A couple of weeks ago, I went to an autocross put on by the "Vapor Trail Vettes". Its a Corvette club based in Santa Maria CA. After signing in, I asked what class I would be in. The woman asked what car I had. I replied "94 RX7". She said I would be in novice class. "But I'm not a novice". Then she said ........... "if you don't have a Vette, you are in novice!!!!" I just had to laugh. That seemed to be the most conceited procedure I have ever heard of. Later I found out that the Corvette association has classes only for Vettes, and that everyone else goes into "novice" class. Kind of insulting!!!

The event was pretty small. There were 14 Vettes, and 35 other cars at the event. Only two cars had race tires: A WRX, and a mid 80's 911. None of the vettes had race tires, and neither did I. The pavement was old asphalt, and had been swept nicely before the first run group. Unfortunately, they didn't sweep during the event, and I was one of the later cars in the second group. Lots of gravel by then. Anyway, I would up with my best time being 56.7x. The fastest Vette was 58.xx. The only 2 cars that beat me were the two with race tires. The Subie had a 54.xx, and the 911 was a couple tenths faster than me. I was racing on stock suspension, and Toyo T1R tires (not Toyo's RA1 race tires).

I thought it was pretty funny that a "novice" cleaned ALL of their clocks

 

so was the 911 and wrx considered novice class as well?

 

i would say yes because the woman said that every other car that's not a vette goes into novice class lol.

 

Yep!

 

this is like the kill of all kills! hillarious, especially for a "novice"!

 

What kind of Vette was the fastest? Just curious, like what year, ZR1? Z06? Gran Sport? Or were they all just run of the mill Vettes?

 

I don't recall which vette was the fastest. There were a number of different models there, even a C6 Z06. In an autocross, the driver makes a huge difference. A true "novice" in a fast car won't beat a good driver in a mediocre car.

I forgot to mention that there was a Ferrari 360 Modena there. I beat him too

 

That's great! I would love to see the look of the Vette owner's faces when they saw your time. I'm curious, what was the 360 Modena's time.

 

The Modena driver was new to autocrossing, but still did OK. I think he was about 1:01 for a best time. What a beautiful car.

 

4-5 seconds slower than your FD. NICE!

 

I was just curious, I know that the driver makes the car. I just wanted to know how beastly (and expensive) of a Corvette was beaten by a "lowly japanese sports car" driven by a "novice"

 

the 360 was a joke.

 

I found the results.

My time 56.784

Fastest vette: 1991 (350). Time 58.051
Ferrari Modena Time 60.421

Apparently, the guy with the C6 Z06 didn't even race. His car was not listed in the results.

 

Good Job!! Maybe they'll get some Vette drivers that can drive and put them in the novice class.

 

Was this with sequential or non-sequential?

 

Thats the best news i heard all day NICE

 

Stock sequential setup. Stock (original) turbos & motor with 61k on them.

 

Good to hear. I'm glad that someones actually running sequential when autoxing. All i seem to read about is non-sequentials.

Congrats.......

 

When autocrossing, there are not very many chances to put down much power, especially on street tires.