Sevens are perfect for USA autocrossing. Why no posts here for years?

[pethier]

I'll restart:

 

Took the Super Sprint for its first USA autocross last Saturday.  Eau Claire Wisconsin, on the parking lot of a drag-strip.  Great fun!  Finished 17th out of 48 drivers.  Slightly hampered by inexperience shifting left-handed.

 

Any doubt about the car having a plate-type limited-slip was dispelled by the sidestep at the launch.

 

At one point, the car did something that has never before happened to me in a rear-drive car:  It tore the steering wheel out of my hands.  Some combination of trying to shift left-handed and the LSD, I think.  Ruined a perfectly-good run.  I will be on the lookout for this in the future.

 

The DeDion seemed to behave itself better than the live-axle I used to have.  

[Croc]

 

They are perfect for autocrossing.  There are some committed autocrossers on here so not sure why no one has commented?   For myself, I have always preferred race tracks as you get a longer time behind the wheel.   Pros and cons for each way I suppose.  

[pethier]

Find an autocross club with open practice days!  For essentially autocross fees you can be driving for hours.  Worst bang-for-buck with most bragging rights:  SCCA National Championships.  Three runs on each of two days.

[wemtd]

Auto-X?    Here???

 

I think yellowS7 also started out AutoX ‘ing (as well as many other folks here have).

I’ve been AutoX’ing for 6 years now. I do okay with the group I drive with & the car handles well. In this time my driving skill and ability have greatly improved. By comparison the one time I tried driving the Mini it handled like a brick.

 

So yes! Se7en are brilliant AutoX cars. As a generalization I think we’re too busy having fun driving to post about it online. 

Edited September 22 by wemtd

[Croc]

@yellowss7

[pethier]

2 hours ago, Croc said:

@yellowss7

?

[yellowss7]

Yes I did AutoX for 8 years. And yes our cars are made for it.  But I got tired of the work part.  As chief of Grid I had to be there early to set up then be standing all day for my 3-4 50-60 second runs.  The seat time wasn’t worth the effort IMO and after doing my first Track day I was done with it.  No comparison. 
It does improve your driving skills and teaches you lat apexing but it’s your choice. Definitely cheaper than track day’s though. 
Tom

[Anaximander]

yellowss7, I fully agree with your observations about the autocross "juice" not necessarily being worth the "squeeze". For several years and in different cars including se7esque cars, I went to autox events. However, just like yourself, the expenditure of time, effort and the investment in autox specific cars just was not worth the effort for me when I looked back at the totality of the limited amount of driving I was able to do. It did significantly improve some of my driving skills and the camaraderie was very pleasant. However, autox involved too much investment in everything to be worth 4-6 runs of 35-60 seconds. OTOH, some autox'ers have suggested that track driving is like having sex and autox is like having an orgasm during sex. In other words, autox is short lived but very intense which does make some reasonable sense. Another argument reportedly made by a seasoned track enthusiast was that autox which he was relatively inexperienced in was in many ways much more demanding of precision driving than his track time. I have seen Sevens doing very well in autox and agree that if it captures your fancy, the car can definitely be a muli-purpose vehicle that can be used on the street, race track or autocross course with equal aplomb.

Edited September 22 by Anaximander