Autocross

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This page is about the sport of Autocross as practiced in the United States. For similar competitions in other countries, see autocross (disambiguation).

Image:Autocross course with Mazda Miata.jpg Autocross (also known as Solo2 by the Sports Car Club of America, AutoSlalom in Canada, and AutoSolo in the UK [1]) is a popular form of motorsports competition. Rather than racing wheel-to-wheel, as in road racing, drag racing, or oval racing, an autocross is a timed handling competition similar to rally racing, although on smaller facilities. US organizations such as the Sports Car Club of America ("SCCA") and National Auto Sport Association sponsor autocross events throughout the United States, and many areas have independent autocross clubs. Automobile manufacturers and their associated clubs (e.g. the BMW Car Club of America) sometimes hold marque autocross events.

Autocross events are usually held in parking lots or similar large paved areas (such as airfields) where competitors navigate through a temporary course marked by traffic cones. Typically, new courses are created for each event so drivers must learn a new course each time they compete. Prior to driving the course, a competitor will walk the course, taking mental notes, and develop a strategy that will be refined on each subsequent attempt at driving it. Speeds can be slower in absolute terms when compared to other forms of motorsport, sometimes not exceeding highway speeds, but the activity level (measured in driver inputs per second) can actually be higher than even Formula One due to the large number of elements packed into such small courses. Image:AutocrossatKCBE.jpg In ProSolo, an SCCA-sanctioned variant of autocross, two cars run side-by side on mirror-image courses after starting at a "christmas tree" starting system similar to that used in drag racing.

Autocrosses typically have many classes which allow almost any vehicle prepared to almost any prep level to have a realistic expectation of doing well, subject to driver skill and experience level. Autocross places more emphasis on the skill of the driver than on the attributes of the car being driven. Autocrossing is a good way to get started in sports car road racing, as witnessed by the many SCCA national racing champions who started their careers in autocrossing, as well as being a top-level sport in its own right.

1 Comparison to other Motorsports
2 Typical Participants
3 Lack of Publicity
4 Ladies Classes
5 External links

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Comparison to other Motorsports

Autocross is most common the United States, but it is also popular in the United Kingdom, where it is called "autosolo". Similar solo motorsports are found around the world. British Autocross resembles American autocross, but is often held on unpathed surfaces such as grass and dirt. (Please see the autocross (disambiguation) page for more information.) Likewise, SCCA RallyCross resembles autocross but is held on unpaved surfaces. Motorkhana is popular in Australia and New Zealand, and autotesting is common in the UK and Ireland. Both motorkhana and autotesting are slower than American autocross (motorkhana rarely exceeds 40 mph (60 km/h)), require handbraking, and have sections that must be negotiated in reverse. Autocross is faster than Motorkhana or autotesting - occasionally exceeding 60 mph (100 km/h) - and never requires the driver to enter reverse. Handbraking is not necessary on typical autocross courses.

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Typical Participants

The primary attraction to autocross from a participant's perspective is that it is a relatively inexpensive (for a motorsport at least) way to get involved in a road-course-style motorsport. The lower average speeds, lack of physical obstacles, and lack of wheel-to-wheel racing means that the potential for car damage, particularly from collisions, is very low. Accordingly, most autocrossers participate using vehicles based on production, road-going vehicles. It is not at all unusual to see an autocrosser drive to and from the event in his competition car.

There are usually classes for purpose-built race cars (including Formula Fords, Formula Atlantics, and vehicles similar to American oval-track stock cars) but for the most part, most autocross cars are based on production cars.

Classes and rules vary from sanctioning body to sanctioning body, but typically the majority run lightly modified or unmodified vehicles (usually referred to as "Stock" classes) although the rules can accomodate most modified cars as well. At the top of the modified production car heap are the SCCA Street Modified cars, which retain production-based chassis but little else. Street Modified cars often produce in excess of 350 wheel HP, can reach 60 MPH from a standing start in less than 3.5 seconds, and can corner in excess of 1.3 lateral G (with transiant peaks reaching 1.7 G)

The very fastest autocross cars are purpose-built "specials" (A Modified cars in SCCA parlance) that feature huge, multi-element wings, snowmobile engines, and CVTs. While their top speeds are typically limited by gearing and the enormous aero drag from the huge wings, their cornering and transient manouevre capabilities are unparalleled in motorsport. The engineering effort that goes into building a top-flight A Mod car is not unlike that of building an Indy Car.

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Lack of Publicity

Unlike most motorsports (whose top ranks are heavily televised) the upper echelon of autocross - SCCA ProSolo has been badly mismanaged by the sanctioning body, who prefers to run the events as participant-oriented club meetings rather than professional motorsports competitions. Accordingly, autocross receives very little in the way of media coverage, with the SCCA actively discouraging any attempt at promoting the sport to potential spectators or other audiences. This in turn limits the rewards for competitors at the upper levels, and particpant burnout and turnover is very high. This despite the driving and engineering ability of the best autocross teams being equal (dollar for dollar) to any other team in motorsport.

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Ladies Classes

Another unique characteristic of American autocross is the provision for classes specific to women. These are usually identical to the classes run for men (same rules), but limit participants to females. It is not unusual for husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend, or even two unrelated drivers to share the same car, but run it in the Open Class and the Ladies Class. The SCCA ensures that the Ladies Class for any given car class is never run at the same time as the matching Open class, specifically to allow car sharing in this manner.

While men are prohibited from running in the Ladies classes, women are not prohibited from running in Open, and some have done so very sucessfully. Shauna Marinus, running in an A Street Prepared Mazda RX7, became the first woman to win an Open Class National Championship in 1999. To date, no woman has won an Open class ProSolo Championship.

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