penguinking

there is a *perception* that autox is harder on your car than a road course is, but honestly its no harsher on your car than aggressive driving (with exception of tire wear perhaps)

look at it this way - an autox run lasts anywhere from about 40 to 90 seconds, depending on lenght of the course. a track session lasts anywher from 20-35 minutes. thats alot more time youre putting stress on the car.

in addition, autox only gets you up to 3rd gear max - the straightaway in autoxs last for only 100 ft or so - you don't go full throttle all the time, whereas you can be on the gas on a road course for a 1000' long straight or more.

the turns and slaloms in an autox are much more abrupt than a road course, which is why people think its so hard on the car. but really the fastest you'll ever get on an autox will be at most 60mph. yes you're on the redline more, but you're doing it for a VERY short period of time. were talking 1 minute versus 30 minutes on a track.

Robert

Steve in FL

penguinking: You're right that the duration of an autox is much shorter than a DE on a track but you're over generalizing what one can experience at an autox. I've done autox events where peak speeds are >100 and a run (which was 2 laps of the course) was almost 2 minutes. Some autox sites are blessed to be a big expanse of pavement, some are cursed to be parking lots. There's a wide variety of driving conditions between the 2 extremes but the seat time is all good.

penguinking

true - there certainly have been instances wherer people have flipped their cars at an autox. but in terms of how much stress is being put on the car, its much much less for an autox.

final thought: porsches are track ready the moment they're driven off the factory. if a car can handle those conditions without a problem, then it would certainly be a walk in the park if you decided to autox it.

fahren affair

any car for that matter is 'track ready'. i don't do auto-x with the p-car 'cause it's mostly 1-2 gear work at or near red line (causes me to hit the rev-imiter more times than i'm willing to admit). i've trashed many a bimmer at club auto-xs and i'm over it. the wear and tear on the diff, stub axles and rear-end isn't worth the reward, imo. i'd rather save the wear for de's and road course work.

1AS

My gut sense agrees with Fahren. You won't overheat your car at an autocross- something that can be a problem in 10-15 miles of track driving on a hot day, but you can wear out lots of stuff. Start with the outside edges of your front tires if you're at stock camber, the standing start is harder on the drivetrain, you never get a chance to warm the brakes so locking tires is a problem on non-abs cars, and you're on the rev limiter a lot, particularly with the car generating lots of lateral G's and the oil sloshed everywhere but at the pick-up. A typical 1.8 mile track has about 12 turns, none as severe as an autocross. I didn't count turns at the last autocross I did, but I'd guess at least 20, and all with the engine screaming. AS