For those of you not familiar with it it is a giant "parking lot" with a course lined out made of cones and you attempt to drive the course as fast as you possibly can without taking out cones. It is simply the most fun I have ever had behind the wheel and you guys know how much I love drag racing. So for those of you that are into corner carving this is the event for you, and for those who are interested in testing the limits of their car or their driving skills this is the place to go. There plenty of people to teach you how to drive a course correctly and even ride with other drivers.

It will be held in Marina Ca. near Monterey and there will be plenty of Norcal members going also so getting hooked up with a caravan should be easy. You can find info at the Norcal-LS1 site in the Road Racing and Racing GTG sections.

http://forum.norcal-ls1.net/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=20

If you want any other info feel free to email me or post on our board.

Now lets see who has some skills in here.
 

[ February 26, 2002: Message edited by: 2000BlackGT ]

Lots of BMWs, imports (not riced), Vettes, Mustangs, Jettas, etc. Just about any car that seems like it can handle goes out there and races.

HP is not as big of a deal either. A good driver and a decent car will take a high HP anyday.

Besides, I didnt hear of many F-bodies goign to the 98Cobra event on Sunday but I went anyway and still had a blast.
 

F8lPony, I might have to come out and watch the autocross. I think I'm a decent driver, but I wouldn't want to embarress myself out there, especially behind the wheel of my big ol 3.4L v6 camaro. I'll hit you up later though.
 

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Originally posted by F8LPONY:
Eric, this guy is selling Lindseys old 99 Z28 for about that. It is an awesome car with good mods, headers, lid MAF etc. 18" Boyds, 1000watt PPI stereo system. If you are really serious let me know. You need to go to the autox too!

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HUH??? why is that dood sellin it already?
 

Torquepimp, I think I saw you at the cruise, but I wasn't sure, so I didn't get to talk to you at all. I saw firechicken's car also, its too damn hard to put faces to posting names.
 

F8LPONY: Do they ever do these events out at the sac airport ( the old airforce base) I went out there with my kart and some porsche club was out there. I hope its not like, what I seen there cuz man it was a bunch of fast cars not doing more then 25 mph. It was just like vooooooom brake voom it was a very sad site
 

What you explain is very similar to what you see at an autox. Although it may look sad it is totally a blast. Depending on the size of the course you usually wont leave 2nd gear but turning though the wide turns sliding sidways amidst a bunch of tire smoke is fun to me.

Don't confuse this with road racing where you reach high speeds. This is more technical driving and is actually very good for learning manuvering skills. Its one thing to watch it, its another to drive it. Kinda like driving fast go carts, looks stupid but it's hella fun.

Plus when you go out of the cones, you MUST reenter the course where you went out or you get a time penelty. So when people go out of bounds they get all crazy spinning the tires to get back in bounds as fast as possible.
 

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Originally posted by 95Camaro:
I need to get a faster car I'm trying to figure out what I should get. I figure I'll be spending the the range of low 20's, if anybody can help me out, that'd be great also. Its tough to find good deals on cars.

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[ February 27, 2002: Message edited by: 2000BlackGT ]

Edit: My point is arent you going out there to test the limits of your car? IMO the only way to become a better driver is hands on and taking it to the limit and even sometimes braking the limit. how are you ever gonna learn how to get out of hair ball situations if you have never been in one. The line between screwing up and railing hard is thin and knowing that feeling that you get when spinning out and still keep control of the car is fun but not one to learnm on the street. I under stand this is not a road race kinda thing but I would hope that i could go faster then that. Well who knows maybe I'll learn some new tricks at this event!!!

[ February 27, 2002: Message edited by: ihatethesesns ]

And you will learn quite a bit. It sounds to me like you were watching a really tight course designed with imports in mind. The courses set up for rear wheel drive high HP cars tend to be wider and allow for a little power sliding on all 4 wheels and higher speeds. You'll have to see what I mean. I have 1 pic of my last event but I am kind of far away, I will try and post it up.
 

Have you done any road racing? I need to find out when laguna or sears is going to have an open track day.
 

Ok I was reading this thing title you know your a road racer when and this one kills me every time.
-You complain when cars in front of you on highway off-ramps don't stay on the line, causing your exit speed to drop.

[ February 27, 2002: Message edited by: ihatethesesns ]

~Brian
 

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Originally posted by aslowdodge:
...Anyone else around here want to head down and run em?

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Ill give it a try the only way ill ever even stand a chance with a viper would be in a auto X.
 

Its a deep drive for Sacto people but its worth the drive and its a no brainer for Bay area folks.

Its awesome, you can get completely sideways, smoke the tires, spin out and be totally legal and safe.
 

I'm fairly certain speeds will be higher than 25mph on more than one occasion as the course is being designed by a Muscle car driver . There may be a couple corners that are less than 25, but those are a good chance to practice steering with the right foot .

Next, there is nothing to hit on course except cones(usually don't hurt anything), course workers (they usually get out of the way before you get to them, and the timing lights (please don't hit them). Plus there is only one car run at a time ( there is usualy a 20 second gap between cars or there wouldn't be enough time), so risk to the car is minimal.

Unlike drag racing, a V6 Camaro or Mustang with a good driver can beat a V8 car (my Mom ran pretty equal to an IROC Z at the last event, she was in her '94 Saturn SL2).

ihatethesesns, Shifter Karts will be allowed at this event, and if you are pretty good in it, and you adapt fairly quickly to the conditions, you'd have a pretty good shot at top Time of Day. But for this event you may wanna bring the 'Stang, just to try it (or bring both)

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too bad i didnt see one thing mentioning other cars besides z28, ss, trans am, and corvette, or else i probably would have been interested

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I was reading the solo hand book from one of the links on nor-cal, Do you know why they mark your tires with chalk?

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I haven't read that whole site yet, I just wanted to give people an idea what to expect. No one will mark your tires with anything at this event. SOme people do put shoe polish or something on their tires to help monitor air Pressure.

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I'll try it out, but I dont see why you would spend all kinds of money on suspension just to go slow, I mean there were some nice cars there that I know can rail through turns faster then 25 mph.

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You don't need to spend any money on your suspension to go fast, A good set of tires will help though. Just ask anyone that went for a ride with me last year. You can go faster with the right mods, but they won't help as much as 1. learning to drive, 2. a really good set of tires.
And you don't have to be doing 100+ to test the limits of your car .

The trip down there isn't too bad, it takes my just over an hour in the morning from Fremont, no more than an hour and a half if I stop for gas and that's driving close to the speed limit.

ihatethesesns, if you can find me (shouldn't be too hard), I can put you on my potential list of passangers . (I'll be in the 5th run group)

Let me know if you have any more questions (and sorry about the long post).
 

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Originally posted by F8LPONY:
Brian, its near Monterey. Called Marina. I was goign to talk to Jeremy Pau and see if there is any street racing on Sat night for those staying overniht too.

Its a deep drive for Sacto people but its worth the drive and its a no brainer for Bay area folks.

Its awesome, you can get completely sideways, smoke the tires, spin out and be totally legal and safe.

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Fortunately, I actually live in Monterey, Marina is a 5 minute drive from here.. However, much to my dismay, there is ZERO for street racing out here. Believe me, I have only found 3 people to race before, and 2 of them were friends of mine. We could probably hook up with some of the local ricer clubs though! heheh..

~Brian
 

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Originally posted by ihatethesesns:
what i was saying in the past post was just what i seen that one day and i wasn't trying to say anything about any other events. Trust me what they were doing was very sad. Me, my dad, and uncle were all looking at these porsches, no joke they never got up past 25 mph they seemed like a bunch of up tight rich guys. they were all at least in there forties.I not was driving on a track is like you dont have to go fast but thats what i would like to set my car up for. I love speeding around a track. I think this is gonna be a good learning tool for me cuz i havent been in the kart for days that and the one i had b4 was not a shifter we just picked that one up. I will look for you and go for a ride along. well see you there.

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Run your car. It's cheap enough to do. I think you might enjoy it. It is quite different from race tracks though. Turns are taken differently and while you don't get the sensations of high speeds, getting tossed around at the maximum lateral g's your car can do is fun. I've seen old ford rancheros driven to the max on courses. It's amazing how much they roll!
The nice thing about auto x is that there's really nothing to hit if you make a mistake. Do that on the race track and it could be $$$. I remember I was going to try a track event and went to Laguna seca to check it out. It was time trials, not wheel to wheel. Within 5 minutes of getting to the track the announcer asked for 5 volunteers to roll a car off of it's back and put it right side up. After I thought about how I couldn't afford to replace my car if I totaled it I never went back. I hear thunderhill is pretty safe so i might try that though.
 

I always try to convince anyone that wants to go to a road racing track for a drivers school or lap day that they should start off with an autoX (or several autoX's) until they are comfortable with their car at (and past) the limit. There are some skills that it's easy to tell people but their instincts will be something else and could get them into major trouble on a road course, but be harmless at an autoX. Things like braking or even lifting off the gas in a corner.
instinctI'm going a little fast in this corner, I better lift or I mite touch the rumble strip on exit. consequincesIf you're going that fast in the corner and you lift off the gas all the weight tranfers to the front wheels thus off the rear wheels and the rear end comes around. If your lucky you might catch it, but don't count on it.
I also do reccomend you start at Thunderhill as there are a lot fewer things to hit. It is still possible to total your car (hit a wall, a hill, roll over...). One of the Thunderhill run schools is the best place to start as they provide plenty of instructors and lots of track time for around $200. With a little experiance you could then step up to a club like www.ncracing.org where you'll get more track time, less traffic and little to no instruction (you can usually find someone that'll ride with you once or twice if needed). Last time at Thunderhill I completly lost my brakes (blew out a piston in my RT Front caliper after going metal to metal, I actually welded the piston to the backing plate to the rotor ). I was in one of the faster straits (about 90) going into one of the slowest corners (maybe 35-40), I went straight, but everything ended up OK .

ihatethesesns, If you've never driven a shifter before there probably won't be enough time to get comfortable with it. You might do OK, but you'll be much more comfortable driving the car. Or bring both and compair your time between the 2. Your car looks like it'll be in OSP so you'l run 4 work 2. You could run the Kart in 1,3,5, or 6. If you do bring the Kart, can I drive it, it's been like 4 or 5 months since I've driven a shifter Kart . Lots of fun.

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Trust me what they were doing was very sad. Me, my dad, and uncle were all looking at these porsches, no joke they never got up past 25 mph they seemed like a bunch of up tight rich guys. they were all at least in there forties.

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You know the differance between a Porsche and a Porkeypine?. The Porkeypine has the pricks on the outside. (NO OFFENCE INTEDED TO ANY PORSCHE OWNERS OR PORKEYPINES THAT MAY BE READING THIS )
 

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Originally posted by Todd Z28:
You know the differance between a Porsche and a Porkeypine?. The Porkeypine has the pricks on the outside. (NO OFFENCE INTEDED TO ANY PORSCHE OWNERS OR PORKEYPINES THAT MAY BE READING THIS )

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that joke works better with benz's, cuz its a little more true