I might have to ride up there and check out some of your events.

[Edit: We have some events at Texas Motor Speedway, looks like a huge oval.]

 

see its the back roads and mountain twisties that make me want to start with auto x then move to the real stuff. my buddy has been lucky enough to drive on the ring in germany.

 

someone has been doing their homework. and i like it. thing is though is 98% of the time people build their car up more than they can handle. you see it all the time at the track ie. last year at gingerman i had the sedan stock besides tein ras 615s and hp+. there was a 240 with a rb26 single big turbo..that car didnt pass me once all weekend. shorter track than most too.

i actually had discussion about going back to a d series. but i wont get into that. too much info that is not needed. lol. but go out in a "slow" car and you will learn a ton more. stay on street tires for awhile if you are tracking. if you are autoxing r comps wont really be bad if you want to run smf. but i dont think smf has alot of entries in many regions. i enter sms so i can play with the big boys. r comps are definitely a bandaid for beginner drivers..but many people will jump the gun on those too. after putnam i told a buddy my lap times and he was like time for hoosiers. uhh no. let me learn some more then ill go to r comps when i can maximize all of their grip. somehow my gopro failed this weekend and i didnt get video from this one session. but i started behind some 240 rocking a vg30 with r6s on it. the whole session he didnt pull away and im on streets and an underpowered vtecless b16a. probably the most fun i had all weekend.

kind of ranting but that is one thing that bothers me is people that have super quick cars but yet cant drive a decent line to save their life. but the quick car is a bandaid so they think they are quick. one buddy who has autoxed for awhile now is wanting to track his car. he said he wanted to go out and do time attacks without doing any hpdes. i was like so you are going to go out and drive the line that you think is right and use throttle and brakes how you feel accordingly. this year at bmw school i turned down a sign off and at expo i tried but he said no i want you to be signed off..so what did i do. i went and found this pro driver who was our classroom instructor and asked him to ride the next session. the following session i got another instructor to ride with me but my first instructor would always be there after the session to go over things. it was awesome because i had feedback like crazy. and to me that is the only thing that can make you better because one thing you feel or might feel is right someone else might have a different outlook. so fast forward to this past weekend. one of those instructors which was my instructor at wmhm last year was like im riding with you this session. ok lets roll. session ends and he goes "ill come back and talk to you about it but i have to hop in with my beginner." i said "ill expect the worst." he replies "no..that was good." after the session he comes back and says "that was good. nothing stands out. your gas to brake transitions were good." i said "come on theres got to be more.." nope. so then we discussed visual markers and the track. there is always things and ways to improve. ill stop here because im writing a book. just like talking about it sometimes. lol.

and gabe. 60 on an autox course. thats stupid. i could go into a autox/track difference/comparison topic which i planned on. lol. for the time being ill leave you with that.

 

it should have a infield section. like how ia is if you went to it.

 

well put. im not even going to go crazy with power anymore. im going to get a z6 w/greddy turbo kit. should make maybe 150? who knows. either way i agree with you..i know if i go to crazy right off the gate i'll be that fool spinning out or having usless power and not getting the best times i can get. so why not take baby steps. good "story" lol......

 

Tell me about it! That's what took my old Civic out. A twitchy rear end on a high speed course with a friend driving my car turned out to be a bad deal.

 

wow. i didnt know thats how that happend. wow. sucks.

on another note. whytf was that truck "on course"?

 

ps. flip that car was clean. jeesh.

 

That was the timing truck. 30 yards from the finish. The only possible object to hit...and he hit it.

 

must have been looking at it when he panicked when the car lost control. drove right into it. my guess..your eyes lead you.

sucks no matter what. your car..you werent driving. your car became f.d! maybe im weird but i think ive let one friend drive it and that was down the street. i dont think i could let a friend drive it on course/track.

 

Yeah...because he had tons of time to let off the brakes and re-route the car.

I just sat there in the grid line and watched...the entire time saying...let off the brakes...turn...turn!

(I was in another friend's car waiting to do my fun run)

 

everytime i see that picture i get gross feelings in my stomach.

 

uhh yeah. just reading gabe.s post i got chills. i literally dont know what i would have done. cry swing or cuss out loud would be the first 3 that come to mind.

 

well i dont know how i would take it, half the reason after letting my friend drive my hatch after i swapped it was the last time i let anyone drive my car. he was hell bent on hitting vtec in every single gear and when i told him to slow his role he said what you scared and i said yeah that i might have to whoop a friends ***.

 

He was and still is a good friend of mine. He fully compensated me for it.

Put $1,500 down for my wife's 2006 Honda Odyssey and payed payments for an entire year.

 

agreed. since my hatch has been done friends have started it but not one of them has drove it. hell i think only 6 people have even rode in it and 4 of them were instructor related. lol. but the hatch only gets driven to and from the track/autox events. hell my gf hasnt even rode in it since it got fired up this year. lol.

 

damn. thats whats up.

at the time though. i still dont know how i would react. hopefully rationally and not emotionally.

 

Yeah, we all hope not to act emotionally.

Unfortunately thats not the case with everyone. Least he was legit and threw money down plus payments/year for the van

 

should have used spare money to bag it. then throw some 19s on there. soccer mom of the year..hands down! lol.

 

Theres a guy in my town that has pry one of the sickest rsx-s in the us...which is weird since our town is ****INGGGG small.

But anyways...this guy has an Odyssey as well. It is lowered on 19 inch Volks and he is going to try and put a supercharged k20a2 in it.

 

volks..boner.
k series..uhh why? thats like downgrading. might as well wait for a wreck zdx and put that puppy in there. puts like 380 at the crank and would most likely be an easier swap.

in for pics of the rsx.

 

Oh trust that I'm beyond all that craving for power nonsense. I mean there are a lot of people who don't understand what it is to have a linear power curve. And even more people want to have high horsepower motors and not focus on the torque curve. I am in no way talking down about people, I'm just a firm believer in that if there is something to be done there is always more to learn. When I went out to my event I had S-Drives on the front with less than 500 miles on them and Ecsta ASTs on the rear. I immediately noticed the difference between the two, I mean something way beyond where the weight was but in a sense of the structure of the tires in addition to the usage prior to the event. I even tried to compensate by adjusting the tire pressure but it seemed to be something beyond that. My next event is in Aug and hopefully I wont miss this one. I do have some adjustments and modifications I plan on making prior to tracking. Sways are most definitely on the list along with new rears (Kumho's again since they were free). I more interested in how the car's personality changes once I lower it some and get an alignment and maybe some spacers to widen the stance some (nothing extremely aggressive).

As for the infield @ Texas Motor Speedway it doesn't look too technical. But something is better than nothing.


When I saw pics of Gabe's car my first thought was, "is he alright?". But after reading up I realized everything was cool. At least some good came out of it and he is now in the EH squad (so everything happens for a reason )

Lol.

 

Southeast EH Squad Members PM me!

There are some members, including myself, who plan on attending Import Face Off in Baton Rouge on October 3rd (which is a Sunday). The plan is to turn it into a fun filled weekend on the gulf coast (Oct 1st-Friday, Oct 2nd-Sat, Oct 3rd-Sun, Oct 4th-Monday). The location is only hrs away from:

New Orleans, Louisiana








This one is for Jesse:


and Biloxi, Mississippi:





If there are any members who are interested in coming but don't want to drive I or another driving member will be willing to pick you up from the airport. Please PM me if you are interested in coming so I can organize something with the other attended members and create an itinerary.

 

 

Its nicer in person. Keep in mind that we dont have streets where I live, we just have constant potholes lol