THSCC Forums

Vincent wrote:

VK, that's because you never ran the really great courses that were put on there. One most notable was the "Spitzner Spiroquite", a course designed by former president Curt Spitzner. The course included a spiral path from the outside of the lot to a pivot cone in the center and then back out. Where else could you get a spiral skid pad course that had so much opportunity to balance the car with the throttle. Then there were the "Double D" or mirrored "D" shaped courses with multiple laps around both. Perhaps I was biased because it was 10 minutes from home instead of 2+ hours to the Murfreesboro/Ahoskie airport. (wow, that airport is still listed on the THSCC website as an event site....why don't we go back?)

Past president Curt Spitzner profile: (http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=50280140&authType=NAME_SEARCH&authToken=H6Ms&locale=en_US&srchid=d569de62-962c-4590-bdb0-f31826c5d331-0&srchindex=1&srchtotal=3&goback=.fps_PBCK_*1_Kurt_Spitzner_*1_*1_*1_*1_*2_*1_Y_*1_*1_*1_false_1_R_*1_*51_*1_*51_true_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2&pvs=ps&trk=pp_profile_name_link
Charlie G

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1998 BMW Z3
1987 BMW 325is
2000 BMW
1996 F250 Turbo Diesel

You just neeed to adopt my driving style, conservative and more focused on clean runs then on speed dad. You focus on speed, and then spin. I focus on clean run, then speed up.. Why I did not have a clean run all day sunday I dont know.. The car was great, just I am lost without tracks telling me where to go. anyway.. It was fun being there. I still like STIs. they are very quick cars, how about the black subie hatch.. When it was running it was very quick.

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hey yall,watch this...

These types of threads are fun. I think if you dig there may even be an old one here on the forum from years ago...

I never really was into cars much as a kid (pre-driving age), but a neighbor had a parked 240Z that has some minor body damage and was slowly rusting away. It was unlocked and I used to sit in it imagining how cool it would be to own and drive. The car unfortunately had terminal rust so I never really pursued buying and fixing it up (I still have a soft spot for 240s). Somewhere around that same time (early 1980's) I got wind of the concept of autocrossing. This was in the Charleston, WV area and the local club was the Southern WV region of SCCA. By that time I was driving, but I didn't have a car I could autocross (was driving a Jeep CJ5), so I did a lot of TSD rallies with the club (we had a strong TSD program). I won the top TSD class one year as a navigator with a different car and driver in each event! They were a great club and in hindsight, realize today that they had an awesome selection of sites to autocross on as well as some rare cars. How often do you have an original Porsche 904 show up to autocross! There was at that time at least three different guys who autocrossed Porsche 914s in the club and I somehow became fascinated with the 914 and Porsche in general. I wasn't autocrossing, but I was attending and watching most events.

One of the 914 guys had his car for sale and I was able to do a test drive at the end of an event and fell in love with the car. I didn't buy that one, but ended up getting another 914 from out of state. I proceeded to autocross that car on/off for a few years. It was a bit of a beater as I didn't have the money for go fast parts and it was not a good "stock class" car. So I was usually bumped up to SP due to misc non-stock stuff and using worn out hand-me-down tires. I was having lots of fun, but not setting the world on fire. At this point I was in college and was sometimes convincing college buddies to give it a try and co-driving their cars. As was expected it was always easy to beat a non-experienced driver in their own car. In hindsight I should have been less focused on beating the snot out of them in their own car and more on trying to get them in love with the sport.

Fast forward to around 1991 and the 914 (on my second one now as I had wrecked the first one) also had issues that I couldn't afford to fix and I was also married and looking to move to NC (better business climate than WV). We move down here, the 914 remains in WV and I step way from autocrossing for a number of years. We have kids, my professional life takes off, etc. Sometime in the mid 1990's we buy a Honda Del Sol and while not on par with a Miata, it was a fun car.



It's funny that a few people have mentioned this event. At some point I realized I could autocross the Del Sol and somehow found out about THSCC. I believe the event at the Belk warehouse was my first THSCC event, but as a spectator only. I basically attended to just check things out and liked what I saw (other than the under the fence moment!).

I think I participated in the next event which I think was at the old Rocky Mount airport location. I wish we had all of the old autocross results online so I could see who was there and where I placed. I am sure it was DFL, but I had a good time. I think I did that for a bit, but we sold the Del Sol and I dropped out again. Then circa 2000, I bought the Civic I still use as my daily driver today and decided to autocross it and got back in again and make a somewhat serious attempt. I had a real job, so I could afford new tires, plus the requisite suspension upgrades. I ran in STS for a few years against people like Matt Nicholson, Kevin Allen, Chris Brown and later on Prez Rodney. I eventually got it all hooked together (cured a snap spin issue with the car which allowed me to trust driving it at the edge), had a great year and won STS.

Fast forward to today in which I have been perpetually working on the 914 and I decided (right or wrong) that I could either attend events, or work on getting the car done. I did one event at VIR in the Civic and then converted it back to stock and stepped away. So other than a co-drive with a co-worker about three years ago, I haven't been to an event since.

Richard

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Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
2013 Honda Fit Sport
2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.com
Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.

Charlie, you have it wrong. The Spitzner spirochete course was my design for an event I chaired with Mike Dishman. We named it as a needle to Kurt, implying that he had similar shaped organisms in his brain. You are one of only a few people who had anything good to say about the course. Dick Rasmussen correctly pointed out that had we not run it in the rain, some cars would have had oil starvation problems due to the continual G-force, as can also happen on a skid pad.

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'66 CORVAIR MID-ENGINE V-8
'88 FIERO GT

Only here can neurosyphilis get a side by side reference to autocross

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Steve Carter
1972 Datsun 240Z-- resto pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/srcartermd
2007 GPW Honda S2000-- STR 86

I hated that course. It seemed to go around and around endlessly, tearing up your front tires. When I got to the middle I was going too slow to pull off a handbrake turn to get around the center pivot cone. And I was in a 1900 lb Civic on R-compound tires.

On the other hand, I marveled at Don Forrester's mastery of the course. Now Don normally drove more aggressively than Randy Melton, so he turned the spiral into one long power slide and dispatched the pivot with a hard jab on the gas and flick of the wheel. Yes, he was driving a Mustang GT in F-stock.

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Art McDonald
Premier Amateur #518
2008 Dishman Cup
Pivot Cone Snob

Rodney is a waxer (but in a good way)

I attended my first AutoX in '76. I went to watch a friend from highschool run his 510. It was a Triad event in Greensboro at a shopping center. The cool down area ran into an area that was used for parking by shoppers. One of the cars running was a prepared original mini. The driver lost it in the cool down area and hit a parked Vista Cruiser. The next AutoX I saw was at NCSU when I was there for orientation. I skipped one of my sesssions to watch them run at the commuter lot behind the original parking deck. This event was run by NCSU sports car club and NCR SCCA.

I ran my first event at the commuter lot as a member of the NCSU club. I was in a bone stock 510. The NCSU club faded away when we were no longer allowed to use NCSU property to have events. I then joined Tarheel as member #141. In those days Tarheel rans some events at the State Fairgrounds and South Hills Mall in Cary. I remember it snowed at the South Hills event.

Soon Tarheel got the rights to run at Rocky Mount Airport. For the first couple of years we were able to use every bit of the runways and taxiway. One of the courses we ran there was 3 miles long. It had a fast sweeper leading into 1/2 mile straight down to a piviot cone. One of our members the was a policeman named Smitty. He borrowed a radar gun and was clocking us at the end of the straight. He clocked me at 95 in a HS 510. Timing and scoring was set up in Bowie Gray's Airstream trailer. The Saturday night parties for the 2 day events were legendary. Your goal was to make sure that your competition's cup was always full from the multiple kegs purchased. In those days I usually ran on tires that I had worn out on the street. I had 2 sets of rims which was about all I could afford at the time.

I was running the event where we had the first wreck at Rocky Mount. Mike Greene had a brand new Honda civic with a set of Pheonix 3011 tires. I guess these were the first R compound tires available. Mike's friend Owen rolled the civic over in the sweeper turn between the runways. Owen broke a couple of fingers and Mike had a little bit of talking to do with his insurance agent.

Rocky Mount was also where Bob Kendrick was able to let the White '83 Buick Park Ave. roar. It started life as his Dad's Buick. Bob transformed it with 8 inch rims with 295/50 rubber, full Herb Adams suspension with large sway bars, Koni shocks. He built a full out 455 motor that would break NASCAR prepped transmissions at will. Bob had to do a bit of fabrication since Buick never put a manual transmission in that body. The first run of the day was always Bob with 5 passengers romping through the course. I usually rode shotgun holding onto the center front passenger to keep her from slidding into Bob. But I digress.

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George Bright Member # 141
One of the youngest of the old farts.
Yes I voted against you joining the club.

I started in 2009 after a year or 2 of Zach trying to get me to attend one. When I got the MazdaSpeed 3, I finally decided to take it to an event. I had always been interested in working on cars and always obsessed with the quality and awareness of my driving, shifting, etc. It really was a match made in heaven, but I just wasn't aware of that yet.

My first event was "Drag me to Sanford" and Rob was helping me learn autocross in my almost completely stock DSP car . On my first 3 runs, I basically just mowed down cones, and I remember Rob saying something like, "I guess we're going to do the whole course backwards!" I have to give it to Rob, after many ride alongs with him, I forced myself to slow down and build my self up rather than, well, mowing down cones. I somehow managed to go from mowing down cone after cone and having no clue where to go, to taking first in NOV. I think I got lucky with the competition because my winning run had a +1.

It was an intoxicating feeling knowing that I made progress and it exposed me to a whole-nother level of nuance in driving. Basically, that event and experience just added fuel to the fire that was already inside me as far as driving was concerned - instantly hooked. I think I've missed 2 or maybe 3 THSCC events since then. Hard to believe it's it's been 3 years as I imagine myself years from now, wondering how much I will suck and what I will be driving (or co-driving ).

I'm lucky to have found and become a part of such a great crowd.

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Club Webmaster
-2014 Mazda 6 SkyActiv DD
-2002 Honda S2000 totaled by deer

I'm sorry for that, glad you came back for more.

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'07, '08, '11 Autocross VP
'06, '10 Mike Dishman Cup
'21 MX5, '13 Corvette GS, '92 Corvette 383 c.i. 413whp/390wtq, '03 Expedition

Bob and the Park Avenue were really the stars of THSCC autocross the year I joined. I recall watching the car go down a slalom with three helmets bobbing back and forth in the back window. I think it was still metallic beige when I first saw it -- that went well with the brown velour loose-pillow upholstery

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Art McDonald
Premier Amateur #518
2008 Dishman Cup
Pivot Cone Snob

Rodney is a waxer (but in a good way)

I am unlike the rest of you. I can not remember my first event. I ran with ncr for prob 6 months when Wendy lived in Wilmington before finding out about THSCC. My first autox car was a SM del sol with a b16 cable swap in it. Like Ryan I had to take my speakers out of the car to autox it. After that was a supercharged Corrado, well that explains itself. I remember going to my first event and asking "what class am I in" I have an engine swap, "oh ya ssm for you".

My first tarheel event was 11-7-2004. I was off and on for a few years.

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[color=#FFFFFF][/color]http://www.usedmiatapartsonline.com for all your used miata parts needs
http://www.wagnersauto.com for your salvage needs
2000 miata se Estreet,going to rally
2004 mazdaspeed miata bsp #77
shifter kart also(someone buy this $1500)

My wife has posted some pictures of my first autocross car. . .

I got a 1995 Honda civic ex that I inhereted from my brother. Immediately upon receiving it, I started working to save up for something more fun. I desperately wanted a 1993 RX-7. I had saved up enough $ to buy one at a used dealership in Chapel Hill. My dad vetoed it. If he hadn't, I would probably be dead I'm guessing. . .

Instead, I got a 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, a car that I was very excited about. I dumped a TON of money into that car over the first two years I owned it. First a set of 17" TR Motorsports wheels, a cold air intake, 2 10" subwoofers in the back, H&R race springs and tokico illumina struts. Then it started getting stupid. Altezza tail lights, clear corners, Xenon body kit, and to top it all off, a 75 shot Zex dry nitrous kit. The car was pretty pimpin. I was hanging out with the Carolina Hondas people at the time, and their meets at Vincent's pizza on capital blvd. I still remember thinking how cool the first fast and furious movie was, I was part of the car show outside of the premiere at Crossroads. Then I decided to go out and try this thing called autocross. My first event was Morrisville, and I had a ton of fun. I remember my car understeering like a dump truck (probably b/c it was on the bumpstops on the front suspension all the time), and I remember some guy name Whipple just demolishing me. Karl Shultz also whooped up on me good, along with Vernon Geddings in a nice, more sensibly prepped white GS-R sedan. What was REALLY embarassing was gettting raw timed by that damn orange Pinto that burn a quart of oil everytime it turned. For a while I kept thinking "if only they'd let me run my nitrous on course". Yeah, I was dumb back then.

I was definitely hooked, and started regularly attending events. I even came to a couple of events with the Duke FSAE car, including one at Rocky Mount or Lumberton (I honestly can't remember which) where tech inspection got all picky and said our car had to have a FLOOR. We went to Home depot to get some sheet metal, found a stop sign down in the parking lot, and figured that would do nicely. We managed to take FTD that day over Patrice, despite the throttle sticking on me in one of my runs (scared the shit outta me). Tech should have busted us for that faulty return spring instead of the floor thing .

I came to events off and on for 2 years until I ended up blowing the motor on the integra (oddly enough, it was related to me trying to hop a curb to get around Duke parking, and unrelated to the nitrous). The car was eventually rebuilt, but I went to London that summer to study at the LSE and the car was sold upon my return. For a year, I had no car, and made do with my bicycle. I almost purchased a moped, but right when I was ready to buy it and was taking it on a test drive, it was stolen from my Duke Manor appartment (yeah, great neighborhood).

After a year, my dad replaced his 1997 Ford Ranger with a new truck, and I inhereted it. 4 cylinder, 113 hp, 2WD extended cab, but a manual transmission. I had fun doing stupid stuff in the rain in that car, but obviously couldn't autocross it. I eventually met my beautiful wife to be, and she had a 1999 Civic Si. I took her with me to an event in Sanford, and definitely enjoyed ourselves. Unfortunately, just a couple months later, that car was stolen, and found in bad enough disrepair that she decided to sell it. After some more time off, I eventually was in the market for a new car, and put down a deposit on a Scion tC. I waited and waited for them to find the right combo (I demanded a manual transmission in blue) and they just could never find it. Eventually, I got impatient, and read that the mazda3 had good reviews, so I went to test drive one. After scaring the salesman a little bit on the test drive, I was sold. I finally had a car I could run again, and started working events back into my schedule. My wife soon was able to purchase her car, the Mini right before we got married, and shortly after that, she started coming to a couple events with us. 3 events a year or so turned into 5 or 6 and soon we were full timers. Before too long, some jackass named Ryan convinced me to become an autocross VP (just kidding of course).

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2012 MX-5 Sport SUV

How do I keep this somewhat short? My story is very similiar to many others here. I grew up around and working on mechanical things, mostly airplanes, cars and motorcycles. In high school I bought, fixed up and sold Rx-7's, and an Mr-2, then used the proceeds to purchase my dream car at the time, a G-60 supercharged Corrado. My friends and I liked to drive fast on rural roads and this caught up with me when I rolled the Corrado. The car was totaled, but I was OK. I purchased my Miata shortly after that and began looking for a safer, off the public streets environment to drive fast.

My first autocross event was at Rocky Mount in either 1999 or 2000. It was an event sponsored by Sport's & Compact's and I attended with the local Miata club. As a side note, I believe this was also Jim Pasterorius's first event. I way over drove the car and turned in DNF's and lousy times, but I was hooked. My second event was at the Belk outlet where the open wheel car went under the fence.

Around this time I approached Carl Cason and Jeff Basham of Sport's & Compact's which at the time was known as "The Miata Specialists". I begged an pleaded for a job and shortly thereafter I was turning wrenches on Miata's between classes at Wake Tech and NCSU. I was in heaven. The shop on Hillsborough street is right around the corner from RBC, so when we had an event there (including the night series) I would throw the car up on the lift, change tires, go autocross, then drive back to the shop and repeat. Carl Cason was an avid SCCA road racer in his Sprite and it was not long before I started thinking about Spec Miata. I purchased a customers car, gutted it and proceeded to build a SM. I got my SCCA license at Roebling Road and did a few races at VIR before I graduated from State and sold the race car to help finance a real estate deal.

I stopped autocrossing around 2004 or so and I just started getting back into it toward the end of last year. I forgot how much fun and challenging it is! It seems like Tarheel on the whole is more friendly now, especially to novices, but I was young, shy and I already knew everything back then anyway, so much of that was probably me

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92 Miata 1.9L naturally aspirated. SSM 21

Wow, the trees were shorter then. If I am not mistaken, the little tree on the corner of the runway intersection grew up to be the tree that got tagged by either Kendra or Mike Whitney in that pristine 325is.

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92 Miata 1.9L naturally aspirated. SSM 21

I think it was Kendra LOL

It is so funny how many of us are remembering Kerfoot going through the fence at Belk. And whoever was embarrassed by being beat by the orange Pinto don't be. The car was fast albeit smoking all the way.

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1990 Faded Reddish CSP Lite Miata
2002 Electron Blue Corvette Z06
2005 Mazda 6 Wagon
2003 Nissan Pathfinder DTV (Dog Transport Vehicle)