So much for FWD > RWD in the snow :lol:

There was an autocross today, but as you may know from watching the news, we were burried in snow last night. The roads were clear by 11:00 am today so I ran up to the mall to pick some stuff up.

As I entered the lot, I remembered there was an autocross sceduled today, but I figured thye would not be running. Out of curiosity I drove around the back of the mall and sure enough the event was on!

There were only 3 cars and 4 drivers running. There were no course workers so if you knocked a cone down, you had to stop and put it back up :D
They were running in 3"-5" of snow.

I was in my '85 MR2 (Jekyl Jr) that had snow tires on. I dropped down my $20 and grabbed a loaner helmet.

The other three cars were a Kia Rio (not sure about tires), Honda Civic Hatch (not sure about tires) and a Nissan SX (snow tires upfront and all-seaon on the back).

The Nissan had FTD when I arrived at 1:06 and the other cars were running from 1:08 - 1:12. They had all already logged in 14-15 runs.

I never had a chance to walk the course, although the layout was very simple.
It was basically a big oval with slaloms on the long straights, but the parking lot is very hilly so there was a lot of off camber turns (in the snow!).

My first run was 1:02 ;) and I never left 1st gear.
My third run was a 0:59 which ended up being FTD.
So, I guess RWD in the snow is not so bad after all.

About and hour after I showed up, the track started to get very slick as we were packing down the "line" rather hard. I've never wiped out so much in an autocross before. It was doing major 360°s and staying on throttle and just floating back onto course.

I've never raced in the snow before, but I would be looking forward to doing it again. What an experience.

So .... first event of the year and I took FTD. http://www.jekylhyderacing.com/images/woho.gif

that's totally awesome... congrats!

that sounds like a blast! good job. doesnt surprise me that MR layout did pretty good in the snow... those FF cars had to be pushing like crazy.

hahah, nice. Congrats on the FTD. But one question, you have autocrosses scheduled in your mall's parking lots?? I mean I guess if it's big enough that works fine, I've just always always seen them in different venues for some reason...not at the mall.

Yeah it was a blast. I never raced in the snow before.
It was friggin awesome ... drifting all over the place. :D

Yes, it was in a mall parking lot. I can't speak for the rest of the country, but a lot of the SCCA regions around here use mall lots. They are plenty big and frequently have a big end of the lot that is never (or rarely) used.

That sounds like a blast. Do you have any pictures? I'd love to race in the snow sometime.

They actually did take photos at the autocross in the morning before I got there:
http://www.nepa-scca.com/solo2pics021206/index.htm

Here are the results:
http://www.nepa-scca.com/solo2results2006/solo2results_021206.htm

So thats what snow looks like, it's been so long i had forgotten

emo :frown:

So you have three MR2s?

Yeah, I have three but I bought them all cheap.
I only paid $6550 total for all three of them :D

Hyde is primarily used for racing.
Jekyl Jr is my daily driver that I used for this snow autocross.
Jekyl is almost never used :(

Well hey Ill take Jekyl off your hands?:naughty:

is there a dif btw jekyll jr and his dad?

RACER D12 ... I think I will hold onto Jekyl, but thanks.
It's just unforunate that I do not get to drive the car much.
I would, but the city Iwork in is not a place to drive/park something nice, so I have to have a cheap beater.

GForce957, there is a huge difference between the two.
Here, they are <click>: Jekyl 1991 MR2 (http://www.jekylhyderacing.com/images/jekyl_dc.jpg) Jekyl Jr. 1985 MR2 (http://www.scca-susq.com/photogallery/05.10.23AutoXgallery/image/dsc_1563.jpg)

Its understood that Hyde is a near all out racer, but what about Jekyl? Is Jekyl stock or is that MR2 fast also? Thats awesome that you have 3, thats a real enthusiast haha.

I've actually had 13 or so MR2s in my life. My mom bought her first one when I was 11 or 12 years old :)

Jekyl is a non-turbo MR2 with very few mods: H&R springs, KYB AGX struts, Enkei RSE Rims, Generic intake and the Aeroware body kit. I've done a couple of autocrosses with Jekyl and drag raced it once. It is very slow drag racing, but does really well on the autocross courses.

Jekyl was typically the "date car" or the "day trip" car.

... some day, my fantasy is to stuff a supercharged V6 into him.

Thats really cool. I would have guessed that an MR2 would do well in the snow with the engine over the drive wheels and still having RWD. Wish I was back home to see the snow.

i dont think you wanna be where i am for snow...it snowed like 8 inches today with freezing rain, thunder, lightining, and sunshine...had to take an hour away of time to shovel to get home....damn snow. also in wi, Drivers Iq becomes like drunk drivers but even worse....people that cant drive period...me which drives too fast according to my parents, but i dont slip or go where i dont want too :), and there there is the occasional lets hit the city bus..

but i like how you owned all of them in the snow witht the mr2. i woulda liked to see it first hand though

My column on this event is online at the newspaper's site for 1 week.
After that, you can see it on my site.
Here's the link: http://www.readingeagle.com/re/drivetime/14212195.asp