good job.

We glide through the gravel, with Molly barrelling up to corners at speeds that seem too fast to make it out the other side alive. Yet we do, every time – and it seems so much smoother and more graceful from the inside, even when she whips the steering wheel from one direction to another quicker than I can blink and read the next symbol.

It’s not until I’ve been thrown around like a rag doll enough to lose my place in my notes that I really get a sense of how challenging this job must be for a proper co-driver.

I thought circuit racing was adrenaline-inducing enough… but rallying is in a world of its own.

And what an absurd, incredible world it is.