Targa Newfoundland Competitor’s Guide
So you wanna do Targa Newfoundland? Here’s what you really should know.
By a first‑time finisher (2025 edition), lifelong motorsport nerd, track rat playing rally driver, and someone who learns things the hard way.
Quick disclaimer & point of view
I’ve done Targa Newfoundland exactly once, completing the 2025 event - and I’m not a rally driver. I’m 50, have raced and crewed across motorsport and powersport, and helped run community events. This is a competitor’s guide from that lens: what surprised me, what I wish I’d known, and what I’d tell you over coffee before you spend real money.
If you’re here for a quick thumbs‑up/down: Yes, it can be amazing. No, it’s not cheap. And your car choice matters more than you think.
What Targa Newfoundland is (and isn’t)
Targa is a multi‑day, all‑tarmac rally on closed public roads across some of the most jaw‑dropping scenery in North America-think Scottish highlands one minute and wave‑spray coastal towns the next. You legally use the full road at pace. On a good stage, it’s pure magic. On a bad one, it’s a pothole‑dodging trust fall.
Targa is not traditional stage rally with reconnaissance and pace notes. There’s no recce, no custom notes. You get a route book (more on that later) and you run what you brung.
Classes, at a glance (2025 rules as experienced)
Targa Tour (car numbers 400‑499):
Closed‑road experience behind a pace car, GPS‑enforced 130 km/h cap.
Street cars, no special prep. This is the “smile-per-mile” option.
Targa Grand Touring (GT) (300‑399):
Time‑Speed‑Distance (TSD). Same spacing as competition cars, but the game is math and precision, not outright speed. In 2025 this class had only one entry.
Targa 1 (100‑199):
The main competition class by headcount. 2025 introduced mandatory roll bars (good call). GPS cap 155 km/h. I would call this class “street‑car comfort with real consequences”.
Targa 2 (200‑299):
The full‑send class. Full cage, suits, HANS, 6‑pt harnesses, the works. GPS cap 180 km/h. If you have a real rally car, this is where it shines.
Reality check: On many stages without long open stretches, Targa 1 and Targa 2 post similar times. The consequences of error are the same; the protection isn’t. Plan your safety accordingly.
Event format: Transit vs Competition stages
Transits move you between stages. Some are short; the longest in 2025 was ~3.5 hours (mostly Trans‑Canada highway). Expect one or two big transits most days.
Competition stages are where the smiles live. Shortest ~3 km; longest just under 30 km.
If it’s cold/wet, you will want windows and defrost. I brought a road‑course race car with window nets and no glass. On long, rainy transits, I envied everyone with Lexan/windows and HVAC while my co‑driver and I kept helmets/intercoms on to save our hearing.
The route book (and the YOYO problem)
Targa intentionally publishes minimal route books, presumably to promote safety by prompting more “check up” moments. In practice, especially at Targa 2 speeds, less information often equals more risk.
Common pattern: “Right 3 in XX meters”… you brake, turn… “Not this R3.” Funny at dinner, not funny at 160+. At 180 km/h, you need to know what’s coming. A bend that’s trivial at 120 can require a brake-and-commit line at 180.
My take: The current books feel tuned for older, slower Targa 1 targets. I often treated long stretches as YOYO - “You’re On Your Own”. We used tree lines, power lines, and whatever crumbs the book gave us to “color in” the road ahead. My co‑driver adapted brilliantly, reading terrain when the book went silent. A true recce with pace notes would be ideal; I get that it may not fit the format.
Practical navigation tips
Co-Driver communication: Because the route book lacks so much detail, getting multiple instructions is the opposite of helpful. My co-driver gave me only the instructions I needed as I needed them and on the long YOYO sections, helped read the road ahead.
Annotate your book with what you see on Google Maps. Especially useful for the town stages where there are many 90 degree turns that are unmarked.
YouTube is a good study aid. Action cams compress speed and flatten elevation, but watching in-car video can still really help. Treat it as context only - drive what you see on the day. Every stage run I completed is here.
Treat every crest/corner as hazardous unless the book says otherwise.
Stage start ritual: GPS on, odos synced, book open to the right page, hazard notes top‑of‑mind.
Road conditions: what you’ll actually hit
Before going to Targa, everyone has an opinion on the Newfoundland roads. You’ll hear people tell you everything from “it’s fine” to “it’ll destroy your car.” Both can be true depending on your ride height, spring rate, tire sidewall, and speed.
If the Port Blandford stage stays in: bring gravel‑rally suspension or skip it. I wouldn’t voluntarily send my GMC Sierra AT4 through some of what we drove.
Expect road‑width cuts, occasional gravel fills or hard ridges, and pothole clusters that arrive mid‑corner. The faster you go, the bigger the hit. In Port Blandford these were unmarked in the route book but most stages did have these marked.
TL;DR ride height rule: ≥5.5 inches of ground clearance is sane if your front splitter/leading edge sticks >24 inches ahead of the axle. If the leading edge is tucked closer (<24”), 4.5 inches might scrape by. Low, track‑prepped cars with splitters/diffusers are asking for damage.
What to bring: car‑by‑car advice
Tour
Any reliable street car at stock ride height will do. People ran everything from Volvos to Caymans to Saleen Mustangs. You’re not timed; you can drive what you see, follow the car ahead and slow for hazards. It’s a great couples’ adventure.
Do not bring supercars or factory track specials (GT3/GT4) with low splitters/diffusers unless you’re okay with expensive souvenirs.
Targa 1
Safety: Mandatory roll bar. I recommend adding a harness bar, a proper race seat and 5/6‑pt harness. You’ll be at real speeds with real consequences. Remember these are public roads, not a race track. A mistake could land you in the ocean or a living room or much worse.
Wheels/tires: Rulebook’s 40‑series minimum is just enough protection in practice. Downsize wheels to the smallest that clear your brakes and run more sidewall. My mistake: 245/40R18 on stiff track springs. I should’ve gone to 17s with a taller tire.
Why Targa 1 can be the most fun: You can corner as hard as Targa 2 on most town stages, keep street‑car comfort, and the GPS cap matters less where straights are short.
Scoring reality: In 2025, T1 target times were easy to achieve, so placements hinged on a single decisive stage (Brigus). Watch that on YouTube as many times as you can.
Targa 2
Build level: Full cage, fire gear, rally computer, storage for triangles/extinguishers/etc. If you have a true rally car, this is its playground.
Suspension: Gravel‑rally setups win the survivability game. I ran low‑profile tires and track‑centric damping; I bottomed the diff cover twice and finished needing two rims and a wheel bearing - and that was with the car raised back to stock ride height.
Driver mindset: managing pace without nannies
I brought a car with no ABS, no stability control to public roads with rain and surprise gravel. The governing principle became: “The car only goes as fast as I make it go.” With minimal route info, I adopted a cautious, sight‑line‑first approach-checking up over blind crests and any corner I couldn’t see through.
Result: we finished 2nd in class and 4th overall in 2025. Not because we were the outright fastest, but because we were consistently clean. As in endurance racing: you’re rewarded for laps finished, not just lap time.
Skills that pay off
· Vision discipline: Look through, not at. Scan tree lines and power lines. Use terrain to infer what’s next.
· Car placement at speed: You aren’t planning the text book race line through corners. You’re planning the safest line with the most margin for error given road conditions and hazards.
· Wet‑road modulation: Especially with no ABS, unlike the track you don’t know where you’ll find standing water. Slow in, fast out.
· Team comms: Noise‑cancelling intercom saves your brain (and hearing) on long days. We used a Stilo DG10. It was truly brilliant.
Preparation checklists:
I’m assuming you can read a rule book and have common sense, so these are the extra considerations.
Car prep essentials
Ride height ≥ 5.5 in; protect underside, add skid plates.
Wheel/tire package with generous sidewall; bring 2 full spares (only 2 allowed by rules).
Brakes: fresh fluid, street or autocross pads with bite from cold. Track pads that require heat are a terrible idea (ask me how I know).
Windows/HVAC plan: Lexan or a legit wet‑weather strategy if you’re not a street car. Definitely make sure you have a working defrost solution.
Electricals: reliable 12V for rally computer, GPS tracker, comms, etc; tidy fuse/relay layout.
Safety gear: triangles, first aid kit, belt cutters, extinguishers (in addition to onboard system), tow points.
Crew & spares
Wheels/tires, wheel bearings, brake pads/rotors, fluids, belts, basic sensors, hose/line repair kit, undertray hardware, duct tape/zip‑ties/ratchet straps, tarps, lights, funnels, gloves, rain gear, paper towels, torque wrench, cordless impact, jack/stands, spill kit.
Costs: the honest math
I’m not going to pretend this is cheap. This is based on my actual 2025 spend (from the attached workbook), not a range. It excludes one‑time build costs and routine maintenance.
Marine Atlantic reality: mechanical + weather issues stranded multiple teams including us. With a truck and trailer my driver was stranded an extra 8 days on the island; others with just a car were delayed several days. Build contingency into your plan.
Competitor budget ($CAD, actuals)
Entry fees (car + crew meals/jacket): $14,386.50
Vehicle prep (brakes, tires, Monit G200, Stilo DG10, safety bits): $5,435.88
Hotel costs: $6,257.54
Flights: $2,035.00
Vehicle transport (diesel, ferries, driver wages incl. delay): $11,164.96
Total outlay: $39,279.88
Seat time achieved: 2h 44m (164 minutes).
Cost per competition minute: ~$239/min.
We ran 31 of 44 scheduled competition stages; 0 of the prologues.
Download the detailed workbook: Targa Budget.xlsx
Logistics bites: ferries & weather
Buffer days on both ends are not optional. Ferries aren’t exactly reliable.
Book ferries early, especially if you want a cabin, and trust me, you want a cabin.
Pack dry bags and warm layers. Wet and windy is the Newfoundland default.
Pros, cons, and who should (and shouldn’t) go
Pros
Some of the best driving roads you’ll ever touch – legally - at speed.
Small‑community energy: locals cheering on their porches, kids waving, the whole thing feels special.
When a stage flows, it’s pure joy. You’re going to become lifelong friends with fellow competitors and Targa volunteers. It really is a lot of amazing humans.
Cons
Organization is thin. 2025 ran with no paid staff and fewer volunteers than many weekend rallies while covering ~2,000 km. Result: cancelled stages, confusion, poor communication, delays, rushed transits and long days.
Route book minimalism forces you to drive what you see instead of trusting your navigator.
Cost‑to‑seat‑time can sting, especially when stage cancellations pile up.
You should go if…
You value the adventure and community as much as the stopwatch.
You’ll build/buy a car that survives Newfoundland roads (Targa 1 and 2 only).
You can be fast and disciplined when the information is thin.
Maybe skip (or wait) if…
You need predictable and lower seat time per dollar. As a reference point, I spent $239/min of competition driving. If you rent a seat from Scalar Performance to drive one of our well prepared race cars at an endurance race, you’d be at <$20/min. Not the same thing, I know. But a consideration.
Your only available car is low, stiff, and allergic to potholes.
You’re hoping for WRC‑style notes/recce or a more traditional competition rally.
My bottom line
Am I glad I did it? Absolutely. Would I do it again? Probably not, unless the organizational side levels up. The volunteers are phenomenal - truly - this isn’t on them. But with limited staffing over a huge footprint, 2025 delivered fewer green‑flag miles than the schedule promised. The transit and social activities could have easily bumped the value proposition back, but these are currently afterthoughts instead of features. I have strongly encouraged the organizers to embrace these; as they have the potential to deliver even more value than the competition itself.
Until then, if you’re going: bring the right car, protect the underside, add sidewall, choose comfort where you can, and set aside the budget. Drive the road that’s actually there, not the one you wish the book had described. Still not sure if you want to go? Reach out and become a volunteer. I can’t think of a better way to be involved and learn first hand.
My crew and I walked away feeling much like we had just been on a Top Gear special episode. There were challenges. There were shenanigans. There were real problems. At the end, we felt incredibly lucky to have shared the experience.