(Photos by Dave Nutting) – I spend lots of time telling you to get out there and do stuff with your car. Whether it be the drags, cruising, the road course, or autocrossing, I’m constantly harping on you to ditch the couch and burn some tire. Unlike other places that like to talk and talk only, we’re men of action around here and that’s why I recently loaded up my kids, tools, meager driving skills, Dave Nutting (the trunk is big), and a tank of gas to run with the New England Region of the SCCA at their autocross in Ayer, Massachusetts. Long story short, it was awesome and no matter what you drive you can be out there having the same fun I did for about $50.00 in nearly all corners of the country every weekend.

I had not been on an autocross course in probably a decade and even then it was in a road race modified VW Rabbit that the UMass Motorsports club used at SCCA events at tracks like Lime Rock and others. That last visit was not in a big four door sedan that looks as though it makes its living transporting open oil buckets on its hood. No mattter, I was super excited to get the car out and do some stuff with it. I paid my $50.00 entry fee (two hours before the online registration period closed…thanks Dave!) and started to make a mental checklist of the stuff I would need for the day.

The beauty of autocross is that it is as low impact or intense as you want it to be. Want to swap tires, adjust suspension setup, etc? Go for it. Want to be like me and not so much as tweak the tire pressure? Feel free! I figure the total investment in the day was right about $150. How? Well, $50.00 entry fee, $50.00 in gas (drive was about 65mi each way), $30.00 in water and sandwich supplies, and then about $25.00 for a couple of pizzas on the way home. I brought my tool box, jack, fire extinguisher, jack stands, and tape for numbering the car. The day before the event, I went though the whole suspension, nutting and bolting everything, greasing anything that had a fitting, and making sure all of my fluids were at the correct levels. I also cheated the carb floats up a little to try and prevent the jets from sucking air as I was sure the car would be getting flogged this way and that. We struck out at 6:00am the next morning. By we, I mean Nutting, Kerri (my wife), and my sons. It was a family affair!

Here’s Moore airfield where the event was held. The course was more than a mile long and used the runway and taxi roads. It was great!

The event was being put on by the New England Region of the SCCA and their website had all kinds of comprehensive info regarding tech and other procedures for the race. Since it had been a long time between autocross adventures for me, I entered the novice class. This got me an additional dedicated novice track walk, a session in “cone school” and it made instructors available to ride in car and give me some pointers.

Nutting has competed at this location with his Monte SS before so he knew the drill. Kerri had never been to an autocross and neither had my kids. They were all amped up when we were in line to enter the facility and they saw a few Corvettes, lots of Miatas, a Lotus or three, and various other small cars made to do the very thing we were about to do. Kerri looked around and then said, “One of these things isn’t like the other…and that’s you.” It was an entertaining early morning from there on out as many competitors came by to look at the car and no less than five people told me that they had driven a Caprice as their first car. It was a great group of people and everyone was really nice…if not a little leery of ol’ Buford. I couldn’t blame them!

The next step was to get the car ready for tech. I had to pull the center caps off the wheels, bring my helmet, and number the car before jumping into line. The inspectors crawled all over the car, checking the date on my helmet, the wheel bearings, battery hold down, and other items like seatbelts. Thankfully, I had Smokey Yunick Jr and Clay Smith II as my co-crew chiefs directing me on car setup. Our prep was to pull the center caps. I literally didn’t touch anything else.

I chose number 49 in honor of the famed Herb Adams built, Bob Tullius driven 1964 Pontiac LeMans known as the Grey Ghost that competed during the 1971 Trans Am season. It was an ugly big car as compared to its competition but fared well for a low buck operation. I thought that fit pretty well.

Here was the extent of my equipment for the day. The only things missing are my jack and the cooler packed with sandwich meat and water.

The course was opened up for a walk and we took advantage. It was great to see the course and visualize where I would need to be driving once out there in the car. This was the first of two course walks I would take. Remember, this thing was more than a mile long! The layout was great for a car like Buford as it was not too tight and I was able to really work the car out.

Next up came the novice walk and the SCCA “cone school”. Part of attending an autocross is working an autocross. I’ll get into that more in a short while. Cone school gives you the rules of the course as well as teaching you how to watch the course and properly fix any cones that get knocked over.

Finally, it was time to line up. I was in run group one so I followed the lead of everyone else and drove from my pit spot to the grid. As you can see, Buford was perfectly at home with cars just like himself…or not. People were asking frequently if the car had been modified and I informed them that it had a full Hotchkis suspension under it, the motor had been breathed on a little, and that all of the greasy stains were made by me in the driveway. Lots of skeptics abounded. I reminded one guy that the Challenger outweighed my car by about 500lbs and he was shocked.

My first lap was super conservative and even then I managed to enter a slalom on the wrong side causing a DNF to appear on my lap time. Any time you enter a slalom on the wrong side it is considered an “off course” and the run is invalidated. The car felt really good and I knew I could drive it a lot harder next time out.

I got more aggressive during my second lap but was still leaving a lot on the table. The Mickey Thompson tires and Hotchkis suspension, combined with my AFCO solid steel bushings gave the car a very accurate and far more agile feel than I expected. Problem one: autocrossing in a bench seat sucks ass.

The long course was a combo of sweeping turns, wide side to side gates, and slaloms of different spacing. After my second run I was feeling good and the car was suddenly swarmed by interested onlookers who were needing to know more. The guys who knew what they were doing seemed blown away about how flat the thing cornered and how composed and frankly good it seemed on the course. Honestly, my driving was the weakest link…and the damned bench seat.

For my third and final run of the morning session, I decided to give Buford the old “what for” and really went after it. Ok I was still conservative but less so than before. Nutting was breaking my nuts and telling me to use the gas pedal, but I was still trying to understand where the car’s limits were. The Mickey Thompson tires worked well for me and by the third run when they had some heat into them, I was amazed that the car was not only gripping as it was but actually turning in when and where I wanted it to at the speeds I was moving. On one sweeping corner I had feared that the car was going to bulldoze me right into the weeds but the faster I went and more input I gave it, the harder the suspension worked and the more the tires bit. It was big time fun and…

I started actually probing the limits of Buford on that run. Here’s the car in a pretty crossed up situation after coming through the third of three gates off set on different sides of the course. The chassis unloaded and I lifted (whoopsie!) coming out of the third. I sawed at the wheel and gave it some throttle before I spun it out.

HERE’S VIDEO OF MY THIRD LAP OF THE MORNING — IT WASN’T MY QUICKEST BUT IT PUT ME IN SECOND FOR A LITTLE WHILE AND BROUGHT A LOT MORE VISITORS TO SEE THE CAR! (The announcer voice is coming through the radio in the car)

After that third run, my group was done and I got to take the second session “off”. We ate lunch and hung out, talking strategy, driving lines, and laughing along with all of the people who stopped over to look at the car. Universally it was lauded with stuff like, “This thing looks like it works pretty good!” or “Man, it doesn’t roll or lean into the corners!” or my favorite, “Hey, no matter how quickly you go around today, know that your current lap is quicker than I went during my first time with the Lotus I drive.” (Note: That dude was scorching the course in the high 50 second zone in that car! Buford will never get there but the guy was nice enough to throw me a compliment.) After the second session, I had to work a corner and fix cones that got knocked over during the third session. Once that was done, my run group was brought back up for two more runs.

All of the drivers were cool and people were into the car. One of the drivers at the event Mike is a BS reader and knew the project well. That was bitchin’! His car was kicking my ass by a very wide margin. Here’s the car on the grid for the start of the third session.

Looking for any advantage, I decided to go for an aero improvement by moving the “ramming sight” in line with the crease on the hood. This surely chopped the frontal area by lots. Or not…

It was go time now. Full race mode!

My last two laps were personally disappointing. I botched a slalom entry point again and got another DNF. Suckily, that was the hardest clean run I was on for the day and I was desperately trying to break into the 60-second zone to keep a top half finish for the day in novice. The car is awesome and has plenty more time in it. The driver needed more than a couple laps to get the rust off!

On my last lap of the day, I really went balls out. I looped the car completely early in the run and it didn’t get any better from there. That being said, I had a blast and was super impressed by the coolness of all the competitors, officials and workers at the event. It was a fantastic day and served as validation that this car is a handler and has been transformed into a corner burner that can mash asphalt with modern stuff! The parts combo on the car is great!

Perhaps the most satisfying moment of all was pulling back into the driveway at the end of the day. I was beat tired but realized that Buford had passed an important milestone. I had driven it significant distance, beaten the daylights out of it for hours on end, and then driven it home with my kids in the back incident free. I had a Clark Griswold smile plastered on my face for a while after that. I patted the car on the fender and went into the house. Little does Buford know what’s coming next. More power, less weight, and even more suspension work. It is going to rule. Keep reading for my final thoughts and what I learned/need to do to improve the car and myself!

Things I learned on the autocross with Buford T Justice –

1.) The car works even better than I thought. The Hotchkis upper and lower rear contols arms, springs, sway bars, and shocks along with the Mickey Thompson Street Comp tires, and AFCO solid steel bushings make this a very fun to drive and capable car. I’d recommend this combo to anyone with a B-body looking to make it really corner hard. Just keep your grease gun handy for the bushings!

2.) Autocrossing with a bench seat blows goats and really hampers performance. As much as I was bracing myself into the seat by locking my left leg against the firewall, I was still using the steering wheel as a load bearing handle during hard cornering. I need to ditch these seats for something with support, bolstering, and fabric that isn’t shredded. Also, these are the cop car seats so they have steel plates in them and weigh a ton.

3.) You can’t walk the course enough. There was one slalom that I was setting myself up for wrong on nearly every lap and entering on the wrong side. That cost me a few DNFs and ultimately my best potential lap. The more you walk it, diagram it, and visualize it the better you will be.

4.) I should have taken an instructor early in the day. I was going to take one on my last lap for pointers (I like working alone like Dirty Harry) but my last session was cut a lap short and I never got the shot. Next time I am taking an instructor on lap one for the learning experience. A few of them looked like they were itching for a ride in the big heap. Sorry, fellas!

5.) Racers are all different on the outside but the same at the core. It was a great group of people at the event and I saw lots of help among teams, people having a good time, and even people interested in seeing a clapped out looking old sedan burn the course up.

6.) It doesn’t take long for the addiction to reset. I am already plotting my next visit to an auto-x in Ayer. Next time I’ll be backing more hp, less weight in the nose, and more surprises. Like what you ask? Stay tuned to find out. Buford T Justice Phase II is set to begin!

SCROLL DOWN TO SEE EVERY BUFORD T JUSTICE PROJECT UPDATE! READ THE WHOLE STORY OF OUR COOL CAPRICE!

• Introducing Project Buford T Justice – Our 1987 9C1 Chevy Caprice – The Adventure Begins!
• Project Buford T Justice: Our Cop Car Cruises Home and Then We Beat on It!
• Driveway Tech: Bodywork on Buford T Justice – We Close Our Roof Hole For Fun and (NO) Profit!
• Project Buford T Justice Hits the Strip with Some Pretty Shocking Results!
• Project Buford T Justice Hits the Dyno and Goes KABLOOEY! CARNAGE VIDEO INSIDE!
• Project Buford T Justice Will Be Saved For About A 100 Bucks With a 15 Year Old Transmission
• Project Buford T Justice Update: The Trans Thrash is ON!
• Buford T Justice Update: It Lives Again Thanks to a Down and Dirty Driveway Thrash and Junkyard Parts
• Buford T Justice, Our 1987 9C1 Chevy Caprice Goes Through Final Testing Before the Upgrades Begin!
• Buford T Justice 9C1 Update: The Parts From Hotchkis, Cragar, AFCO, and Mickey Thompson
• Update: Hotchkis Suspension & AFCO Bushings Transform Our 9C1 Caprice
• Buford Update: Our 9C1 Caprice Gets Real With Mickey Thompson Tires and Cragar Wheels
• Driveway Tech: How To Swap A Jeep Steering Shaft Into Your GM B-Body or G-Body Car With A Trashed Rag Joint
• Buford Update: We Flog The Suspension, Unveil a Mountain of Speed Parts, Spill Our Wild Drag Strip Plan
• Project Buford T Justice Update: Drag Strip Thrash Squashed By Ma Nature – We Learn Stuff – Plan B!
• Project Buford T Justice Quick Update: Where The Hell Has Our 9C1 Caprice Been?!
• Project Buford T Justice: We Go On Hot Pursuit Of Horsepower-Our 9C1 Caprice’s 350 Gets A Slap!
• Buford T Justice 9C1 Caprice Update: Metal Fab,Head Work, A Good Surprise, An Awful One
• Buford T Justice Update: Headers, Cheap LS Technology, New Valvetrain Parts, More Compression, Fun!
• Buford T Justice Update: A TCI 700R4 And Breakaway Torque Converter Get Our 9C1 Caprice Shifty!
• Buford T Justice Update: A Very Frustrating Day On The Dyno And How We’re Planning To Fix It
• Project Buford T Justice Update: Where Has Our 9C1 Caprice Been Hiding?
• Buford T Justice Update: We Install A First Gen Chevelle Flowmaster Kit On Our 9C1 Caprice!
• Project Buford T Justice: Our Caprice 9C1 Gets The Shaft! A Dynotech Drive Shaft That Is!
• Project Buford T Justice Our 1987 9C1 Caprice Hits The SCCA Autocross – Photos And Video!
• Project Buford T Justice Update: We Finally Give Our 1987 9C1 Caprice A Cheapo Nose Job!
• Project Buford T Justice Update: We Hit The Strip Again With More Power! (W/Video)
• Buford T Justice Update: We Bolt On Power From Trick Flow And Snappy Looks From Trans Dapt!
• Project Buford T Justice Update: Where The Heck It’s Been And Where The Hell It is Going –
• Place Your Bets For A BangShift Shirt! Buford T Justice Is Hitting The Dyno With This Engine One Last Time – Guess The Power And Win
• Project Buford T Justice: The Long Arm Of The Law Gets Longer With A Stroker Build – 388ci Of Budget Fun