The Furrin Group puts on some great events for sports car enthusists all year round from ice racing to rallye and autocross events. There is a rally comming up soon on April 24 and many others over the summer. Lets see if we can get any more Minis on the track. Its easy to get involved, I thought it would be hard to get in with it all but its not. Just takes once to figure out whats going on and then you know as well as anyone else. If you have any questions about it email me and I will try to help or direct you to someone who can help. I just want to get more minis out because we have such great handling and quick cars.

Check out http://www.furrin.org and the boards at Furrin.org to find more info.

The Full WMAS 2004 Schedule:

1. April 24th Furrin ABC Auto Auction
2. May 16th Furrin GVSU
3. May 23rd WMR Kalamazoo
4. June Furrin ABC
5. June 12th WMR Manistee
6. July 24th WMR Sparta
7. August 7th WMR Sparta
8. September 6th WMR Grattan
9. September Furrin My Import Auto Center
10. October 24th Furrin TBD

 

i went to the web site and it is hard to know where the events are. where in west michigan are they?

 

if you check out the schedual it lists the places. they are ABC auto auction, GVSU, Grattan and a few others that i am not familiar with. its not a long distance for any of them. I am highly looking forward to the 24th to give it a shot. my car is stock, tires and all but it should be fine right outa the box. it is agokart just as you said

 

Hmmmm, I have no experience and a modified car, interesting and I am sure I would be put in some hot rod class where I will constantly be last....could give up my amature bicycle racing career....getting to old to get hurt on the bike with those young kids....car has air bags and crumple zones...bike has road rash and skin grafts....car has stereo, climate control, and windows....50+mph on bike with a bee/wasp is much more exciting and painfull....

I do want to get on the track for some driving experience, but am not very interested in racing. Unless I have an unexpected financial windfall!

 

well this isnt racing if you dont want it to be. i dont plan on going for wins and looses. i am in it for the rush i get from driving my mini. you can do the same. there are some people who will take it seriously and have a set of tires for racing and adjust their camber before hand but im just gonna check tire pressure and then go for it. should be fun

 

How hard is autocrossing to pick up? Is it one of those things that you should probably take a class in before participating? Or does practice make perfect?

 

Agokart...put this down on our event list Count me in...good excuse for new tires

 

i would be happy for you to buy me new tires. i got the wheels picked out too.



i have not looked to hard into yet as time has been tight as of late, but i have a feeling it will be a three hour drive for us to any of the locations. plus we are doing it over on this side of the state too. so have no fear that i'll make sure your tires are used up by june.

 

i really hope that you do decide to try this out. to register you must go to http://www.myautoevents.com and register. there is an entry list so u can see who else is going to be there. we are in the GS class just so you know. anyway here is a direct link to the event

http://www.myautoevents.com/pls/mae/...37021957568476

 

>>How hard is autocrossing to pick up? Is it one of those things that you should probably take a class in before participating? Or does practice make perfect?

I've seen people just show up for the first time...Heck, that's what I did. All the info you really need to participate is right here in the auto-X forums. If you'd rather be better prepared, here...

http://www.myautoevents.com/pls/mae/...38901634440565

...is a link to the Detroit Region's annual autocross class. Two days, the first classroom, the second tearing up a parking lot. It would be virtually impossible to embarrass yourself. I've seen Volvo station wagons, full size GM tanks (Caprices), as well as more appropriate vehicles. The teachers are all great...some literally national champions. It's $65 IIRC [edit] looked briefly and it's a bit more now [end edit], the majority of it going to an SCCA membership. Perhaps the best value of any performance mod you'd ever consider. Take your teenager and improve their knowledge of driving an auto close to the limit...it could literally save their life!

DREW


_________________
MCS...DS/BLK...SPORT PKG & SUNROOF

 

I used to live in MI (east lansing), and did several Furrin events every year. They are a lot of fun. I just moved to MN, so I don't plan on running any events in MI this year, though. I am warming up to MN, but sometimes I still wish I was back home, I had all my autocross buddies there and knew which events I liked to go to and stuff. There are a bunch of great autocrossers in MI!

The Detroit SCCA puts on some awesome events. But, if you want to do the best autocross in Michigan, heck, probably in the whole midwest, go to the Saginaw Valley Region events at Barstow Airport in Midland. It's not *that* far from Grand Rapids, and it's awesome.

Anyhow, autocross is a lot of fun, if you haven't tried it, get out there! I actually used to be a decent bicycle racer (finished top 10 in the MI pro/elite mtb series before I met my wife and became fat), and I think of autocross as having all the fun parts of a mountain bike race, with none of the suffering

_________________
Roger B - slow but happy autocrosser
-
where's my MINI?

 

http://www.myautoevents.com/pls/mae/...47082537607369

here is the correct link, sorry guys. therse still about a week to decide to come out

 

What is the competition like in TGS? How many cars in the class? I live in the suburbs of Detroit and am contemplating driving over in my MINI.

 

OK, I will try an event...not sure which one....must do research....maybe this will give me a reason to add that HR sway bar....

 

>>What is the competition like in TGS? How many cars in the class? I live in the suburbs of Detroit and am contemplating driving over in my MINI.



TGS has extremely good competition in Detroit. It is typically one of the biggest classes, with some awesome drivers!

 

Any information on TGS in West Michigan? I have been competing in the Detroit area for a while and was wondering how West Michigan compared, and if it is worth the drive.

 

>>Any information on TGS in West Michigan?

They don't exactly run TGS as a separate class like Detroit does. They just have GS, but occassionaly will run a street tire index within GS or something like that.

I'd suggest going up north and running with Saginaw Valley Region, rather than over to west Michigan. SVR is pretty sweet, their events tend to way less cars than Detroit, but with *really* fun courses (probably, on average, more fun than Detroit courses). Neither of the groups in West Michigan have access to a big lot, so the courses tend to be very short and tight by Detroit SCCA standards. They do really well with what they have to work with, but if you're ever done a DCSCC event at Great Lakes Crossing or Washtenaw Community College, that's probably bigger than any lot that the WMR uses these days.

Edit, however, I think they might run an event in Lansing this year. That might be worth checking out, it's not THAT far from Detroit, and there are some big lots in Lansing...

And DWatkins, if you are Dan Watkins that used to Co-Drive with Rob Hellier, you will not find much competition in West Michigan - you're fast as heck. You may have seen me around, last year I drove the black 4 door HS civic (well, I'm actually still driving it until my mini shows up), I usually hang around with D-Worm, Matt K, Basil, Thom, Matt and Raj ... those guys.
_________________
Roger B - slow but happy autocrosser
-
where's my MINI?

 

I'm the other D Watkins, Dan's younger brother. I am not as fast as him, but I'm getting there. One of the reasons I thought of going out there (aside from the invitation above) was to get out from the shadow of my Dad and brother and get a little practice in the MINI

 

well in the GS class at the moment for next weekend there are 4 cars only. 2 minis now tho hehehehehehe. i cant wait. i cant tell you if its any better than the Detroit of Saginaw clubs but it should still be fun.

GS class:

SVT Focus
Saab 9-3
MINI S <--- mine
MINI S <--- Derek Watkins as mentioned above, thanks for comming out.

MINI's out in force!!!

_________________
Indi Blue MCS
White roof, wheels and stripes. Packages #1,2,3 (cept for the sunroof)
Its here now, finally and I love it

 

>>i cant tell you if its any better than the Detroit of Saginaw clubs but it should still be fun.


Ya, I hope I didn't sound too harsh on the west michigan autocross groups. When I lived over there, I did as many of their events as I could. However, having run at the other regions, there are some striking differences, namely in the course size/speed.

However, there are some awesome things about autocrossing in west michigan. The organization is very good, and the people are really friendly. Not very many small clubs are as welcoming or as well-organized as they are in west MI.

By the way, I forget the guys name in the SVT focus, but he's fast if it's the one I'm thinking about. He'll be a good yardstick.