Autocrossing is an excellent way to spend a weekend. It’s low-buck, high-involvement and even if you screw up you’re having fun. If there’s enough asphalt and enough people to set up cones, you have yourself a race! There are tons of autocrosses in the country, and not all of them are Goodguys deals either. Plenty of weekend events are held, and there’s usually a good turnout because hey…it’s racing. I enjoy ripping through the cones myself, but out of three cars I’ve ran, only a 2005 Mustang was actually a good track car. My main autocross car, a 2006 Monte Carlo SS, was a nose-heavy, torque-laden front-wheel-drive that plowed more than an Iowa farm boy and even with a brake upgrade, wouldn’t slow down quick enough for my tastes. Then there was my 1981 Mirada, which I decided to flog around Bremerton Raceway’s course…for my friends, it was an exercise in trying to not laugh, since the car didn’t do a damn thing well except hide Miatas.
I was supposed to turn at that cone…
The reason I ran the picture of the Saturn SL is because there was a guy at Bremerton who was running one that looked like a Craigslist refugee. It had brakes and tires, and if I remember correctly, that was it. Rolling up to the line on it’s stock wheels, you expected a sad show, someone who brought out the car just to drive it. But when the flag dropped he hammered on that thing like an underpaid valet driver, barking gears, sliding, locking the brakes and wringing the engine for every last ounce of power. Forget how bad he beat me, there were guys in Subarus worried about that little bastard. And we’ve seen others…a GMC dually, a Ford Crown Victoria station wagon, TheSilverBuick’s Centurion convertible…that went on the course and dropped jaws. So we ask you, the readers: What would shock you most to see on the course, and do you think it’d be any good?
A friend of mine used to compete heavily with an automatic 1st-gen Mazda3 4-door hatchback. (Not a Mazdaspeed3, those are a whole different animal) It was stock except for a set of Mazdaspeed6 wheels and some strictly okay tires, and he used to run equivalent lap times to stock Honda S2000s and BMW non-M 3-series. I rode with him a couple times and he could make that little Mazda dance. Has since traded up to a Miata, the scourge of autocrosses
Autocrossers seem to be second only to bracket racers when it comes to bringing weird things to the track – ones I’ve seen firsthand include a Mazda GLC and dually pickups on course, as well as a ton of “My race car wasn’t running, so I brought my DD” entries. So, what would really surprise me? Somebody autocrossing a Bugatti Veyron, definitely – I’d expect anyone with that car to either be using it purely for posing or to shell out more money and put it on a road course. Or anything pre-WWII that isn’t just a shell for a Modified-class build.
The biggest surprise for me would be my Mustangs running my Cam T PAX time.
Unless its mine, a Jensen Interceptor. Not that I wouldn’t love seeing another one carve some cones….4400lbs of British steel
BKB
One day I hope to get my AMC Matador coupe to the autocross. That would be a horse of a different color. My 76′ Mini DD did pretty good the last time I took it out though, but parts are expensive.
Uh…anything I was driving?
Seriously; I’m thinking about doing some autocrossing, but haven’t even been to an event, so anything I drive is going to be out of contention.
I’ve got a seriously slow car, too. 99 accord coupe, f23 four cylinder with a manual. I’d been putting it off until the clutch was changed out. Now I don’t have that excuse any more; it’s got a new stage one Exedy with a 12 lb flywheel. Maybe soon….
Man, your giving my secret away about the Saturn SL. With the torquey SOHC.(ssshhhh)!
I knew a guy that successfully bracket-raced a near-stock Saturn SL. I’ve always wanted to make a budget rallycross/ice lakes race car out of one.