First this has nothing to do with back yards, lol, figure of speech. I'm curious how easy it is to rent an area and organize a simple autoX track/event, something easy and cheap. This is more for fun, in a legal manner. Anybody try this? Were local businesses willing to offer lot space? Is there anything you have to do with the city/county? (paperwork, etc.) How much actually goes into a simple, entry level, event. This would be just a group of friends, etc. getting together having some fun with their cars, no sanctioned, professional stuff. Comment away. I'm sure I'll have more questions too.
Yeah, all the legal stuff is what I don't know about. Insurance is one of them. Is it needed? Is there a limit to what you can do before insurance is needed? I'm mainly curious, from a minimalist standpoint, how much is needed to just get a group of friends together and so some basic autoX'ing legally? If there are various levels of it, from a legal and requirement standpoint, what are you allowed to do for each level?
It woul be almost impossible to pull this off at the low group of friends level unless it was through someone you know doing you a favor. Insurace will require you to do too many expensive things, and if you time the event, or run cars concurrently, then you'd better be pretty wealthy if you want to do something like this. Its difficult to get sites, and most sites that currently do motorsports events only do so at the club level and don't usually offer their facilities to small clubs unless they are instructional. But to even be able to get the insurance tou need, there is quie a bit you need to be able to provide as well, which is another hurdle.
we could alwayse bumrush some podunk highschool soccer field for the weekend... i think dassle would be fine...
Ok, if you had a massive parking lot in your back yard, and wern't worried about being sued, then more power to ya! i'd be second in line. But, inorder to do it leagaly, you need permission form the site owner. the site owner will say no unless you have insurance to cover his ass should someone/something get damaged, injured, or worse. Inorder to get said insurance, you have to have some pretty strong backing, and plenty of cash up front. so, unfortunately it's pretty damn difficult. But there is some good news! If MNSubaru was willing to join the MetCouncil, i belive that they would be covered under their insurance, and could use it to put on an autox event! (i think. obviously this should be double checked) of course joining the met council isn't free, and there is much planning required to put on an autocross beyond just setting up the insurance. Beyond that, you also need equippment. most people have no idea how many cones you really need to setup a proper autocross course, plus timing gear, communications, safety gear, paperwork, etc. All of which MAC has leased to various clubs on previous occasions. so is anyone intrested in setting up the "1st Annual Minnesota Subaru Open"? Few Linx for ya: www.MNAutoX.com www.Met-Council.org
It's kind of sad it's all so regulated. ...and the cops wonder why people do all this illegal stuff on the streets and industrial parking lots :roll: I wish it were simple: !) Ask lot owner if you can use it 2) If yes, sign a paper waving all liability from lot owner, i.e. you wreck your car/self/property, you yourself is liable for damages. 3) Buy/own/rent? several hundred cones and a stopwatch 4) Setup, test layout, adjust 5) Have fun. I wish it were that simple. No fees, no insurance, no red tape.
the problem is, someone dies, and either the site owner or you are legally liable. One of you is gonna go to jail or pay a lot of money, so there needs to be some paperwork covering this, ie. insurance. Liability wavers don't really cut it in life or death or high property damage pursuits like car competition.
Yeah. it kind of sucks though...how hard it is to do something like this. It makes me kind of wish I grew up 50 years ago when there wasn't much for regulations. I probably wouldn't like the cars so much, lol.
Haven't been on the lake yet with any of my cars...but I do spend most of my winter driving sideways, lol, especially with an old '88 2wd Ranger I had...I miss that pile of junk. I'm one of those weirdos that actually find freezing rain enjoyable. I must say the Forester is the hardest car to figure out on the slippery stuff, very disconcerning. The floatiness of all 4 tires spinning, the suspension understeer, ubersoft bushinging elimiating all feel, and the heavily front biased brakes with easy to trigger ABS all make this car much less fun than it could be. Still, I work with it. This is the first car that can actually handle the snow we can get up here at times. I really had a blast bombing through a foot and a half of snow at 50mph on crap tires, stopping, and taking off again. I even tried to bury it in a friends parking lot, plowed it to a stop, backed it up hill onto the street, and back in and out a few more times. It really showed how good Subaru's AWD really is, much more than I expected: pretty much all grip or all slip and enough go power to plow snow with the bumper and not get stuck, even on average tires. I wouldn't mind an ice event. Any rules on that? Same if done on a lake? ...just curious.
next winter I may get out on the lake in front of my inlaws cabin and play some ice racing.. he he...
The obvious answer is to go to a MAC event. Its organized, accurate, well setup, with lots of levels of competition. However with recent popularity events are always full but there are alternatives like met-council events. See Shane's links.
