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The Subaru World Rally Team's catering arrangements for the two-day recce are just as carefully planned and managed as any of the meals served during the event itself. Catering manager Lorraine Glaister explains, "The drivers can't take any food with them as the temperature inside the car is too hot and it would spoil. There's not enough time to return to service or stop at a restaurant either - the crews only have two days to drive through every stage on the rally route. On some events, such as Japan, there are 10 individual stages over 20 kilometres apart so it's tough to fit them all in in the time allowed. It doesn't leave much time for lunch, so we have to plan around the schedule to ensure the drivers can eat."

To give the drivers as much time as possible for the recce, Lorraine prepares food and drives to a pre-arranged location on the recce route to hand the crews lunch. Petter, Phil, Chris and Glenn, plus two recce technicians will then stop en route, grab some food and continue on to the next stage. "The co-drivers have a detailed recce schedule that includes a timetable and route so they can get to each stage over the two days, so I liaise with either Phil or Glenn the night before each day of the recce to let me know when and where they can stop for lunch. The location could be by the side of the road, a petrol station or even a beach, as we found in Corsica! As long as we can park, we will drive anywhere on the recce route."

On most events Lorraine will leave between 1000hrs and 1100hrs to meet the crews. Lorraine observes, "We only have a very tight opportunity for the break.

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There is an agreement between the teams that there is only a two-hour window for food stops." To get to the right place on time, Lorraine drives to the given location with Denis Giraudet, who writes gravel notes and weather reports for the team. As an ex-World Rally Champion co-driver, he knows the rally routes well. Lorraine prepares all the food before leaving and stores it in a temperature-controlled coolbox to keep it fresh.

She also ensures all the foods are prepared according to the drivers' carefully controlled diets. "I will make healthy, low-fat foods including chicken salads and bagels with smoked salmon and take other food such as yoghurts or fruit bars and fruit. Chris likes his sandwiches so I always make sure there are plenty of them! On the colder events, such as Sweden, I'll take a flask of soup and some hot food like pasta too."

When the drivers arrive, they can leave in as little as 20 minutes so they have enough time to drive the rest of the stages. "It's always very rushed," Denis says, "but there really is so little time for the recce. In the past we had up to two weeks to see the stages, but everything is compressed into two days now. That's why being prepared is so important."

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Motorsport fans will get the chance to see behind the scenes at the Subaru World Rally Team's Banbury headquarters on July 29 and 30 as part of a charity open day organised by Prodrive.

The event, which will raise money for Children's Hospital in nearby Oxford, will enable visitors to see where the company designs and builds the Impreza WRC2006 as well as other Prodrive motorsport projects including the Aston Martin DBR9. All the workshops will be open so visitors can see how the WRC engines, gearboxes and electrical systems are made and how hundreds of other complex parts are manufactured before final assembly.

Members of the Subaru World Rally Team will set up the team's WRC service park on site and will put on live demonstrations of the work carried out during WRC rallies.

Race and rally cars from Prodrive's 20 years in motorsport will also be on display, including the Imprezas of Colin McRae and Richard Burns, a 1980s Porsche 911 and MG 6R4 group B rally cars; James Thompson's 1998 Honda Accord Super Touring Car; Alain Menu's BTCC-winning Ford Mondeo and Jenson Button's 2004 F1 car.

There will be food and entertainment for people of all ages and team merchandise will be available at specially discounted prices.

A limited number of tickets are available for each day. The price is £10 for adults and £6 for children under 16 (under 5's are free). Tickets can be purchased by visiting www.prodrive.com/openday with all the proceeds going to the Oxford Children's Hospital appeal.