Mark Dreyer

I've been doing DE's for about 3 yrs now and had a major incident last weekend at Sebring. I totaled my track car. Thanks to the 6 point harness system I only sustained a minor neck injury and am 100% better after only a few days. In light of the experience of seeing a concrete barrier coming at me head on at 50+ mph, I have decided to put DE's on hold for now and am looking to do some autocross.

My question is would my VW Jetta TDI be ok to get my feet wet and make sure I like it sufficiently to invest in another fun car? Also, what would be on your short list of P-cars to buy as an autocross vehicle?

BTW, for any that don't frequent the Racing/DE forum and are interested in my Sebring experience, you can go here:

https://rennlist.com/forums/racing-and-drivers-education-forum/446300-crashed-at-sebring-need-a-new-hobby.html

Jim Michaels

Sorry about the loss of your M3 (I have one as a DD).

SCCA has an autocross class for every car, and many other car clubs also use the SCCA classifications. I think all stock VW diesel models run in H Stock. If your car is somewhat beyond stock, it would be in F Street Prepared.

Time on course and average speed will both be down considerably from tracking, but autocross runs are intense, where precision is rewarded.

multi21

Mark DE is a place for driving at 8/10s. In an autox you can drive 10/10s. Look into various clubs in your area and see what type of venue they use. Obviously the bigger the better. I prefer PCA and BMW because you get about 3-4 times as many laps as you would in SCCA.

85Gold

The car will not be the limiting factor @ 1st. Show up and have fun. If you want to compete @ a National Level the SCCA is the way to go. You are smart to not get a car until you decide what you want to do and @ what level.

As for Porsche's in stock class the 996GT3 is the current SCCA Super Stock National Champion. Cayman and Boxster can be competitive, especially @ the local level where the driver is the difference.

Peter

Mussl Kar

I have just as much fun driving my 997C2S as driving my RS at autox. Cayman/Boxters are PDQ also, and less $ too.

N_Halbert

It is not so much what you are driving but driving what you have at or beyond it's limits and coming back grinning.If this is your daily driver then it will help with understanding it's limits. I will make you a better and safer driver on the street.

If you do decide to pick up a beater a 944 can be had for under $5k and the class is usually very competitive. Early Boxters are getting down in the $13K-$17K range and are a very good autox weapon.

kabel_Boxster

Mark, there are three clubs here in Central FL you can run autox with, The local SCCA, Martin Sports Car Club (MSCC), & the Citrus Region PCA (do you have a pcar still or are a PCA member still?).

SCCA (cfrsolo2.com) is a great bunch and they have events up at a decommissioned airstrip up by the Deland Airport and at BCC in Palm Bay, check their site for event dates and registration info (I used to be a member)

MSCC is a local private club ( I am a member), we hold an event every month and all but two of those are at the Lake County Tech Center in Taveres. Small lot but we have fun. visit the website martinsportscarclub.net for event dates and registration info, preregistration is required for nonmembers.

PCA autocross events are usually at the above Lake County site as well. Though we have started using Sebring - in fact, by invitation of the Citrus PCA, the Martin club was holding an autox at Sebring that same weekend you had your unfortunate accident. Events are generally once a month, but they take a few months off in the heat of the summer, next one may be as early as October. Visit the website and look at the calendar, www.flcitrusregion.org

I know nothing about DE's, but many of the people i talk to that do track days find autox to be fun, just not the same kind of event. A typical autocross only provides about 2 min of actual seat time. Which at first seems odd that you would spend all day at an event only to get 3 or 4 - 30 second runs and call that fun, but there is more to the autox encounter you just need to experience.

Bring the daily driver out and have some fun, then decide if you want to become more competitive at it. I attend every MSCC and PCA event I can, if you have any question, post up here or send me a PM. I'd be happy to tell you more about the local clubs.

928SS

don't do it. it's too much fun and you'll end up becoming a conehead

if you do another dedicated track car for AX, check out a miatia, 914/6, s2000 or other smaller more nimble car. they rule on the tighter tracks, and often hold their own on the few larger tracks too. lots of overall wins for a guy in a cayman too.

have fun!

Mark Dreyer

Update:

I've done a couple autocross events at the Lake county facility with PCA/Citrus region. It is fun, but standing at a flag station for 2 hours straight during my work assignment has pretty much offset most of the fun for me. Are there any autocross clubs that charge a higher fee and have paid workers like at DE's?

I bought a Boxster S for my fun car. I did my latest autocross a couple weeks ago. The fastest guy out there had an R8 and he did the course in 64 seconds. My best time was 69 seconds. I figure that wasn't so bad for only my 3rd ever autocross. I can tell that the Boxster is a great car for autocross.

I'm doing a DE in a couple weeks (yup, the wife granted consent) at the new Palm Beach International Speedway. (the old Moroso) Can't wait!

racer

I'm not aware of any "arrive and drive" auto cross events. AX events are cheap because you get to do a work assignment. Yes, standing in the sun for 1-2+hours beats the heck out of you.. and in return you likely get 4-8 runs.. for about 4-8 minutes of driving. But they only cost about what $40?

I have found AX a great compliment to DE because with a DE the track is the same (ie, can get boring) but AX courses are never the same event to event.. so they challenge you to learn something new every time, and become good at it.

5 seconds in AX is an eternity.. When you look at some of the SCCA National results and see classes determined by tenths of a second!

Do both.. have fun

kabel_Boxster

It can be an "acquired taste." Part of the appeal of autocross is the fact that it is generally inexpensive. And having autocrossed locally for the last five years it is just as much about the actual competition as it is about hanging out with a great group of people. IMO that last event was not really an autocross, but I understand why we use the mini-road course for the ladies event each year. If you were running in the 69's you were doing well on that course for the first time.
If you come out again, get there early and request a work position in the timing and scoring trailer

PedalFaster

People who come to autocrosses just for the seat time inevitably tire of it and go off to try other pursuits. The key to enjoying autocross is to get to know the people, so that your work assignment becomes as much of an opportunity to socialize as it is "work".

Having said that, if you really had a two hour work assignment, that's pretty rough. A well run event should set up the run groups such that each work shift is less than an hour long.

Mark Dreyer

It really was 2 hours as the ladies were given a bunch of extra runs while we were waiting on the lunch to be delivered. The time prior to that it was a bit shorter yet still at least 90 minutes. I will probably continue as I agree that the opportunity for comraderie is nice plus even if it's only 8 minutes of seat time in the car that's 8 more minutes that it would be if I was sitting on my couch at home. However, the DE's are what really float my boat so hopefully I can work my way back into that hobby.

porrsha

The Boxster S is a good choice for autocross but be aware that a set of wheels and R compound tires will shrink that time differential that you experienced at the last event. There are some other things you can do like Caster/Camber to have the car respond better at an event as well.

I would say that almost 100% of experienced Autocrossers do well at DE's where as DE only drivers find out that Autocrosses are not the "***** events' that they think they are especially when a female autocrosser kicks their *** around the cones.

I agree with the above post about drivers migrating away from autocross if they are looking for seat time. It's about going 10/10th and having a perfect run, making your car do things that belong in a Ronan movie chase scene.

2 hours course working is atypical IMHO. There is also a need to bring the sunscreen, hat, etc..............

kabel_Boxster

Our local PCA autocross events usually have what I consider a low driver count (no more than 50 drivers). Which means nearly three times as many runs as a typical (non PCA) event. That is even with a one hour lunch break. In the two years I have run with this group, the fewest runs we ever had was eight, we often squeeze in a total of ten runs with time left for fun runs, so the trade off is sometimes a longer work period for everyone.

Mark, the driver you really need to use as a bench mark is Bob B in the 2002 boxster S with r-comps. On a good day I can usually stay within couple seconds of him even on my street tires.