Couple of pics of me getting stupid...

[A Horse With No Name]

If anyone is ever in columbus...bring that Z28, Fiero, HHR SS, Trans Am, formula, Corvette, and come play!

Would love to have any one of you guys come join us in some fun.

Chris

[balthazar]

In general, are these courses dimensionally unfriendly to large cars?

And is 'power oversteer' frowned upon ? :wink:

[A Horse With No Name]

No...to both questions.

See my pics of the Pontiac in the Car spotters thread.

Also...check out the Power Oversteer on the C6 Z06 in the car spotters thread as well.

It's fun to run for a quick time, but also fun to slide the ass end of the car around and just go out to play.

Chris

[A Horse With No Name]

...and you may want to try this in New Jersey when you get the B-59 done.

Autocrossing is also a great way to teach a teen car control.

Also, IIRC balthazar, one of your sons is 15. Tire Rack, which is now obviously a C and G sponsor, has a teen safe driving school that costs 60 bucks for a day. But they do some cool things. they let a real SCCA or NASA race driver ride with the teen, set up a basic Auto-X course, and teach the teens one on one what to do when the car starts to get upset/slide/whatever.

They also bring out a semi-truck and park cars around it, so the teens are aware of just how little a semi driver sees from the cab.

Also, they detonate an air bag to show what happens when one goes off. last year they sent a purple stuffed Barney 60 feet into the air with one.

They also wet down the parking lot with a fire hose and let the teens experience a car sliding in a con trolled setting.

The only downside is that a few of the teens had so much fun with this that a few of the parents bought a few tires.

It's done in conjunction with the BMW car club.

Linky here.

http://www.tirerack.com/features/motorspor...et_survival.jsp

Chris

[A Horse With No Name]

...and while I'm off topic, methinks I'm going to do this school with my 16 year old son.

http://www.midohio.com/School/Courses/Defensive-Driving/1

It's kind of funny to watch, they have a civic set up with outriggers so it can't roll over. They then wet down the skid pad and put teens through a set of defensive driving drills.

It's a pretty good deal also. they probably have something like this out near you, mr balthazar. I would guess your son would enjoy that.

Chris

[BigPontiac]

Seeing that makes me miss my Miata

[Intrepidation]

I want to take the Intrepid there and have it it. I have no idea how badly it may do, but it looks like a hell of a lot of fun to try.

[balthazar]

Cool info, 66- thanks! I'll definately check into it.

I would love to take the B-59 to an autocross once; it'd be fun to motor thru, twirling around with an unbroken line of dropped jaws out the windshield. :wink:

[daves87rs]

I want to take the Intrepid there and have it it. I have no idea how badly it may do, but it looks like a hell of a lot of fun to try.

Ditto- I would love to try that in the Cav or Balt....

[A Horse With No Name]

That's what I hate about SCCA events; always so many people standing around. Makes a person tempted to go all Death Race 2000 on a few of them. Any interesting mods to the Miata we should know about?

It's dead stock. I'm trying to save $ for a Solstice, which is much faster.

Chris

[ocnblu]

Local chapter sets up the cones in our big shopping mall, Park City. It's always a treat to stumble across a meet and stand around and watch.

EDIT: let me clarify it is in the parking lot, not inside the building. The Food Court would definitely be in a shambles.

Edited August 4, 2009 by ocnblu

[daves87rs]

Local chapter sets up the cones in our big shopping mall, Park City. It's always a treat to stumble across a meet and stand around and watch.

Sweet!

[PurdueGuy]

If any one of you are even slightly tempted by the idea of trying autox, do it. Take any old car (no trucks) that's in a condition that's not going to fall apart on the track, clean all the crap out of it so nothing's sliding/bouncing around, and go play. Don't worry about being competitive - you could have an awesome car and you'll get schooled at first, so it's often better to start out with something not so great anyway, and you'll enjoy it more if you go out to have fun, not to win at first. Bring your daily driver with factory tires, you'll still have a blast! If you get into it & decide to do it regularly, then worry about becoming competitive if you want.

[FloydHendershot]

My God, your head is bigger than the wheels! Maybe its the helmet. Looks like you're having fun though mate. Must be nice with a real car.

[A Horse With No Name]

If any one of you are even slightly tempted by the idea of trying autox, do it. Take any old car (no trucks) that's in a condition that's not going to fall apart on the track, clean all the crap out of it so nothing's sliding/bouncing around, and go play. Don't worry about being competitive - you could have an awesome car and you'll get schooled at first, so it's often better to start out with something not so great anyway, and you'll enjoy it more if you go out to have fun, not to win at first. Bring your daily driver with factory tires, you'll still have a blast! If you get into it & decide to do it regularly, then worry about becoming competitive if you want.

...and another thing Pudue Guy and I would prob. agree on:

Older Saturns make great cheapo Autocross cars.

On the local or regional level they compete very well in H stock. I always laugh when I see a $1200 Saturn in primer hand the owner of a $30,000 MINI his ass on a platter.

GM chasis engeneers have gotten a lot of cars dead right, and it's not just the CTS, Camaro and Corvette.

[Blake Noble]

I'd love to give the Monte a run through those cones.

Even better, the Cutlass. (You might would want to give that one a widddeeeee berth.)

[Oracle of Delphi]

Nice Speed Racer helmet ...

[pow]

I need to do that one day. Hmm... Passat or Volvo 240? Both automatic.

[A Horse With No Name]

I'd love to give the Monte a run through those cones.

Even better, the Cutlass. (You might would want to give that one a widddeeeee berth.)

We have a GTO that comes out to run, bring the Cutlass. Believe it or not, we have a lot of GM fans in our Miata club and the SCCA. We would LOVE to see that thing run...

Chris

[A Horse With No Name]

I need to do that one day. Hmm... Passat or Volvo 240? Both automatic.

Either would work. Put it in Second manually when the car gets rolling and let her rip...

Passat might handle better. We have guys in the TDI club who autocross automatic Passats, so it has been done.

Chris