Nick M Posted May 19, 2003 Share Posted May 19, 2003 Well, I finally plucked up the courage and entered a local Auto-cross event on Saturday. Basically it's a course layed out with cones on a *huge* area of tarmac (imagine 7 or 8 football pitches and you're in the right ball-park) and you run the course one way then the reverse it in the afternoon. You get 6 runs each way normally but due to the heat the reversed course was reduced to 3 runs. Results wise I came 2nd in class and 2nd quickest time overall for the two combined runs. I was beaten by a Lotus Elan (the older prettier ones) especially built for Autocrossing with big sticky slicks and a driver who seemed to know what he was doing.... Something about him being a national champion or something... I'd acquired some Hoosier slicks but they weren't overly effective on dusty tarmac so it was Goonsville Tennessee !!! Understeer, oversteer, loads of throttle steer - you name it, I ended up doing it at some stage !! Second course layout (when they reversed it they adjusted the layout slightly) was slightly quicker and more flowing and that was when I was able to have a real good play at throttle steer into some corners - excellent fun !! There were a load of cars there which weren't really designed to go round corners (Camaros, Mustangs, Corvettes - basically anything American !!, let alone a tight autocross course - loads of 360 spins and cones being murdered !! I must confess to killing one poor, innocent, defenceless cone....One minute he was standing next to a couple of his mates having a natter and the next instant he'd been ******* by a noisy blue car with a bit of aluminium sticking out the side designed specifically to kill cones So, while my nerf bar worked, it was also a bit bent !! Nothing a judicious use of brute force couldn't fix though Blokey with the Elan had a couple of runs in my car after he'd beaten me. He had a whale of a time. Unsurprisingly he maintained the tradition of all those who've driven it by gooning it quite happily around the course !! But he was a second slower than my time, which was nice... I'll be back doing the autumn events - they're not doing anything during the summer as it's already too #### hot ! - so I'll have to see if I can learn to drive by then !! Off to do a trackday next weekend on a fun looking circuit - should be a nice mix of goonability and quick flowing corners. I'll try and upload some piccies of the autocrossing later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blatman Posted May 19, 2003 Share Posted May 19, 2003 2nd in class, and second quickest overall. I hate you......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick M Posted May 19, 2003 Author Share Posted May 19, 2003 Well to put things into context.... There were 3 cars in the class with 4 drivers (another Elan was being double-driven). I was placed in class A which was for highly modified cars and you could run slicks and do what you liked with the car. Other classes were for standard or slightly tweaked cars running road legal (but there's some pretty sticky road legal rubber out there ! tyres. A big car like a Corvette with 400bhp plus is just never going to be as quick as a small light car around a tight and twisty course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisbin Posted May 19, 2003 Share Posted May 19, 2003 Well done Nick! Did you get to have a go in his car too... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilwillis Posted May 19, 2003 Share Posted May 19, 2003 Keep flying the flag Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick M Posted May 19, 2003 Author Share Posted May 19, 2003 Did you get to have a go in his car too... Well having watched him stuff *two* pillows into my car so he could reach the pedals I figured that the chances of me being able to get into his car were somewhere between slim and none.... Keep flying the flag Actually the car now sports a very nice Union Jack on the nose cone !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S8ight Posted May 27, 2003 Share Posted May 27, 2003 Nick, can you remember the bloke with the Elan's name ? speaking to the bloke whose rebuilding my SD1 box, they do mostly Lotus boxes, he was saying hed sent an Elan box out to someone over that way who uses it for auto cross/tests. Carl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick M Posted May 27, 2003 Author Share Posted May 27, 2003 Mark Huffman or Ted Lewis perhaps ? Mark was the bloke who won (comprehensively...) and Ted had some problems with the clutch slave cylinder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonnyBoy Posted May 27, 2003 Share Posted May 27, 2003 imagine 7 or 8 football pitches and you're in the right ball-park) absolutely right...football pitches are the right park....baseball diamonds...wrong! keep up our end old bo sounds like a blast! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick M Posted May 27, 2003 Author Share Posted May 27, 2003 Don't worry ! I'm already planning on doing 3 events in the autumn and have got some wider stickier slicks lined up (courtesy of the local single seater fraternity !!. Got a few months to get the car sorted and the current little problems fixed so it'll be ready to go in plenty of time !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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