https://www.youtube.com/embed/IyLaYd3IIKE
Remember that home-brew Locost we featured in a video a few months ago? We thought you'd enjoy an onboard video of it enjoying some rallycross action. This car was built by Paul Wright and is based around a Honda S2000 drivetrain.
Well that looked really, really fun
Yeah, the drive is cool and all, but I want to know more about the post apocalyptic zombie-hood venue? What is that place?
cinderblock course markers? woah.
A locost wouldn’t be my first choice for rallycross, but it works in that tight venue. Mostly pre-vtec in second gear from the looks of it. With some course familiarity, that could be really, really quick.
Holy moly that looks like a fun venue. I saw palm trees so unfortunately that is a LONG way from where i live.
NOHOME said:Yeah, the drive is cool and all, but I want to know more about the post apocalyptic zombie-hood venue? What is that place?
Carlstromring, recognized it right away.
Edit: At 8:07 you can see they still haven't put down any water barrels or tires on the scariest corner. Also that engine sounds like it's running on 3 cylinders at most.
I'd drive there in a heartbeat, but there's not enough liability insurance in the world to make me want to be part of organizing something like that. Looks awesome.
A 10-minute-lap post-apocalyptic racetrack? I don't care what the car choice would be, I just want to run that sucker!
The car didn't sound too healthy but that did look like buckets of fun.
I wouldn't drive the Abomination on it, but it would be a hoot in the P71.
That's the Carlstromring. The one and only event ever to take place there. During the 2nd run group of the day, two cars on course hit live power poles almost simultaneously, both starting ground fires when the power likes hit the ground. A 3 ring circus ensued with pretty much every emergency vehicle in the county responding. That was a wrap on that. I ran my Versa on SM7s and did pretty good. It was fun for the two laps it lasted.
Well, can't say I'm surprised. That course looked like a giant safety nightmare.
Not surprised, but I'm sure at least 2 events took place there.
Edit: Nope, searching back it was indeed just one, in Feburary 2016.
So close to me and I missed the only event :( forever kicking myself for that one.
Ivor lost his lease soon after. The property has sold and is being repurposed. He had to pay to fix the power grid and for the emergency response. Ivor used to own the FIRM rally school. He supposedly has a new venue somewhere in south Florida but no one has details yet.
Ivor is one of a kind. For the drive through at this event, he gridded the field up to follow him through the course in his Escalade. My friend Ken was first in line in his fully prepped Subaru, I was next in my Versa, and behind me was the rest of the 48 car field. So Ivor is in the Escalade leading the field, and riding with him are three journalists from somewhere I can't remember. I was thinking it would be a low speed drive through, as one would expect. Nope! He freaking takes off in the Escalade, drifting, sliding, and slinging that porky thing around the corners. Ken and I are surprised but keeping pace. A few turns in I look in my mirrors and there is no more 48 cars behind us, Just the Escalade with Ken and I in tow. We finally get to the finish. Ken and I are in amazement and the Escalade is boiling with hot tires, brakes, and that hot coolant smell. He jumps out cursing in an english accent, wondering where the f'ck the rest of the field went, and then storms off in the poor Escalade to find the rest of the field that got lost when they lost sight of us. Ken and I were looking at each other like WTF just happened? After we got back 5 or 6 guys refused to run and asked for their entry money back. It was a blast but we just knew someone was going to eat it big, and then they did.
You could make a movie out of that one. I don't know what Ivor looks like, but I envision someone like Ian Mcshane reprising his role in Deadwood: "Cocksuckers! Damn Japanese cocksuckers should be able to keep up with an Escalade!"
Still one of the dumber things I have done in a car. It was fun while it lasted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz2dWDp5SW8&index=3&list=PLf0SepbCe06rHJ77urM0-NPg4IkJp8MV7
In reply to Aeromoto :
That is ducking hilarious!!
^I must watch this movie. Turns out it's called "Hooper" rather than "Explosiontown" as you might expect 
In reply to GameboyRMH :
That is the first movie I ever watched in a theater. It was with my Dad at the Ultravision theater here in Charleston. It was spectacularly AWESOME!! I was 11.
I have loved car movies and TV shows ever since.
That was the farthest thing you could imagine from a rallycross. It looked closer to a tarmac WRC stage rally, minus the spectators lining the roadway. With all the exposed dangers (concrete, phone poles, etc.) I'm really surprised it was insured at all.
More info on the location:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlstrom_Field
I suspect Power Auto Corporation is the company that now used to own it.
That course looks like someone read everything they could about creating a safe race track and then deliberately did the opposite. If you compare it to stage rallying and hill climbs I suppose it's not bad but...
Keith Tanner said:A locost wouldn’t be my first choice for rallycross, but it works in that tight venue.
Nor mine, as there's basically no way in hell the SCCA would run it nowadays.
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