Sometimes I regret selling my racing wheels to fund my new PC. I can't wait to buy new tires so I can ruin them in the *Sea of Cones. Everyone should try Autocross at least once to learn how to control their specific car. It's a fun way to be a safer driver and you don't need a sports car to do it. The course is about 1 minute long and I only get up to about 50 MPH in 2nd gear and there is nothing to hit in a parking lot. There have been many times where I said "How the hell did I avoid that accident? Oh yeah, because I autocross." Google the SCCA - Sports Car Club of America to find a local event. If you go to watch, next time you'll race.
Needless to say - It's a RUSH!
* Sea of Cones: When you are concentrating so hard on cornering around one cone, that when you look for the next corner, all you see is the Sea of Cones. I have gotten confused and ended up driving the wrong way around the course until the corner workers flagged me off.
edit: The downside to autocross. 1. You waive your insurance and if a photo of your plates gets to your dealer they can void your warranty = tape your plates. 2. You will wear your tires a little. 3. You are expected to help run the event, which I don't mind. There are 3 sessions - work rest race, but not necessarily in that order. The work session is mandatory. Skip it and they will never let you race again in future events. Depending on how they schedule you, you might have to hang around for 8 hours in order to race 3 to 5 one minute runs.
Toronto is down in the series one game to none and hell yeah I am ready to watch the game tonight as my whole day was going to be about me relaxing at home all day and eventually watching this. It looks like also I may be watching Boston and Ottawa soon as late in the 3rd period they are tied and so they may go to OT. There is nothing like sudden death overtime playoff hockey.
That looks way cool. I always wanted to do that. But I got no car.
And I suck at driving in real life. But in video games, its another story. ( Kinda. I am at least 40% better at driving in video games, then in real life. )
Before every race day, I setup my steering wheel and play racing games all night to sharpen my skills. If it works for Lewis Hamilton, it might work for me.
I'm sure you'll do autocross one day, but until then there is no charge to watch me do it.
For me, checking out the cool cars and drivers in the staging lot is almost as much fun as watching others on the track. There are so many varieties, old cars, new cars, rich guys in Porsche's and Ferrari's and Corvettes, poor guys in Honda's and Subaru's, guys with full race cars on trailers and about half the cars seem to be Miata's. Most people are helpful with tips or tools, unless they are getting in the zone before a run.
Was it the one where this asshole decided to "race" the car which was going in conservative mode on team orders? It's kind of a trend for F1 "rising stars": their first couple of seasons, they whine and bitch about everything, thinking they're the fastest, the smartest, lean-and-mean alpha-drivers and that everyone is just underestimates or even sabotages them. I remember Hamilton calling stewards racists because they were penalizing his bullshit. Now he settled in and is much more pleasant to look at. Then there was Seb The Finger. Now Verstappen does the same. Kid's got a talent, sure, but he's an asshole on a track.
I must also say that I enjoy GP2 (Formula 2 now) a lot, maybe even more than F1. Less laps, slower cars, sure, but the amount of tire degradation, lap time difference between tire types and between dead tires and those which were carefully conserved during the race is huge. Tactics matter. Cars are longer packed together at the start of the race. The decision to flip the first part of peloton for the second race is brilliant. It creates a beautiful show. I would even go as far as say that GP2/F2 is more F1 than F1 is.
There is a class system in place right? Otherwise the rich people in Ferraris, Porches and Corvettes would always win.
The behind the scene stuff sounds really cool. It's awesome to hear peoples thought process on stuff and why they ended up doing things the way that they did them.
I will have to do this then and then view videos on YouTube.
Not really, but I'm not sure where they came from (I just started watching it in the last season). They look like old F1 cars though. It's the same chassis, motor (well, everything, actually) for every team. Drivers' skills matter.
I always use number 63 and my car is in class RTA. There are strict SCCA rules defining what's allowed in each class. All I can do is change the tires, struts and the exhaust. Most people that are serious have special race day only tires. They get pretty anal about keeping them clean and at exact pressure. Higher than normal pressures are used for autocross (45 psi for me). At normal 30 psi, you will grind your side walls, using the tread only is faster. Some events that are not SCCA sanctioned may have looser classes. At one event they had 4, 6 or 8 cylinder and unlimited classes, but because my car is a 4 cylinder turbo I was put in the 6 cylinder class.
I choose to stay in the 'stock' class because moving up to the 'improved' class means I would be up against guys with 500 HP Subaru's. I don't really care too much about competing, except against my last time slip. My best result was I came in #33 out of 100 entrants, even against the big dogs. Autocross is more about car control than raw power and speed. A racer in a Miata that can miss every cone by an inch can beat a dude in a Corvette that is drifting because he has too much engine.
Also note my plate is taped because this photo is from the Ohio Valley Region SCCA website that is open to the public. I don't need Progressive or Subaru getting on my case.
