Hillclimb/sprint/autosolo novice advice.

I am really heavily looking into joining some competetive fun next year in my car, I have booked onto a Presscott driving school day later this year to get a taste for it and a little guidance hopefully! - Do it, you'll love it.

I have been doing some reaserch and have begun to piece together a few bits and pieces (read- stickers) aswell as creating a bit of a shopping list. I have however got a few quieries that I can't seemingly lay eyes on answers to so was wondering if any of you guys could help out! My questions are as follows:

1.What class in any of the above disiplines can my car run in (its modified fairly extensively, and currently turbo'd; in all honesty though I would not be worried about removing the turbo and returning to NA, with ITBS and some other bits and bobs mind!) As long as you keep your carpets, both seats, no big wings or ach extensions and orginal window materials you'll be in normal road going classes. Autosolos tend to have 1 class for "Sports Cars" that MX5s fit in (NA, turbo or supercharged), Sprints and hills are done by cc. With the turbo you have to x your cc by whatever is in the regs. I run supercharged so I'm in the 2000cc and over roadgoing 2wd class in my car.

2. Can anyone with experience of the different disiplines point me in the direction of the merits of each? I could, but it would take ages. AutoSolo is the cheapest place to start as no safety gear required. Sprints/Hills require a lot more kit but are much faster and more intense events.

3. In terms of equipment I am currently looking at:

For sprints and hills:

Helmet Required - Must meet MSA regs and have HANs posts if using HANs
HANS device recommended
handheld fire extinguisher Required
Stickers required
Battery cut off x2 not required but a good idea
3" 5 point harness Not required but a good idea
fireproofs Full FIA race suit required
overalls
shoes Currently don't need to be FIA but I would buy some that are as it's bound to change
gloves Must be FIA fireproof

I don't really know if this is overkill, or underkill as it would be, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks a lot,

Tom
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Thanks a lot Mr. Horney, thats exactly what I was after! What club do you enter through?

I will have a look at that thanks, Matt.

I am in Abingdon, I am entirely new to all this! I found Oxford Motor club but there was no mention of anything more than a few autosolos.

Join your local motor club, any will do, go to a club night and chat to people, as for what is required for sprints and hills all you need is suit, gloves, helmet all with FIA spec plus your non race Nat B License.

Don't see a lot of point joining a series where you don't need this gear if you want to be racing in future wearing this stuff may as well get started right away and be comfortable with it.

I do sprints and hills, I personally find Autosolo as enjoyable and better value for money, more seat time, more runs to experiment and less this to hit, typically more technical than a sprint, it needs no gear, its not high speed but you spend a lot of time learning how to keep the car settled and maintaining traction, teaching you a lot about the car and controlling it at limits, which translates fairly well when you progress to higher speed stuff, I believe it has made me a more confident, quicker driver.

I went to CAR-nival last year but I am flying to Italy on the saturday this year I probably should be happy about the holiday but secretly not so, don't tell the mrs!