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At least once an event I will be asked "What is PAX?" or "How does PAX work?"
Hopefully this explaination will bring some clarity to a topic that everytime I go into detail about I think, "Man I could certainly do a better job articulating my thoughts when explaining this."
First, let's explain what PAX is.
PAX is numerical multiplier for a car class's time.
The class AMOD has a 1.0 PAX Multiplier. So an AMOD that runs a course in 60 seconds will have a raw time of 60.000 seconds. When factoring the PAX, 60.000 x 1.0 = 60.000
The class A Street has a 0.823 Multiplier. So an A Street car that runs a course in 60.0 will have a raw time of 60.000 seconds. When factoring the PAX, 60.000 x 0.823 = 49.380
Both of those values AFTER factoring PAX are considered "PAX times" or "Indexed times."
***These examples were using PAX Values from when this was written this changes every year and you can find up to date PAX values at https://www.solotime.info/ ***
Second, what is the purpose of PAX?
Welll, as most people in our region have likely never seen an A Mod attend our events, we won't be using that example here.
This should give you an idea:
The aforementioned class "A Street" contains the Corvette C6 Z06 currently. That car has WIDE tires, rear wheel drive, lightweight, 505hp, and a fairly low center of gravity. It also has terrible seats if you were dying to know. (Humor)
That same Corvette completing an autocross course in 60.000 seconds would be very hard to match in a Honda Accord that has narrow tires, front wheel drive, higher weight, less than half the horsepower, and a higher center of gravity.
For that purpose the Honda Accord is classed in H Street which has a PAX factor of 0.786
Let's do some quick maths:
If the Corvette has run that autocross course in 60.000 seconds by our prior calculations it has a "PAX time" of 49.380
If the Honda Accord has run that same autocross course in 60.000 seconds (60.000 x 0.786 = 47.160) it will have a "PAX time" of 47.160.
Now if we were to see this outcome at a real event, that Corvette would have gotten it's tail whooped by over 2 seconds. When you consider the performance advantages of the Corvette this would be a fairly rare outcome to witness.
For a more pragmatic understanding the accord needs only to run the course in 62.824 seconds to match the "PAX time" of the Corvette.
How did I get that 62.824 raw time value? Well, I took the Corvette's "PAX time" and divided it by the H Street PAX multiplier. (49.380 / 0.786 = 62.824)
This would be a far more realistic time for a Honda Accord to run that course in.
This will give drivers in very different cars an idea of their performance. Not everybody at your local autocross event is going to be driving a Corvette Z06, and not everybody is going to be driving a Honda Accord. But with PAX multipliers, we can get an idea of how our performance stacked up with a very different car.
Third, where does this class "PAX Multiplier" come from?
I think we should now discuss classing and PAX with a bit of seperation. Classing is done by the SCCA. Your car with or without it's modifications is classed by the Solo Rulebook.
PAX is a seperate entity from SCCA and the SCCA does not set PAX values. Rick Ruth currently manages PAX values. Rick uses data points that he thinks are significant to his system. He has a detailed explaination of this in a PAX Attack Podcast (I recommend you check that out so you can hear from the man himself.)
Now if you've put a cold air intake on your Camaro SS, you'll be bumped up from F Street to CAMC class. The CAMC PAX is much harder. If you read the Solo Rulebook, CAMC allows an immense amount of modification to the car. You can change the engine, suspension, wheel size, body work, aero... You name it. The only restrictions are that the car must be on a 200 treadwear tire, and retain a "finished look" which has become arbitrary at this point.
The data points used to calculate CAMC PAX are going to be from some of those heavily prepared cars that are much faster than the aforementioned Camaro SS with a cold air intake.
PAX is NOT Infalliable. It is NOT perfect. With that being said, it's probably been the best practiced method of giving local competitors an idea of how they stack up against the other drivers even in different class cars.
Fortunately, when you go to National SCCA Solo events you will be competing against cars in YOUR respective class. H Street Honda Accords will be racing against other Honda Accords, Acura TLXs, Ford Fiesta STs, and other simliar powertrain cars.
The National events will offer an "indexed results" list that you can view for these PAX times but many factors should be considered when looking at these results. Some heats will have worse conditions to drive in. It could be really nice weather in the morning heats, with the afternoon heats being 100 degrees or rainy which is going to slow a class of cars down who didn't run the heats with more favorable conditions.
If you still feel like you don't really understand PAX feel free to discuss below!
If you feel that I may could have done a better job explaining some of these concepts, offer your critiques below as well.
If you think this whole PAX thing is just madness I'd also be interested in hearing why.
Hopefully this explaination will bring some clarity to a topic that everytime I go into detail about I think, "Man I could certainly do a better job articulating my thoughts when explaining this."
First, let's explain what PAX is.
PAX is numerical multiplier for a car class's time.
The class AMOD has a 1.0 PAX Multiplier. So an AMOD that runs a course in 60 seconds will have a raw time of 60.000 seconds. When factoring the PAX, 60.000 x 1.0 = 60.000
The class A Street has a 0.823 Multiplier. So an A Street car that runs a course in 60.0 will have a raw time of 60.000 seconds. When factoring the PAX, 60.000 x 0.823 = 49.380
Both of those values AFTER factoring PAX are considered "PAX times" or "Indexed times."
***These examples were using PAX Values from when this was written this changes every year and you can find up to date PAX values at https://www.solotime.info/ ***
Second, what is the purpose of PAX?
Welll, as most people in our region have likely never seen an A Mod attend our events, we won't be using that example here.
This should give you an idea:
The aforementioned class "A Street" contains the Corvette C6 Z06 currently. That car has WIDE tires, rear wheel drive, lightweight, 505hp, and a fairly low center of gravity. It also has terrible seats if you were dying to know. (Humor)
That same Corvette completing an autocross course in 60.000 seconds would be very hard to match in a Honda Accord that has narrow tires, front wheel drive, higher weight, less than half the horsepower, and a higher center of gravity.
For that purpose the Honda Accord is classed in H Street which has a PAX factor of 0.786
Let's do some quick maths:
If the Corvette has run that autocross course in 60.000 seconds by our prior calculations it has a "PAX time" of 49.380
If the Honda Accord has run that same autocross course in 60.000 seconds (60.000 x 0.786 = 47.160) it will have a "PAX time" of 47.160.
Now if we were to see this outcome at a real event, that Corvette would have gotten it's tail whooped by over 2 seconds. When you consider the performance advantages of the Corvette this would be a fairly rare outcome to witness.
For a more pragmatic understanding the accord needs only to run the course in 62.824 seconds to match the "PAX time" of the Corvette.
How did I get that 62.824 raw time value? Well, I took the Corvette's "PAX time" and divided it by the H Street PAX multiplier. (49.380 / 0.786 = 62.824)
This would be a far more realistic time for a Honda Accord to run that course in.
This will give drivers in very different cars an idea of their performance. Not everybody at your local autocross event is going to be driving a Corvette Z06, and not everybody is going to be driving a Honda Accord. But with PAX multipliers, we can get an idea of how our performance stacked up with a very different car.
Third, where does this class "PAX Multiplier" come from?
I think we should now discuss classing and PAX with a bit of seperation. Classing is done by the SCCA. Your car with or without it's modifications is classed by the Solo Rulebook.
PAX is a seperate entity from SCCA and the SCCA does not set PAX values. Rick Ruth currently manages PAX values. Rick uses data points that he thinks are significant to his system. He has a detailed explaination of this in a PAX Attack Podcast (I recommend you check that out so you can hear from the man himself.)
Now if you've put a cold air intake on your Camaro SS, you'll be bumped up from F Street to CAMC class. The CAMC PAX is much harder. If you read the Solo Rulebook, CAMC allows an immense amount of modification to the car. You can change the engine, suspension, wheel size, body work, aero... You name it. The only restrictions are that the car must be on a 200 treadwear tire, and retain a "finished look" which has become arbitrary at this point.
The data points used to calculate CAMC PAX are going to be from some of those heavily prepared cars that are much faster than the aforementioned Camaro SS with a cold air intake.
PAX is NOT Infalliable. It is NOT perfect. With that being said, it's probably been the best practiced method of giving local competitors an idea of how they stack up against the other drivers even in different class cars.
Fortunately, when you go to National SCCA Solo events you will be competing against cars in YOUR respective class. H Street Honda Accords will be racing against other Honda Accords, Acura TLXs, Ford Fiesta STs, and other simliar powertrain cars.
The National events will offer an "indexed results" list that you can view for these PAX times but many factors should be considered when looking at these results. Some heats will have worse conditions to drive in. It could be really nice weather in the morning heats, with the afternoon heats being 100 degrees or rainy which is going to slow a class of cars down who didn't run the heats with more favorable conditions.
If you still feel like you don't really understand PAX feel free to discuss below!
If you feel that I may could have done a better job explaining some of these concepts, offer your critiques below as well.
If you think this whole PAX thing is just madness I'd also be interested in hearing why.