CKit

And going back to your initial post, the thing that gets you respect on a road and touring course is the driver, not the car.

Do you respect Paris Hilton for having an LFA? Or that doofus who drove his Veyron into the marsh?

The car might gather some attention on track, but you really don't get R-E-S-P-E-C-T for the size of your checkbook. If I drive a Miata do I suck? Then if I spend money on a GTR am I cool again?

HPDE is like street racing. There are no apples to apples and there are d!ck-swingers and people honestly want to become better drivers. You seem like the latter type of guy which is very cool. My unsolicited advice is, "Don't get caught up with the d!ck-swingers." All the cool kids are actually racing.

CKit

For example, THIS GUY gets much respect from me and I'd totally buy him a beer if I ever saw him on track.

http://www.goaheadtakethewheel.com/b...-to-the-track/

psychoazn

Out of curiosity, where would you put someone like me who does HPDE and informal time attacks? I certainly get my jollys out of passing 'vettes and vipers on track in my "open passing" group.

I don't even have a roll bar in my car (although, I do legitimately pass the broomstick test with the stock roll hoops, and not just the plastic).

CKit

Seeing how many time trial and autocross don't have roll bars, that's not a prerequisite in my book for racing or competition. I think it's totally fine to get jollies passing bad drivers in fast cars, but from what I've seen of you, that's not the primary reason you go out on track.

takchi

Out of curiosity, what classes do you guys run in the NASA Time Trials? TTC? I don't feel like being competitive as I just want to try it out one day. I believe the current setup is a TTB? That is a CR (+14) with camber joint (+2), 3" HFC headerback exhaust (+3), Flashpro to fix AFR (+3), RS3s (+2). If that's the case, I have an extra 20 points or so to spend before moving up to TTA.

At this point, I don't care about the car being competitive. I'm just curious in how I will do in a TRUE NASA event...

dsddcd

Yes I could have posted in the suspension forum, but as we talked before this is more slated on "How do I get my car lower" rather than what actually works. You said it yourself that it is hard to get good information so I figured I would just drop a quick questions out to those with real experience.

As for the cost remember I first want a street car first and racecar second. I say this b/c a racecar can't be driven on the street but a street car can be driven at the track. So you are exactly right I could have/would have done things much differently if I was going to competitively start racing. A bit off topic but a sore one for me, unlike most in this country that have put us in the position our ecomony is in now I do not buy on credit (not implying you but many other that I do know). The only thing that is acceptable in my mind to purchase is a home and it is my opinion that even this not a 30 year endevor and that one should have the resources to pay off the loan in short order.

The safety equipment if I do start driving closer to 10/10 then I would not think of doing this without the proper equipment. At minimum a harness, seat, HANS device, suit...... for me this is a requirement not optional equipment. I have seen many people walk away for bad accidents b/c of these precautions. This is yet another reason I don't push too hard at the HPDE days.

I am still at the point in my career that I am building my client base and unfortunately I cannot commit to many dates. If all goes well I have will be able to do some of these things in another 10years but now it is hard to be at home longer than I spend on the road and in the office. In fact this is why I bought the Z06, I would rather have the S2000 but the ZO6 gave me all the things I wanted w/o having to spend time working on the car. What I found was that in the end the Z was a great car but it just did not fullfill all my wants.

Agreed, but don't forget skill is a part of the puzzle the remainder is the attitude towards others on and off the track the respect for their car, opinions.... I can tell you first hand if you pull up in a car like that the first thing you get is "Look at that Dick in the Vette", but by the end of the day after I have helped them change tires, fix their car, b/s with them for a while..... not only do I leave happy but I have also made a lot of good friends.

As many can contest, I am always happy to help, eager to learn and will go out of my way to do so. I have literally met members on the boards here from all over the world and do everything I can to help them be it sending them an email with old instruction manuals to helping them fix their cars after a wreck. The only payment I have ever asked for in the literally hundreds of hours I spent in the past was the soda and pizza. Most of them I just feel bad for they are taking advise from the boards, uniformed shops and ending up in a bad place. I should know, no one ever taught me about cars, everything I learned/learning has been through hard work and unfortunately the hard way.

Don’t forget about the pit crew, I would be happy to spend most of my time in the pits. Like I mentioned before half the fun of a HPDE day for me is meeting and speaking with the people in between runs.


I have no doubt that N/A would be much more reliable, but I do have a decent amount of experience with the subject. It is my experience that most of the failures are due to under/improperly engineered parts. Done properly the risk for failure at the track with a turbo should be no different that the turbo on a factory car failing. Obviously obtaining this reliability level is not likely for more and that adding components increase the propensity for failure but it can be done to a reasonable level.

CKit

Again, thanks for the articulate and well thought out comments! I am interested to see if things meet your expectations. I hope that they do! You should really consider signing up for worker assignments at SCCA races, it sounds like you would have a lot of fun and see the difference in attitude between HPDE and a racing day! In any regard, best of luck and hope to see you out there!

dsddcd

Yeah, so am I, as with every build there always some kind of suprise waiting, but I enjoy the chanllange.

I agree, I don't watch TV but when I did I loved to watch the Speed channel, I would surley have a great time.

I have a plant being built litterally accoss the street from Heartland Park Topeka and hope to sneak over there a few times this year. Not to mention Kansas City is geting an in feild course at the Kansas Speedway!!!! I am super excited about this one, hopefully it will bring some real racing to Kansas City.

http://www.kansasspeedway.com/Articl...07/Repave.aspx
http://www.kansasspeedway.com/Vanity...e-Graphic.aspx