ok, this is not new, and I didn't make it up....but let's see what everyone's score is:



You know you're a racer when:

- The first thing that come to your mind when you hear "wings" is something to PREVENT flight.

- You are happiest when your street car's tires are worn to where the depth wear bars are showing.

- When something falls off of your car, you wonder how much weight you just saved.

- When you hear 'overcooked it', instead of food you think 'lost time in a corner'.

- You sometimes hear little noises from your passengers when you get on the throttle right after turning in.

- You thoroughly enjoy pulling away from the tailgater behind you on highway off-ramps.

- You walk proper lines through the grocery store or office.

- You measure all family acquisitions in terms of the number of race tires that could have been purchased.

- You have car parts in your cubicle at work.

- You have a separate part of your drawer for 'garage clothes'.

- You astound the clerk at Sears by bringing in a snapped breaker bar every other month or so.

- You complain when cars in front of you on highway off-ramps don't stay on the line, causing your exit speed to drop.

- You always late apex the ramp and try to pass a few cars coming out.

- Everywhere you go, you try to find the fastest line through the turn.

- You can't stand understeer.

- You hate long distance driving, but you will gladly drive 400 miles to a race.

- You hate driving the 7 miles to work but you will gladly drive 400 miles to a race.

- You think that traction control and ABS are for those who can't drive.

- You save broken car parts as "mementos".

- Highway forays often include just brushing the curbs as you apex the on-ramps perfectly....

- You enjoy driving through snowy, empty parking lots and using the emergency brake to kick the back end out.

- You consider the redline a "conservative suggestion" and the rev limiter "a fun limiter"

- You have racing shops programmed on your cell phone.


- You know the "racing line" of every turn in your daily commute, including your alternate routes, and practice hitting them every day.

- You've slalomed the cones in a construction zone

You keep a traffic cone in your living room as a reminder that autox season is just around the corner. ("But honey, orange goes GREAT with oak furniture!")

-You keep your hair cut shorter in the summer to avoid "helmet head."

-You have autox shoes (different from walking shoes or running shoes)

-You own a bottle of white shoe polish, but you don't have any white shoes.

-You were excited to get a tire pressure gauge as a gift

-You go to the Yankee Candle Company in the mall and ask the clerk, "Do you have anything scented like burnt Hoosiers?"

-When standing on the sidewalk and a car goes by, you point out to your friend that the car was supercharged and you knew that because the high pitched whine coming from the engine compartment followed the engine speed directly. (And your friend rolls her eyes.)

-When in traffic, you know that a Subaru is two cars ahead of you because you recognize the distinctive exhaust note.

-You go to the candy machine to purchase the item in slot "C4" and your first thought is "Corvette."

-You wash your car meticulously, but you leave the cone marks as a badge of honor

-You see a car with aftermarket parts on it and your first thought is "STX"

-You spend more time reading the rule book than you do preparing your income tax return

-You watch the 24 hours of Daytona and point out to all your friends drivers in the field that have national autox titles.

-You know how much it will cost you in gas to drive to Topeka

-Your friend talks about what class they are in and you are disappointed when they are referring to graduate school

-You cannot wake up before 7am during the week, but you have no problem waking up at 4:30 on a Saturday morning

-You browse Google Maps looking for large parking lots in your area

Has mounted rain tires in addition to snow tires

You take a helmet to the dealership for a test drive.


How many apply to you?

I score myself a "23"

 

all of the above

 

The really sad thing is....I know the racing line of the entire florida turnpike....all 310 miles of it

 

almost all of them...

 

I read the list and decided that maybe I am an auto-xer. Especially once I got the the cones in the construction site. Been there, done that!

 

I've been tempted several times to do the construction cones, but with my luck I'll go around 2 cones and that will be right where they started to rip up the pavement or something

 

evasive action. That's what your steering wheel and brake pedal is for!

 

I got a 20.

I TOTALLY have the "dead" box in my garage with parts that I wont toss.

 

22-24

I own people on exit ramps, I remember we were late driving to an engagement with my wife's friends. I went up this on ramp and in the back I hear the wife said to her husband "I could never go this fast on this ramp" his response was "I can't either". We passed one of the other couples on a turn and the husband driving said to me later "I was just telling my wife if we don't see John before the exit ramp don't be surprised when he passes us going twice as fast as we are ON the ramp...then you blew by us on that turn, going twice as fast as we were, she still jumped."
We made the event, on time FTW, but the other couple ended up being a little late, which meant they had to wait until a break and they let people in.

 

Those are great! 15 total here. The rulebook vs taxes was no contest. And the helmet thing happened at the Chicago Autoshow in my tux when the 350Z first came out. I would never put orange cones in the living room; yard maybe...

 

http://lugnutmotorsports.larrychende...om/photo1.html

http://www.larrychendesign.com/autox/11_25_05/

 

I seriously doubt you're that low, and I bet none of the rest of us have orange cones anywhere in our houses.

And who is really "browsing" google maps looking for parking lots? That one really doesn't matter if they won't let you run in them (i.e. Eagles/Phillies/Flyers parking lot)

 

Good pics man, that SUCKS with the E36!!

 

I hope I never see that bad of a crash at auto-x in person, he really bit that pole HARD, how fast was he going?

 

not a great introduction...it was that guys 1st time autoX'ing...he had a seasoned guy/friend of his in the passenger seat showing him the course....he lost it on a high speed slalom...I looked at the car later...it was fer sher totalled...he was running horrible front tires and only decent rear ones...

myself and my friends are still baffled at how he could have hit that pole as it was a long distance away from the slalom! he was just going way to fast for his car and his driving abilities!

 

26.

Would have been higher except

(1) No cell phone

(2) Don't need shoe polish

On the other hand, at least one orange cone lives in the garage attic

 

holy crap!!

We've had one or two close calls at events - usually 240SXs and BMWs over-rotating around and overcorrecting too close to lightposts, but I've never seen one get closer than a couple feet.

 

+25

Damn, +25, I hit a lot of cones didn't I?

I google for big spaces, and I go there to practice when there's nobody else around.

Jae

 

I only got a 38

you forgot to mention:

1pt: you have a designated drawer for garage clothes
2pts: You have an entire separate dresser for garage clothes.
3pts: you have an extra washing machine specifically for greasy clothes.

- Drift your shopping cart through the grocery store

- don't have room in the garage to park your car, because it's full of tires

- you've trained your wife/GF/SO to know the difference between a VG30E, VG30DE, VG30DETT, VE30DE, VQ30DE, VQ30DE-K, VQ35DE.....
or Impreza/WRX/STi... or Lancer/EVO... or C4/C5/C6/Z06/ZR1...

- said person can also quote the proper size and type of track tires off you car by memory when you need them to order more

- the local tire shop recognizes your voice over the phone

- you don't need to program race shop phone #s in your cell... you know them by memory.

1pt: You plan family vacations and road trips to fall between local track events
2pts: You plan same trips to magically coincide with major track events near your destination.
3pts: You plan the entire vacation around a major track event you're competing in.


do we need to go on?

 

ok +1,
if I had an extra dresser maybe
are you serious?
My wife hates that
maybe soon
My wife is not a willing participant if she knows any of this, she won't admit it if she does anyway
Again, a concious refusal
how long have you been married?

 

There are "garage clothes?"

I've been yelled at by the wife for coming in the door from work and then working on the car while still in my suit pants.

For me, it's more like a designated drawer for "clothes that are ABSOLUTELY NOT ALLOWED TO BE WORN WHEN WORKING ON THE CAR"

 

I never said I was the +3, but I know people that do (my old boss had twso washers and dryers in the back of the shop.. one for rags, the other for clothes)... I'm a +2..

heh mine just rolls her eyes... I tell her to be glad I'm not doing it in the 240. (she punched me the one time I got it sideways at 15mph in the rain.. pansy)

I haven't parked mine in the garage for 5 years.

willing or unwilling, doesn't matter. she gets to hear it anyway- mainly from friends and customers hanging around the house when she's here

I got tires for my birthday last year.

3.5 yrs. together for.. uhhhh.. 7 I think.. she knew she was #2 ever since day one and accepts her position, so it's not a problem.

 

Heh.. well, my one suit only comes out for job interviews and funerals. the new engineering job I keep a change of clothes in the car cause I never know when I'm going to have to tear apart some equipment or prep a shipment to go out.. it's jeans and a polo shirt every day anyway, and coveralls/garage clothes when it's time to ship stuff out.

 

11 here, and I've only driven one autoX besides those promotional Mazda event things....

 

What do I gotta do to get you to come out to either Warminster, Pa or Aberdeen Md, both are far better, faster and more fun courses than the one you drove.

 

The last time I bought a tshirt was 15 years ago... All my tshirts I got for free from various companies and giveaways... Anyways, I got a big stack of 'em w/grease stains that just don't wash out. Those turn into shop rags real quick. but I still got a crapload of "clean" tshirts to mess up. Haha. I should post a pic of my tshirt stacks.

Jae

 

One thing, and one thing only:

Make it so that I'm not too strapped to afford tires....

 

Run what you brung! Tires wear out anyway, they don't wear out particularly that much quicker if you auto-x a few times.

 

I'll have to come out this spring. I've always wanted to try it and since I live in Fredneck and they have meets here in town, I'll definitly have to try it out. I'd rather go to aberdeen, but that's two hours from here!

 

Bauer,
if you do actually do one near where you live, try to make a trip early in the season up to aberdeen. That way if you try the local one near you and don't like it, it might just be the course. If after you try aberdeen you still don't like it, well, then you don't like it. Either way, try to do at least aberdeen early in the season, because at least you'll have an idea what it should be like. There are also courses at (I think national) SCCA events at Fed Ex field, but I'm not sure if that's any closer.
Of course, you may not want to do the local stuff after you try aberdeen.

 

They're all fun - the CDC courses are not as hard on the car and tires since they're shorter/slower courses, but they're still fun. I myself like them because there are no classes and I don't get screwed into running SM against the big boys like I do in SCCA. yeah, the Ripken lot is MUCH bigger and better, but is quite a hike. I do both, and enjoy both.

One nice thing about the CDC events is that you get 6-7 runs per day vs. 3-4 at SCCA events....a bit of extra time to work on your driving technique and car setup.

CDC events are also good because the courses run across each other and are hard to read/remember - if you can follow CDC courses, you can EASILY follow SCCA courses.

 

I guess at this point after doing two track days, the smaller courses I run during the year (Boeing) don't excite me as much because 1) The max isn't a civic or mini, so in any larger size car it doesn't play to any strengths a larger car may have, so I go, but I don't like it anywhere near as much.
2) There are a few places available to me that are higher speed, like Ripken, so if I have to pick a date to go to get approval (aka wife) I'm not picking a small course.
It's an hour for me, but I still think it's worth it, even though I don't ever get out of second. Irish I know it's even farther, but Warminster supposedly you have to make the shift to 3rd, I'll go to one and tell you if this is true or not.

I guess on the smaller courses I lose interest, so extra runs wouldn't be a selling point to me. The test and tune days that I go to I normally only take maybe 5 or 6 runs tops, because I have to buy them in blocks of 3. Sometimes at Ripken there have been 5 run days, also if you're the last heat of the day sometimes they also do "fun runs", but both are very dependent on the amount of people running and the smoothness of the event itself (being somewhat on schedule).

Doesn't that make it more difficult to find your lines?

 

yes...hence why I say that if you can figure out your lines on those courses, than non-crossover courses are EASY to read.

 

Good pics, sucks about the BMW. I've actually driven that silver Evo, the owner just moved out there from VA. Sweet car. I'm betting he's glad he did. You guys are probably autocrossing now and I just shoveled 13" of snow out of my driveway.

 

There's an auto-x at Ripken the 18th of Feb, most are hoping the snow hangs around and another "sno"-cross happens.

The snow was powder, I drove right through it. Having no power most of yesterday kind of sucked though.

 

LOL this is so true they all apply to me but these are my favorites I cried laughing at it while reading.

Quote:

You thoroughly enjoy pulling away from the tailgater behind you on highway off-ramps.

- When you hear 'overcooked it', instead of food you think 'lost time in a corner'.

You hate long distance driving, but you will gladly drive 400 miles to a race.

Highway forays often include just brushing the curbs as you apex the on-ramps perfectly.

I do this in all cars I happen to drive. This was awsome when I was driving my buddys GT2.
I was coming onto the off ramp and their's a car who thinks they can out turn me I'm approaching the ramp at about 60ish drop it into 2nd and continue to hit my marks I come out @ 98mph look in the rear view and see no one. Later I slow down and it was a C5 vette he looked at me and gave me the thumbs up lol..
I know it's dangerous but I do take all precautions making sure of the road conditions are safe.

Another crazy story I took the Greyhound from Miami to Indianapolis took
2days to get to the Formula 1 Race Worth it cause I got Mario Andretti's Autgraph.

 

You know, the other day while I was walking to my car from my work, I noticed 2 cones out of the corner of my eye, and immediately thought, oh yeah I could take that turn at 40 and get between those cones.
I gotz problems...

 

Then they aren't very bad ones, 97. Think lane change maneuver into a parking lot with an 8' wide "gate" between a sawhorse and a concrete-curbed island . . . at 35-ish (entirely do-able, BTW).

 

I should have taken a quick picture of it, it was a decreasing radius turn.

 

- Drift your shopping cart through the grocery store...one handed end or ilse to next isle champ. i bet the guy that cleans the floors hate me.

trying all u have to drive is one of these things http://www.tigertruck.com/gas/cargovan/index.html
the one i drive is auto(kinda) and tops out at 16mph, but i can still lay down some rubber, i gotta set up some cones and see what it can do. i know theres a 5spd one with no governer around my work but i havent got to drive it yet. i wonder how fast 58hp can burn thru a clutch?