2017 Bridgestone Tarlton Tar Autocross

 

It's racing, but not as you know it…

By Martin Pretorius

Like many motoring enthusiasts, you most likely enjoy the sensations of acceleration and speed, or maybe you get your thrills by hustling your car along a winding stretch of tarmac. Either way, you're probably feeling more and more frustrated by the state of our roads. Between potholes and traffic congestion, you don't really get opportunity to enjoy your car anymore, and let's not get started on all the speed traps lying in wait! You've possibly even considered circuit racing to quench your thirst for excitement, but found out that it's really expensive. If only there was some way for you to safely explore your road car's limits - some way to bury your right foot in the carpet without feeling guilty...

Autocross: Racing against the clock, not against another car

Going to a race track puts your car at tremendous risk, even during a normal track day. Cornering speeds are much higher than you'll ever see on the road, and because you share the track with any number of other maniacs, there isn't much margin for error. If your bravery exceeds your driving ability, any mistake is bound to leave as big a dent in your wallet as it would in your car, because your insurance doesn't cover track day activities. It also puts a big strain on the drivetrain, brakes and tyres, possibly leading to additional expenses further down the line.

What you really want, is to throw your car around under controlled conditions, without any other drivers around to spoil your fun, and ideally without any pit walls to slide into. Just you and your car, racing against a stopwatch but not directly against anything else. If this sounds appealing to you, read on, because you're about to learn a little about the entry-level motor sport that is Autocross.

How does it work?

A course is set out with normal traffic cones on an open, smooth surface. The aim is to navigate your car through this course as quickly as possible, in the process demonstrating your superior car control skills and laying down some rubber just because you're allowed to. The rules are simple: Wait for the green light before you leap off the starting line, and don't hit any cones while you're darting through the course. And the best bit? You can literally bring whatever car you have available: because the speeds are kept within reasonable limits due to the convoluted route between the cones, a good (read: quick) time will be due more to driver skill than brute power or dizzying road grip.

In the case of the recent BMW Club and Porsche Club event, held at Tarlton (the drag racing track west of Johannesburg), a wide variety of cars arrived to take part. BMW was obviously well-represented, but the rest of the field was ranged from a modified Toyota Etios to a fire-breathing Nissan GT-R, along with a few Audi quattros (even a diesel A5) and a Porsche Carrera GTS.

It's all about class

Obviously, there's no way an Etios can go head to head with a highly tuned GT-R, so the entrants are divided into classes of vaguely similar cars. Seeing as the Etios was the only forced-induction front-driver present, it ran in its own class (its driver must have been so chuffed with his class win), but at the other end of the spectrum, there was a whole bunch of BMW 135s in various states of modification vying with a new M240i for class honours – and they were all eye-wateringly quick. The aim is to give the drivers some competition, even if they never go on the course at the same time. 

You run what you brought

Almost all the cars at this event were road-going, general-usage vehicles, but most of them have had some work done under the skin. It was not uncommon to see a first-generation 135i Coupé with a massive intercooler hanging out beneath the front bumper, for instance, and even the oldest car at the event (a stunning, lipstick-red 1973 BMW E9 3.0i Coupé) has had extensive mechanical updates performed.

In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find any car without some form of modification, ranging from an extremely subdued-looking blue BMW 323i with a shouty exhaust, through the rolling Armageddon of a tuned M5, to an all-out track monster Subaru STI. That last one isn't road-legal, but it was the only such car at this event. The important fact is that the majority of these cars drove to the track under their own power, and drove home again afterwards, unscathed – there wasn't as much as a fender bender to complain about the entire day.

Don't think it's not competitive

During the course of the event, drivers get three attempts at navigating the course, with their averaged elapsed time over the three runs used as the measurement of performance. The quicker you can complete the course, the higher your ranking – that's all there is to it. Right from the outset, the drivers were studying each other's attempts from the grandstand, taking notes of gearshift points and cornering speeds, and generally trying to outsmart their competitors.

There were seldom more than 3 seconds separating the quickest and slowest entrants in each class, with everyone coming within half a second of the quickest time in some cases. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day came from a rather nondescript white BMW X6M, which thundered around the course to trounce everything except that GT-R, which beat this X6M by a full 5 seconds. That's to be expected, as said GT-R proceeded to zip off a 10.9-second quarter mile during an informal (but timed) demonstration run after the main event ended: it's unbelievably quick in all respects.

At the opposite end of the spectrum was an early-1980s vintage BMW 518i. This car was piloted by the coolest guy you could imagine (who also happens to be heavily into spinning with another BMW), and is a perennial crowd favourite. There's something strangely majestic about an old 5-series trundling away from the start line before wallowing and rolling through the course as fast as it could go – hence its nickname of i-Lean…! The occasional oversteer proved that it's good fun to drive a slow car fast, as well.

That sounds like a good time, and those are usually expensive...

A day out autocrossing isn't going to be cheap, if we're being honest. First off, you need an MSA license, obtainable at the event for R310 and valid for two autocross events in this specific case. This payment basically buys you medical cover in the event of things going wrong and you ending up in an ambulance en route to the hospital. The entry fee of R400 comes on top of that – track hire, paramedics, cleaning crew, commentator and timing equipment operators all cost money. Bridgestone sponsors these BMW Car Club/Porsche Car Club events, and without that, the entry fee would have been double...

You do get a lot for your money, though. First off, the fun you're having is enough compensation in itself. There's real freedom to be found in hurling your car around a challenging course as quickly as you can, and then screaming down the drag strip to reach the quarter-mile timer. It also gives your competitive spirit opportunity to breathe deeply without incurring a huge financial risk. Most importantly, it affords you the opportunity to explore your car's limits in safety, an experience which might just stand you in good stead if you ever need to take evasive action while driving.

Where to enter

Many performance car clubs organize such events for the benefit of their countrywide members. It usually doesn't matter if you want to enter something from a different brand into such a club event, as most are open to the public. Keep an eye open on social media, where these events are usually advertised weeks in advance. In the mean time, please don't drive autocross-style in public – keep it safe!