yep. I went to a built civic hatch (full cage, etc.) and I am twice as busy now tyring to stay ahead of the car.

I did learn a lot in the evo, believe it or not, that translated well to a FWD car. I will drive the hatch faster than I ever did the evo though, just because of the wadablility factor (and my hatch is just plain fast. great power to weight ratio).

 

Yeah, my Miata has that in spades . . .

 

I believe that the evo "crutch" is its understeer. The car will allways tend to push in most situations which gives people alot of comfort and confidence. That handling trait combined with good power equals a very nice and relatively easy car to drive fast. In allmost all evo incar video's you hardly ever see counter steer or someone really working the back end of the car. It is mostly just tire noise from the front end and the speed is limited by how much grip the front tires have. This understeer is the primary reason I sold my evo. It was too fustrating to drive on the track.

 

This is absolutely true. When I replaced my worn out Advans with S Drives, I did an inadvertant 3rd gear drift around a bend in the middle of rush hour traffic...and when I say the middle, I mean between several cars, a curb, and a guard rail. I didn't lose it, but it did make me emminently aware of the difference in grip. Had the adrenaline shakes for a few miles after that...

 

the understeer is actually what keeps us evo drivers sane and out of trouble. after learning to drive fast on RWD cars from my A76 lancer to the IS300 made me realize that although these cars provide you with much fun(adrenaline wise), it is usually unforgiving if you make a mistake. that is the nice thing about the evo, there is just so much that needs to be tapped to push it to its limit. if you are not breaking loose you have not reached that goal yet



understeer to oversteer!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXTW0kybZqY

 

I don't think the Evo is a crutch for poor driving. It is just a very fast car that is capable of going faster than most other cars on the track when driven at 7/10ths. But drive it at 9 or 10/10ths and it is just as much of a handful as any car.

 

I think that it could be a crutch if you are an intermediate driver, especially if you already have general basic driving/racing skills.
As a novice driver I think it is quite the opposite, and can complicate the learning process a bit. At the very least, you definitely will need to learn to only use a small portion of the power, even stock, and brake accordingly. Having a heavy foot in an Evo is a surefire recipe for failure, at least as a beginner. Especially if you are overenthusiastic with the brakes, which is easy to do if you have the heavy foot. As someone said on the first page, I too have backed off my boost at track/autoX events, and found myself almost wishing I were learning in a lower powered, slower car that would be more telling of my mistakes. Almost The tricky part is to exercise self-control and not try use every available ounce of power as much as possible, even at stock power levels. That's why I am actually going to be taking some power out of my Evo. I am pretty sure it will help me become faster, along with just learning to drive a car better in general of course.
Ding ding ding! This perfectly describes a lot of my autocross runs. This brings us back to the heavy foot and overenthusiastic issue. The way I understand it (and please correct me if I am wrong), even with a skilled driver in an Evo that has been set up to the drivers preference as much as possible within the confines of the chassis, the "fast" setup and driving style is still relatively point and shoot. I don't know if it is still a "crutch" at that point, but definitely is its own kind of vehicle that has it's own "fast" way of being driven, but I could see why people would say so compared to FWD and RWD.

 

I think a lot of novice/intermediate drivers get a little fooled by the power. They can point and squirt in the thing, and *feel* like they are going fast. If that's what you mean by "crutch" then I agree.

Always best to learn in an underpowered, but good handling car I think. You learn speed maintenance, and eventually can translate that into a high powered car. I still find myself leaning on the power a little too much myself, when I should really be driving it like an H Stock car in places.

 

Most of my track miles have been behind the wheel of a Honda S2000. That car is a great learning platform. It has a chassis that is very sensitive to smoothness of input and a motor that only works well in a limited rev range. Putting together a fast lap driving a S2000 is very satisfying. In comparison, my Evo on track is easier to drive and forgiving of mistakes. I think seat time in something like a S2000 will make you a quicker driver in an Evo.

 

I can see an S2000 being a very rewarding platform to learn on for the simple reason that most of them I have seen at track days are capable as can be but demand excellence of their drivers and in turn most often being more demanding that most new folks can manage. I have seen more S2000s spin or off than any other make I can think of.

The only other car I have tracked was my old Golf TDI. It had a ton of torque and also fogged for insects at the same time. It had an Audi TT front end under it and big binders. It was fun to drive but the rear suspension drove me crazy. I had to move on as I outgrew it pretty quickly. I found the car a great home and its still being tracked today and is about as capable as any TDI around which is actually less crappy than one would think.

Now what about the Evo... I guess for me is that I do not know what I don't know. I would LOVE some input from folks who have lots of experience in other capable learning platforms as to what one must do to not get too cozy with the huge performance envelope of the Evo and as a result get lazy.

I want to be the best me I can be... honest! Anyone have any thoughts here?

 

Well, I learned to drive in a Camaro. I suppose you could make your Evo like a Camaro. Put a huge sway bar on the rear and make the rear springs really soft so the rear suspension looses all indendence and is twitchy but wallowy, cut out most of the bushing material in the rear trailing arms so that the rear tires hop under hard braking, add a bunch of weight to the nose (maybe 2 full size batteries up front?), set your front camber to no more than -1.5 degrees, set your rear camber to 0 or a little positive, set your rear toe to zero, swap on some brakes from a regular Lancer, and maybe add a few 100 lb. sand bags in the front of the passenger compartment. Then you'll learn the importance of smooth inputs!

 

well I've only ever tracked Evos. My VI was just way to damn easy to drive. AYC is a great tool but it took all the drive out driving. It was point and smash the gas. The Xs should be interesting on the track. My 380whp IV was just way too much car for me. Now that I've got my VIII I'm very happy with it. The lack of AYC is so much better. It forces me to take lines and drive and I plan on keeping it stock for a very long time.

 

Is a Z06 with 315 R compounds a crutch? (NO)

There is no such thing as a crutch. There are plenty of cars that are more capable and faster than an EVO. Its simply a good platform. But its still dangerous when pushed to the limits. Its just fast as hell at 70%.

Very good drivers in a slow car are limited by the platform but thats not the EVOs fault. Get a faster car and go faster. I love to see novice drivers in high HP evos with sticky tires put the smack down on the slow turd driving wheel men.

 

The Evo is a crutch, but I think its hysterical. After I get off the track driving karts, I can whip the Evo around like it is a kart. Mostly it's the steering ratio and the anticipation of the *** end kicking out, but then it doesn't.(Well, sometimes if I induce it.) I just giggle and squeeze the gas some more.

 

Hilarious