The Adelaide Rally is one of Australia's most spectacular motorsport events, bringing together everything from historic racing machinery to exotic supercars for three days of closed-road driving through Adelaide and the surrounding hills. After experiencing the event for the first time in 2025, we couldn't resist coming back for another adventure. Thanks to Peter Page Hyundai, Quinn Racing was once again invited to join the official Hyundai Brand Tour in our Circuit Excel race car. However, this year we decided to bring a few friends along for the ride. Fellow Circuit Excel competitors Darren Swain, Kim Anderson and Jacob Lings joined us in their own Hyundai Excels, giving us four of the most unusual cars in the entire rally. Originally built as affordable Korean economy cars, these little hatchbacks now feature roll cages, stiff racing suspension, straight-through exhausts and absolutely no consideration for passenger comfort. They're loud, hot, uncomfortable and completely impractical for three days of driving on public roads. But that's exactly what makes them so entertaining. With 30 stages scheduled across the weekend and some of South Australia's best driving roads ahead of us, we were ready to find out whether four humble Hyundai Excels could survive Australia's biggest tarmac rally.
Our first day began with plenty of excitement as we joined the Hyundai Brand Tour and headed into the Adelaide Hills. It didn't take long for our new recruits to discover exactly what they'd signed up for. Unlike the modern Hyundai N cars surrounding us, our purpose-built circuit racers have extremely stiff suspension, minimal sound insulation and no air conditioning. Every bump, dip and imperfection in the road is transmitted directly through the car, making the Adelaide Hills stages a surprisingly physical experience. Kim was convinced he'd spent more time with his wheels in the air than on the road, while Darren and Jacob were quickly discovering just how punishing these little cars could be. To demonstrate the difference, we compared onboard footage from our Excel with footage from Matthew Tatani in a modern Hyundai road car. While Matt enjoyed smooth suspension and air conditioning, we were being thrown around the cockpit trying to keep the Excel under control. As the afternoon temperatures climbed, things became even less comfortable, particularly with our limited ventilation. Unfortunately, we nearly made it through the first day without mechanical trouble before our starter motor decided it had done enough. The car refused to restart at a rest stop, requiring a push from Darren to get us moving again. Somehow, we managed to finish the day, but it was already becoming clear that this year's rally wasn't going to be straightforward.
If we thought the broken starter motor was going to be our biggest problem, day two had other ideas. Thanks to the assistance of Shayne, we'd managed to source and install a replacement starter motor, only to discover that all four Excels had encountered a much bigger issue with their racing harnesses. The event's compliance requirements meant our existing harnesses, which carried labels requiring the use of frontal head restraints, couldn't be used in our intended configuration without the appropriate equipment. With none of us carrying the necessary restraints, we were advised that we'd need to replace our harnesses with suitable alternatives before continuing. It was a frustrating situation, particularly because the cars were fitted with proper motorsport safety equipment, yet a conventional road-car seatbelt arrangement could potentially satisfy the applicable requirements. Thankfully, Shayne managed to organise replacement harnesses, and the team at AutoSport went out of their way to help us source them at short notice. What followed was an impromptu pit-stop competition, with all four drivers racing to install their new belts while the rest of the Hyundai Brand Tour departed without us. By the time we had everything fitted, we'd missed the morning departure and were well behind the rest of the group. We'd fixed the cars, but now we had another problem: actually finding the rally.
With our harnesses sorted, we finally headed back onto the road in pursuit of the Hyundai Brand Tour. Unfortunately, our attempts to catch up quickly turned into an adventure of their own. Every time we approached a rally stage, it seemed the rest of the tour had already passed through, and the course-closing vehicle had followed behind them. With the road reopened to normal traffic, we couldn't enter the closed-road stage and instead had to find another route to the next meeting point. Our navigation wasn't particularly helpful either. At one point, we managed to find ourselves on an unsealed residential road with a closed gate at the end, which was certainly not part of the official tarmac rally itinerary! After several wrong turns, dead ends and plenty of laughter, we eventually decided to abandon our attempts to catch the group and head directly to the Bridgewater lunch stop. Somehow, this worked a little too well, and we arrived approximately an hour before the rest of the tour. While everyone else had been enjoying the official rally stages, we'd essentially created our own unofficial Hyundai Excel sightseeing tour of the Adelaide Hills. Thankfully, after lunch we were finally reunited with our group and able to enjoy some proper closed-road driving during the afternoon. It certainly wasn't the day we'd planned, but it was arguably one of the most entertaining.
After the chaos of the previous day, we were determined to make the most of our final day at the Adelaide Rally. The highlight was undoubtedly the Strathalbyn town stage, where the streets were closed for the event and spectators lined the roads to watch an incredible variety of machinery drive through the town centre. Having experienced Strathalbyn during the previous year's rally, we already knew how special this stage was, and bringing four Excels through the streets made it even better. The noise of our little race cars echoing between the buildings, combined with the enthusiastic crowds, created an atmosphere unlike anything we experience during normal circuit racing. After enjoying the Strathalbyn stages and a well-earned lunch break, we headed into the final stages of the rally. By this point, three days of driving had taken their toll. The cars were rattling, interiors were starting to fall apart, and everyone was well and truly feeling the effects of the stiff suspension and relentless heat. Nevertheless, we made it through the final closed-road stage and returned to Adelaide for the finishing celebrations. Against all expectations, all four Hyundai Excels had survived the 2026 Adelaide Rally! We even received our official finisher medals, although that didn't stop a few of us from joking that we'd actually won the entire event. We hadn't, of course, but after everything we'd experienced, simply reaching the finish felt like a victory.
The 2026 Adelaide Rally was another unforgettable experience for Quinn Racing. Three days of spectacular driving roads, incredible machinery, fantastic people and more unexpected challenges than we'd ever anticipated.
Our four Hyundai Excels were probably among the least comfortable vehicles you could choose for an event like this. With their stiff suspension, loud exhausts, cramped interiors and complete lack of air conditioning, they certainly weren't designed for long days exploring the Adelaide Hills.
But that's what made the experience so memorable.
There's something incredibly entertaining about taking a car originally designed as an affordable daily commuter, transforming it into a race car, and then driving it alongside some of the most expensive and exotic machinery in the country.
This year was particularly special because we got to share the experience with fellow Circuit Excel competitors. Having Darren, Kim and Jacob join us added an entirely new dimension to the adventure, and the camaraderie throughout the weekend was every bit as enjoyable as the driving itself.
A massive thank you to Peter Page Hyundai for once again making this opportunity possible and inviting us to join the official Hyundai Brand Tour.
We'd also like to thank Shayne, Matt, Lily, the team at AutoSport, and everyone else who helped us throughout the weekend, particularly when things didn't go according to plan.
Of course, none of this would be possible without the ongoing support of our sponsors and partners: Exo Terra, Aqua One, API Fish Care, KJ Built, AquaLabs and Seaview Aquarium Centre.
The Adelaide Rally offers something completely different from our usual Circuit Excel championship racing. It brings together an incredible variety of cars and people, all united by a shared passion for motorsport.
After two years of taking part, it's quickly becoming one of our favourite events on the calendar.
Four Excels, three days, countless wrong turns and one incredible adventure. We wouldn't have had it any other way!
