Crossed some Auto Yesterday

[GibbsEmphasis]

It had been a solid 6 months since I’ve been at autocross. Yesterday, midway through the 3rd of at least 20 laps of the track, I remembered why I’ve put such crazy effort into getting involved.

“Dude, why?” Why would I wake up at 4am, drive 2 hours to a parking lot, drive in circles all day, and drive home? What could possibly lead one to spend such a day on this?

During that 3rd lap of the track, I remembered: this is fun beyond any other car related activity I’ve done.

Getting to drive as fast as possible around that course of cones is exhilarating. Just flat out, full send, whatever you wanna call it.

Given the 6 month delta since my most recent autocross event, yesterday was a game of getting to know my car better as well. Re-learning the muscle memory of how much braking and cornering force the car can generate was a fun process in itself. Each lap there was even more “THAT’s how it works” than before. Learning & improving are so fun.

I’m super glad I got the chance to go drive again this year. I’m planning to attend every single one next year. If any of you are in SoCal, check out Cal Club SCCA’s autocross events (solo2.com) and swing by. It’s awesome.

[MM54]

I always say I'm going to go to a bunch next year (since it's 6 months of shit weather & snow here we only have them going on for the other half) and then schedule (usually work) gets in the way and says "haha no you're not" - I made it to one (1) this year, which was rained out halfway through.

[Shop-Teacher]

@way2blu Someday I'll have a vehicle worth Autocrossing.

[DaveyD]

How much gear do you bring to Fontana? Always wanted to autox the golfR

[DAWRX]

@way2blu I’m officially going to make it a goal to try to do an autocross late 2021. The big hurdle is getting into the scene because I don’t (and won’t) do any social media outside of oppo.

[GibbsEmphasis]

@shop-teacher said in Crossed some Auto Yesterday:

@way2blu Someday I'll have a vehicle worth Autocrossing.

Autocross is fun in any vehicle. I first tried autocross in a Honda fit and that was insanely fun. Don’t let ”I need a fast car” get in the way of ”I want to drive my car fast.”

What vehicles do you have? I’m sure some fun can definitely be had

[GibbsEmphasis]

@dawrx Definitely check out the forums at your local SCCA chapter (solo2.com and sdrscca.com) for details on how to get involved. I’m always happy to be a resource here on Oppo too.

Autocross is one of the most welcoming car communities out there, in my opinion. Everyone involved shares a great amount of enthusiasm and are always stoked to help out.

[GibbsEmphasis]

@golfr-guy I was actually just typing up a list recap of what I brought when I saw this; good timing!

I actually managed a surprisingly small amount of gear at this most recent event. Just a small cooler of food & water, an electric tire pump, and some masks/gloves as legally required for my events.

Usually I bring a lot more though; will have to make a thread about the (much longer) essentials list I usually have.

[Shop-Teacher]

@way2blu Right now all I own is a 2006 GMC Sierra crew cab, and my wife's CX-5. I should have autocrossed my Roadmaster wagon, when I had it, but I did at least rallycross it. I miss that car!

[Wrong Wheel Drive]

@way2blu said in Crossed some Auto Yesterday:

@golfr-guy I was actually just typing up a list recap of what I brought when I saw this; good timing!

I actually managed a surprisingly small amount of gear at this most recent event. Just a small cooler of food & water, an electric tire pump, and some masks/gloves as legally required for my events.

Usually I bring a lot more though; will have to make a thread about the (much longer) essentials list I usually have.

I find that you can definitely bring literally nothing to autocross and be just fine. Even better if you empty out the car at home and throwing numbers on the car is the only thing you gotta do. I've always brought tools but never broken anything through hundreds of autocrosses. I've definitely broken the car multiple times at track days though so it's a whole different beast there. I want to do more autocross once I get the miata working again for sure. Seat time per dollar makes way more sense at the track but autocross truly is low commitment easy day.

[GibbsEmphasis]

@shop-teacher Ah, taller vehicles then. Someday when pandemic-related restrictions are more relaxed, maybe co-drive a willing friend’s car?

[GibbsEmphasis]

@wrong-wheel-drive My ”commute” to autocross is over 2 hours on the freeway now so I can’t get away with ”just bring myself” anymore, hahaha. A cooler of food is a bare minimum since it’s an all day feature for me.

[Shop-Teacher]

@way2blu I'd love to. I don't know anybody locally who autocrosses though. I do have a couple of friends who want me to codrive their vehicles in rallycross. The schedule just didn't work out for that this year.

[DaveyD]

@way2blu Looking forward to seeing the list of gear! I'm moving to a place soon with way more storage, so I can get a jack/stands/etc stored in the garage. You ever see this btw at buttonwillow? http://buttonwillowraceway.com/calendar-of-events/performance-driving-clinic/
Looks like fun

[Wrong Wheel Drive]

@golfr-guy that looks like a good deal for a track day with instructor. I love Buttonwillow and you've got experience with that track on a bike already if I recall. For reference I usually pay about $170 for a track day there with no instruction.

[DaveyD]

@Wrong-Wheel-Drive Was watching a bunch of buttonwillow videos yesterday, lol. What AutoX do you do btw? tracks/organizations?

[Wrong Wheel Drive]

@golfr-guy well I used to do every autocross event I could find on motorsportreg.com. I ran with all sorts of groups and did about 20 events per season in the northeast. I've only run autocross here in CA with the same group as @way2blu. Since getting out here I've only run track days though and with covid have skipped this whole last year. Primarily been using speed ventures which I plan to go to laguna Seca in 2021 hopefully and maybe a couple others throughout the year. I did one event with turn8trackdays because it was cheap ($110 full day at Buttonwillow) but they were a bit unorganized and people were doing donuts in the pit lol.

[DaveyD]

@wrong-wheel-drive said in Crossed some Auto Yesterday:

...but they were a bit unorganized and people were doing donuts in the pit lol.

I've heard stories of the cheaper events ending up like this