Ok so my 1st time at HPDE

91 Civic Si, has exhaust, 15x7 wheels and more importantly i can walk away from it without batting an eye if I crash (its nice but its paid off)

OR

My 2006 S2000, its fast but if I crash, I will owe my *** to the bank.

 

option 1

 

is there any question?

(says the guy who HPDE'd his S2000 over his CRX)

but hey, i just wanted to try RWD. i found myself just going really slow....

itd be more fun to prep the civic and go fast with that. take it from experience.

 

civak - driving > car

 

Option number one is your safest bet.
Not only will you owe you A** to the bank for option two, you might just get your insurance cancelled on you.

Second part. With this being your (first HPDE) It doesnt sound like you have too much experience driving on a track at all. Don't take the chance in munching up your S2K because you got in over your head.

 

As already stated, there is no question. Civic is the winnAr. You won't be going fast enough to maximize the potential of either in your first event anyway, so one being faster than the other doesn't matter.

 

every response made sense. I am taking the civic instead of the S2K.

 

On the other hand, since it is your first hpde you're probably going to have an instructor and you're probably not going to be flying your first time out. Go with whatever platform you want to learn more about. RWD or FWD? M3 drivers don't take a civic their first time out. They just get a RWD instructor. Up to you. However, if you're not going to have an instructor then I'd go with option 1.

 

what is an M3 driver?

 

**** can still happen in HPDE1. The RWD vs. FWD isn't so much the point as the value of the car I think.

 

The s2k will be more fun. Depending on the the track, how good of an instructor you have, and how well you can control yourself - and HPDE can be safer than driving in regular traffic. My recommendation - get a year or so of autocross under your belt before you take the S to the track. The car can be a handful (well, AP1's at least).

 

Civic.

Taking a car to a lapping day that you owe money on shouldn't have even crossed your mind.

When the basics you might as well take the civic. As it stand currently (this being your first time and all) the civic has far more power/grip/brakes then you have talent. As your talent expands over time and hours on the track and much instruction you will find yourself reaching and driving on the limit comfortably and will be able to take a car like the S2000 to the track with full confidence and will be able to enjoy much more then you would as a novice.

Enjoy your track day.

 

The only reason I agree with this is because you can lose complete control of you car at an autocross and be relatively safe and understand what it feels like to be at the limit and then go past it. Also, you want to get autocrossing in first because what a lot of people go through after doing a lapping day is they never want to go back to autocrossing.

After track days, I went back to autocrossing and had a miserable time and refuse to do it anymore. Also, there's the math.

Here a track day is roughly $200 dollars for roughly 4-6 hours of track time. Autocrossing is roughly $25 for 4-5 minutes of track time plus with most groups you have to spend the rest of the day standing around picking cones or other bullshyte that you weren't really there to do.

25 / 5 = $5 per minute of actual track time (autocross)
$200 / 4 hours = $.83 per minute and there's no clean up time. When you're done driving, just go home. If you get 5 hours it's: $.67 per minute.

67 CENTS PER MINUTE!!!! where do I sign up!

 

That's true, if you owe money on the car then you probably shouldn't take the s2 out to the track.

 

option 1
that way, if you are slow, you wont be embarrased

 

I ended up taking the civic and had a great time ! I discovered where the civic can be improved and I will go from there. See my old schooler negotiating a turn with some 3 wheel motion on page 29 of the Roadrace/autocross picture thread