Wow...that course was small.
I have a friend who auto crosses and thinks the world rises and sets on the auto cross track. He makes fun of me for doing open track events and says it is not 'real racing'. I told him, 'Look...when you want to get out of the K Mart parking lot and try to control your car going through a high speed sweeper at 120 mph, call me!! Try that and THEN tell me what I do is not 'real racing', man'. He has yet to take me up on this challenge. He just sits there talking smack. I appreciate the skill involved in auto cross, I just cannot get a thrill from spending all day in the hot sun for all of 5 minutes of actual drive time, and 8 hours 55 minutes of shagging cones.
Hi Mitch,
I think you told me that story when you were here.
My first auto-x day in an NSX many years ago at Emerald Downs was exactly as you described. The day was over booked, so I quickly learned that it involved a grand total of about 3 minutes of actual driving time on cold tires. Of which, when I finally got my run... it looked like an endless sea of orange cones to me, which can be very challenging to visualize your first time. I then spent a full 8 hours in freezing weather picking up cones before realizing I had trashed $900 in Bridgestones and hadn't even gone fast doing it. LOL.. very exciting.
I later gave another go in my Miata, and had a much better experience. I think the platform has a huge bearing if you will enjoy or hate auto-x. The NSX's long wheel base among other characteristics aren't ideal. While I still don't mind helping out with them for DE car control clinics and such... contrary to popular myth... yes.... while generally the idea is you learn the car control skills and to make your mistakes at 20mph before 120mph... I would concur that this is in fact probably more where many develop their smack talking, not driving skills.
... and while sure, you'll find smack talk at every level of the pyramid of speed... I've learned the higher you go up the chain, the worse it will get.
If you are really looking for the ultimate in arrogance... big name pro racers with motor-sports businesses are probably the worst. Some of those guys are just a$$ holes.
Oh, allow me to elaborate.
I ran into one guy that was very candid about being
too good to talk to lowly club guys that to quote,
"can't possibly understand chassis engineering as you have to grow up around it". or
"without wheel to wheel pro racing experience can't understand...". Like yeah... without being stuck in traffic poor club guys couldn't possible understand anything about running fast lap times. LOL.
Lap times talk- which is why no matter what level of the pyramid one is on.... I think the world of motor-sports would be a whole lot easier to navigate if everyone had their best on a pin or listed next to their avatar or something. :biggrin:
Like... ohhh... 2:54 dry in a super charged NSX on a 1.5 mile course and he wants to talk about Type R under-trays. Oh, ok.
