The sport of Autotesting is the art of precision car control against the clock over a predetermined course. The course is marked out with traffic cones or poles, each competitor is given a map of the route they must take, this will show the direction of travel (forwards or reverse) and various other manouvres such as 360 spin turns, reverse flicks, stop astride lines or slalom through a line of cones. Time penalties of either 5 or 10 secs for hitting cones or going too far over a stop lines are added to the final time for the test. A wrong test, taking the wrong route through the cones will incur a more severe penalty normally in the region of 30 secs, this is added to the fastest correct time in that class, this is also the maximum time that can be given for that test, even if you drive it correctly without penalties, so you can't go too slow. Each event will normally consist of between 12 and 24 tests, each test being approximately 30 secs to 60 secs long.
Cars for Autotest vary from standard road going (Mothers shopping car) to chopped down specials. The Mini is still one of the best autotest cars ever built and today you will still find this 40 year old design at the front end of the competition. But size doesn't matter as Championship points are Class based, so as long as you do well in your chosen Class then you will be in contention for the honour of being crowned ASWMC Autotest Champion.
Autotesting is without doubt one of the cheapest forms of motorsport with entry fees around £18 for a Regional Championship event or even less if competing on a closed to club event. Add a few pounds for travelling to the event, about a gallon of fuel to compete, a couple of spare wheels and tyres and you are just about ready to go.
If you are any good you may well be offered the chance to represent the ASWMC at the annual Inter Association Autotest, where competitors selected from the 15 regional associations in the UK do battle in teams of three.
Autotesting is also one of the few motorsports where you can be selected to drive for your Country, the annual Ken Wharton Memorial Autotest is keenly fought out amoungst teams from the home nations.
Most of all Autotesting is a fun sport with a friendly bunch of competitors, who are always willing to lend a helping hand and give advice to a newcomer to the sport.