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Autocrossers: Check in here!

352K views 5K replies 408 participants last post by  kevgraydog 
#1 · (Edited)
Frankly, I'm tired of seeing people consider traffic light antics, and other forms of street racing, "real racing". Technically, we autocrossers are careful not to consider our sport "racing" as we do not compete wheel-to-wheel, but the skills we learn in parking lots across the country make us better than 99.95% of the drivers on the road.

I started this thread to call all the autocrossers forward and let us know who you are, what model Civic (or any other car for that matter) you are competing with and which SCCA (or other club) class you plan on building the car for...

DRIVER:
Anthony "Mario" Crea... I am a 15 year autocross veteran with almost 250 autocrosses under my belt at all levels of competition (regional, divisional, and national).

CAR:
Soon to be a 2010 Mazda 3s (5 door)

CLUB/CLASS:
SCCA H-Stock (local and national level competition)

CURRENT MODS:


Anthony "Mario" Crea
NNJR-SCCA
 
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#1,848 ·
Sarcasm doesn't really translate well on the intertubes it would seem. Comparing autox and track days is very much apples to oranges. One is racing, the other is not. Dismissing either, especially without taking time to do both is silly, and you really limit your growth as a driver. Autocross teaches the kind of car control in a season it would take years and years to develop (if you ever do) at track days. Track days I find are fun, but it isn't competition, and in all honesty, I don't think they give the same rush as a good autocross.

Just my opinion, though I'd be interested to see what others who have done both think.
 
#1,849 ·
I've done about 8 track days of HPDE in the past.

Both can be really fun. If money is not a problem.. . IMO HPDE is more fun for a days worth of vacation. If you don't have $150 a month to spend on track time, not including gas or wear on your car, you can autoX once a month for $20-$50 in some regions. $150 goes a long way in AutoX fees.

Either or get my adrenaline flowing. HPDE can feel like you are just going through the motions though.

To equal a HPDE day worth of fun I'd need to AutoX at least 8 runs and have some good competition going b/t friends and others. Days that only 4 runs are offered are pretty lousy for the time spent unless I win that day. Soon I fear that I might get too competitive and if I don't win that day, regardless of # of AutoX runs, I wont be happy at all coming away from a AutoX event.

NASA AZ is big on time trials and will start doing a Time attack in 2010 that will be cheaper than a HPDE or time trial session. Like $80 for one 20 minute practice session and then a 3 lap run session with like only 3 people on track at a time or something. It is something I will probably do.

HPDE is not in my budget currently b/c I bought a new house instead of living with roomates in an apartment. It's just too expensive for me to do as often as I'd like to do it/get some competition.
 
#1,869 ·
I know they may not be the caliber of the race tracks mentioned above, but we do have a few tracks around here.

Motor Sports Ranch in Cresson.
Eagles Canyon Raceway up by Justin (pretty good track from what I understand actually.)
Texas Motor Speedway Road Course (If you want to drive it, they are having a license super school in December up there.)
College Station has a track.
Houston has a Motor Sports Ranch.
And there are others...

Like I said, I know they are not the super famous raceways of above, but if you are looking for HDPE's they have them at each track mentioned above.
 
#1,857 ·
I personally enjoy it, as long as the rain event is in summer. Here in NJ, a rain event in March or November is a miserable experience... 40*F, wet, raw. Ugh.

Competing in the rain is certainly is the great equalizer and if anything, car setup is more important in the wet because understeer becomes UNDERSTEER and oversteer becomes OVERSTEER.

Anthony "Mario" Crea
NNJR-SCCA
 
#1,866 ·
First you double/triple stack all the key cones... since water splashed from
the cars running by usually knock them down if they are not stacked.

(here.. you say goodbye to most of the Corvette drivers... they dont like
double/triple stacked cones.. )

Then you wear raincoat, waterproof jacket... some just cut holes in those
big garden bags to make ponchos...

Then you find a place thats not in the middle of a puddle and away from the
course

Then you pray that when cars run by... driver wont be blind by the splashing
water...
(I DNF'ed my first run because I had hard time seeing from all the splashing
water when my car ran through water puddles..)
 
#1,873 ·
DRIVER:
Ross (driven in Autox events since 2006)

CAR:
2000 Civic Si (Maybe soon to be replaced with a FA5)

CLUB/CLASS:
SCCA ST and NASA E Class

CURRENT MODS:
KYB Agxs w/ GC Coilover sleeves and Springs
Skunk 2 Upper Control Arms F&R
ASR Brace and 21mm Blox Rear Sway Bar
RE01-R Bridgestones on Rota 15x7 Slipstreams
Shunk 2 Short Shifter
AEM Intake

Not sure if it's ok to do this here, but I'll add this and mods can delete or instruct otherwise if needed.

I'd like to invite everyone to this upcoming event. Again, our events usually provide ALOT of seat time (usually 5 runs w/ 60 sec course) to entrants so if your looking for a fun, laid back atmosphere to get some extra practice, we're the place to be. Our last event Let me know if you have any questions. Hope to see you all there.

REGISTER HERE!
 
#1,879 ·
We have 90-130 people at each of our events in PHX AZ. Durring summer time when it is really hot, we only get 4 runs b/c we try to be done before noon.

If we run the whole day. usually 4 comp runs and then 3-4 Time only non-comp runs. only about 1/2 the people who ran comp runs stay around for TOs.

We run all 4 runs in one session which helps speed things up.
 
#1,881 ·
lol, well you must be in one of the cheapest and best regions I've heard of. With our club and a small entry amt of 50 or so, we have a hard time getting in more than 5 in 4.5 hrs. Again though we start at 10 and try to be done w/ runs by 3:30. We could limit entries, but that would make the cost per entry much higher. You def. should be thankful for getting that many runs, bc i know probably every person ive autoxed with would look at you like your the luckiest man if they heard you got a 65 sec course w/ 9 runs in. SCCA regions around here vary depending on lot. Some could have 150 cars w/ a 35 sec course w/ 5 runs. Atlanta region is better and typically has large lots, but you rarely if ever get more than 5 60 sec runs.
 
#1,882 ·
DRIVER:
Josh Huntley....I've only been racing for 3 years, even with lack of experience I am faster than many of the local guys who have been racing for 15+ years

CAR:
1989 Honda CRX Dx/2009 Civic Si Sedan (haven't raced yet)

CLUB/CLASS:
Nasa NXC

CURRENT MODS: (CRX)
B18A1 engine swap
CTR transmission
DA Integra sway bars
DA Integra 4 wheel disc conversion
Intake, 2.25" catback exhaust
Energy Suspension bushings
DA Integra Tein Super Street coilovers
205/50?/15 Toyo Proxes R888
Custom harness bar
4 point harness
 
#1,885 ·
they should be capping that number. PHX does but they don't turn away walkins.

$30 for 3x30sec runs = me finding a new sport.. .

We are highly organized here so we can have 120 people get 4 runs in.

even with a little later start than we should have had, we had 4 groups of ~28 people yesterday. 4x 33 second comp runs but we got 5 TO fun runs at the end as well if you wanted them for $15.
 
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