Ive always been all about racing my evo at the drag strip, but id like to get into road course/auto x. Im in new england and have no idea where to go or how to start. I know im probably not good enough of a driver to really be winning right off, but still, i would like to get into competitive racing but i am entirely at a loss as to where to begin.

My car has mostly power mods, with megan racing coilovers and will probably be getting wider wheels and tires over the winter. Im also thinking for racing on a road course, a IX turbo might be better than my 50 trim due to lag, not sure tho.

 

Check out Nasa/SCCA's website, look for things called PDA's, PDX's, HPDE's, sign up for one, change your brake fluid and have a good time.

Scorke

 

change my brake fluid? I have some blue stuff from extremepsi

 

Change it before every trackday. The last thing you want to do before entering a corner at 100mph+ is go "oh darn, my brake fluid has boiled."

 

If you have three thousand dollars and three days to spend, try a racing school such as skip barber or bertil roos. When you apply for your competition license, big names like that will fast forward the process.

 

well i want to learn how to race in the evo tho

 

Learning how to race in the evo is a horrible idea.

The car is so good and the awd hides so many mistakes you are much better off learning elsewhere. If mastering he evo is your wish, do one or two of those trackdays to get a taste and see if a school will be worth your while.

I did a barber 3 day at summit point, best weekend of my life.

Scorke

 

oh alright

 

Check this website http://www.trackpedia.com/wiki/Track...tes_Of_America

If you're in NH, you'll have a bit of traveling to do, but click the link to the track that you would want to travel to. Once you hit the track website, they will have a list of events or a schedule where you can find HPDE's (some place it under "club events").

You will need to book directly with the club that is putting on the event (BMW, PCA, Audi, NASA, etc.)

Most Northeast tracks haven't finalized their 2009 schedules yet, so you would want to check back at the beginning of '09, as HPDE events can start as early as March at some tracks.

Road course events are expensive versus AutoX, but you argueably get a better bang-for-the-buck as you'll spend about 3 hours in the car on-track over a weekend.

I would not spend any money on a "racing school" until you know you're hooked and know you want to "compete" rather than just go out and have a fun weekend.

When I started, I found the PCA events the best place to get good instruction in a friendly, laid-back atmosphere. NASA is good, but the HPDE portion can be a bit of a 3-ring circus as they have a tendancy to be crowded.

There are tons of "my first track day" threads in this forum that provide sound advice as to how to prepare for a track weekend.

Ask Santa for some good driving books and get ready for the spring

 

AXing out here:
http://www.fcscc.com/
http://www.cartct.com/index1.shtml
http://www.nescca.com/nescca%5Fmain/

If AX - fluid and maybe better pads.
AX Driver training days are a great way to get a lot of run with an experienced driver.

If a track day - get track pads and change your fluid to DOT4.
PCA or NASA HPDE are great driver ed days. You will get an instructor and one-on-one attention.

And I degree on learning in the Evo. It is a good platform to learn in just do not jump to slicks/r-comps until you can out drive the car/setup.

 

Having fun around a track in an evo is one thing. Becoming a good driver in one is another.

Not to sound cliche but, you gotta drive a slow car fast before you can drive a fast car fast.

 

x10.

You CAN do it the other way around but the learning curve is so much steeper that you do not ever truly appreciate the nuances of racing some thing slow. A tenth of a second off of the gas on the wrong corner can take car lengths off of a straightaway.

Smoothe=fast, which is hard to grasp in a car with as much grip and power and just natural capability as the evo.

Scorke

 

x100!

Nothing wrong with checking out some auto-x to see if its something you're interested in. If you get hooked, then you can decide for yourself if the Evo is the best learning tool (which I don't think it is).

FWIW, I had a really nice Impreza RS-turbo back before the WRXs were available stateside. After 1/2 a season of auto-x I knew I wasn't in the best car for learning (AWD hides mistakes), so I sold the turbo kit off the car for a nice downpayment on a base model miata. Then I sold the Impreza and bought a GTX so I could play around in the dirt. I had two cheap ****boxes to beat the crap out of, and there was a good chance at any given time one of them could get me to work. There's something magical about beating cars costing 10x (or more) what you're racing.

Don't get me wrong though...I'm not giving up my evo now.

Dave

 

yup. the look on a gt3 owners face when they catch you on their *** through all the corners is pretty funny. They always wonder if you've got a small block in that tiny miata.

 

I started out...about 8 years ago at a local autocross club event, first timers got a "school" included which taught hand position, seat position, where to look, all controlled and not pressured by traffic etc, which i still use to this day professionally, great place to start. Heh, back then My dad had a turbo diesel beetle and I had a 2000 GTI vr6, bone stock everything, we then went to a miata anniversary edition to learn how to spin without hitting cones LOL, that was a lot of fun. We then decided to attend the Panoz school, which was a 100000000% worth the money, then he finally went back to a Porsche Carrera (he's tracked 10 of em in the past) which he still races to this day, then i went and got my Evo, aka poor man's porsche....killer muwahaha.....especially when you have Robispec suspension lol which is a HUGE mistake hider as they said, it's good every now and then to drive the RWD cars to "review" the mistakes you might be making on lines you think are "perfect"