In what is believed to a world first for tarmac rallying -- and motorsport -- the Team Skoda Carsales entry in this year's Targa Tasmania has completed today's prologue (qualifying) with a pair of bicycles attached to the roof.

Looking a lot like a Skoda support vehicle for the Tour de France, the Octavia RS-P driven by Carsales editor-in-chief Mike Sinclair and co-driver Justin Hunt, completed the first day's prologue section "incident free".

The Bianchi bicycles, supplied by Bianchi and Rik Sloane Cycles in Launceston, are valued at $3000 each.

"The bikes only weigh 8kg so you can't really feel that they're there. You can hear them though," says Sinclair.

"They whistle so much, it sounds like you've got an extra turbo.

"We had to take good care of the bikes. Because if we had scratched them, we would have had bigger problems than just worrying about the bikes."

Today's event began in Launceston's Silverdome, a cycling velodrome, where all the cars are parked under one roof ahead of the competition. The company that became Skoda actually started making bicycles in the 1894 and is an avid sponsor of road cycling in Europe and Australia today.

Australian motor racing legend and eight-time Targa Tasmania winner, Jim Richards, who is competing in a Porsche GT3 RS, said he has never seen anything like this in his four decades of motorsport.

"I can honestly tell you I have never seen a car in competition with a pair of bicycles attached to the roof," Richards said. "I think it looks great, but they better watch out for low hanging branches."

Richards has had 8 wins from 18 Targa Tasmania starts. His last victory was in 2006. His brand new GT3 RS is almost straight off the showroom floor.

"I put slightly heavier springs in it and fitted a performance muffler," he said. "The rest of the car is straight off the showroom floor, including the roll cage, wheels and brake pads."

Check out our Targa minisite for previous stories and further updates.

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