Auto Cross School

[William Miller]

I was reading somewhere that this could also be used as a prerequist for DE instead of HPDC.
I e-mailed Bruce Dobbs.

"I don't know. The school is sponsored and managed by the Chesapeake Region (www.pcachs.org) Please contact them for a better answer."

I went to this site and found that it's this weekend in Manassas.

I can't make it but it looks like if anyone wants to do DE's this year here is another option. It's local and it's $50.

I think we should keep our eyes and ears out for stuff done by other clubs.
I didn't know about this and that we are so close.
Hope this helps someone!

Does anyone know about another class or HPDC later in the year?

[Parenn911]

Does anyone know about another class or HPDC later in the year?
Bill, I know the HPDC is on April 17th&18th. It is said that you only need to attend one HPDC before you can begin your first DE. The details are here: http://pcapotomac.org/pca/index.shtml. If you aren't PCA, I would recommend joining.

[VaSteve]

Did anyone from here go to this AX school?

I forgot all about it, but saw a guy with a tricked out red Carrera coupe with a duck tail leaving Manassas. Followed him to the beltway @ Rt 50.

Any of you guys?

[William Miller]

Pari, that's good news but I doubt that if I start my paint project now it will be done by then.
I believe that I read in PCA that the AUTO x school would fufil the prerequisit for DE.
Did anyone go?

[scott]

Yes, I went... I will start by saying that I am not a beginner and not the best AutoXer...which is why I went. The Saturday evening classroom session and the Sunday "autoX". In my opinion the event was very lacking. In my business we call in " failure to meet customer expectations.

In this day of powerpoint, and multimedia, the classroom consisted of one knowledgable yet slightly eccentric instructor and a whiteboard highlighted by four pass around handouts consisting of one farside cartoon, two black and white 4"X6" photos of race cars showing vehicle braking dynamics and a forty year old picture of a drivers ed simulator classroom. The irony of the later was that they had more technology in there learning experience than we did!

I am sure that if you had been a beginner you would have left scratching your head...


Sunday was a total waste of my time. The high school parking lots simply were inadequate to hold the event which consisted of four "stations"


1. Slalom...room to complete a 6 cone eight second pass. top speed 30mph
2. Braking...100+ yard shoot to a rough, sandy braking zone. If you did not have ABS you will see tire smoke and flat spots and utter humiliation. The effort was to teach brake modulation and threshold pressure albeit on the toughest surface to do so!
3. Skid pad...my favorite.l0l 60' circle of cones with a sandy,rough, loose surface. A hose was used to wet the surface to exagerate over/under steer conditions. The purpose was to learn Push and Loose and the balance of throttle and steering by driving the skid pad around the outside of the cones. One look @ a previous particpant and I said pass!...the car was covered in wet sand, gravel, dirt. I mean up to the windows! Agian, if you had never experienced oversteer or understeer have at it...
4. The Oval. A 150"X60'-+ oval of cones marking the center apron of the oval track. The purpose was to set up the turn apex of each of the oval ends. Braking in / accelerating out. Guys this was very tight so actually seeing the correct path was tough. In fact with my car the fastest way around that oval would be to dirt track around keep the inside wheel a foot or so off the cones. In short ... It was all too short!

I left by Noon after running the slalom and the braking stations. what else "failed to meet expectations" ?

Safty... no course "red flag" communications. The slalom lacked a starter. Between the four stations spred out over the four or so acres there was no communicaiton. Radios are reeeeeally cheap! Helmets, Not require!

Handouts...Zero diagrams. nothing to reference after the event!!!!!! Instructor feedback...vague.

Fun?...from my perspective, no. However, there where several students lapping it up. I did not get her name but she put her red 325i convertible throught hell. bouncing off the rev limiter kicking out the rear end and locking up brakes...all with a big smile. I am sure she learned alot about the car and her abilities. Another was the daughter of a guy witha 74 TTI BMW. She was a new driver and was learning from day one the concept of vehicle dynamics. Very cool Dad!

Next time....Organizers need to bill the event for what it is...a beginners class on vehicle dynamics and control and for petes sake...you all are in the top 10% of wealth in the country...spend a little money and effort to bring in video tape, course material, simple car models for demos .... I could go on the rest of the day but I have "cutomer expectations to meet"!


Scott Gregory

[cmartin]

Sorry to hear that. I went to last years event at six flags and had a good time. Saturday was good. Sunday, the auto-x day wasnt as good for me. I realized I didnt like dodging cones, DE is much more fun for me. I did a practice run on the auto-x course and called it a day. I can see how the cone bangers get caught up in it, but to me I just saw a bunch of cones. Oh well, fun un a controlled environment.