Quote:
Originally Posted by thstone
My advice is to spend the money on seat time until you are running near the top of your stock class. When you can drive better than the car, THEN start upgrading it.
This week, on the British tv show "5th Gear", they took a rookie driver and compared her lap times as follows:
1. Stock car
2. ECU upgrade for more power (no other improvements)
3. Aftermarket exhaust for more power (no other improvements)
4. Stickier tires (no other improvements)
5. Stock car with professional driving instruction
Guess which was fastest? Yep, #5. At this level of the game, its almost all about the skill of the driver.
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I saw the same show and it made an excellent point--more seat time/instruction trumps HP/traction gains with the inexperienced driver.
Having said that, after spending a couple years doing auto-x on street tires, I immediately gained a couple of seconds when I moved over to Kumho Victoracers. Great for auto-x, no so great for DE's.
Which raises another issue-- track tires need to get to their optimal heat range for maximum traction; I'm not sure how easy it is to get to those temps during an auto-x if you're doing single laps with a waiting period in between laps and ambient temps aren't in the 90's.