brrgrr

After 10 years of doing DE's, I figure I'll try an autocross - (It was a fundraiser for Lou Gerhigs disease) ... well run event, but .......

BOOOOORRRRINNNGGG.

45 minutes of waiting and then 60 seconds of "action" - a big turbo 951 is not a great autocross car on a very tight circuit - as soon as I hit boost it was time to brake and turn.

FTD was a new corvette Z06 with hoosiers - he never took it out of first gear.... now that is talent. ........

back to DE !

Duke

haha I know exactly the feeling!

Van

My 914 is surprisingly fun at an autocross. The 951 - no.

Fluidplay

I feel your pain brrgrr...trying to keep the turbo spooled up on a tight AX course is frustrating at best. How many runs do you do per session? We typically get 3-4 and there's not much waiting time between runs. Though I will say waiting an hour or more between sessions really drags on. Those 60 seconds are fun...

brrgrr

75 car event, 5 total runs spread out from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. (6 hours)

I was definately driving at 10/10 ths or even 11/10 ths (hence the slow times) and it was fun to "drift" around tight u-turns in 1st gear, but DE is a better fit for me and the car !

Slantnose!

I like autocross, but agree that 951's are not the first choice to bring.

User 52121

Yeah I hear ya, seat time is limited, and the 951 isn't the best AX'er. But let me put my perspective on it (before the career AX'ers here get all up in arms over the "boring!" comment.)

I used to race professionally (motorcycles.) I no longer race due to the cost and time involved in maintaining 5 bikes (two mine, two my teammates, one "spare"), truck, trailer, sponsor relationships, finances (our annual budget was close to $100k), etc. Decided it was time to get back to focus on the career that PAID the bills instead of the one that continued to rack them up (though I really think another year, year and a half and I would've had enough sponsor revenue to break even.) At any rate: To me, DE's are "boooooooring" too. You drive around with no real purpose, other than maybe to try to set a personal best lap (which that in itself really serves no purpose other than bragging rights... and I know a LOT of folks who can hotlap like mad but can't set up or execute a pass to save their life.) You spend $200+ to get out on the track. You burn up a set of brakes and tires (assuming you're driving at a decent pace), full tank or so of fuel, and put yourself and your car at considerable risk. It *is* more fun if you look at fun factor alone. No doubt. Exponentially more fun. But it's where you factor in cost, risk, and the fact that you're not competing with any one or for anything, that everything changes and, at least for me, the scales shift back to AX being pretty favorable.

AX is virtually NO risk (though I have seen a few folks hurt their cars, it's rare.) You're still hustling your car around. Depending on the club, you'll get decent speeds going too (just attended a PCA event yesterday, there was one portion of the course that had me @ the top of 2nd in my 951.) If you attended a course that's all 1st gear - try one set up by a different club. There's a club here in the Chicago area, the Salt Creek Sports Car Club, that IMO designs *awful* courses...1st gear, 10mph, slaloms... blah! By comparison, the local chapter of the Audi club *always* has kick-butt courses, with good speed and flow. It may not be as technical, or as "skill requiring" as your average SCCA nationals AX purist would want... but I don't care, I just want to have fun.

It's also CHEAP - show me how to have more fun in my car on a Saturday for 30 bucks, and I'm there (disclaimer: must be LEGAL!) I don't think it's possible. Hell I'll drop $100 easy just doing arrive-and-drives at the local indoor kart place. You really can't beat the cost-to-fun ratio of AX events. Plus - you're actually COMPETING. Ok maybe it's just for a cheesy plaque or trophy or something, but still, at least you get a little bit of the THRILL of competition.

If money were no object, I wouldn't even bother with DE's. I'd send my wife to a few so she could learn the basic ins and outs of track driving... but after that, we'd be on to actual racing.

User 52121

Wow... only 4-5 runs? Yeah that's starting to get hard to justify participating.

Find a different club to run with. The PCA event I ran yesterday did 8 runs per person, and they were pretty slow getting the course set up, we had a bit of downtime due to some faulty timing equipment, etc. With a slightly earlier start, and less equipment issues, and we could've probably gotten in 10 runs per person. The local Audi club chapter has never failed to give less than 10 runs per person per event, sometimes more... and occasionally will even do "fun runs" at the end of the official timed sessions.

brrgrr

In defense of the event - it was run very well, and it was a fundraiser, so they allowed "extra" cars to register. The course they set up used the space they had pretty well and allowed 2 cars on course - but with 75-80 cars - you do the math!

I would argue that there is "purpose" in DE .... FUN ! combined with improving your driving skills..... bigger risk, no doubt..... just ask someone who DE's at Watkins Glen or Road America and you'll hear some serious horror stories !

User 52121

Yeah I know my way around Watkins Boot pretty well. Lots of risk there... easy to spin out of the chicane if you get it wrong, easy to spin on the blind uphill in the boot (that'll get you tagged if the guy behind you didn't know you spun), and the bumps in the final turn leading to the front straight if you're offline can catch you with your pants down pretty easily. And I know RA like the back of my hand - it's the local "big track" to me being here in Chicago. So long as you keep your car properly maintained, it's actually relatively LOW risk, with the exception of the kink. F up in the kink and you're toast. Had enough bad incidents there on the bikes that they added the bend back in 2004 to mitigate it. But otherwise, the only time I've seen any real bad wrecks at RA at a non-competitive event outside of the kink were due to brake failure. RA is one of the most basic, point-and-shoot tracks in existence.

I guess, to me, track driving isn't "fun" unless I can run it at 8/10ths. And once you start running hard like that, risk goes up quite a bit, and crashing becomes an actual possibility (that in a racing environment, you just have to kind of accept as a possibility.) If I am not going to accept that possibility, then I've gotta back it down a lot... and the fun achieved at 5/10ths doesn't outweigh the risks anymore.

CurtP

Were you out at Pungo last year for my first event with the 951? Brand new Falken RT-615 tires and approaching the Chicago at the back of the course my turbo finally decides to go into boost. I'm in way too hot and had to go BFI to keep from ending up in the woods. I head-on one cone and flat spot both of my front tires

Anyone know of a place in Hampton Roads that shaves tires? It would be nice to have round tires again

Slantnose!

Yes.
I thought your car looked alright, but think it likes ACU4 more.
Don't know any place local for tireshaving.

V2Rocket

65 or so in 1st gear = win

ritzblitz

I enjoy autocrossing my na.

Mike Buck

Were you expecting to take FTD or something? This was your first event no? Autox is a different type of sport with different types of challenges. It is a competition, not a parade like DE. Some folks like that more.

Come to a large SCCA National event and you will see some real talent. I was in Indiana last weekend for the Peru Tour. 240+ drivers. . . . D.C. event before than had just as many. The level of competition is amazing and humbling.