SE-Rfornow

It actually was more straights, and it involved doing a lot of passing and accelerating quickly to high speeds. I definately do want to learn how to control my car better however. Yesterday in the early early morning, I was going about 75mph coming home from pittsburgh and ramped over a dead deer that was laying in the road . When I landed (actually wasn't in air long, but it of course unsettled my car), I had to do a lot of swerving to get it back under control. It was all through instinct, and I'd rather it be experience. So I will be hitting the track soon, just gotta find a place.

Also, I don't want to have someone get upset with me about going fast to get to PA. My grandpa was given an hour to live in the hospital in PA and I just received the news. I wanted to get a chance to say goodbye and I got there right in time to watch his heart-rate slowly decrease on the monitor.

Thanks for being open minded to my mistake Doug. Like I said you do seem to have a lot of great info, and I'm sure it has helped a lot of people on here.

Anyway, I don't want to keep this off topic any more, I think I might be one of those people that just put money into a car without a lot of experience. The last time I hit the track (1/4) I ran a [email protected] with a 2.4 60'. I have a lot of people telling me that I should raise my boost so I can hit my goal of 13s, but I am determined to hit 13s first and then mess with more hp mods. Also, I am going to hit the autox scene around here soon.

sykikchimp

I'm glad you made it safely. Wow, that must have been traumatic to get that kind of news. But remember that there is no time on the street when it's ok to endager other people's lives, and there is no such thing as a time on the street where you aren't doing that. At ANY time, a car could pull out, or a child could cross the street that you didn't see at over 100mph.

I'm trying not to lecture, but I don't feel there is ever a justification for driving that way.

Anyways. Ace hit it dead on. If you had proper training, you wouldn't have needed any of those mods. Straight line racing does require skill, but if your serious about your statement that you want to modify your car so that you can exploit it in situations like that, I would urge you to modify yourself, and spend that money on some Driving schools like HPDE's with NASA, or Auto-xing, etc.

Increasing your vehicles potential does nothing for speed without increasing your potential. Fix the weakest link.

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thx247

I don't mind spending money on the car just so long as I know its fixing things that I cannot compensate for as a driver.

Mushy bushings...fading brakes....poor tires. Stuff like that I think "Sure I'll drop some money on to fix"

By fixing those things I can focus on driving smoother and more consistantly. The way I look at it, I can take all the things I learn into any car I drive. But I can't take parts on my cars with me to other cars.

So far I've spent money on a motor (head gasket), TC bushings (blown, creating early lockup on left front tire), tires (Azenis roxxor my boxxors), brakes (free 180sx upgrade) and pads (track pads)

Of course, the bug is going to bite me harder and harder each time I go out to the track, so eventually you will see things like..R compounds, Z brakes, a big ass motor, suspension...blah blah lol For now its coo though

AceInHole

even on a straight, or passing cars.... driver owns modification.

you get more speed onto and off the straight carrying it through a corner.

you pass cars, with safer techniques, and quicker, using driver skills such as scanning, prediction, and knowing how to modify the line through a turn, etc. etc.

MOST of the time, the driver is the only thing limiting the car.
case in point: i was 6 seconds faster than my friend in my own car (we co- drove). i was 4 seconds faster than my friend in his own car. another event we did fun runs in each other's cars. i was 4 seconds faster no matter what, even while driving his car, vs. his times in my car.
the modification that puts me ahead: an extra year of experience (at least, he'd like to think it's just that :P )
my friend isn't a shabby driver either. he's trophied more than a few times already running novice, and has even trophied while running in open during one event.

-pj
(who's still trying to drop the 2 extra seconds he's carrying as dead weight in his car)

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s15dude

This is one of the reasons I want to do all the socal hdpe's next year, this year they had 10 and it seems like a great way to learn about most aspects of racing. Recently I was talking with a friend, who is much older and been into cars forever(he has had his 240 for 7 years!!) and he said I should set some long term goals, like figure out what I would rather do right now then waste money on mindlessly modding my car, this coming from an owner of a shop! My car is heavily modified, but all by the previous owner. I'm not too attracted to SCCA because you only get 3 runs in a day, but some people say that is still awesome, so I need to try it and see for myself, but I really want to do HDPE's because I think a long term goal of mine is to get into the Honda Challenge series. in like 2-3 years. There is one thing I want to do to my car right now tho, get the energy suspension bushing set, as my car prolly has worn out bushings after 133,xxx miles. but other than that I would like to just do driving events, maybe someday(when income permits) get a separate car to track, that way I dont totally thrash my daily driver, or get another daily driver. So those are my goals right now, as far as cars go, I dont need any more power out my S14 than it has stock, because it is enough. I'd rather not have a crazy turbo car for the track anyays, cuz u risk blowing it more, and all that, does anyone do the NASA events here in socal???

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SE-Rfornow

I definately agree with you guys... but a few of my modifications did help in the mad dash. I did plan ahead many times to hopefully carry speed instead of having to constantly build it up over and over, but there was many times when I would have to slow to wait until a safe time to pass and then accelerate as fast as possible. I know it doesn't sound safe, but I really did everything I could to minimize risk while still hoping to get there before he passed. Even when my passenger urged me to take certain chances, I waited until I had a solid view of the situation (ex:waiting for a long road and no oncoming traffic). I guess the modifications mainly helped with me feeling more safe when I was driving.

The more I hear it, I really need to hit the track and get help. I hate the idea of myself not exploiting my car to its full potential. Thanks for the info.
Paul

CoasTek240

id say i like working on my car more than tracking the car. but tracking it is very fun.

thx247

one thing about racing which I keep hearing is how much different it is from HPDE's. Basically you can throw out any of the lines you learn on a track because they won't last 2 seconds on a track with a bunch of other cars. People trying to bomb in on you, fake braking, blocking your line etc etc. More like trying to drive on a skidpad with 5 other cars than driving a clean line

HippoSleek

Personally, I hate the idea of you exploiting your car to 50% of its potential on public roads, regardless of the surrounding situation. Sorry to come by just for a rant, but everytime I read this otherwise useful thread and see you recount your story yet again, I am struck with the fact that a) you think that it is "Motorsports"; b) you have no sense of regret or fear of consequences; and c) you hope someone will be impressed with your jacka$$ery. I haven't had a flame here for about a year -- mostly b/c I visit once every week or so and b/c I only visit this forum -- but you are about as deserving as they come. Putting people's lives at risk is nothing to be proud about. That you mentioned it is out of place. That you keep bringing it up and not linking it to track driving is just a$$inine.

If you want to drive smooth and safe, by all means, go to a track. But please don't think that those skills give you some right or ability to haul a$$ on public roads. It isn't the same. I've heard a couple chief instructors tell classes that a percentage of them would be involved in accidents as a result of taking their "I'm a racer now" ego onto the streets. It happens b/c people don't understand that streets should never be a race track and that in the real world, there is sh!t you can't control even if you are a good driver.

Going to a track or autox should be about exploiting your ability and not the car's. It should be about learning how smooth driving = fast driving. It should be about control. It should NEVER be about how to drive faster on the streets. It is certainly true that some skills might cross over in emergency situations -- for example, I avoided an accident when someone turned left in front of me in a high speed/blind road situation thanks to looking where I wanted to go. That is the rare case where I had to exploit what I learned at HPDE's. Absent emergency maneuvers, that stuff only applies when you are driving at least 7/10ths... and if you are driving above 5/10ths on the streets, you should have your license revoked. There is no EMS crew standing by when you are blasting through the woods and traffic didn't sign a waiver of damages.

The beauty of this board is the people here choose to drive like hell on the track, but to keep it there (or at least keep the stories away from here). Maybe it was a dire situation, but don't confuse it with what most of us do. Not for a minute.

97DubTruck

i went to my first scca auto-x today. it was the most fun i have had with my car so far. i've definitely got the autocross bug. even though my times weren't that great i wasn't the worst by any means. i've never pushed my car that hard ever eith. i had a great time anyone that went to the gwinett fairgrounds autocross today say whats up. they're were like 3 other 240s there. including this one on the way there i saw on the highway that flew by me and i met up with him at the gas station and showed me his blacktop sr. eduardo i think his name was. it was pimp though and have to do it some more when i get some sway bars and other ish.

first run 77 seconds (with another person in the car and i was going slow to check out the track.)
second run 66 seconds
third run 64
fourth run 64 (with a mean a$$ drift around a hairpen though.)

what can i say the best 30 bucks i have spent so far.