And how about a few more pics? An old friend recently purchased this 997 GTS. It looks very yummy.
Love the flares without a wing.
Photography by David S. Wallens
No car prep rules, no class designations, no protest forms. That’s what we found when autocrossing our VW Golf GTI this past weekend with the Florida Citrus Region of the Porsche Club of America: all non-Porsches landed in a class simply called Fun.
And we had fun.
We had fun exploring the grip of the site’s fresh pavement.
We had fun working with the novices.
We had fun hanging with friends.
We had fun simply pushing ourselves to better our run times.
And we had fun watching a friendly back-and-forth for top time of the day. The day’s vibe was less competition and more free play.
How’d the GTI do? Perfectly. No issues, no check engine lights, no nothing. Since we blasted the intake with walnut shells, the idle has been smooth and predictable, whether first thing in the morning or after back-to-back autocross runs.
We’re lucky here in Central Florida as several clubs operate in our area. In addition to the PCA, we have events hosted by the Martin Sports Car Club plus both the Central Florida and Buccaneer Regions of the Sports Car Club of America. Look for the GTI at more events this season.
And how about a few more pics? An old friend recently purchased this 997 GTS. It looks very yummy.
Love the flares without a wing.
On the way home, I got the “good spot” when stopping for lunch.
And the victory meal: Publix sushi with a side of Judas Priest.
And a snack for the car, too, before home.
The last few years I've gone down the 'run whatcha brung' path, and it's pretty great. Yeah I'm still trying my darndest out on course, but as long as I can drive the car home, who cares where I end up.
I'll concede that I enjoy the competition of a typical event, but I have to agree. What you're describing is the perfect day.
In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :
It was fun–and very fun hanging with you. Also, that Publix is at the corner of 44 so, yeah, we were both discussing the same route out of Tavares.
I used to love going to the BeaveRun open autocross that they'd hold on July 4. No classes no scoring no stress just seat time.
My local Corvette club puts all non-Corvettes into the "Metal cars" class. It's hilarious, there is much awarding of awards in the Corvette classes but no mention of the Metal class if you happen to post FTD by 2 seconds. BTDT :)
When I started a local autocross club, we basically didn't have classes. It was all just timed fun runs. Same with the Flyin' Miata track days that we run every year. After the first run, you know who's close to you and that was your competition for the day. I have always done autox and our local time trials that way - it's more fun to build an interesting car than to be a slave to the rulebook. I build my car and let someone else worry about the classing if they care.
The exception to that was when I ran Targa Newfoundland in 2008. I did my best to optimize for the class, but I had a whole lot more fun when I switched to Open for 2011.
Locally we had a class denoted ZF (zero berkeleys), with a PAX of 5. It was intentional to be a "come have fun and not care" class. That got changed I guess recently to FWC (fun with cars). Since I gave up SRS BZNS in 2016, its been much more freeing just showing up and having fun a couple times a year.
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