Forcednduckshn

I'll also throw in there - that most novices will struggle physically to handle even 10 back-to-back 70 second autocross runs if they are driving at the limit. Your heart is pounding after just one autocross run. Constantly battling G "spikes" in transition of 1.5g or more (depending on the car/tires) and the fatigue of mainting focus in the sea of cones, along with physical endurance required to keep your hands and feet on the wheel with the car tearing back and forth. If you don't believe me, try it out and I promise I won't say I told you so (were talking 5 mins or less break in between runs.) When we ran our E-Stock miata on a 75 second Devens course with a non-SCCA club we did something like 10-15 runs per session and did THREE sessions. I am in pretty good shape and autocross a-lot. I was a bit winded, fatigued, and had blisters developing on my hands (no power steering) by the end of the day, along with soreness in my torso, upper/lower arms and shoulder. It's a workout.

That's about 15 minutes of seat time in just 1 session. You're just getting warmed up (relatively speaking) at an HPDE after 10-15 minutes. Love the 3-lap TT's though.

Nick

steguis

Since I do a lot of both autox and track (HPDE) I can tell you that I learn the most (driver development-wise) from autox. It forces you to think quickly, have really fast reflexes (which has saved my butt on track) and given the right course and venue, the ability to understand more fully how to drive at the limit through both the slow stuff and the fast stuff.

The things I love about track that I can never (or mostly never) get from an autox are:

1) The adrenaline rush from the fear that when shit happens, it can get really bad really quickly. I get a euphoria after every track event when I come out with both me and my car intact. Probably the same kind of feeling skydivers get.
2) The speed limited only by your car/wallet and your balls.
3) Significant elevation changes (I'm thinking Watkins glen here which is bliss!)

I can work on getting faster and faster lap times but frankly, unless you hit up a lot of different tracks, all your learning is how to take that particular kind of corner fast. Go to 10 autoxes at the same venue, you get 10 different courses with maybe 100 different types of transitions.

IntegraR0064

Have you autocrossed at fedex field yet? That's got some substantial elevation changes, although probably not like watkins glen