The only stress autocrossing puts on your car are your suspension, brakes, and tires. Nothing else should break unless you don't take care of your car.

I change my oil every 10,000 miles because I use synthetic oil.

 

Ok, well I suppose I should listen to you...after all you've been doing this for quite a while. A Civic Ex probably wouldn't be a bad place to start anyway...in the lowest class. Then work my way up a little as I get better.

Is there a performance advantage to using synthetic oil? I've always just used what the dealer recommended.

 

I recommend starting out with what you have. Cheapest way. And also I think the quickest way to learn. People who shove all these parts on their car and then attend an event find out they are in the hardest class and it's not much fun to be against purpose built race cars that are $100,000 or more.

There is a little performance advantage when using synthetic oils. It's a little slicker and doesn't break down from heat and friction as quickly, so your parts stay lubed up better. PLus you don't have to change your oil as much either. Look up on GOOGLE.COM to find out more info.

I use Amsoil and Royal Purple oils. In the summer I use 0w-30 and in the winter use 5w-30.

 

you can use almost anything to autocross if it's setup right. civics are good base cars. i race a 2000 accord EX 4door. i've only gotten to compete twice because of work and other things coming up on race days, but i've taken 1st place in STS both times i raced. road courses are fun too. i've taken the accord and my civic si out to the track and my accord did the most damage. i shocked alot of people with how fast the car is on a road course, and autocross tracks. with the suspsension, brakes, and tires setup correctly, this type of racing is really dependent more on the driver's skills than the car. like civicsiracer said, it really is 90% driver. that's why i love racing so much. drag racing is weak in comparison because a bad driver could win with enough power. work on your suspension, and practice your driving skills as much as possible. but watch out, once you get started you're gonna be hooked lol

 

oh and i bought my accord with 5 miles on it, it's got 96k on it now and i've never broken anything...granted i've changed upgraded most of the things i would have had problems with, springs, shocks, I/H/E, wheels, tires, but i drive the thing extremely hard...i drive on the street the way i do on the track (that's how i practice i guess lol) so you could say the car's had 5 years of track use almost. autocrossing and road racing isn't as hard on a car as you might think. i wasn't as weary about it my first time because i drive the car hard everyday, so i didn't think there was much more i could do in the car on the track that i hadn't already done on the street. i just keep up with all the maintanace requirements, brakes, oil changes, fluid flushes, tires, filter changes, and at 96k my 6th gen runs better than the day i drove it off of the lot.