SCCA, insights???

About the only club activity in my area is SCCA. While I know my car won't be anywhere near the performance of some of these racers, I'm just wanting to get some track time and have a little fun with my car.

Does anyone know how my car will be classified. I am not sure really, but it would be nice to start preparing for what is going to be expected of me. I'm not going to be willing to thrash on my car like a lot of these guys probably do, but I still think it will be great fun.

Any advice or headsup is appreciated.

Steven, do you mean for autocross (SCCA calls it Solo II)?

I guess in any case, leave your SAW home.

It is too nice and too fragile to be used in any speed trial. If you seriously want some track time at an SCCA event. First go to a few different types: Solo II, also called Autocross, basically cones set out the course in a parking lot like location, Solo I which is a timed speed event, basically an Autocross held on a road course and then Club Level Road Race (competitive event, wheel to wheel). You may have to join SCCA to get very close to anything at a Road Race, but most of the other events will probably get you pretty close to the action without having to join.

After you make a few friends and size up what you like, the next step will become obvious. In any case, either rent a car (for road racing school or Solo I school) or buy a beater that is a favorite for the class you want to run in for Solo II and have at it.

Whatever you run at any one of these events will get so thrashed so fast, you would never want to subject your Water-Boxer to such abuse.

Take it from someone who has been there done that...

You can join SCCA very reasonably. Part of the membership includes a monthly magazine outlining events. It is a good way to see what, how, etc in the go-fast world.

In the back are the classifieds. There are tons of ads for speed related fun, not the least of which are driving schools and race car rentals. There are always a number of cars for sale and I gotta tell ya, when I see what gets spent on a replica, some of those race cars are a bargain!

I know that my above comments defeat your initial comment about driving your car at speed but truth be told there are so many safety requirements for cars to participate in PCA or SCCA events that you might walk away quite defeated without even getting to the starting grid.

I think myself that you could very safely compete in an autocross with any car. You decide how fast and how much you want to abuse your ride! Other than a helmet, there are no extra safety requiements. The cars are inspected to insure that everything works appropriately, all lugnuts-etc. are tight & your tires are good. I find that the events are very organised and safe, it's just fun hanging out with other car people!
I would advise checking it out, drive your car if you like and decide for yourself. Some folks are very serious competitors. I have to warn you though that it can be addictive, there are folks that drive purpose-built-trailer'd cars but most just drive their cars to the event. Most fun I've ever had for $20 with my clothes on!

I went to a local autocross event and I gotta tell ya I wanted to enter the speedster on the spot. I agree, I wouldn't want to thrash my car but it looked like a lot of fun and a good way to find out just what your ride can handle. Our local chapter has a deal at the end that anyone can run the course for $3 a lap. Doesn't matter if you are running a Pinto or a Corvette.

Auto-Xing can be a great time. One thing you WILL learn is how bad YOU handle YOUR car. Car set-up is very important but a talented or trained foot and eye are even more important. A talented drive can drive a sled well but a bad driver drives a set-up car like a sled.

Go and teach yourself a lesson.

Hi Steven: For Scca Solo 2 (autocross) you don

Yes it can be fun. Some events require no safety gear beyond a helmet, but other more sanctioned events can require more safety gear than is reasonable for our cars.

As for the cost, add a set of tires to your 20 bucks. A day of autocrossing should equate to about 10000 miles of regular street driving. Maybe as much as 20000 miles if you drive really hard and get a lot of runs in. On top of that, if you run regularly, you may start to break suspension components, and if you spin your tires a lot around the turns, a transmission may be in your future as well. You will definitely learn a lot about your car so it is worth doing at least once.

In response to Bruce's post. He took it quite seriously, and basically now has a fully modified speedster set up specifically for autocross. This includes a car that is lower and stiffer than any speedster you will see. To do this, he removed the deep sump and added a dry sump system to gain the needed ground clearance with his car being so low. He has done lots of suspension mods, including custom parts, and alignment. He is even a certified alignment tech now. He also added EFI to get more power thoughout the power band. There are probably lots more mods he has done, but that's what comes to mind. It may be an 84, but it's a very trick car!

Our local road course (Summit Point, In W VA) has "Friday At The Track" where you can take your car on the track and drive at speed. Check out tracks close to where you live, they may have a similar program. There are safety rqmts but It would be a great way to learn about oversteer without killing anyone.
ed

Just how well do Speedsters do in autocrosses? My wife might be more interested if she could do some competitive driving, which she has expressed some interest in.

Speedeters are not a competitive car since they are stuck in a class with home built race only cars. However they are fun, look great even going slow and as long as they last through the event it will probably be the most fun you ever have in the car. Regardless of the car most people are not competitive when they start it usually takes a while to figure it all out.

In my experience racing cars as a hobby, the people that seem to enjoy the sport the most and stay in it the longest are the ones that just enjoy the driving, the technical aspects and the social experience and are not focused as much on how they placed.

I am not saying I was one of those types, but I have to say, the people that get the most out of the sport seem to be the one's that did not care as much about the chintzy trophies.

Yeah, where else can you make all that noise, smoke the tires, and go that fast and not get a ticket!
ed

I raced SCCA Solo II for a couple of years and loved it. Been 15-16 years since I last raced, but I still have the friends I met then, the knowledge I gathered and some really really cool pictures!!!

Check with your local sports car club. Many local clubs have autocrosses and establish different rule classes. My local club did (and still to this day continues) to allow some modifications or a group judge agreement on where a car should be placed in classes. They did a point system. Wheels/tires were 1 point, modified exhaust cat-back - 1 point etc., and with enough points you moved from "stock" to "street prepared" to "prepared" and finally to "modified". Modified would be a car that could never be a street car like a Formula Atlantic etc. Worst you could do with a "door slammer" would be "prepared." Then the cars were broken down into groups based on speed. The idea was to keep the classes competitive. And it worked. The distances between the slowest experienced driver and the fastest ones in each class was only a few seconds. It was terrific to watch your driving skill improve each race by seeing how close you were to the fast guys.

Point is, that you should check to see if your local club has a place to put such vehicles as your speedie. In our club, it would have run with the slower cars (compared to say a Dodge Viper or a 930 turbo) in a street prepared class against others of a similar speed.

As far as "thrashing" the car goes, well, don't confuse "thrashing" with driving hard as they are two different things. Smooth drivers do not break properly engineered cars in an autocross. If your car is in poor tune, has a hand-grenade for an engine, you can't shift or there are monkey rigged parts you're gonna find them the $$ way. Otherwise, trust me on this, drive well with a sound car and you will drive the car home every time. You will run over cones and may scuff the finish, spin out occasionally and run the rear tires ragged (adjust pressure PRIOR to your run). And you'll have a BLAST!
angela

I was just wanting to do some driving with curves. Around here, curves are hard to come by and they are usually very gentle ones at that. I don't want any tropy, that includes car shows, as they are just dust collectors to me. I'm looking for a little fun, but have no intention of thrashing my car.

The President of the group runs an MGB, and most of the cars in the pictures are just slightly modified daily drivers, so maybe I would fit in ok??

go for it!!

Absolutely go for it! You will have fun and meet great people.
angela