While perhaps not exactly budget friendly given that the entire rulebook is: must be street legal on 200tw tires and weigh 95% of factory curb weight.
I have to admit I'm intrigued by the price point ($125 for the weekend) and the concept of not having to work. At a price which is nearly the same as our local SCCA regions non member price.
Grissom and Gateway are only a couple hour drive. I think I'll have to check one of these out.
So, it's gridlife, but with cones?
Just talking about this with a friend. We're both excited and will be trying to at least attend the Mineral Wells event as spectators. I think there's a lot to be said for autocross outside the rules and culture of SCCA. It's a wonderful sport, but to me the cars that participate in Optima Street Car and Gridlife events are way more interesting than those at even a national level autocross. I want to see sponsors, stupid cars, and quite frankly, money and the promotion that it brings.
Interesting.
That's one of the reasons I've never try AutoX vs just doing HPDE. $60 for 6 45-60 second runs, and then I have to spend half the day baking in the parking lot?
I'd rather pay $120 and get 5-6 20 minute HPDE sessions.
Hmm I may register something for the mineral wells event. might as well since its only 15 minutes away
It's basically CAM for everything plus real aero. Color me very interested.
I can see this being a massive success. Also seeing some of the cars that go to the Optima ultimate street car challenge or whatever it's called, I can see this being an arms race of stunning builds. I hope some of the top 'real' autocrossers get involved. Could be awesome.
In reply to Adrian_Thompson :
I agree with it being a success. I feel like (speaking personally here lol) that trying to get a full handle on the different classes & rules of the scca stuff can be a bit overwhelming when you are just getting started. Especially if you already have a fairly modified car, starting out in a super competitive class is a bit discouraging.
Interesting!...
In reply to MazdaFace :
This is going to be stupidly competitive. An arms race the likes of which autocross hasn't seen for a while. The good news is that if you weigh enough, have seatbelts, and legal tires, you're good. The end. You'll still get your ass handed to you when Strano shows up in some crazy Corvette of doom, but sometimes it's fun to play with giants.
Bring a real helmet (SA) and be in 1 of 5 classes that count or a 6th that does not.
7. Helmet use is required - helmets must have a SNELL rating SA2010 or newer. M or DOT rated helmets are not acceptable.
8. Classes: All cars must weigh at least 95% of the factory published curb weight without the driver.
GT – 1990 and newer 4 seat coupes and sedans (late model Mustang, Camaro, BMW M3, Cadillac CTSV, etc.)
GTV – 1989 and older 4 seat coupes and sedans, including C1-C3 Corvettes and AMX
GTU – Unlimited sports car (C4-C7 Corvette, any AWD, any 3 rotor, and all modern rear-engine vehicles)
SCB – Sport compact turbo and supercharged vehicles (4/6 cylinder or 2 rotor, no AWD)
SCN – Sport compact naturally aspirated vehicles (4/6 cylinder or 2 rotor, no AWD)
GTX – Exhibition – no awards or points eligibility
MazdaFace said:In reply to Adrian_Thompson :
I agree with it being a success. I feel like (speaking personally here lol) that trying to get a full handle on the different classes & rules of the scca stuff can be a bit overwhelming when you are just getting started. Especially if you already have a fairly modified car, starting out in a super competitive class is a bit discouraging.
Novices run in their own Novice class and can do so for the entire first season, their specific class doesn't really matter at that point.
Some individual chapters are better at helping new people get involved in the sport.
Working the course helps people stay involved with the sport and often provides a better vantage of how people are driving and helps new people understand the sport a bit better.
The funny thing, as much as I dislike the SCCA or similar classing structures, you know they exist for a reason, right?
Look at the rule changes that have occurred in the so-called cheap endurance racing series.
This will eventually reach similar levels of lawyer racing, its just a fact of life in competition, you see it in stick and ball sports as well, especially once money gets involved.
That doesn't mean that you can't just go, pay your money and have some fun, but eventually to be at the pointy end, the game will have to be played.
In reply to John Welsh :
The rules for the entire series, not just cars, but all the rules, fit on two pages. It's beautiful.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
Yup thats what I like about this. The odds of someone showing up with the only out-classed car are pretty slim. So right off the bat, it seems like it would be a lighter atmosphere. Personally I'm pretty excited about it. Not sure what I'll be driving, but I'll definitely be driving. Heck may be driving the speed6 who knows.
z31maniac said:Interesting.
That's one of the reasons I've never try AutoX vs just doing HPDE. $60 for 6 45-60 second runs, and then I have to spend half the day baking in the parking lot?
I'd rather pay $120 and get 5-6 20 minute HPDE sessions.
Apples and oranges. One is a competition, one is not
That's way too expensive to me. I don't mind shagging cones. But I haven't autocrossed in over five years and I doubt I will again so my voice probably doesn't matter.
A place to run a Q45 with a manual transmission swap, big brake kit and lowing springs!
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
Exactly all of this.
I'm excited to walk amongst giants so to speak. I also like that I can leave my aero on and use that as ballast rather than trying to take it off and make the car look like anything other than a track machine (Optima Ultimate Street Car)
I think GRM could collectively come up with a machine that will decimate this. Afterall. The ideal car isn't say a SM GTR that weighs enough. The ideal car is something like a Ford Festiva (insert featherweight curbweight car of choice here) with some sort of crazy engine swap and massive box flares with 18x13's and 335 rivals.
This also does away with needing something that can last 3k street miles like you'd have for OLOA or something pretty like you'd have for Optima USCA.......so think GRM challenge but more of everything.
mazdeuce - Seth said:In reply to MazdaFace :
This is going to be stupidly competitive. An arms race the likes of which autocross hasn't seen for a while. The good news is that if you weigh enough, have seatbelts, and legal tires, you're good. The end. You'll still get your ass handed to you when Strano shows up in a bone stock Corvette, but sometimes it's fun to play with giants.
FTFY
Everyone is terrified of an arms race that never seems to happen. The "class killer" CAM car still hasn't been built. Brett Madsen's car was probably as close as we've come, but a bunch of dudes from GM in near-stock Camaros won a bunch of CAM-C trophies last year, so...
If and when the mythological beast gets built and destroys the class, deal with it then. Until that actually happens, though, I think it's cool that there's more and more places where you can just build a car and run and not have to worry about arbitrary rules. Aftermarket parts manufacturers love it, too, and they love it with sponsorship dollars that benefit the entire sport.
In reply to JG Pasterjak :
You know what though, the near stock cars aren't keeping the mind bendingly awesome ones from being built and raced. This makes the world better in every way.
John Welsh said:Bring a real helmet (SA) and be in 1 of 5 classes that count or a 6th that does not.
7. Helmet use is required - helmets must have a SNELL rating SA2010 or newer. M or DOT rated helmets are not acceptable.
8. Classes: All cars must weigh at least 95% of the factory published curb weight without the driver.
GT – 1990 and newer 4 seat coupes and sedans (late model Mustang, Camaro, BMW M3, Cadillac CTSV, etc.)
GTV – 1989 and older 4 seat coupes and sedans, including C1-C3 Corvettes and AMX
GTU – Unlimited sports car (C4-C7 Corvette, any AWD, any 3 rotor, and all modern rear-engine vehicles)
SCB – Sport compact turbo and supercharged vehicles (4/6 cylinder or 2 rotor, no AWD)
SCN – Sport compact naturally aspirated vehicles (4/6 cylinder or 2 rotor, no AWD)
GTX – Exhibition – no awards or points eligibility
Where will Darth Nader fit???? GTV or GTU?
ProDarwin said:z31maniac said:Interesting.
That's one of the reasons I've never try AutoX vs just doing HPDE. $60 for 6 45-60 second runs, and then I have to spend half the day baking in the parking lot?
I'd rather pay $120 and get 5-6 20 minute HPDE sessions.
Apples and oranges. One is a competition, one is not
And? If I cared about "competition" I wouldn't do HPDE and just go buy a Spec Miata and call it a day.
For me it's about $$$ to run time ratio, as I'm sure it is for many others.
So if you bring a 4 seater Japanese car from the 80’s with a v8 swap, where does that place you?
JG Pasterjak said:It's basically CAM for everything plus real aero. Color me very interested.
Literally five minutes before I stumbled onto this thread I was googling "scca cam for import cars". I still have the tab open.
I want to build what I want to build, and I want to autocross it. Hope this sort of thing grows and spreads westward...
stock speed 6 would be GTU... so it'll get decimated but dang will it ever be fun. Hopefully I'll have something else by then for this kind of stuff. My dad will be running his '65 Corvair
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