official website: http://www.robinhoodrally.com/
2010 Fall Update – The First season of The Robin Hood Rally has been put on hold by the series organizers after the first 2 events. Rumor has it negotiations are taking place between 2 major TV networks to pick-up season 2 of the Robin Hood Rally. No word yet about how season 1 will be completed (if it will be completed), but you can be sure that Todd will be a part of season 2 when it takes place. Stay tuned for more info when we find out.
Motor Trend Hits Reality TV!
(reprinted from Motor Trend magazine) February, 2010
Our very technically direct Frank Markus has been asked to co-host a street-racing reality TV show called the Robin Hood Rally (www.robinhoodrally.com) that will be crisscrossing the eastern half of the U.S. this summer. Okay, “street racing” may bring the wrong connotation to mind here. Yes, the various contestants will be “running what they brung” on some of the most challenging and beautiful stretches of public roads this great nation has to offer, but they’ll be doing it with the full support of the local communities. The roads will be blocked off, staffed with corner workers, etc., just like on a racing circuit. But public roads can be much more demanding of man and machine than official racetracks. Heavy traffic can wear grooves or carve potholes in the surface. Armco, sheer drop-offs, or cliff walls often loom near the racing line, narrowing the margin for error. And the courses will be much longer than a typical racing circuit (think Nurburgring), making them more difficult to “learn” in a few runs (and impossible to practice in advance on a PlayStation3), but not long enough to get racing tires fully warmed up. Best of all: at the end of each event, the organizers will donate the spectator gate admissions back to the host community to do with as they see fit.
Official Robin Hood Rallying will take place over the course of ten weekends between late May and early November. During the course of each weekend, every driver will have the opportunity to make six timed runs on these long courses in the driver’s vehicle(s) of choice — that adds up to a lot of high-adrenaline seat time. Folks can bring multiple cars or switch cars from venue to venue — this is first and foremost a test of driver-skill. Cars of varying weights and power outputs will be made competitive with one another by way of an equalizing formula that ensures that a driver who can take a lower-powered car right to the raggedy edge of its performance envelope will have a good chance of beating the driver of some raging bull or prancing horse that may have limits that are more difficult to probe on public roads. The best lap at each venue is recorded, and the five best of these results are tallied to determine the overall finishing order (meaning it is not compulsory to attend all ten events). The top three winners will drive away with some pretty impressive prizes:
1st place: A Ferrari F430
2nd place: A Porsche 911 Turbo
3rd place: A Corvette Z51.
Don’t set your TiVo just yet, as the Robin Hood Rally TV episodes won’t air until this fall, but we’ll be providing periodic updates as leaders and colorful characters emerge. Wish Frank luck in this new endeavor, but don’t worry — his co-host is reality-show pro Charles Hendrickson of “Pinks” fame. The Robin Hood Rally still has a few seats available, so if you think you have the chops to claim one of the grand-prize cars, show us what’cha got! You can still apply at www.robinhoodrally.com, but registration closes soon. A mandatory pre-rally track-day event will take place on April 23.
Read the original Motor Trend article: http://www.motortrend.com/womt/112_1002_motor_trend_reality_tv/index.html#ixzz0hz5lv6dL