Does anyone know anyone that'll let me use their (large) parking lot for setting up some cones for some slalom/mini-road-course driving? Me and a few other people would love to have somewhere to practice on the weekends, prefereably late. I promise no macho highschool ____headery will occur. This would preferably be in the Fort Worth/Arlington area.

Pennington field, 183 and Central.

That appears to be a privately owned football field (i.e. a school's), which is exactly what I was not asking for. :-p Allow me to clarify: I want a parking lot that I can have written consent from the owner so that when a squad car shows up, I can politely tell the cop that we're on privately owned property by permission of the owner. Though, if you can get me permission from the owner of those lots, that would be most excellent. Especially due to the central location. We could have a REAL Scion meet every weekend there. That would truely rock.

good luck on getting someone to let you use their parking lot like that. go here http://autocross.com/texasregion/ and register for this sunday's autocross event at pennington field.

Well if SOMEONE had said there was an event there instead of just naming the location... :-p Anyway, I'll be there. They don't have a listing for the tC under any of the classes that I can see. Time to make a call or two.

They don't classify by car, they class by level of modifcations and performance. If your car is stock, then you would fall under g-stock. You can run intake and exhaust and still be in g-stock but if you lowered your car, you have to run in SP which is street prepared. Since this sounds like this will be your first autocross, run in the Novice class. (ie novice g-stock or novice sp)

Yep. I grabbed all their pdf's and they list literally every make and model but the Scion line, so I kinda figured it would be Novice G-Stock. Unfortunately, I haven't had the car long enough to do anything more than the TWM short throw shifter and the Hotchkis sway bar. Poo. Any advice or things I should know for my first autocross? Oh, and where can I go pick up a helmet and some duds?

Update: The guy I called told me to register under Novice G Stock and they'll sort it out when I get there if they think I should run under something else.

u can get a snell approved helmet at wally world. they also have some there you can use if you dont mind sharing. as far as "duds", regular clothes are fine, just no shorts. get there early enough to get through tech and walk the course. brake before the turn and hold on tight. haha. you'll be hooked. too bad i have to work this weekend. oh and don't worry about shifting. you'll probably stay in 2nd or 3rd the entire course.

Psh. As far as driving, I've been double clutching, rev matching, down shifting, power breaking, and gear breaking since I started. driving. It's just my first formal meet/competition. Anyway. Walmart? Really? Who'd have thunk it... What standards should I be looking for on the packaging? The SCCA website lists like 15 standards throughout their site and it's all kind of ambiguous about which ones supercede which, and which is the baseline or the major one to look for.

anything that is snell approved will work.

Off to Walmart then to see what I can see.

OK I'm back and armed with a Bell motorcycle helmet. It's pretty heavy duty and I figure if it can protect someone from a bike wreck, it sure as hell can work in a car.

Well if SOMEONE had said there was an event there instead of just naming the location... :-p Anyway, I'll be there. They don't have a listing for the tC under any of the classes that I can see. Time to make a call or two.There are many events there and I thought you were asking where YOU could do this. People practice out there regularly and the police don't hassle anyone. Sportbike stunters pracice there often and if you are really concerned and can get a group together, the place is for rent. If you want to try the SCCA meet, prepare to get spanked for a while until you get used to things and just try to have fun. There are some talented folks in the field. They can teach you a lot though and some are truly amazing to watch. The shifter carts are the fastest and those guys haul! A spare set of wheels and tires is the most common thing to get when you are new. The surface is smooth concrete and traction is excellent.

Excellent. Thanks for the advice. I know at least two other people that'd meet me there on Saturday nights for some cone fun. I wasn't aware that place was used regularly. You gave me the location without any other details so I figured you were just tossing out a parking lot. Thanks alot though. My ___ will be there this weekend. I don't expect to come in anywhere above last. I'm going as much to watch and learn as to drive. I'm nowhere near familiar enough with the car yet to think I'll do well, but I'm ready for some road course action any day of the week. Thanks again for the help. That place is so centrally located, I can make a weekly thing out of it and it'll be easily accessibly by anyone that wants to come. Hooray.

Let me know when you are going, I live a couple of blocks away.

I'll be going tonight at 9. A friend of mine is going to be meeting me there shortly thereafter (he drives a '93 300ZX). I'm going to pick up some a second dozen cones on the way. Hope to see you there. I'd LOVE to turn this into a weekly thing. I probably will, whether or not anyone else is interested.

Tonight everyone is going to Manhattens in Arlington for some partying.

Yeah I saw. Partying never was my thing. Like I said, this really is just something I originally was gonna do with by buddy Sean tonight. If you'd rather go to Manhattan's, that's cool. I wasn't expecting anyone else anyway. Like I said, though, I'm gonna start doing this every Friday night and all are invited in the future, of course. I'd move the parking lot thing to Sat. night and join you at Manhattan's tonight, but I have to be up EARLY Sunday for the SCCA meet Sunday morning so Saturday night is out. And I need to forgo the party in favor for some practicetime. It does, after all, make perfect.

I will probably see you there Sunday as I live in the neighborhood to the south side and cut through there all the time.

I will probably see you there Sunday as I live in the neighborhood to the south side and cut through there all the time. just make sure you go the right way through the parkinglot this time scott :lalala:

Aight. I'll be easy to spot: the gringo in last place :-p w00t!

Did anyone see me sucking Sunday? :-p

Yes I did. I watched for a few minutes as I had a lot of crap to do and i saw one of your runs. Definately not the worst I saw! :rofl: I saw one spin-out and stall after the slalom and some guy took out about 6 cones. The question is: DID YOU HAVE FUN?

:-p Yeah I AM proud to say that I didn't spin, mash a gear, or take out any cones, though man was I HOT (i.e. furious) after my first two runs. I was NOT HAPPY with my performance. I was more or less satisfied with my last run and yes I had fun (especially, watching the Subaru's).
That evening it hit me why I wasn't happy with my driving. Running one lap, sitting for 15 minutes, running another lap, sitting for another 15 minutes.. I had no rhythm. I knew the course, didn't spin out or loss control, but I couldnt establish a rhythm driving one lap at a time. I guarantee I would've done alot better or at least been happier with my performance if I could've run all four in a row and gotten a rhythm established. Yes, I understand that's not really feasable at an event like this, but that's how I drive. That's why I drive the same routes over and over and over 'till I know them inside and out. I have a rhythm for the commute to work, a rhythm for getting to the campus for class, a rhythm for the return trips, etc etc. Ok I'm done soapboxing now. Someone validate what I'm saying though. :-p

ur not going to be good in your first event. it takes a lot of time and practice. in my 3 seasons of autox, im still learning things. as far as establishing a rythm, that's not necessary to being good. if you are making the same mistakes over and over, then you're not going to be any faster. your skill increases as you drive on different courses. practice turn in, braking, picking a line, exiting, and weight transfer. those are things that are key to being successful in autoX. once you've mastered those skills, then you can go to a road course and start "learning" a course and getting into a "pattern"(i like better than rythm) of driving.

happy thanksgiving!

Yeah learning the course is a big part of it. It looks significantly different from in the car at speed than it does when you walk it. I definitely want to go through the Evolution driving school. I understand the basics of some of those concepts but I need to suck less. (Like their bumper stickers say... 'Now I suck less') :-p Time to start saving for that.