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Rally, through the Suffolk countryside. That was the agenda for today's events.

Probably Nitrous entered two cars in the inaugural PistonHeads Sporting Tour. The premise was simple: one driver and one navigator, following a series of Tulip Instructions. Pass a few checkpoints and have fun along the way. What came of this was one of the best events we've been to all year.\articles\2018-08-29-wales-road-trip-day-1\

The start line was the Ipswich Holiday Inn on London Road. We all rolled in around 8am to give plenty of time to sign up and sticker up before our allotted start times. We arrived to an array of cars already parked up including Porsche 911's, Audi R8's and even a pair of McLarens. We were all wondering exactly what we had gotten ourselves into. Registration was straightforward and after some faffing with scissors in order to get the stickers cut out correctly, it was time to hit the start line.

Fraser and Scott set up in the Clio and rolled over to the start line for their 09:08 departure. Sean and Gavin would follow suit in the JCW at 09:13.

This was the first time that any of us had used a Tulip map to navigate, however we all quickly got the hang of it. Most junctions are drawn in a simple form, with your origin marked as a dot and your destination in the direction of the arrow. Along with each Tulip are two distances: one total distance from the start line and one intermediary distance from the last junction. You can use your car's odometer and trip but we all downloaded the Rally Tripmeter (Android, iOS) app as the co-driver could then have total control and sight of the distances.

We toured a good portion of Suffolk in the morning, pootling through beautiful villages and rallying along roads which were so narrow we were left wondering if the supercars were going to get stuck. After about an hour and a half, we arrived at Parham Airfield. The Clio was the first car to reach to lunch stop, Fraser and Scott having overtaken a few people along the journey.

To break up the day, PistonHeads had arranged for two "autotests" to be setup at the airfield as a fun way to measure driving skill. These were very short sprint circuits that you had to navigate as fast as you could. Having brought two front-wheel drive cars, we were at a distinct disadvantage on the loose gravel surface, no matter how much handbrake was used. However, both cars set respectable times for each test (even if Sean and Gavin did hit a cone on the second course!) and we got to enjoy the much nicer, and much more expensive, cars attempt the same course in both anguish and awe.

After a blast on the autotests and a quick burger, it was time to hit the road again. We were headed back to the Holiday Inn from whence we came, but along a slightly different route (again, following the Tulip instructions). With the leaving process being a lot more of a free-for-all after lunch, there was no real spacing between the cars and therefore it resulted in much more of a procession back to the hotel. This rendered the instructions a bit useless as you could just follow the other cars, but it was still fun nonetheless!

Once everyone had arrived back at the hotel (much earlier than the organisers were expecting due to their enthusiasm, we might add) a small award ceremony was held for a few different categories such as Most Lost and Spirit of the Event. The winners were presented with their trophies and the cars slowly set off home leaving us and a few others chatting.

Our first time reading a Tulip map was even better than any of us had expected. The organisation of the day from the PistonHeads guys was top-notch and everybody said on the forum how much they enjoyed the day and are looking forward to the next.

We'll definitely be at the next one and we hope to see you there!