Driving School / Track Time

[insite]

drburton -

there is a lot of variation between PCA regions in terms of personality and level of activity. our region (peach state) is fantastic; i have met numerous persons from all walks with whom i get along famously. i recmmend at least heading to a couple of events to see what you think.

with regard to the DE program, i think it's great. you will get a lot of time in the car and some very good instruction. you won't need a fire extinguisher. you probably won't destroy your tires, but you will likely use up more than half of their life over the weekend. you will need an sa2000 helmet, but you can probably borrow one if need be. otherwise, call discovery parts. they have great prices. also, make sure your brake pads are new.

autocross is fine, but you will get like five minutes of driving around some cones with minimal instruction. with DE, you'll get around four hours of driving on a race course with classroom and in-vehicle instruction. i'll let you guess which will improve your driving more.

as for DE insurance, some carriers of regular policies (check yours) don't exclude you from coverage if the event is a sanctioned, un-timed, non-race on a closed course. many DO exclude you. if you're very concerned, Snellings Walters offers DE insurance. it's by year, though, and covers unlimited events.

in my opinion you should give this a shot. it's REALLY, REALLY fun.

[986 Girl]

Originally Posted by insite

autocross is fine, but you will get like five minutes of driving around some cones with minimal instruction. with DE, you'll get around four hours of driving on a race course with classroom and in-vehicle instruction. i'll let you guess which will improve your driving more.

This is not true for a lot of regions. In ours, a typical course is about a minute and a half, and I've gotten up to 12 runs before. Plus I go every weekend, sometimes twice in a weekend. Also, if you go to an SCCA event, you are required to have an instructor for your first 2 runs, and at least in the 4 different regions I've been to, they are always more than willing to help you out after that. I think it's unfair to say you get minimal instruction when it all varies on your region and how open you are to asking people for help.

Just freaking go to an autocross ONCE to see what it's like and get a feel for things. It's going to be all of $50 TOPS and then you can decide if you think you are ready to jump to a track event or not. To me it would be better to spend $50 to realize that autcross didn't help me, then to spend a couple hundred plus to find out I wish I had had a better feel for my car before a track day. What can it hurt?

[drburton]

Thanks for all the comments and advice, I appreciate it.

At this point I think I am going to 'delay' my enrollment in the course. Here are the reasons why:

1) Looks like I might have a conflict that weekend
2) The class is less than a month away and I feel like I'm forcing myself to make a quick decision. Since there is some upfront costs, I would rather take some time and make sure this is something I want to do. Yesterday was the first time I have even considered this.
3) I am just joining the PCA. I think it might be worth my time to go to some of the events and meet the local PCA members before showing up on a track day. I'm reluctant to show up at the track not knowing anyone.

Thanks again for the advice. I might be signing up for the class later this Summer or Fall.

[Perfectlap]

it's always wise to take your time. But don't feel too aprehensive about jumping into a track day. You'll be in a large group of novices and it's slow going at first.
But definitely do it in the near future. You may need to sign up well in advance, allot of clubs have their novice events sell out quickly.

as for 75mph at an autocross, that's nothing uncommon. I think the law says you are not to surpass the local speed limit or whatever, but that's largely ingnored.
Here in NY/NJ we have a ton of clubs, not just national clubs like SCCA and PCA but some regional ones as well which were started because members wanted faster speeds, more open courses (fewer cones) and wanted more runs than the abysmal 6 or fewer that the NY SCCA has sometimes. Up here you have your choice any weekend of 4 or 5 events on the same day. Some guys do 40+ events a season.

But ironically those events (going above 75mph) tend not to be very popular because they favor the less nimble, bigger HP cars, result in very short lap times (under one minute) and are not very technical, far fewer turns. But I think its good to have some variety, one week its fast and wide open another week it will be trickier.
And if you are going into third gear which is good for 100+mph then its not really and autocross anymore.

at any rate.. think of autox as practicing at the driving range before venturing out for 18 holes. And depending on your club you can get some excellent instruction/advice for pennies when you consider how much your paying to learn 80% of the same stuff at a DE or driving school. And its really hard to learn all that in a single outing to a track or weekend driving school.

[MikenOH]

Dr. Burton:

Regarding the PS2's, you will see some wear from a track day but unless you're pushing the envelope, it won't be excessive.

We have a spare set of wheels with PS2's that we did 1 auto-x, a 2 day auto X school and 3 DE's last year and I'd say tread is about 2/3 of new.

Check with a local club and see if you can attend an event and ride with an instructor--just to get your feet wet; they usually have spare helmets.

Here in OH, we have a track--Nelsons-- where you can just show up with your car (+helmet), get some instructions on the course, rules of the road and what the flags mean and you're on your way--they call them Fun Days. Also, just like any PCA event, it is not competative and you can drive as fast (or slow) as you see fit.