On Sunday, I drove up to Mineral Wells (near Dallas) for a full day of Autocrossing fun. For those of you who have not done this, YOU MUST TRY IT! To me, it is really the right place for a car like the S2000 to be enjoyed.

As much as I love our hill country drives, Autocross is great for the following reasons:
1) You can SAFELY push yourself to the limit (and beyond), which teaches you to be a better driver by knowing the car's limits. I spun out at least 5 times!
2) Having a timed lap teaches you how to improve your _actual_ driving skills. I thought all this time that drifting was a fast way to go around corners, it's not! My times went down from a 1:30+ to a 1:17 on the last run.
3) You get to watch other people thrash their cars from the spectator area, or close by if you are working the course. This is very cool compared to hill country driving, where you either see the rear of a S2000 or headlights in your mirror.

Well, that's enough about that, here's the results. I represented Austin pretty well for a first-timer... I'm also running on stock S-02's all the way around with 11,000 miles of clutch dropping, hill country driving abuse.

A few comments on the scores:
Tuan (S2000--thanks for the tips!), Tom (Boxster S), and Chris (S2000) all had "sticky" racing tires. Mark Lang had J1 exhaust, but S-02 tires, he is an awesome driver! Dave Timming has a supercharged black S2000.



I plan on going to some more Auto-X events soon. It's pretty hard on your tires, but cheaper than a track event like TWS. I believe that Texas Spokes has an event on November 18:
http://www.ccsi.com/~vitek/spokes/index.html

 

There is an event this sunday (11/11/01) sponsered by the ATM group in College Station. Abandoned airport tarmac. I haven't gotten a chance to drive here but I had several friends who drove there last week and it is a long course (~85 s) and extremely fast. Also, concrete is guaranteed traction (and guaranteed tire wear)

For more info, you can link to there through the Spokes website by selecting area AX clubs


Enjoy

Brian

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by texasbman
[B]There is an event this sunday (11/11/01)

 

Darron or Brian--

Can you post more information about the Sunday Auto-X at A&M? I tried to go to the web site but the link has been down for me all day.

I ordered new rear tires today, but if they don't arrive until Monday, then I will continue to thrash my bald S-02s one more time there.

Joseph

 

The event usually starts around 11:00 so plan on being there by 9:30-10:00. We usually leave North Austin 7:30-8:00am. There will probably be 4 heats but you only work the track for one. The cost will be $15 for non-members. After the races are over they have timed "fun runs" for a buck a piece.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by DDD
[B]