During a recent trip down below the equator to the lovely country of Brazil, we managed to get a good taste of motorsport in the Latino country. We found ourselves in Piracicaba, a small city outside São Paulo known for ECPA – a small, technical track. These Spec Cars in Brazil called “Marcas e Pilotos”, which literally translates to “Brands and Drivers”, is a popular and easily accessible Spec Car racing series – like Spec Miata but with front wheel drive econo-hatches and a whole lot less oversight.
Unlike Spec Miata, the series includes a variety of car brands – as the name indicates. Examples include popular econo-hatches sold in Brazil, such as the Chevrolet Corsa and the VW Gol. Not the Golf… the Gol. You may know the Gol as the Fox, since the late 80’s – early 90’s US Fox was a variant of the Brazilian-made, Latin American-market Gol.
These cars are generally fairly quick, but in a comical way. The chassis, suspension, steering, engine – well pretty much everything, was never designed to go fast. As a result, track prep includes running a stupid amount of camber to limit understeer. The front tires are generally run at normal pressures and the rear tires are over-inflated – to induce oversteer in an attempt to create a neutral handling car. The engine is run with absolutely no filter on the intake, in fact – there’s no intake at all, just a throttle body.
The suspension is stiffened up, but offers very little feedback. As you attack corners – the car will deliver a stupidly fun combination of mild to moderate understeer (it’s impossible to get rid of it completely), followed by massive oversteer as the rear tires receive a lateral load. The oversteer is actually easily countered with more throttle. Accelerate as early as you can without losing traction – and you’re off to the straight.
And right about here is where you feel just how numb and ridiculous the alignment and steering feels. The car will literally just sway and wobble – as the alignment and numb steering debate the meaning of “going straight”. Tires are expensive in Brazil, so to save on costs the teams and drivers run Pirelli P6s. Yes… all seasons. They (in combination with the absurd alignment) provide enough grip to easily lift the rear inside wheel, often lifting both inside wheels with some motivation from the curbs.
But with all that said, there’s much to be learned from this series. As funny and different as it may be, it’s a perfect example of motorsport fanatics having huge amounts of fun with what they have at their hands. We’d bet a skilled driver in a tight course could easily keep up with a Spec Miata in one of these. With that said, solid car control and a heightened sense of what the car is doing under you is required to get around a track quickly.
In addition to the spec series car, we also got a chance to run some laps in a Brazilian Formula car. These cars run in a higher price tag series – reserved to the most “elite” drivers with similarly sized “elite” budgets. While they’re referred to as formula cars, they are all pretty much identical – running Ford Zetec motors and oldschool VW Beetle transmissions. The original cars ran VW Beetle aircooled engines, and most of the suspension and running gear remains Beetle aircooled-era sourced.
The front end is simply a VW Beetle torsion bar front clip, yes… torsion bars. Thanks to lower weight, these cars accelerate hard and corner exceptionally well – a polar opposite sensation and driving style compared to the spec cars. The antiquated gearbox and suspension is blatantly obvious, shifts are awkward at best. The suspension is very predictable on entry and exit, but through the turn – at max load – the car feels very nervous. Like the Spec cars, this Brazilian formula car is a perfect representation of local motorsport: building the fastest, best handling car with the most common and easily-accessible parts bins.
The overall experience was incredible. Motorsports and car enthusiasm is one of those rare passions and interests that transcends culture, political boundaries, and language. This was a track day for the books, with epic moments on track and great memories off track with local enthusiasts.