Christer

What is autox?

Is this the activity where cars go round a car park with lots of cones to 'outline' the track?

What do we call this in the UK?

Not being flamacious, but what is the point? I saw a video of what I believe to be one session of 'autox' where I don't think anyone got out of first gear...

Please educate me.

Dave Thomas

Nothing stupid about that! Yes, autox is short for autocross, which is what you described. You may call it gymkana (sp?) in the UK. Also known as Solo racing over here; there are Solo I and Solo II, one being a lower-speed event and the other being a higher-speed event, like track events or hillclimbs. But it's always one car at a time, running against the clock.

Dave Thomas

PS, forgot to answer your second question. The point is to post the best time in your class. Some parking-lot events are very low-speed, first and second gear stuff. These are definitely "skill" events. But it really depends on the size of the track area and who's running the event. I ran autox for many years in several classes, and we were lucky enough to have access to several very large parking lots and a real race track, so we saw lots of higher gears and higher speeds, even though the SCCA (the sanctioning body) limited top speed to 75 mph. All the faster cars, including mine, were purpose built, many based on outdated road racing cars.

Christer

Thanks for that, I am glad to see that you didn't take my comments the wrong way.

This autox thing obviously builds up skills in certain areas of performance driving? Which ones, where do they help on the track?

thanks again

Ragin' Bajan

I think autoX helps (tremendously) with your line. AutoX'ers are working on getting within centimeters of the perfect line, and they have to determine this after just walking a course they've never driven before. AutoX courses are much more technical than tracks--most tracks will have something like 10-20 turns per circuit, whereas an autoX course will have 40 or more turns coming up very quickly. Reaction time and setting up for the next turn are, IMHO, exercised more thoroughly. In my limited experience, good autoXers have no problem making the transition to the track and being very competitive (if 'competitive' is the right word for a track day), whereas not all track drivers can easily go to autoX.

Downside of autoX, in my opinion, is that you'll typically get less seat time, since only one person at a time can be on course. At some of the crowded competitions I've been at, it's basically 6 runs (under a minute each) for the entire day! That's at the extreme end of things of course, but unfortunately not that rare.

I really like autoX since it affords me the opportunity to go full out (10/10ths) without (too much) worry. Unless you're spectactularly unlucky, the worst you'll do is spin out and eat a few cones.
At the track the consequences of a mistake can be much more expensive.

Here are some links that may be of interest:


<a href="http://www.vcmc.ca/main.html" target="_blank">My local AutoX club</a>

<a href="http://www.napylon.com/Phantom.htm" target="_blank">Phantom: fastest autoX car!</a>

Ragin' Bajan

Oh, by the way I thought I'd add some unsolicited comments.

While there's only one person on the course at the time, it's all about competition, which adds an interesting element.

There are many different classes of cars, and sub groups within them eg. a mini runs in a different class from the custom built cars. However, each car is assigned and 'index', which is a multiplier typically under 1. This is applied to your time to give your "PAX" time, which you can use to compare yourself against all other competitors. Of course, this index applies to all cars in a class and there is some wiggle room within a class (not all cars are created equal), so if you're super serious about winning, there are certain cars you'll favour.

For myself, it's purely recreational so I don't anything special but for some it's a serious and expensive passion.