Autocross 80's Style

I uploaded video I shot for a TV show in 1985 of the Vallejo Grand Prix. This was an autocross on steroids through the downtown streets. It happened for four years with suprisingly no major incidents. It reminded me of european rallies with the spectators too close for their own good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk_HI_FKj84&feature=channel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA4MceqWiuo&feature=channel

nuthuggers FTW

Street events were awesome. My fondest memories of CMC were the street events in Colorado and Arkansas.

By the way, that's awesome footage. Even more spectacular considering what it must have been shot on 20 years ago.

jg

That reminds me of the Rabbitfest Solo II Gran Prix in Copperas Cove, Texas, also in the 80's.

Wow man! Thanks for posting that. Lots of quick left-right-left-right stuff! Amazing!

What is the Green Cobra looking car at around 5:00:01?

Man, epic first post.

Does anyone else have a tire pressure gauge like the one in the beginning of the first video? lol My dad has that exact one.

slefain wrote: Man, epic first post.

Yeah, awesome. Thanks for sharing.

JG Pasterjak wrote: By the way, that's awesome footage. Even more spectacular considering what it must have been shot on 20 years ago.

No kidding, the picture quality is excellent.

Love that giant camera setup on the rollbar of the 914....

The Brown Stig wrote: What is the Green Cobra looking car at around 5:00:01?

Elva Courier

I'm in love with the RX-3 in the second video.

Thanks for the compliments. I worked for a show in San Francisco called Evening Magazine. Some auto related stories included, riding with Jackie Stewart F1 champ on a hot lap of Sears Point, following Dan Gurneys Toyota prototype team for 2 days (including a 2am engine change), the Mint 400, a day with Bob Bondurant, drag racers Don Garlits and Shirley(don't call me Cha Cha) Muldowney, Salt Flats stories and more. It was fun. In the video, that was just half the camera. A 3/4 inch tape deck was tied down inside of Gary Walton's IMSA 914 Porsche.

wow...the onboard shots make we want to do silly things in a car.

Apparently tires were made almost entirely of grease in the 80's.

Mine were. That explains why I spent so much time sliding them into ditches, in donuts around airport landing strips and otherwise had my cars sliding around precariously so often.

Great video.

I NEED the no. 5 Datsun in the beginning, so cool.......

I remember watching most of those cars run at the Pleasanton Fairgrounds back in my college days in California. That Lotus F5000 was one insane autocross car.

In reply to Snowdoggie:

As a teenager I would pack a lunch and drive the family Buick to go watch the Corvettes at the Pleasanton Fairgrounds. I autocrossed there years later in a 240Z.

In reply to zoomx2:

Here is an article about Randy Welch's 510. I believe this is the mother magazine of Grassroots. (Auto-X)

http://datsun510.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=7519&cat=3221_

Awesome footage, thanks!

I was struck by how few cars looked street legal.

I was also shocked at the safety standards, but I would LOVE to run that course!!

Where the hell did they store all those cones?!

Am I the only one that thinks it would be a good idea to set up an autocross in a half-finished subdivision? We've got one here that consists of roads only. Easy crowd control (there are only two entrances) and it would be a quasi street race. I think it could be a lot of fun.

bludroptop wrote: I was struck by how few cars looked street legal.

From what I've heard, it was an invitational and only highly skilled drivers were invited. Back in the '80s if you wanted to go fast (as most highly skilled drivers did) you had to drive a Prepared or Modified car. Stock cars, and stock legal tires weren't nearly as fast as they are today.

wow that is very cool. i know i have seen some street autocross before and never knew where to find vids, thanks for posting this. i seen something like this years ago and have always wanted to to something like that but i think you just cant do something like this anymore which is a bummer.

If anyone noticed the shelby gt350, it is real, and i have actually seen that very car about two years ago.