Quote:
Originally Posted by Scapegoat
what people fail to mention about auto cross...
it's boring... it's ****ing boring. you spend the entire day there... that sounds like fun? well, it's not! Unless by fun you mean spending 4-6 hours out in the sun watching other people race for a few minutes at a time while maybe chasing after a cone or 10. All that for maybe 20 minutes of track time.
Maybe if you were going to take it seriously and want to see your name nationally in some autox publication, and you're going to chase after autocross events, it might be worth it then... it might even be fun (or downright tedious). And has Chris mentioned, it's ****ing expensive per minute of track time. in fact, it'd be expensive if it was free. I don't know about you, but i don't want to waste an entire day standing around in the heat doing diddly squat.
don't get me wrong... i've autocrossed both of my cars... to get a feel for them right after i purchased them. am i frank hart? no, i just have a better understanding of my car and how horribly it nose dives into turns.
So you might not be able to hit up an HPDE every weekend, or maybe you can if you've got the monies... but your day will be better spent (2-4 hours driving time!), you'll learn more (if you've got an instructor), and i guarantee you'll have a ton of fun. Oh, and you don't have to worry about anyone else's ****.
racing is expensive, more so if you're serious about it.
do an auto cross and drive your car to the limit of your ability so you know where you stand in a relatively safe venue (just don't kill anyone else) and then hit the tracks.
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I will assure you that since you have not done many autox events you most likely have not driven your car to the limits.
Autox is nice because it's cheap, and you get to quickly learn your car and if you're good, you can drive 10/10 in your effort and driving and have a ton of fun. I agree you do wait a long time especially since you have to work at events as well.
One of the best things I did in autox is to 1- ride passenger with someone GOOD in autox and 2- have an instructor drive your car. I thought autox was ok at first, but after a ride along i found out what I COULD do and it made me more interested.
Track (which I do as well) is great- tons of seat time, but alot of wear and tear and possible danger (i.e. car crashes). it is tons of fun as well. I know people who done both, some love track and hate autox , some love autox and hate track.
FWIW - do you guys know how expensive hitting a wall would cost for you?
example - car crash into a wall and you spill oil fluids.
costs- the car, the cleanup and OVERTIME for the employees there, the repair or replacement of the wall
keep in mind this is real costs you will have to pay for in a track event, so when you even insure for track insurance, don't forget in an event of a crash, you pay for the damages to the track and costs to repair!