Hi - regarding the recent thread on autocrossing and the terminology
for the different events we use our cars for, what Barney's country
calls autocrossing, is known as slaloming in western Canada. I
started my involvement with sports car clubs in Canada in the mid
fifties, and at that time we had slaloms, gymkhanas, and autocrosses.
The slalom was as described by Barney, the gymkhana was an event
that usually had three or four skill driving competitions at a
slower speed which had more of a fun element and were designed to
get more folks involved in the competitive aspect of driving their
sports cars (driving backwards through a winding course with the
co-driver dropping a tennis ball into a pail along the course (etc).
Autocrossing was similar to a slalom, except it was done on a non
paved surface - possibly a gravel pit or co-operative farmer's
field. Using these definitions, we find there aren't many of our
club members interested in flogging their restored cars around a
gravel pit and our events are more in the slalom and gymkhana realm.
Cheers,
Len Drake
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