Tarmac rallies can be hard on tires. Strike that; tarmac rallies are hard on tires. The Newfoundland roads take it a step further than that-the Rock’s stages have hazards for wheels as well.

The best approach is to avoid all the hazards, of course. But just in case you don’t, be sure to bring the two spare tires allowed by the organizers. Ideally those tires would already be mounted on wheels, ready to bolt onto the car.

When we Targa’d in 2015, the station wagon easily held both our spares; in 2016, the coupe could carry only one spare inside, strapped down behind the front seats. But this year, in the Cayman, there’s just no room in the cabin for a spare… you’d have to run without a co-driver and use the passenger seat for tire haulage. And that won’t work on a stage.

How about putting a mounted spare in the frunk?

How ’bout not, says this picture.

But you simply must carry at least one ready-to-go spare. Targa runs all day, and you are never close to a commercial area. If you’re blessed with a service crew (we are not), you may not be close to them.

You simply must carry one with you.

Well then, if we must…

Now the hood closes at least. That’s a used 991 hood, by the way; same part number.

Call it a “rain shield”.

Slightly less offensive in Racing Yellow. But it still needs something.

Ah, that’s better. That’s a proper rally car look.

Under the bulge, the spare is secured with a couple tether points in the frunk walls and a long surcingle of nylon strapping. The jack and torque wrench (118 lbs-ft!) are nearby.

We’ve been using a Timewise “A box” rally computer for many years. It’s what we successfully ran in both our previous Targa campaigns.

At a recent snow rally, though, some folks with app-based rally tools did quite well; well enough that we took a closer look at the tool that had performed best at that rally.

The tool’s development is centered in Spain, and is apparently driven by local demand (which suggests to me that if I were to emigrate, Spain is a place where I could fit in-they must rally a lot).

An interesting feature is that the measurement of distance can be done via GPS. If its measurements were accurate enough, that would reduce the problems of wheel spin and slip that face us with our wheel-driven sensors.

We gave the tool a three-day check out on the recent Nor’wester rally in Washington state. The app’s philosophy and approach are very different than the Timewise’s, and our A-box habits only partially suited the tool-so we were also using the three days to set some new habits.

Aich. The three day test revealed that the tool isn’t ready to supplant the Timewise, or maybe we’re not ready for the tool, or maybe a bit of both. So our rather extensive preparations to be able to run the app in the car had to be excised, and new preparations for running the Timewise installed, quick-sharp.

We’ve done that Timewise install in other cars a couple times before, at least. And both computers can use the same sensors. So we were counting thousandths of miles in the Porsche a full day before the car had to leave on its cross-continent journey. <grimace>

A non-recreational parachute.

A fire extinguisher, except when you’re training.

A snake bite kit.

A towing eye for your race car.

And yet all of these things need to be top quality, well maintained, and ready for immediate use.

A lot of the chassis and structural elements in the Cayman are aluminum. These are engineered closely to their projected loads and stresses. In the rear bumper area, there are not a lot of heavy duty attachment points for a towing eye.

Oh, Porsche provided one, in a suitably robust location – but they also expected that it won’t be used often. So the location is accessed behind the license plate. That works great on a race track, because there are no license plates on the car.

But rally uses public roads for transits. So license plates are a must; but still, when you want to use the rear towing eye, it’s gonna be a non-calm situation. Then you have to pull off the rear plate?

Nope.

The nice round hole in the aluminum plate comes from a “gasket punch” originally used in some heavy industrial setting. It came into my hands through a local auction shopper.

Quoth he, “I never thought I would find a use for these.”