Miata Mailing List: July 1994, Message #65
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   From: "Kate W. Hughes 607/974-3861" 
Subject: Club events
   Date: Tue, 5 Jul 1994 12:42:26 -0400

    	For those of you who were looking for interesting things to do at 
    your Miata club, I recently read a great article in North American 
    Pylon that fits your bill.
    	The event was held in Wyoming, planned by "Ye Olde Loper", 
    apparently a fellow who drives a rather outclassed car and has a ball 
    doing it.  The event was essentially an autocross, but with some twists 
    to make it more advantageous to go slow.  He called it a "Trabant 
    Autocross" (anyone who's ever followed one of these on the autobahn 
    will know immediately what he meant).
    	The "autocross" consisted of activities like going through a slolam 
    with a co-pilot.  Every other cone has a tennis ball balanced on top of 
    it; the driver slolams on her side (or his side) and pick up the ball, 
    passes it to the co-pilot who places it on the next (empty) cone as the 
    driver slaloms the other way.  On the return trip through the slalom 
    (after turning around by backing into a "parking space"), the balls are 
    returned to their original cones.  Any fumbles requires the car to stop 
    and replace the ball and cone, thereby accruing your penalty.  Times 
    can be taken with a stop-watch.
    	There were other activities like a "skid-pad" where one or the 
    other of the occupants had to hold a string tied to a tennis ball on a 
    center cone and try to circle it as fast as possible, then switch the 
    string and go the other way around.  Also some kind of clue rally to 
    bring the competitors to the awards location.  They also did some sort 
    of (wide, I hope) blind gates, where the driver is blindfolded and the 
    copilot directs by rotating the driver's head.  No talking is allowed.  
    Reports were that this portion was hilariously funny.
    
    	Sounded like a lot of low-speed fun!  I can get a copy of the 
    letter if anyone wants more details.
    
    kate (the instigator)
    '91 Mariner Blue, As-base-as-they-get