Sorry if im breaking any forum rules by posting this (i hope im not) but how did you all start learning how to drive fast and pick up the technique? I'm 17 right now so any HPDE's are out of the question for a couple of months. I personally do love my hondas and driving a zippy car, but I feel like my cars' abilities aren't being brought anywhere near to their potential because I simply don't know how to take it there safely. And to clarify I don't street race or ever plan to because thats simply ricer bullsht. So onto my question(s), how do you think I should start? Where do I learn the techniques? What safety measures do I take? Sorry for the noob question, but i really do want to learn

oh and im talking more about the twisties and turns, as im planning to build up my s2k after my prelude is sold

 

Cheap is autocross schools. Most region hosts them at the beginning of the year. Our club already hosted one at end of March. Most regions offer them for about $50-100.

Next step would be Evolution Schools. Which cost about $225 for one day.

Leave the practicing for the track.

 

Unless you have a significant amount of money, skip building up your s2k and use it to get seat time in both autocrossing and HPDEs. Some HPDEs will allow you to participate with a parent signing a release form. The S2000 is already fast enough and you'll have plenty fun with it in it's stock or nearly stock form (I have an '01 s2k).

 

Indoor Karting is always a good safe way to practice driving skills.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CivicSiRacer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Cheap is autocross schools. Most region hosts them at the beginning of the year. Our club already hosted one at end of March. Most regions offer them for about $50-100.

Next step would be Evolution Schools. Which cost about $225 for one day.

Leave the practicing for the track.</TD></TR></TABLE>

This is very good advice. I learned more in my first driving school than I did ever thought possible.

 

+1 for free up money and start with a different car. S2K stuff becomes complicated for track driving as well, with a lot of tracks requiring a rollbar. This is with the assumption that money is an issue (and it is, for most people driving Hondas).

 

money is an issue to an extent, but i'm comfortable w/ spending a good amount of my spendable money on something i'm interested in I figure after the sale of my prelude, I will likely be using half of it directly. But I have no problem spending the other half on equipment and saving it for events (for a few months b4 I turn 18) I read the thread on how much it costs w/o equipment and ill put 1-2k away as a "one-time" expense for the necessary equipment

 

So if you total the S2K, would that be a problem financially? For the sake of discussion, assume insurance will NOT cover it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dirty19 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Indoor Karting is always a good safe way to practice driving skills. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Agreed, as far as learning lines and general racecraft is concerned. They handle nothing like automobiles though (Stinkycheezmonky can attest to this).

Enroll in an autocross school and a bunch of local autocrosses, cheap and easy way to take your car to the limit

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dagle &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">money is an issue to an extent, but i'm comfortable w/ spending a good amount of my spendable money on something i'm interested in I figure after the sale of my prelude, I will likely be using half of it directly. But I have no problem spending the other half on equipment and saving it for events (for a few months b4 I turn 18) I read the thread on how much it costs w/o equipment and ill put 1-2k away as a "one-time" expense for the necessary equipment </TD></TR></TABLE>

No matter what you do.... you are going to need to get a helmet. So do that first.

Quick heads up on other expenses..

Auto-x will usually cost you around $25-$50 per day. you get 3-5 laps per day

HPDE usually costs me around $600 per weekend... including transportation cost, hotel, food, and entry fees etc. entry fees usually run 120-175 per day. you will get about 80 minutes of track time per day.

So don't spend any money on you car... spend it on a helmet, entry fees, and track time.

 

Indoor karting is the best bang for the buck. Only travel expense. No tires, brakes, etc.

I can get a full day pass at G-Force karts in Richmond for $110 http://www.gforcekarts.com. That gets me at least ten 8-minute races. You are getting the amount of track time of an HPDE, at about 1/5 of the cost.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BauleyCivic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Agreed, as far as learning lines and general racecraft is concerned. They handle nothing like automobiles though (Stinkycheezmonky can attest to this).

Enroll in an autocross school and a bunch of local autocrosses, cheap and easy way to take your car to the limit </TD></TR></TABLE>

Also if you want to learn a lot at an autox, try and take as ride as you can with some seasoned drivers. Lots of times they will even ride with you and help you out on your lines, and show you all the places you can improve.

 

I started AXing in a beaten 4 door Jetta with all season tires. People with much nicer rides were pissed when I started winning/placing in my class.

Same with HPDE. The Porsche owners were pissed when I'd pass them coming out of the down hill at Lime Rock in 108 HP CRX SI. No way the Porsche gets passed in the hands of a good driver.

It's all about the driving skills. Karting is a great, relatively low $ way to get skills. If money is no object, go to full blown driving school like Skip Barber and realize how scary driving fast is.

A friend of a friend built the hell out out of his VW sciroco (sp?). The thing was light and fast. He crashed it at Watkins Glen and then at NHIS, having invested all his efforts in parts, and none in his skills.

If you're gonna crash a car, might as well crash it before you spend a lot of money on it.

 

I wish I had spent more time auto-crossing before I'd gotten into track driving and racing. Wish I'd been that "kid" everyone was talking about. Been the guy driving the wheels off a poorly classed car with the wrong tires. Wish I'd learned to walk a course and just "know" how to enter each corner. Where I wanted to exit. How to set up for the next turn.

I've learned a lot as a track day guy. But I didn't pick it up as quickly as the really good auto-crossers I've seen. And I spent a lot more money than they did learning the same stuff.

Do as much auto-crossing as you can. Do it in your mom's car if you have to. Or with stock tires. Just do it.

 

As stated by the others, karting. Be it indoor or outdoor, that will get you the most seat time for the least amount of money. If you are lucky enough, some local kart guy may offer you some seat time to get you into the sport!

*hint* *hint*

m-

 

I'm with everyone else on the car prep theory. Yes spend some money on your safety equipment. If you want the really cool stuff, go ahead and splurge. There's nothing wrong with that and it is proven that chicks dig Sparco suits.

Don't spend money making the car faster. The better you make your car the more it will hide your mistakes and the less money you'll have for seat time. Money spent on seat time is the best money you'll ever spend as far as automotive related $ goes.

Autocrossers, track drivers, and kart boyz will all tell you that their form of motorsport is the best. I say try each one. You'll know which one is for you. They each require their own skill set. Kick *** drivers are good at all of them but most of us have to concentrate on each sport individually.

 

autocross autocross and then do some more autocross. It is inexpensive, you can't really do extensive damage to the car and everything you learn in a parking lot can be transfered to daily driving and to on track driving. At 17 you have a lot of time to develope your driving talent you also will suffer from red mist a lot more then an older driver so do it in a parking lot. Once you are a rational autocrosser then I would step it up to HPDE. Until then wait and definately wait on taking the S2000 out on track.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by AndyHope &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">... kart boyz ... </TD></TR></TABLE>

I prefer race kart driver, shifter pilot etc. I don't see a reference to track rat, auto-xer tite boi.

Thx.

m-

 

If you can spell cart with a k...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by AndyHope &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If you can spell cart with a k...
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Heck I'll spell it with a C if it makes me faster!

 

many many F1 drivers started in karts. don't let the pretentious haters dissuade you from karting if you are so inclined. I do HPDE because I can afford to, or least a certain # of events per year anyway, yet I still love indoor karting because it is competitive and most people suck at it. You can drive the kart similar to a car and be fast (however, to be _wicked_ fast in a kart you have to break most of the rules of fast car driving). I drive it like I drive my car (since I view karting as a proxy for car-driving) and usually am in the top 15 fastest laptimes of the month if I get a shot at a decent kart.

I don't do autocross because the time spent at the event / time driving is too big for me, but I am just an impatient bastard.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by L8APX &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">many many F1 drivers started in karts. don't let the pretentious haters dissuade you from karting if you are so inclined. I do HPDE because I can afford to, or least a certain # of events per year anyway, yet I still love indoor karting because it is competitive and most people suck at it. You can drive the kart similar to a car and be fast (however, to be _wicked_ fast in a kart you have to break most of the rules of fast car driving). I drive it like I drive my car (since I view karting as a proxy for car-driving) and usually am in the top 15 fastest laptimes of the month if I get a shot at a decent kart.
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Before this gets out of hand, I figured that Andy was being sarcastic. F1, Champ, Indy etc get their drivers through the kart farm system. There is no need to put that in this thread. OP wanted to know what H-T recommends for practice driving.

I race karts outdoor, so I consider myself some what knowledgeable in this. So I suggested indoor karting first off. I then hinted that I could get OP some seat time in a shifter outdoors. As a kart racer did I see any haters? No I didn't.

m-

 

agree, outdoor karting is even better, possibly even more fun than HPDE, and you risk less costly assets. Well, there are karts that are more expensive than MY track car, but that's by my choice...

As a Honda-Tech'er, I heartily recommend karting as a way to learn how to drive fast. :D

 

this thread is awesome. me and a buddy of mine have been looking into road racing more seriously this year. this thread has helped us gain ideas on how to get some experience in.

i'd like to say thank you to all of you and your input. even though i didn't start this thread.

 

Put me down under "autocross autocross and then do some more autocross."

Beyond that, in a few years, when you think you're ready to start going to the race track, start looking into events that offer track time in return for you working corners. You work corners for a day and you drive the other day. I can't afford to drive as often as I'd like, so I've been doing a work/drive thing with an organization at Texas World Speedway and they have around 10 events a year. Most of their workers are recruited from the local college town (TAMU) and these Ramen noodle eatin' students are getting more track time then I could afford without working/driving. Then, get networked in and see if there are other events you can work/drive at, like NASA.