The SCCA Solo Nationals is autocross’s biggest show, attracting the best competitors from all over the country. John Li drove a rotary-powered MG Midget this year and admits that he may not have made it to autocross legend status just yet. Li hit a lot of cones. One cone even hit him back.
In case you ever doubted the greatness of these United States of America, all you need to do is look at one of America’s rowdiest creations holding its own on an autocross course. I’m talking, of course, about the noble Dodge Ram dually pickup truck.
Driving season is warming across the United States, and that means autocross. Should you count yourself out of these parking lot activities if your car is soft, old, or American? Hell no.
Two words: autocross everything.
Motor Trend’s YouTube show “Roadkill” has been a consistently excellent source of automotive idiocy for years. In 49 episodes they’ve lived many our jalopy dreams by putting monster engines in weird cars and using a Sawzall with extreme prejudice. Now we get to see their terrible fleet together in a ten-car showdown!
About a week ago, I got an unexpected early morning message from a man I’d spoken to, but never met in person.
Every year, the nation’s best autocrossers descend upon the Sports Car Club of America Solo National Championships. Racers bring everything from stock-class grocery getters to supercars to highly modified cars built for one purpose: to dodge cones very fast. This supercut of Solo Nats action is downright amazing.
Sometimes, the vehicles off-course are almost as cool as those on-course. This is Todd Roberts’ pit bike from this year’s SCCA Solo Nationals, which features an animated woodcut dolphin which you can majestically ride upon as it bobs up and down.
When was the last time you called your mom? Recently? You should. When was the last time you took her autocrossing? You really should. This guy did in his girlfriend’s borrowed GTI, and he got some pretty momtastic results.
An old Ford F100 is a great truck for hauling hay, cruising main street, or lowering property values in your local subdevelopment. But how is it at autocross?
The first thing you notice when you get on site is the boneyard. To get to the paddock area, you drive around the perimeter of the course, cordoned off from the rest of the world by an army of skinny orange pylons and lengths upon lengths of yellow safety tape, and through the aircraft graveyard itself. Once past the…
Here’s more evidence that every car can and should be autocrossed.
The Ford Fiesta, a popular choice among budget-minded enthusiasts looking for a fun ride that provides both practicality and fuel economy, has been banned from participating in the SCCA's autocross program within the Street Category.
Even if you primarily do other forms of racing, autocross can be a great place to shake down a car. You get to toss the car around at its limit like a total hooligan in the company of other car geeks. If things go wrong, you're in good, knowledgeable company. Oh yes, things went wrong when I autocrossed my 944.
Between amateur endurance racing and the Sports Car Club Of America's "Street" autocross classes, there's quite a few series now mandating around 200-treadwear rubber. So, of course, different tire manufacturers are "readjusting" ratings of existing tires to cash in on the action.
There's something about the beautiful sound of a Mark 1 Ford Escort Estate wailing through sweet screeching slides and graceful doughnuts around a parking lot. This isn't your typical afternoon of cone-dodging, however. It's a crazy obstacle course the Brits call an autotest.
The same hands-free phone technology that saves our butts on the road can be a real pain if you decide to race or track your street car. How do you handle a call if you forgot to leave your phone far away in the paddock? Keep driving, of course.
You've probably never heard of the Autocross o Castro, a small dirt buggy race held over the weekend in northwestern Spain. There is no good reason to keep up with such a low-level event. Here's how things escalated um, whoa, escalated really quickly.
Everybody knows autocrossing a pickup truck is the most fun you can have with lateral g-forces three feet off the ground. Oh, you didn't know that? Better take a ride in this classic F-100 pickup and see what it's all about then.
This is the first video I'm seeing of a 2015 Ford Mustang GT doing anything other than a burnout or a well-controlled track run. Turns out the V8 Stang likes to get loose.
