I have had great success locally autocrossing my Integra but I would like to try something different, especially since I'm stuck in a tough class thanks to my mods. It's pretty easy to win locally but I know that at the next level I would have no chance in SM. Luckily enough, it looks like my roommate will be trading his Audi A6 for an '00-03 S2000 and he wants to get into autocross next season. What a perfect opportunity... We can both drive our own cars and each other's by registering in both AM and PM run groups. I can get some experience in a stock S2000 and give him advice, and in my car I can give him some more advanced pointers while he can experiment with a sorted FWD car.

I was wondering how much harder it is on the car to dual-drive it, since there will be less than half the rest time between runs. I know autocross isn't very hard on cars in general and that the extra heat held in the tires will help our times, but it just seems a lot more abusive on brakes, cooling, etc. to be doing more runs with more frequency. These are daily drivers and they must remain reliable. Is the much shorter rest period worth worrying about or not? We could just drive our own cars separately in the AM and swap in the PM, but I figure if we both drive the same car in the same run group, we can help each other out more since the conditions will be the same - often here in Seattle it'll be soaked in the morning but bare and dry in the afternoon. Any dual drivers who have input?

 

Any one day of autocross I've been a part of is less abusive on a car than a single 30 minute session of an HPDE track day in an advanced group. I consider an autocross to just be light exercise for my cars like a jog, and a track day being a more serious workout at the gym.

That said, you can take the same precautions for both events if you are concerned with cooling down between runs and just take a longer lap around the pits for either event before parking.

I have co drivers in my cars all the time. I have no worries and have had no issues with either the R or the EVO. It may also depend on the co driver you share with and how abusive he or she or even you are. Generally it's nice to have the car and tires warmed up. We usually just take more care in being aware of cooling the car down a bit more and checking tire pressures as well as temps.

 

You may also want to check with the region running the event if you can drive two cars. I know some regions only let you drive one car (riding along is usually ok if you are in the same heat). This is mainly because they want everything to be fair and have everyone work instead of someone just driving all day.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 1GreyTeg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Any one day of autocross I've been a part of is less abusive on a car than a single 30 minute session of an HPDE track day in an advanced group. I consider an autocross to just be light exercise for my cars like a jog, and a track day being a more serious workout at the gym.

That said, you can take the same precautions for both events if you are concerned with cooling down between runs and just take a longer lap around the pits for either event before parking.

I have co drivers in my cars all the time. I have no worries and have had no issues with either the R or the EVO. It may also depend on the co driver you share with and how abusive he or she or even you are. Generally it's nice to have the car and tires warmed up. We usually just take more care in being aware of cooling the car down a bit more and checking tire pressures as well as temps.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Good to hear from you, Anton, since the SHO days hehe.

That's kind of what I thought, I guess I just wanted a little extra reassurance. With my Integra over 4 seasons I have only broken the piping trailing the body of my high-flow cat (weird... likely because of jolting from a hard shift, not fatigue-related) and fused a front wheel stud to its lug nut, though this was in a street solo with 3 66-67mph straights and 80-second laps over 10 runs, and I have bigger front brakes now and use anti-seize on the threads. So I don't think the abuse should be a big deal. He'll probably drive my car pretty gingerly, and the S2000 will be driven a bit harder is built to take more abuse (sports car, stock, probably not even race tires the first season).

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by polishrifle &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You may also want to check with the region running the event if you can drive two cars. I know some regions only let you drive one car (riding along is usually ok if you are in the same heat). This is mainly because they want everything to be fair and have everyone work instead of someone just driving all day.</TD></TR></TABLE>
They do let you at least in the club I plan on doing this with, thanks for mentioning that. With that club we have 2 (sometimes 3) AM groups and 2 PM groups. You work one and drive one, so by double-registering you'd just do twice the driving but also twice the work.

 

The first thing you'll want to do is check with your club to see if that's even permissible. I've never been a "rules ****", but if my season long class competitor got an opportunity to drive the course at speed before me and then got another chance when racing in my class, I'd be questioning the fairness of that.

Personally, I'd ditch the Audi and race AS with the S2k, perhaps in a street tire class if you're not shelling out for V710's or A6's. Then again that's just me.

Good luck,
Matt

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Utilitarian &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The first thing you'll want to do is check with your club to see if that's even permissible. I've never been a "rules ****", but if my season long class competitor got an opportunity to drive the course at speed before me and then got another chance when racing in my class, I'd be questioning the fairness of that.

Personally, I'd ditch the Audi and race AS with the S2k, perhaps in a street tire class if you're not shelling out for V710's or A6's. Then again that's just me.

Good luck,
Matt</TD></TR></TABLE>
Already know it's okay with the club. However it would have to be either running class in the morning (can't run in morning then run in a competitive class in the afternoon, has to be Time Only), or just run Time Only for both run groups.

Yeah autocross is the whole point of selling the Audi and getting the S2000... it's a shame because it's such a nice car for the price he paid, but the complete lack of sportiness (200hp from a 2.8 in a 3700lb AWD car) is killing him day by day. Gotta save up for that RS6

 

That's cool that the club lets you guys guys do that. That's the problem with auto-x, you always feel like there's just not enough seat time, except during off days when you just want to pack it up and quit.