Is it foolhardy to slalom at 75mph?

[sugarwood]

[puddy]

Wow, I guess it is...

[Tom W]

... if you over-drive the car.

[winders]

That setup is not the best idea for an autocross....at least the part where you drive at speed near trees. That's an example of not anticipating what could go wrong.

You should be able to over-drive your car at an autocross with no consequences.

[Trackrash]

That could have turned out way worse. Spinning into one of those trees could have been ugly. I wonder who sanctioned that autocross.

[Cory M]

Seems like they wanted to make the narrow straight more interesting and maybe slow cars down a bit through there, they might have been better off building a couple tight chicanes instead.

[Driven97]

The 75mph slalom is not the problem. The complete lack of runoff is.

Unfortunately there's a lack of wide open pavement availability that causes some clubs to resort to stuff like this. SCCA has pretty strict rules about course distance to immovable objects, suggested max speeds, etc.

Agree the driver is lucky, that could have been way worse.

[puddy]

I'm curious about autocross. Is it really that fun? I don't like the small tight courses so i've had no desire to try it. I guess if it was my best option and no racetrack around i'd try it. Its probably cheaper than a trackday right?

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

It is fun, and it is cheaper than a track day. The major downside is you only get a few minutes total seat time, even though you're there for a half-day or a full day. (Depends on how long the course is, how many runs everyone gets, if there are fun runs at the end, etc.) An autoX day will cost $50 or less anywhere I can think of, and some may still be at the $20 level.

Just because the speeds are lower doesn't mean there isn't any action. You're facing turns about ten times as often as on the Big Track, and you're pushing your car right to the absolute limit or maybe just beyond! In the better-run events, there won't be anything you can hit, and low speeds mean that the potential for damage is greatly reduced.

You also have to learn quickly. You get a course walk before the event, but then you only get a handful of tries at it to turn the best lap time you can!

It's certainly not the same as a track day. But it's quite fun and rather less expensive.

--DD

[puddy]

Originally Posted by Dave at Pelican Parts

It is fun, and it is cheaper than a track day. The major downside is you only get a few minutes total seat time, even though you're there for a half-day or a full day. (Depends on how long the course is, how many runs everyone gets, if there are fun runs at the end, etc.) An autoX day will cost $50 or less anywhere I can think of, and some may still be at the $20 level.

Just because the speeds are lower doesn't mean there isn't any action. You're facing turns about ten times as often as on the Big Track, and you're pushing your car right to the absolute limit or maybe just beyond! In the better-run events, there won't be anything you can hit, and low speeds mean that the potential for damage is greatly reduced.

You also have to learn quickly. You get a course walk before the event, but then you only get a handful of tries at it to turn the best lap time you can!

It's certainly not the same as a track day. But it's quite fun and rather less expensive.

--DD

Thanks Dave, i'll definitely try it sometime if a good opportunity comes up!