OversteerS2K

If you've been autocrossing for any amount of time (post that too), what have you damaged and/or broken while autocrossing? This is to be a testimonial thread for the benefit of family members of mine that think it's absolutely absurd to "beat up" a "nice" car like mine. Exclude wearables such as tires, brake pads, clutches, diminished fluid life, etc. I've come across a whole lot of folks (family, S-2000 club guys, et all) that carry the perception that autocrossing is just abusive to the car. An intensive event with, say, 8 runs may give you 8.5 minutes of hard driving. Personally, I would have given the car the same amount of wear that day if I wasn't autocrossing. Some of the 3 or 4 run events give you 3 to 4 minutes of driving hard, probably no different (wear wise) than a short commute to work.

Personally I've been autocrossing for a little over a year and a half with the bulk of it the second half of '03. Other than some cone marks my car has come through just fine. The worst thing I ever did was at my first FSF event. I backed into an A-Mod, Formula type car, gouging up my rear bumper and cracking his fiberglass fuselage. I couldn't see it an any of my mirrors and felt like a complete idiot. Luckily the owner was really cool and let me off the hook with some sincere apologies. Twice I've glazed the clutch. The smell is awful, but both times the clutch was back to normal within a day (buit that rancid smell lingers for a few more).

I've seen a totalled Prelude (driver error), a broken A-arm on a 325i, a few popped shift linkages (911 and a GTI), and a broken foglamp on a Jetta.

Your $0.02 would be appreciated.

Have a great X-mas. I hope there are some go-fast items under your trees.

Chin

Honesntly I feel like I wear on my car making 5-6 passes down the track (1/4) but thats just me I use autoX's to hone my skills on and off the tracks because thats what its about..being a better driver.

sloaccord

i'd autocrossed my old car, a four door 93 accord, a couple times before it got wrecked ina traffic accident. nothing ever happened during the races. it seems that daily use was more dangerous for that car- i.e., being around other drivers that are retarded and like to hit my cars.
i've had my current 92 accord for a couple years, and been autocrossing it off and on with more frequency for almost three years. nothing's ever happened to the car- ever, and we're talking about at least 20 autocrosses- so like 80 runs, minimum- not to mention a two-day evolution event with like i dunno, 6 hours of race driving, total? i do admit that at the last race, one of my fender liners fell out and was deposited on the race course. the car's freaking 12 YEARS old. gimme a break. needless to say, the loss of a fender liner doesnt hurt the car.
i've also run my father's miata a couple times. nothing happened.
my dad ran his '02 carrera a couple times. ran over some cones. nothing happened.

autocrossing is, i think, the safest, cheapest, least automotively destructive form of motorsports available.

PseudoRealityX

-bolt that holds shifter to "shift rod" came loose, deposited on track, found all pieces, missed 1 run, drove 5 hours home with no trouble(protege)

-ripped off plastic body undertray during off-course excursion at GIR (protege)

-ended up overheating at Valencia, but that was due to a faulty fan switch that wouldn't turn on. Shawn Phillips rewired it for me and never had a problem again

-Brian basically submerged the car into a lake at the First ever PRO event in Talladega in January. Car needed a bath...that was all.

-I installed new motor mounts, screwed them up, and one eventually FELL OUT during a run, when being driven by Leonard. Fixed, ran the rest of the event, took 20th of 100 in PAX using a CSP pax.

-Broke a wheel stud while ON THE WAY to Topeka this year, due to a loose wheel.



by my opinion, I've never BROKEN ANYTHING that wouldn't have happened on the street the same day. Also, that's autocrossing HEAVILY for ~2.5 years. ~30-45 events per year, mostly 2 day events. Easily 700 runs of autocross, and probably 500 of those with fairly hard launches. Also had probably 20 different people drive my cars at one point or another.

0HP930

Damn, if I can't count tires I have nothing to report.

Chin

Oh, my battary toppled over in the slomoms a few times, I need to strap it down tighter..lol

quicksilver EK

Ehh a few scuff marks from cones nothing more,worst ive seen was that BMW that went into the drink at Z-hills.

jaball77

Haha, yep! That broken A-arm was hands down the most bizarre thing I have ever seen! I've got a picture of the car afterwards somewhere... ///M4d kAmber!

Personally I've done no damage to my car in ~1.5 yrs autocrossing other than cone scuffs, but I've been told I drive like an old woman, so...

The only other incident I've seen that hasn't been mentioned here was when an ITR spun at FSF, hit the timing box, and broke a side skirt...

Muddy

I think "submerged" is an exaggeration! I skipped through a mud puddle backwards. I also had a rock get stuck between the caliper and the rotor. Hearing that loud squealing noise after what happened was kinda scary.
Otherwise I have cracked the dash on my POS cavalier (not really sure when or where, I just noticed it one day), and screwed up the alignment on my poopra, which is still on the original 15 year old suspension. The worst thing I have seen is some dumbass wrap his car around a tree.

Leonard

Started in the beginning of 2002, So roughly 2 years although I haven't made a lot of events this year.

- Ran over an external tooth lock washer that put a 1" gash in one of my VictoRacers. It sliced entirely through the rubber and into the polyester cords. Didn't touch the steel belts and the tire still holds air although I haven't used it since. Granted this is tire related, but it's not tire wear related and depending on the debris could have been far worse.

- Slightly bent wheel during off course excursion in the rain at FSF. I slid across the grass on the east side of the course (making a 3-4" rut) and across one of the asphault parking roads. The wheel bent was the first into the asphault and when it hit the road. Also took a face full of water through the window as I splashed sideways through a puddle at the edge of the course. That event prompted me to purchase my own closed face helmet.

-- Took a double large cone at the finish at Lakeland to the right side of my bumper. It ripped the plastic cowling out of the rivets that hold it in place. (Hence my distaste for double cones. )

-- More cone scuffs and scratches than I can count and eventually even some flaking paint on the front of the mustang.