Who's racing? These are "Drivers Ed" events.

 

Agreed,I haven't 'raced' anyone. You don't race a street car, and you don't ride in a race car on the street. That is a good rule of thumb. Besides, I sure wouldn't take a chance on hurting the Evo like that.

 

I disagree 70%

Most kids do not know nor have the ballz to push an evo to it's limits STOCK.

Real Gearheads and track junkies go though brakepads, and tires like it's there last race.

http://www.CarPhoto.net

 

Most unskilled push it right over the limits and into a tree, ditch, or other car...

 

I have the TEIN flex. For me, on sweeping downhill and uphill turns and rolling hills(Lime Rock), the body roll made me a little nervous but the tires stuck eventhough they seem like they shouldn't be able to. With coilovers, the body roll is gone. All you have to worry about are your tires. Problem with the TEINS are that even with the softer settings they are so damn stiff.

 

I agree with most of you. For people that are going to the track for the first time, learn how your car handles near the limits. Get comfortable with your car and its abilities. I believe the evo handles really well in stock form. Learn and then adjust from there as you gain experience.

- Rich

 

Well...that's exactly my point. I don't believe "pushing a car to it's limits" means abuse. A good driver can push his car hard and it will last years and years. So what if you go through lots of brake pads, tires, and other consumables? Those things are meant to be used up and replaced. As long as you maintain the car very well and replace worn parts frequently, there's no problem.

Every track junkie I know inspects his/her car from head to toe several times a year. They examine every suspension bushing, wheel bearing, c.v. joint, tie rod, etc. several times a year. They flush their brake fluid and coolant a few times times a year. They watch their diff and tranny fluids. They change oil like you change your underwear. How many street drivers do this?

But you get a young kid in a car who doesn't know how to drive properly...THAT'S abuse in my book. A good track driver won't be bouncing off the rev limiter, banging through the gears, dropping clutches, doing burnouts, riding the clutch in traffic or any of that crap. They're not the guys busting trannys and smoking clutches every 5K miles!

Give me a well-maintained car owned by a mature track junkie any day.

Emre

 

well put.

 

Excellent advice.

 

IMO, this is one of THE best advices, the most sensible reality check on this forum.

From what I've seen on this forum, almost everyone wants to mod his/her car to make it run faster and perform better. And just because someone went to a track event or some autoX events, they think they know everything about auto-racing and proper driving techniques. They worry more about making their cars run faster than learning how to drive better. It's just because their modified cars can run faster they think they can also drive faster themselves. When in fact, most don't even know the very basic driving skills like brake control (force, timing, depth, duration and braking distance), throttle control, turn-in steering control, race line, weight transfer during cornering, skid control and probably the most important of all, learning how to utilize the tire characteristics of their vehicles.

It's just like they say, "it's not how fast you drive, it's about how you drive fast."