Autocross and Driver weight

Hi everyone, my first post btw, been lurking and searching here for a while, but finally ran into a question I couldn't solve with a search lol. So here goes

I am a considerably heavy guy, I weight 240lbs, and I want to start competing in autocross. My concern is that my weight may ultimately be a road block to my success. I have started a diet and exercise regiment, but my trainer has told me that the least amount I can realistically weight is about 200lbs, which is 40-60 lbs heavier than alot of the people that I would be competing against. The question, is, do they ballast at the regional level, and if they dont, should I be choosing any different sort of car to best even my chances.

I have no local SCCA autocross events, and will have to drive 2+ hours one way, to attend one, which I plan on doing next Sunday, but I just figured Id ask here first, because I have been obsessing over it for days now.

Thanks in advance for your replies,

Clint

Clint, Don't worry about it. If this is your first autocross your weight will have zero to do with your time. Go and have a blast.

There are drivers out there who could see a time difference with 40 pounds of extra weight, but most won't. Maybe if you are in a kart class or something it might matter, but still just go and have fun. You'll have to autocross a good while(maybe forever) to be limited by body weight.

What he said. First season, it really won't matter much at all. I still turn better times with a passenger on half my runs anyways. You won't be at a point for a long while where it will matter.

And just so you don't worry, I'm pretty sure that Bryce Merideth won STX at nationals in 2009. He was a featured article in a GRM a few years ago, and he has to be 6'6, probably weighs about 230. Don't stress about weight.

Thanks TJ, I was assuming that it would take some time to really matter, but I am a ridiculously competitive person, and I want to address every advantage and disadvantage possible to improve my chances

Im a small car freak, Ive owned a miata, 3rd gen Rx7, a Lotus Elise(with aftermarket turbo), and my current s2000. From my reading, I have come to realize that my s2000 is no longer competitive nationally(again I know I wont be there any time soon, but I want to pick a car and stick with it) So i am considering trading it on a 3rd gen Mr2 or a NC Miata sport.

Edit**

Thanks for that info MTN, good to hear.

TJ hit the nail on the head. I will add that my son and I share a car a lot of the time. He can usually beat me in my own car. I weighed 270+ last summer, he is 160. The extra 100+ pounds in an RX-7 kills me. At this stage I wouldn't worry about weight. If you get to be national caliber then it may be an issue.

Then again one of the fastest guys locally weighs in at around 400 pounds. In ASP he's hard to catch no matter what you are driving. Skill goes a lot farther than weight.

yeah, don't worry about it, just go have fun.

I have seen some considerably heavy guys do quite well.

However, if it is a motivation toward getting you to lose weight, then don't let me talk you out of it.

Toyman01 wrote: Then again one of the fastest guys locally weighs in at around 400 pounds. In ASP he's hard to catch no matter what you are driving. Skill goes a lot farther than weight.

One of the guys in our region has really bad knees and can't even walk the course. He probably weighs at least 300, and still is in contention for winning everything. The guy never walks the fricken course! Still got FTD at the last event.

Thanks for the info guys, very good to hear. Im going to start a journal, for advice, and my own notes on what happens next Sunday. I really excited to get started, and I hate myself for waiting this long...

I am at the stage where I am chasing tenths of a second, so I try to keep my car as light as possible. Bare minmum of fuel, and I only take passengers in the morning). But then, I drive a normally-aspirated Miata, and a passenger makes a noticeable difference in performance.

As a newbie, I'd continue with your fitness regimen for your own health benefits, and make track time gains in other areas. Take all the instruction you can get, from many different competitors. You will see rapid and satisfying improvement based on your own driving, regardless of the car, or your weight.

Most importantly -- smile and have fun!

tracktimeplz wrote: Im a small car freak, Ive owned a miata, 3rd gen Rx7, a Lotus Elise(with aftermarket turbo), and my current s2000. From my reading, I have come to realize that my s2000 is no longer competitive nationally(again I know I wont be there any time soon, but I want to pick a car and stick with it) So i am considering trading it on a 3rd gen Mr2 or a NC Miata sport.

Not sure why you think your S2000 is not competitive nationally. The club ricer edition might be a little better but I think they are all still competitive. Assuming you are sticking with "stock" class the 3rd gen MR2 is not very competitive and you need to have the 2007 NC MS-R to be competitive with the NC. If you are talking about non stock classes all those cars are doing pretty well in STR.

i know it could likely be addressed with corner balancing and fixing the rear toe problem of our Challenge e30, but whenever i autox it i look for a passenger and make sure the tank is nearly full. it's a little tail happy with low fuel and no passenger. in fact my fastest relative time was with a buddy of mine riding shotgun who's got to weight near 300.

if you're still concerned after gaining experience and want to run a class that allows it, sit in the car while corner balancing to really compensate for yourself.

tracktimeplz wrote: I am a considerably heavy guy, I weight 240lbs, and I want to start competing in autocross. My concern is that my weight may ultimately be a road block to my success.

Well, I'll tell you this, I compete with a guy in my region who is a pretty good size fella. I'm sure he's more than 240lbs. He's crazy fast and a great guy. He was the FTD a couple of times this summer.

Learning how to drive autocross takes years. Get out there and have fun and work on your weight while you're at it. You have plenty of time before it's a factor. I lost a few lbs- down from about 215 to 190. I'm not sure it made me any faster. I still have a lot to learn about driving.

Take care,

Ed

Don't worry about nationally competitive at the moment. I guarantee you are a lot less nationally competitive than your car is. Keep your car, learn on it.

One of the things you'll be learning is what kind of car you want. It might end up being your S2000 and then again it might end up being a Tata. Once you get on the course and see who consistently wins in their class it will help you decide which class you want to be in.

If you're like everyone else in the beginning when you lose it will be because your car isn't fast enough or because you don't have XX tires or shocks or whatever, but those will be the least of your worries. Learning to read the course with limited exposure to it and learning to drive competitively take time so don't spend any more money than you have to until you've tweaked up the driver.

Continue on the weight loss regimen. It will help and it will make you healthier which will help.

Plus eleventy billion on just have fun. Worry about the weights etc later.

On driver weight: once it gets to the level where you need to seriously consider changes level, it's my personal opinion that the percentage of driver weight to car weight is more important than just gross driver weight. The 400 pounder Toyman mentioned drives an ASP 'Vette (~3250 pounds) meaning he weighs about 12.3% of the car's weight and yes he is a very good driver. Toyman (270 pounds, his numbers) drives an RX7 (~2100 pounds, 13%) and a rotary Spitfire (~1650 pounds, 16.3%). As a percentage of car weight affecting corner weights etc, the 400 pounder would make a much larger difference in the small light Spitfire, he'd be 24.2% of the car's weight.

I'm a 215lb-ish guy with a 90 Miata in STS. Regionally, I do just fine, but nationally, I'm a good 3 seconds off. I wish I could blame my weight...but I can't. It's mostly driving and a bit of car prep. I certainly don't know a good reason to stay this fat...as I sit drinking a beer on my patio watching my smoker puff away with pork ribs.

Not really sure how much person weighs affects autocross time. I'm 200lbs in a NB Miata, don't worry about fuel level and I regurlarly beat skinnier people than me. In fact I seem to get my best times with a skinny passenger. Been autocrossing about 4 years and just now starting to challenge the top in my class in the local area. Plus recently I just got the car compititive locally. Not even close to regional or national level though. We have some guys that are bigger than I am and they are very competitive in their class. Go out and have fun, learn from others and practice. Fast will come. It seems to come quicker if your young and still have quick reflexes but I'm older (will be 52 next week ) so it takes me a little longer to learn. I did what most say to do, autocrossed a bone stock car on crappy tires. Slid a lot, spun some but had a blast. Slow added things to the car, first was Azenis and that improved things, went from consistantly last to mid-field. Then Bilstien shocks and Racing Beat front swaybar and that improved a little more. Extra rims w/r-comps made it a little better. Carbotech brake pads let me go further into corners and a Flying Miata alignment helped turning. Now up with the class leaders. So take your time, learn things right, have FUN and it will come.

This is a really great community, thanks again for all the eager input! Next weekend will be my first event, I will post the results back here =p

I don't even want to BEGIN to discuss my weight, less just say I should be 8 foot 10. This year, one of our instructors began co-driving my car (his broke) and I have at least 100 lbs on him. Our time have been with a second of each other, and I actually beat him by over half a second. Don't worry about your weight for autox, worry about it for health issues, and enjoy the racing.

40 pounds in a 2000 pound car is only like 2 percent. (I went to government school so my math could be wrong) I dont think it will make a difference. That said being at a healthy weight will help you in other ways. Faster reflexes, more stamina, greater focus, etc. These can pay off on track ond off.

To be polite, I won't mention any names, but there are some SOLO national champs who are pretty big. A big driver with talent will beat a skinny guy with no talent every time.

jeffp wrote: I'm a 215lb-ish guy with a 90 Miata in STS. Regionally, I do just fine, but nationally, I'm a good 3 seconds off. I wish I could blame my weight...but I can't. It's mostly driving and a bit of car prep. I certainly don't know a good reason to stay this fat...as I sit drinking a beer on my patio watching my smoker puff away with pork ribs.

Yeah, Jeff kicked everybody's butt at every event, but It's cause he's 5 Lbs lighter than me

Seriously though, I really don't think it makes that much difference. Hurricane Hernandez is a perennial National Tour winner and Nationals podium-er-er and he's a big guy like Jeff and I. Honestly, autocrossing is about the best weight-loss program there is. I was nearly 250Lbs when I started and then they made my lard-butt run for cones in front of speeding cars! I drop about 10Lbs during "autocross season" versus the "off-season". It's great fun!

I weigh 275, but wear a 38 pant (and 52 suit) and exercise regularly, so don't worry about physician referals. I understand what the original poster means because the least I could realistically weigh for any significant period of time would be in the 230's. I have thought at some level it might make a difference to the handling of the car. I therefore only autocross with a 280# sack of grain in the passenger seat to allow for predictable handling.

This is me in a straight line without the grain sack, you can surely see the issue:

mattmacklind wrote: I weigh 275, but wear a 38 pant (and 52 suit) and exercise regularly, so don't worry about physician referals. I understand what the original poster means because the least I could realistically weigh for any significant period of time would be in the 230's. I have thought at some level it might make a difference to the handling of the car. I therefore only autocross with a 280# sack of grain in the passenger seat to allow for predictable handling. This is me in a straight line without the grain sack, you can surely see the issue:

Why campaign a car like that oversized MGB-GT, I am thinking that a vintage Fiat 500 would be just the ticket for you...

Back in my motorsickle daze I went on a big time weight loss program. I'm 5'11" and weigh ~220, at the time I got down to 185 pounds. And I felt like crap. I had no stamina, couldn't finish an enduro without I was shaking like a leaf. Nothing (energy bars, water, etc) seemed to help.

At the time, there was a big hoopla in the offroad world about body fat percentages and allegedly 6% was perfect. One of the GNCC racers (Scott Summers) wrote a column for DIRT BIKE describing a similar experience to mine and asked his doc what to do. The doc said 'eat pizza'. He got his body fat up to around 12% and started winning again. So of course I had to emulate my idol. It worked, I got up to around 205, was able to finish feeling good and it showed in my results.

6% is crazy low! Holy cow man I used to compete as a bodybuilder and even in my best shape, which was crazy lean, I was maybe 4.5-5%, but I wouldn't be surprised if I was higher, I never checked. You start getting lower than that and you can have problems with normal body functions, not to mention being in a chronic state of ketosis to maintain it which you might have been in. You can also have joint pain-you need some fat in there to keep things lubricated.