Well I finally took the vert autocrossing yesterday. Made me happy. There were 5 RX-7's there. Me and my friend in his 88 GXL. A 93 FD. A 12a bridgeported first gen, and another FB. It was a blast. Gave me mad respect for both the Miata and the S2000 which literally flew through the course. Shows me I need to: A-Practice driving better and B-Do some suspension mods to the car. The funny part is the guy with the near stock FB ran the best time of all rx-7's by about 4 or 5 seconds. My friend ran only one second slower than the FD. He is on the board but doesn't post much. He is Fasthack. Good job man, I was impressed. Will have some pictures soon.
The FD ran a 66.xx and Craig ran a 67.88. Me I ran a whopping 74.3. That was my bes, with running over a cone and backing up and going again. I could have been in the high 60's no problem. I think I could have run in the 60's if I hadn't hit the damn cone. Anyway, it was a really good time!

 

Sounds like fun! I am seriously thinking about doing autoX this spring to fall.

I'm gonna do some sort of suspension mod before every meet so i can see if things really make a difference. I also need to learn how to drive rwd, only have about 1000 miles of expirience.

 

Cool man, autocrosses are so fun. They help you learn your car like nothing else.

so much fun

 

Auto-X's are the best...spend $20 and you get to drive your car in a way that is near impossible (and quite illegal) on the street. Plus, it makes Sunday's worth looking forward to.

 

autocrossing is about 80% driver skill, 20% car. I took my '92 Civic EX 4-door out there, and turned in the third fastest time of the day, only behind my friend in his '91 MR-2 (who's a really good driver) and another guy in a new MR-2 Spyder (which was about 500 lbs lighter than the both of us). Goes to show, if you know how to drive, you can beat most inexperienced drivers in their A4's, Talon TSI's, rally-prepped cars, etc..

 

i'm actually getting interested in auto x-ing after racing two guys on turnbull canyon last nite here in hacienda heights. they said they were practicing for auto x-ing and that i should try it out in the little talk we had afterwards. i was wondering on how to get started and where exactly in southern california? also when the next event is also....thanx.

 

I'm hitting the autox if I ever get my damn FB running...

 

Don't bother with mods for at least 6 events. Anything you do before then will be attempting to compensate for shortfalls in your driving instead of complimenting it.

The biggest bang for your buck will be with R-compound tires on a second set of wheels. Of course, you can only enjoy them 1-2 days a month as opposed to an upgraded suspension which gives smiles every time you drive the car.

 

AutoX is great! You can truly push yourself and your car to the limits in a legal way. I love it because I get to know what my car can and can't do. I recommend it for anyone that drives a car or van or truck. It really puts you in touch with your vehicle.

 

i still auto-x with my 83gti,it is alot of fun and i would recoment it to anyone.and anything u do to your car can move you into a faster group of cars so be careful what u do.

 

go_speed_go is right. Skip the mods and get the R-compound tires. Seat time is the best way to make yourself quicker. If you guys make changes to your suspension before every event you have to relearn what your car is doing everytime. You'll never get quicker chasing the setup.

 

I agree - don't do any mods until a few events. If you want to be really competitive in your class, get a set of R-Compound tires and stay in the stock class. Once you get into the higher classes, it's REALLY hard to stay competitive. I'm not exactly looking forward to being in FP from now on with my streetported engine, but I should do ok...just gotta get new tires...I just got my 89GXL last week; my first RWD car...Before, I drove a '95 Ford Probe GT in GS, and would always finish in the middle of the pack. At least FP is a smaller class than GS.

 

Yeah, it was a great time out there. Just going out to this autocross makes me want to go every single month now. It was such a great time talking to everyone out there and especially seeing Adam's street ported beast of a 3rd gen. I really recommend autocrossing to anyone out there who isn't sure if they want to do it or not. The only bad thing is that I am all sunburned from standing at the start line(I started all of the cars in the stock class and it was 75 and sunny down here in louisiana).

 

Yeah, the 2 things newbies can't get enough of is seat time and sunscreen.

 

I'm sunburnt too.... it was foggy and cloudy for a while so I thought it'd be ok. but then it got sunny and yeah...

 

I think I will starting doing this with my GTU.

 

I love autoxing and have been quite a few times in teh gsr but haven't been yet in the turbo II. I am looking forward to it greatly though gonna be a whole new experience.

 

the reason i bought my GTU was to autox! ive only gotten to one event so far due to lack of engines...

 

Something I have been wondering about for quite a while. Can you auto-x in a SCCA race w/o a rollbar? As I understand it, the answer is no, but I was never clear on that, and now they want you to pay just to re-read the rules.

If this is true, then I am out of luck-I have been to one Auto-x already (non-SCCA), and loved it, but even if I did put a rollbar in my vert, being 6'5" I would fail the
"yardstick" test (unless the rollbar was so high that the top would not go up and down).

Just wondering if any of you could give a clarification on this for me. What I would like to do is just get a beater coupe for the track, but my mom won't let me bring any more cars home (I already have 2)

But you are correct, Auto-x is VERY fun, and a great learning experience. And getting used to it is the most important part, so you can stay on the track as well as doing good times. Not that I would ever have problems staying on the track. Of course not.

 

Nah, I did not have a rollbar, and it was an SCCA event and I did not have any trouble. You should be fine.

 

At autocross events you do not have to have a rollbar. Even with the SCCA, just haveto wear a helmet (which you can borrow)

Now if you want to start roadracing it makes it a different story...

 

Cool-Thanks!

Now I need to go and figure out when the local ones are happening. :-D

 

This should help:
http://www.scca.org/getstarted/divisions.html

Just click on your area of the US and go from there.