Autograss Special

History

Autograss grew from 1960s farm-field racing into the NASA-governed (National Autograss Sport Association) network of clubs running quarter-mile grass and mud ovals across Britain and Ireland — ten classes from near-standard Minis upward, with the 'specials' (Classes 8, 9 and 10) as the discipline's engineering summit: purpose-built spaceframe single-seaters and twin-engined creations owing nothing to production cars.

The specials culture is garden-shed F1: motorcycle superbike engines (Hayabusa and Fireblade favourites) or tuned car units, builder-designed frames, and a rules envelope loose enough that genuine innovation — twin-engine four-wheel drive in Class 10 the famous extreme — comes from home workshops. Racing is short, violent and sideways; national championships (the annual NASA Nationals the pinnacle) crown builders as much as drivers.

The market is correspondingly informal but real: proven specials change hands through club networks and the discipline's active online marketplaces, priced by build quality and results rather than marque, with the class structure letting newcomers enter at saloon level and graduate to specials as ambition and fabrication skill grow.

Palmarès

NASA National Championship titles across Classes 8–10 (the builders' crowns, contested annually since the 1970s); British Autograss Series wins; club and league championships across the UK and Ireland's dozens of venues — the accumulated record of Britain's largest amateur motorsport's fastest machinery.