Good luck. I think people either bought an EVO because they thought it would be a great track day car or watched F&F too many times. The first group will be a the track and the second group will be the ones ringing their hands and making excuses about how much tires cost etc. You also have the auto-xers, who you would think would come out to a HPDE or track day on occassion, but rarely do. (Due credit is given to the auto-x people in my area, where several of the HPDE days have conflicted with TLAC)

You will meet people at the track who share your intrests. Just go, have a good time, and feel sorry for those who are missing out. If you want to hang out with other EVO owners have a cookout or something.

 

It's funny how when track days come up the haters come out. Nobody is riding any of your nuts for not coming to Texas Motorplex, Dyno Days with NTEC (or anything with NTEC for that matter), or whatever else we do with our EVOs (meets, cruises, etc). Nobody gives you a hard time.

That is what you are interested in (apparently the only thing). And that's fine. Some of us enjoy a variety of things and track days may be 1 out of 10 things we do with our EVOs. So as a result we don't make it to MSR every weekend. Big deal. Some of us are more well rounded in my opinion.

So until you track nuts come hang out with other EVO owners, don't expect the other EVO owners to jump when you say jump. We have other things we like to do as well as the road course. I am not a newbie to the track. I grew up racing 80 MPH karts. It's a blast. But guess what. The EVO is fun at the track, but the EVO is good for much more than that.

Live and let live, fellas. Sheesh.

 

I gotta agree with you, even though I'm maybe a little bit guilty of indulging in hateration myself.

Evos are fun to drive on the street (even at legal speeds), fun to look at, and fun to talk about. It' s all good.

And while tracking the car is a blast, it's also involves putting a couple of valuable assets at risk (bodily health and the car).

The non-haterating point to the original poster is that if he's interested in tracking his Evo, he shouldn't wait for anyone else. Because the majority of Evo owners (indeed, the majority of owners of any make of car) are not interested in the track.

 

I did not realize I was spouting hate. There is no hate here. Hell, I love Fast and the Furious, doesnt everybody shift at least 10 times when running a 1/4 mile? Can't the EVO do 120mph while going backward? What is not to like?

I have no problem with people who want to park in a parking lot and talk for hours about their cars. I have no problem with people like Mister2zx3 who think the EVO should live on the track 100% of the time. I have no problems here. Just trying to get more people involved in all the greatness that is the EVO. Perhaps this is a group that doesn't need much encouragement and is already involved. I'm a software developer not an advertiser. I wouldn't know a market demographic if it fell in my lap and started to wiggle. So I picked the wrong group. take my NOS bottle away.

I show up for NTEC events. I was at the meet at Chicago pizza (?) briefly and then at the car show at Wasabi. I'll also be at the saturday part of the meet weekend after next. Basically, I'm game for just about anything short of street racing.

Basically, I am just trying to let people know that there is a lot of stuff you can do besides sitting at home playing Project Gotham.

As for the dangers involved in track events....I fail to see how they are any more dangerous than doing 160Mph on George Bush. Or racing Nissan Altimas on 635 at over 120Mph. On the track at least you have a helmet and emergancy responders to save your @ss when you screw up. The track also pretty much excludes having an H2 cut you off.

At this point i prefer autocross to track event simply because I've not gotten on a track yet. But by all appearances autocross puts a lot less stress on the car (no purple Brimbos). The greatest danger at an autocross is a sun burn.

What I don't like about autocross is the waiting. Autocross is about 9/10 hanging out in a parking lot talking about driving fast. You wait a really long time for a brief bit of driving.

To expand my own horizons next spring I plan to drive up to Hallette and try out their touring club which hot laps the track on weekends. $75/weekend seems like a pretty good deal. I have friends in the area, some of whom are in the COMA club.

In short, this is not about hating or belittling people for their choices of what they do with their EVO. Just trying to get like minded people together. The only group I don't like is the gold chain crowd. I've yet to meet a member of that species driving an EVO or STi. You generally find them driving Vettes, Porsches, and rarely 350s. I don't golf and don't attend political fund raisers so I don't generally run in to this crowd.

 

Hey now! They need to take a break too for that much need TLC, maintenance and a spit shine.. As for the hating, I see more coming from those who won't practice what they preach and give the other side of the tracks a go. I'm all for hanging out where it's comfortable and playing where it's safe.... and very fast...

So when's the parkahs and trackahs goin' tah gets togetha and hav a day of hangin' and drivin?

 

I honestly didn't want to plan anything special. I just want to hi-jack and gate crash other people's events with a bunch of riced out EVOs .

Here is the trick: what would the parkahs and the trackahs get together for? Parkahs don't seem to keen on getting on the track (burns off those advans pretty quick from what I hear). The trackahs don't want to just sit and talk. What is needed is a happy middle ground. My opinion is that a very small (20 - 30 car) autocross would work best. However setting up something like that would be a b1tch. What about doing time trials (hot laps)? NTEC was planning an event at MSR anyway. Why not hi-jack that? Might be easier than trying to setup an autocross and some of the work has probably already been done.


spit shine -> just removed the deal stickers from my car and washed it last night. Funny how something so small can make you think the car looks better. Tonight I'm going to wax the car

 

This was by no means directed at any one person, especially you tweekscratch!

 

Just call me thin skinned.

 

There's plenty of talking between sessions, during rain delays, during lunch, at dinner, etc. At TWS pretty much everybody was visiting from out-of-town, so like 13 of us (including 3 instructors) went out to dinner together that Saturday night. Man, that was a group of like-minded individuals who wanted to do nothing but talk about cars and driving!

One hilarious instructor (and Spec Miata racer) went into intricate detail about what it was like to go off at each of TWS' corners....both clockwise and counter-clockwise.

The only bad thing about driving an Evo is that if you're quick, the car gets the credit (perhaps rightfully). My instructor was so impressed with the car as I tore through the Green/Blue groups in the rain that he announced that his next car would be an Evo.

Right now I'm about 75% sure that I'll be doing either the 9/25 weekend at TWS with NASA or the 10/9 weekend at TWS with The Driver's Edge. Newbies seem to rave about this organization, and I'd like to give them a try (having already tried NASA and the TWS Motorsports Club).


Regarding the "hateration": nothing you've said was even remotely hateful. It was those of us responding to your post that were disrespecting the folks who never track their cars.

 

I'm signed up for Drivers Edge this weekend at MSR and can't tell you how excited/nervous I am. Everyone would like to think they are skilled at driving, but I imagine it'll be a very humbling experience.

I'll let you know sunday my newbie thoughts about the whole weekend. This will be my first time on a track in any car so I'm not sure really what to expect. John

 

You don't have to tell me. I know exactly what you're feeling!

I really wanted to do MSR again this weekend, but it looks like the timing just isn't right for me.

But, please, by all means let us know what the weekend was like for you!

 

John4321: Wear those purple brimbos as a badge of pride man!

 

I'll be at MSR this weekend too. I'll see you out there.

 

See, perfect example. I would totally be there this weekend, but I race cars and I have a race this weekend in Houston. Sorry guys!

 

Do people actually factor this into their decisions about whether or not to track their cars?

I'm jealous of (and happy for) the guys out there this weekend. All I could do was stare longingly at mine in the Taco Cabana parking lot this morning while I ate breakfast and read the latest issue of Sport Compact Car (in which the Evo VIII was listed as the greatest sport compact of all time).