The setup.exe file will probably crash with a "Guru Meditation" error, so perform a manual install as follows:

1. Create a folder to install the game into, e.g. c:\games\irc

2. Go into the new folder

3. Copy from the CD-ROM the following files into these locations:
- the whole "files" folder into the game folder, i.e. so you have c:\games\irc\files
- ral.exe into the game folder, i.e. so you have c:\games\irc\ral.exe

4. Create 2 more sub-folders in the game folder, called "savedata" and "var"

5. Go into the "var" folder and create a new text document, in it put the following - and change the CD-ROM for the correct drive letter that you have the game in:

1; International Rally Championship
2; INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION
3
4cdrom=d:\
5installation=3
6 

6. Rename this text document (you'll need to be able to see extensions in Windows to do this) to ral.zog

7. Go up one level to the main folder again. Now you need to create a sub-folder called "savedata", so you have c:\games\irc\savedata

8. Go into the new savedata folder and create the following folders:
c:\games\irc\savedata\carsetup
c:\games\irc\savedata\ghosts
c:\games\irc\savedata\hst
c:\games\irc\savedata\levels
c:\games\irc\savedata\replay
c:\games\irc\savedata\savegame

8. Download the 4.80 patch from Patches Scrolls http://www.patches-scrolls.de/patch/2217

9. Copy the ral.exe file from the zip 4.80 patch into the game folder and overwrite the existing ral.exe

10. Right-click on ral.exe in the game folder and choose Win95 or Win98 compatibility mode

11. In order to get the full framerate, follow the guide on this site (either download their DDRAW.dll or use ACT): http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/post.php? … 77&post=1202630

12. Run ral.exe and hopefully the game will load!

13. The game may crash if you use the non-Direct3D 8bit graphics version, so go into the Options > Settings > Visual Display and ensure 16bit accelerated is chosen

14. Set everything else up as you wish and play away!

15. You can set up a shortcut to ral.exe if you wish.

NOTE: there is one issue: when you press Escape in-game, the menu will be invisible. So if you want to exit the current race, press up once, then press return, then up once again and return again!

NOTE 2: the original game did install some Registry strings, but the game seems to run fine without them