What's the oddest vehicle you've seen at an autocross?

When we had Slalom at the old BugIns at OCIR , I ran my 1966 bus.....

also at the Drags the same day.... I think I broke 20 seconds in the quarter !

Favorite WTF competitor: Years ago, at the Duel at De Anza. De Anza College in Cupertino used to (and may still, I left the area in 2001) hold a one-day autocross in their parking lot, which brought out all KINDS of vehicles. It was organized by the auto tech class, who had built a front-engined Dodge Colt as their class project. I was writing up the event for the Mercury-News, and had the pleasure of driving the car while interviewing some of the students and the teacher, the day before the autox. 

But the event itself... Someone showed up with a Fiat Topolino body on a custom chassis with what looked like a gigantic Hemi between the firewall and radiator. (Not under the hood: they had removed that to fit the blower.) Motorcycle front tires and wrinkle-wall slicks do not a cone-chaser make.

The thing basically LAUNCHED at the exit of every corner, then braked to avoid peeling the skinny front tires off the wire wheels, tiptoed through the apex, and then LAUNCHED again.

It was a joy to behold, and a crowd favorite.

Wish I had photos...

It's not inappropriate for Autox in fact it was built for it but my Subaru 360 is definitely strange.  

I was working Morning Waiver and a guy pulled up in a beautiful Lotus Cortina...I told him what a cool car it was, thanks for bringing it out, etc.  I intended to get some photos of it, but he left before I got the opportunity. 

Back in 72 or 73 one club member decided to run his MB 600.Took awhile to put all the cones back up.

Me at the Flyin' Miata autocross in 2019. Some of the Miata drivers complained about how tight the course was.

Not the fastest run of the day, but not the slowest. And certainly the best time per pound.

This was actually the second run in a "FCA turbocharged six cylinder grudge match" against a Maserati Levante. The Maserati won despite having four people on board, but it didn't tow two cars home afterwards.

As far as I know, it's completely stock. It makes me think of the big barge car chases in 70s cop movies when it's out on the course

sfisher71 said:

Years ago, at the Duel at De Anza. De Anza College in Cupertino used to (and may still, I left the area in 2001)

Duel at De Anza ended about a decade ago when they decided to put solar panels over the parking lot that was used for the event. :(

I never drove the event (it was always sold out by the time I thought about it), but I went a number of times to watch and take photos.  

1969 Jaguar E-Type 2+2

When I was very young I was at a local event with my parents when someone ran a Gogomobile. Damn near rolled it first run. He had it up on 2 wheels so far several times that the organizers (Suburban Sports Car Club) asked him to leave. I took the photos below of Honda 600s type N and S at McGuire AFB in 1972.

In reply to Driven5 :

2 sheriff deputies ran timed runs once in their patrol cars. They asked nicely. What are you going to say, No? They were in P71s so it was a good show. 

There was the Dakota R/T that was running some of the national tour events in ESP back in the mid 2000's as well. 

Oh, I know. I saw a Citroen 2cv do a hillclimb autox once. It was frightening to watch with the body roll those things have. 

That was my S600 that I then took road racing with EMRA. But, one time the car wasn't ready so I ran my 66 Impala 283 auto that was my tow pig and beat a Boss Mustang at Fort Dix Speedway.

The oddest cars (2) that I've ever seen at an autocross were also the fastest cars there that day. 
 

Back when they were new, somebody brought a pair of Consuliers to one of our events. I don't remember if they were with Mosler or if they were regional distributors but they were giving test drives and demo rides. 

We also had a guy who started with a gold 1976 Monte Carlo, possibly the biggest car I've ever seen on an autocross course. It was terrible, but he ran it for the whole season, caught the bug, and bought a Lotus Formula Ford with a 4AGE swapped in to replace it. 

Mndsm said:

Oh, I know. I saw a Citroen 2cv do a hillclimb autox once. It was frightening to watch with the body roll those things have. 

I lived on the side of a mountain in France for 6 months or so. There were 8 hairpins to get down to the valley floor. Body roll is just the French way, you did not want to get in front of the local Renault 4.

SV reX said:

 

My Yugo (aka "The Yugo from Hell) was a contender. 
 

The car could do a 360* spin inside an autocross gate without touching a cone!  (Ask me how I know!)

Came to post this as well.  The YFH was an oddity that dominated EP and many higher classed cars in the NJ/Philly autocrosses when I owned it.  It wasnt fast but it was a true no lift car, you could just peg the pedal and roll, a good driver could do wonders with it (I had a young guy who was the son of my mentor in autcross who drove for me and took on all comers with it)

Back when I was autocrossing, my car was 40 years old, but whenever I autocrossed, my friend brought out his GTA Jr, which was 6 years older than my car.

But I have seen some late 50's Giulietta's autocross at national conventions.  They would have been about 50 for those events, since that was a while ago.  I think those would be the oldest cars I've seen autocross.

My dad ran a 66 Ford Econoline van back in the 70's. The 69 Toyota Corona he usually ran had a bad clutch. Just 1 event in Hagerstown,Md. Straight six 3 on the tree. Still remember the leaning in the corners, thought he would roll it.

We had a guy back in the 80s that ran a full size police car with lights and siren going.  (You would know the person if I mentioned his name.)

Around 2003 there was a guy that was a distributor for Superformance and Noble that autocrossed a Noble M18(?).  Really cool car.

One of the most fun trips I had around the course was in my 68' Fairlane.  I was asked to limit myself to one passenger after a few runs.  The people in the back seat were banging their helmets together.  Interestingly, the next owner also brought it out for a few runs.

Pictures are terrible due to the age, but it was a blast!

There is a AWD 454 powered S10 Blazer that autoxs up here in new england.

We have a guy running a 1947 MG TC and it is mint!  Very cool to see him running it, wire wheels and all!

There are photos on physical film somewhere, but 97 SCCA SOLO Nats there was an old, even for the time, Sprint car with circle track Hoosiers on it in AMOD.  It had one of those mega cubed Chubbys innit putting out zillions of torques.  There were several drivers all of who had lots of fun being epochs behind the class leaders on time.