The primary reason I bought my EVO was to attend autocrosses and track days. Otherwise I would have bought a more 'sensible' car and put the money in to something less fun. Like another computer.

I'll attend autocrosses with or without other EVO drivers' participation. But I would also like to try and help organize a few events. Specifically track days and driving schools. Is there any interest?

For next year (2005) I would like to setup a day at TMR and Hallett. I know that Hallett has a hot lap event once a month where we can without too much trouble. I'm not sure what TMR has. Hot lapping is nice b/c you don't have to worry about other drivers and can focus on your own driving.

I would also like to get a driving school setup, but I suspect that would be a bit more difficult. We could probably combine with other groups to get the head count up (the Subaru group comes to mind).

So is anybody interested in this?


UPDATE: Here is the Hallett event I'm talking about: http://www.hallettracing.com/
Does Texas Motorsport Ranch have anything similar?

 

You don't really have to organize your own events. There are plenty of existing ones. So far I've done one with NASA at MSR (The Motorsports Ranch) and one with the TWS Driver's Club at TWS (Texas World Speedway).

I'd like to do the one with The Driver's Edge at MSR the weekend after next (9/11), but I think I'd need to replace my brake pads first. If I sign up for that one I'll do so at the last minute - if it still has openings.

So far there are Evos are everywhere I go. Hell, the are other SILVER Evos are everywhere I go.

At my first event at MSR in July a very cool guy who posts here under the handle Mister2zx3 took me under his wing - an invaluable help for a newbie like myself.

And I recently spent some time with a cool group of guys at ConeCrazy.org . These guys are into driving big-time, and they have some very accessible instructors who hang with them. I had a blast with them at TWS two weeks ago. And they do exactly what you were suggesting: they buy track time as a group. I paid $186.50 for a two day event (with 5 25-minutes sessions per day) instead of the $250 it would otherwise have cost.

But as I'm quickly learning, paying for the track time is only part of the cost of road-racing. Hotels (when travelling), brakes, and tires can also be substantial.

Hallet is probably too far for me (I'm Houston-based), but if you get out and about you'll likely run into me at TWS and MSR. Hope to see you out there!

 

good points all. However, people don't always know what is going on or what is available. Further by getting large groups of EVO owners together for an event it is possible to take advantage of discounts which leave more money for those break pads. Driver's Edge for instance offers 10% club discounts. It can also be more fun to show up to an event as a group versus solo.

The goal is not to create new events (unless enough people are interested). The goal is to get EVO owners to show up to events as a group.

 

NTEC is planning some things at MSR in 2005.

 

I'm in - I am not interested in driving in a big oval though, road courses are the only things that hold interest for me.

 

Last I heard MSR isn't an Oval so it should work pretty well.

NTEC is really beginning to take off. It is finally getting enough critical mass to where it can organize events on its own. This hopefully will also mean more EVOs at other events too.

You ought to give AutoX a swing. it is cheap and fun. My biggest complaint is that you do a lot of waiting for just a bit of driving. The upside is that it takes nearly 0 preperation. Other than adjusting tire pressure and getting the junk out of your trunk, you can pretty much run what you drive on the street.

Next year I plan to add a few tracks days to my diet of AutoX. But by that point I will have 2 sets of wheels so I won't kill my street tires.

I've setup a site to keep track of dates here: http://www.guerillaprogrammer.com:9090/InitialD

So far I only have the dates I'm planning on attending. There are a bunch of other events planned that I have not added yet. If you have any you would like me to add let me know.

 

I've met a bunch of Evo owners. Several autocross. Some drag race. A few do the road racing thing. Most spend money on "mods" and then stand around in parking lots talking about how fast their cars are in the 1/4 mile (without the benefit of actually having driven in a timed quarter mile).

My advice (FWIW): Don't wait for the poseurs. Head on out to the first event you can find! I can almost guarantee that you'll have more in common with whomever you meet there - no matter what they drive - than you will with any of the Dub Nation parking lot crowd.

(*Disclaimer*: the "no matter what they drive" thing doesn't necessarily apply to Porsche owners. They're widely reported to be obnoxious elitists.)

 

You live in Houston so I can see how this may be what you experience regularly. It doesn't hold true here. I don't think any of us have "dubs." I think the wildest visual mod any of us have are canards and those are quite functional.

 

I was using "Dub Nation" as a general term for the people who don't drive on tracks. When I re-read what I wrote, it comes across as insulting to the people who don't drive on tracks. That wasn't really my intent, and I apologize to anyone I inadvertenty offended. I like people who like cars. Period.

What I was trying to say was this: not everyone who owns an Evo will track it. If you're looking for comraderie at the track, you will find it, and it's not dependent on what people are driving (Porsches excluded).

I found everything that the original poster said he wanted (comraderie, significant discounts, driving instruction, and even hooking up with other Evo owners) with the ConeCrazy guys.

 

Autox holds zero interest for me, there is way to much standing around in the heat watching cones, timing people etc for 10 minutes of driving. I'd much rather do 25 minute hot laps of something on a road track. I'm also up for a track night sometime, I missed out on the last one but I reckon it'd be fun

 

I'd be interested in a Tarmac, Mud, Snow, Ice stage! You shouldn't be killing street tires at the track unless your focusing on the wrong things. Berserker, how are your tires holding up?

 

I'm interested. Let me know...

 

Before going to TWS I replaced one of the FM901s because I chewed it up so badly at MSR, and I had the remaining tires re-mounted so that the worn outside edges were on the inside of the rims.

After TWS (about 4 hours of track time) they still look pretty good to me. I don't know whether I was driving better, or TWS is easier on tires, or it was better having more sessions that were shorter in duration. Maybe the rain helped. I dunno.

I'm already looking around for my next set, so I'll be ready when it's time. I'm thinking about Goodyear F1 GS-D3s now. It doesn't seem like a lot of guys run them; it might be cool to try something different.

I was half-planning to head up to MSR for the Driver's Edge event this coming weekend, but I autocrossed last Saturday and the heat just sucked the life force out of me (in spite of all the Gatorade I was chugging). I'm not up for standing out in the sun again. Now I'm planning to do the NASA event at TWS at the end of the month.

You heading out to any events soon?

 

Just in case some of y'all are thinking that TWS is just an oval, I wanted to mention that it's not. Yes, they have an oval, but they can run several configurations (check out the web site for more info).

We were running the 2.9 mile road course in the dry and the 1.8 mile road course in the rain.

Both those configurations used the some of the oval's 21-degree banking as their "front straight".

And, man, the first time you dive off that banking into turn 1, it WILL get your attention!

 

I don't know which event I'll be heading out to next, but this labor day weekend was good for putting a few hundred miles of hot laps in. It's about time to replace the seat though, they sure do get abused a lot on the track. Proper Tire rotation and remounting can sure help extend tire life tremendously, good to hear they're still hanging on.

It will be good if some more folks can make out to the local circuits and have their world turned up side down in a good way. I'm starting to think if its just an attitude/ego thing that keeps the talkers talking and the runners running. I'd be really surprised ( but in a good way) if just one talker stopped talking (er spouting excuses) long enough to make it out to the track before the end of the year.

But that's enough of that.. When and where is this shindig going to go down?