First Autoslalom (autocross)

[Mx5guy]

I did my first autoslalom (I think it's autocross in the UK) in the '5 yesterday evening. No pictures or videos, but it was great fun. It was my first time on track so there was a big improvement over the evening (1.55 down to 1.41) but still got a long way to go. Generally other times were around 1.37. It helped teach me a lot about the car and it's limits. I'd really recommend it to anyone thinking about doing it. And it only cost around £15 for the night, which in a country (Norway) which taxes anything possible to do with cars is very cheap!

[Riknos]

Track days are a lot more expensive over here unfortunately! But glad you enjoyed it, I definitely recommend them to anyone - Very good way of knowing your car's limits (and being able to test them ) in a safe and controlled environment.

[Mx5guy]

I think they're normally a lot more expensive here too, but it's a small local track and not such an "official" event. The problem is more car costs and maintenance costs. Yesterday someone was saying about a friend that crashed an M6 at a recent track day and caused £120 000 of damage to the car and it was still cheaper to repair (without the insurance because it was on track) than write it off!

Edited by Mx5guy on Friday 12th August 12:35

[piefacemate]

Mx5guy said:

I think they're normally a lot more expensive here too, but it's a small local track and not such an "official" event. The problem is more car costs and maintenance costs. Yesterday someone was saying about a friend that crashed an M6 at a recent track day and caused £120 000 of damage to the car and it was still cheaper to repair (without the insurance because it was on track) than write it off!

Edited by Mx5guy on Friday 12th August 12:35

Sounds pricey, could just buy two new ones surely?

(guessing there's a missing decimal)

[Pete Franklin]

Similar thing in the UK is called Autosolo. costs about £25 for a day and is competitive. I competed a couple of years ago in the cotworld championship (basically south west championship) got 1st in class in my first year but then they amagamated the sports car groups so was having to compete against elises and caterhams which is pretty tough in a standard MX5 still good fun though. getting more and more popular in the UK

[Dustyw536]

Im doing one of these this evening but a grass one, hopefully its very smooth grass otherwise my teeth may rattle out!
Should be a laugh though!

[Mx5guy]

Pete Franklin said:

Similar thing in the UK is called Autosolo. costs about £25 for a day and is competitive. I competed a couple of years ago in the cotworld championship (basically south west championship) got 1st in class in my first year but then they amagamated the sports car groups so was having to compete against elises and caterhams which is pretty tough in a standard MX5 still good fun though. getting more and more popular in the UK

I think it's generally very popular here because of the low cost and low possibility in damaging your car. It's also a way to improve your driving skills pretty quickly while learning how your car reacts. Unless I'm offshore then there's another one soon, so I'll take a friend who was driving the car recently and had a bit of lift-off oversteer, so they can see what it's like in a safe place.

piefacemate said:

Mx5guy said:

I think they're normally a lot more expensive here too, but it's a small local track and not such an "official" event. The problem is more car costs and maintenance costs. Yesterday someone was saying about a friend that crashed an M6 at a recent track day and caused £120 000 of damage to the car and it was still cheaper to repair (without the insurance because it was on track) than write it off!

Edited by Mx5guy on Friday 12th August 12:35

Sounds pricey, could just buy two new ones surely?

(guessing there's a missing decimal)

Not that I'm aware, it's just the cost of cars in Norway. For example my 10th anniversary edition was £10 000, with them normally being around £12 000 for around 90 000 miles. In the UK it seems to be around £2500-£3000 from what I've seen? The import tax is charged on engine size and the weight of the car, as well as the age, so big powerful cars are insane prices here.