The season may be over for many parts of the country, but our Civic is still seeing plenty of action. We ran with the Martin Sports Car Club this past Sunday, where the car fits into their G Prepared class. This 40-year-old autocross club’s rules are similar yet still different from those used by the SCCA.
G Prepared is close to the SCCA’s F Street Prepared class, allowing open exhaust systems, some intake modifications and sticky R-compound tires. Larger wheels can be used, although the rules limit how much they can be upsized from the stock pieces. Still, we think we finished second in class, although we’re waiting for the official results to be posted.
The current suspension setup was extremely easy to drive, although the slick pavement required an easy right foot; too much throttle on corner exit would lead to wheelspin. The course featured plenty of sweepers, and while not our Civic’s strong suit, the other cars in the class—Ford SVT Focus and a V6-powered Camaro—faired no better.
The course also featured a very tight four-cone slalom that pushed our power steering assembly to the limit. We lost assist during one run, but it wasn’t so bad. The Martin Sports Car Club holds monthly autocross events in the Central Florida area, and 50-second courses are not unusual with them.
Much like the SCCA, their events attract a wide variety of cars, from hybrid Hondas and modified Saturns to vintage MGs and ground-pounding Corvettes. Complete details can be found online at http://www.martinsportscarclub.com.
We also (sorta) used the Civic for something special: getting new people involved. A friend of ours has been asking about autocross for some time, and this weekend he made his big debut, as “Super Dave” Erecitano ran his 1999 Civic Si for the first time. Dave is a longtime BMX racer, so he knows the proper line through a corner—although he usually has traffic to contend with. We think he’s hooked, and after the timed runs, we took him for a lap in our Civic.Unfortunately, the fun runs ended when a Corvette punted the timing lights.
We didn’t run the car last week, although we did take a second-place finish on November 24 at a local Central Florida Region SCCA event.
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