2 hours? thats good to hear... because google maps tells me 2.5 from Bellmore and since I am .5 hour east from you It would (by google map) be 3 hours for me. I bet the google map is not showing me the most direct and fastest route. (they are also not equating the speed of an evolution ) 2.5 hours i can handle!

 

2 hours for me is booking along at 85 without traffic. 3 hours for you is probably a safe estimate, sorry. Trust me though, it's worth the trip. I usually go up the night before and stay in a hotel because you need to be at the track around 7:00AM or so.

 

Yea screw it man I will drive whatever it takes to enjoy the product of my labor. I earned this evo and everything to do with it, and I need to enjoy it the way I always have ment to. Long Island is so congested I can never feel at peace getting on my car. All this grip and power and no where safe to exploit it.... will change soon enough , cant wait for next season!

 

i run with EMRA, CORVAIR and SCCA. i think doesn't matter wich group you will choose. They are all great and helpfull. only thing is ,you dont need more power yet. I would get a better tires + break pads +SS break lines + fluid. It will not cost you alot at all. The break upgrade is cheap .SS break lines around $80 ,the fluid is cheap also. The pads it is your choice too but should be not more then $300. And it is a well worth upgrade. Now a biggest help will be for you i think is the tires. Get some good ones and you will be all set for the first track day. Oh, and some extra fuel to the track, because there you will pay alot more for it! So get some Jar or whatever they call it. /sorry for my english/
Next year i will start it again ,if you need help or something just send me a PM and i help to go to the track or you can come with us.
I personally trailer my car there ,if anything happens... around $100 box from U-haul for two days. Also get some NEW helmet . They check out them very closely! I think that's all now.

 

Look into local car owner clubs like Audi, BMW etc. As far as going to a private club Autobahn is a private club outside Chicago where I did about 6 track days this past year, they rent it out to Car clubs as I'm sure Lime Rock will do. I've had very good luck with Audi events well organized, safe and the instruction is top notch classroom and on track. If I were you I'd definitely try a few autocrosses before hitting the big track.

 

Well, not to discourage you too much, but you also must be willing to wad up and throw away the "product of your labor" the moment you set foot on track. I'm not saying it's a common thing, but it does happen, especially as you improve and move up in classes. You said you're 21 and don't make a lot of money, so if you totalled the car by sliding into a wall, would you be able to handle it financially? Insurances used to cover damages in HPDE, since it's not "racing," but most of them have added clauses that cover nothing that occurs on a racing surface, so you'd have an outstanding loan and no car unless you've already paid it off...

 

From the Philly SCCA club racing forum....

2008 New Jersey Motorsports Park Spectator Calendar
Date Race Venue
Aug 7-10, 2008 SVRA Thunderbolt Raceway
Aug 15-17, 2008 Shelby Club of America Thunderbolt Raceway
Aug 29-31, 2008 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series Thunderbolt Raceway
Sept 12-14, 2008 D1 Grand Prix Lightning Road Course
Sept 26-28, 2008 ARCA RE/MAX Series Thunderbolt Raceway


2008 New Jersey Motorsports Park Club & School Calendar
Date Race Venue
July 11-13 EMRA Lightning Road Course
July 18-20 SCCA Lightning Road Course
July 25-27 Keith Code Motorcycle School Lightning Road Course
July 28-31 Bertil-Roos Driver School Lightning Road Course
Aug 2-4 Porsche Club of America Lightning Road Course
Aug 7-10 Bertil-Roos Driver School Lightning Road Course
Aug 11-14 Keith Code Motorcycle School Lightning Road Course
Aug 15-17 NY Sportbike Club Lightning Road Course
Aug 18–19 Porsche Club of America Thunderbolt Raceway
Aug 19-21 Skip Barber Driver School Lightning Road Course
Aug 22-24 SCCA Regionals Lightning Road Course
Aug 25 NE Sportbike Association Thunderbolt Raceway
Aug 25-28 Skip Barber Driver School Lightning Road Course
Aug 29-31 NE Sportbike Association Lightning Road Course
Sept 1-3 Skip Barber Driver School Lightning Road Course
Sept 5-7 Porsche Club of America Thunderbolt Raceway
Sept 5-7 Woodbridge Kart Club Lightning Road Course
Sept 9-11 Skip Barber Driver School Lightning Road Course
Sept 10-11 Porsche Club of America Thunderbolt Raceway
Sept 12-14 Porsche Club of America Thunderbolt Raceway
Sept 15 NE Sportbike Association Thunderbolt Raceway
Sept 19 VRG Race Lightning Road Course
Sept 19-21 SCCA Thunderbolt Raceway
Sept 27-28 Team ProMotion (Motorcycle) Lightning Road Course
Oct 3-5 Absolute Cycle Thunderbolt Raceway
Oct 3-5 Porsche Club of America Lightning Road Course
Oct 6 NE Sportbike Association Thunderbolt Raceway
Oct 10-12 Porsche Club of America Thunderbolt Raceway
Oct 11-12 Sportbike Track Club Lightning Road Course
Oct 17-19 Porsche Club of America Thunderbolt Raceway
Oct 17-19 SCCA Regionals Lightning Road Course
Oct 20 Team ProMotion (Motorcycle) Thunderbolt Raceway
Oct 24-26 SCCA Thunderbolt Raceway
Oct 24-26 Porsche Club of America Lightning Road Course
Oct 31-Nov2 NY Sportbike Club Lightning Road Course
Nov 1-2 NE Sportbike Association Thunderbolt Raceway
Nov 1-2 Porsche Club of America Thunderbolt Raceway
Nov 7-9 NASA/PDA Thunderbolt Raceway

 

Not to mention you could wind up dead as well. No guts no glory. Seriously though, to add to the post above, as far as coming home in one piece from an HPDE goes, don't try and race anyone, if they caught up to you, they are way faster than you are, wave them by, follow behind for a bit and learn a thing or two. Don't drive faster than you are comfortable with, it is supposed to be fun not stressful, you will be screeching the tires comfortably in no time anyway. Listen to the instructor, watch the flag stations, check your gauges on the straightaway and be smart. Two more things, if the world starts to spin, two feet in (clutch and brake), and if your booking along on the track and you feel fast and you start to feel really good about your driving... watch out. Sermon over.

 

First off I think it's great that you want to track your car. I think you have gotten some good advice in that you should invest in upgrading yourself before you go wild with the car and secondly, safe is smart.

By safe I mean invest that $1000 in a track day and brakes. If you care to track often or seriously you may wish to put the cash into a set of dedicated race pads. PF97's, Hawk DTCs, Ferodo 3000s or the like. Drain the lines and refill and bleed the tar out of your lines with Motul 600 and consider the stainless lines (but I consider the lines optional).

If you get tricky get a large box to put in your trunk, get a small floor jack and some jack stands. Pop for a lug torque wrench and some basic tools to load into the box with some spare parts you will collect over time along with spare pads, fluids and sundry.

You may also want to get a camp chair or two as well as take water (drink a lot) and maybe some sun screen and a hat. You will want the hat because you will wear a helmet on the track and you will have bad hair when it comes off.

This of course makes us ponder the helmet. You should be able to borrow or rent one for several track days. You will want to buy your own later however. Don't skimp on this unless your head is not worth much to you.

Once your this serious you will want to ponder a set of spare rims and maybe some real sticky tires. Please don't order the Hoosiers quite yet but pseudo sticky rubber is not a bad idea. You will already have the stuff to swap your pads at the track so swapping off the street wheels and tires for the race shoes will be a breeze!

After this go with the suspension. After that make more power only if the car has no other issues that must be addressed.

Also, keep your fluids changed and ponder some gauges as well so you know what your car is doing.

One thing you should not forget, your insurance is null and void on the track. Many of us make payments on our Evos but some of us have plans as to what happens if we hurt our car or bend it up badly. Your not gonna find anyone who is gonna write yo a check for a car you bend up in turn 9.

 

By the way... a great first school to consider is at BeaveRun next April. They host the One Lap of America two day school which is basically a two day HPDE with professional instruction and class room time and dinner with guys like Brock Yates for $300 and change. Can't recall the exact number but I recall I felt like I was stealing.

BeaveRun is close to Pittsburgh and a decent haul for you but Beaver is a nice track for a novice and the quality of education is top drawer. You also qualify to drive in the One Lap which is fun to ponder. You get too meet some wonderful people in some unreal cars as well as get to see all the huge hardware they have hidden in the garage from the Supercar Life class they offer.

There will be other Evos in attendance as I will be there again because its a) cheap for what you get and b) a great time.

 

Thanks all for your advice and guidance.....

Based on the realities of dangers associated with tracking my car I do not plan to, and do not want to, competitively race the evo at all at this time in my life.

I do however want to track my evo under safe conditions with no passing if possible. If not then none on my part unless non aggressive and safe as I understnad that other drivers may be faster then me and I would in no way want to hamper there experience. Heck i might be faster then some and have to pass them too, I just want it to be safe and non competitive.

I am making payments on the car and honestly If the car was wrecked (be it minor or major) I would be devastated financially as well as mentally. This is truly a major concern of mine; and the reason for taking HPDE before even considering nasa or any car club track day.

If I drive the car at my novice level with an instructor I can only hope that the evo does not slip past my ability level and ruin itself. I will try wholly to be as safe as possible and to stay comfortably within my skill level. The posts about the dangers really made me think hard about it the realities. I simply want to cruise the track alone (with instructor until ready) or far from others if this is possible for the simple joy of it. If not then I will have to use careful discretion on taking this up seriously. This situation is in my head due to my financial status and the evo being a daily driver.

****Could someone please outline the way an HPDE is set up in general? I assume not all are the same. I would like to hear it from perhaps a first time track drivers point of view.

Now I am considering that even if I am alone (or far from others) some other driver can catch up to me, being as I would be going as slow as I want and as careful as I want. This driver could be wreckless and take me out and i would be screwed. Unlike on thh street, i would have no insurance tho :\

Maybe i should wait until I am in a position where i can handle all possible outcomes financially......??

 

Dude, I don't want to scare you out of tracking your car. I just feel you need to be aware of the whole truth and the worry that you could total your car is a real one.

As for passing, you will pass. Your in a car thats very easy to drive and many of the folks who are new to track days are in cars that are nowhere near as fast.

You will have a great deal of control over how your day goes and things are regulated to help keep you and everyone safe. Then again you are going to be doing things that are far beyond what you can do on any street and there is always risk. Just be aware.

As for your first day out... I recall mine fondly. It was a "flat out friday" at BeaveRun and I was in my VW Golf TDI which I had a full Audi TT front end under with big binders and great pads. The car was competent and well put together and was a lot of fun. I got to the track early after driving almost 3 hours to get there. I got signed in and found a loaner helmet to fit my huge head and waited around and talked to other folks. Some were very experienced and had very well set up cars and others were rank newbies just like me.

I met one very nice 80 year old guy who was a WW2 vet who said he always wanted to be a "race car driver" so he bought a Mini Cooper S and did it. He gave me lots of helpful hints and told me to just stay calm and have fun.

After a bit we went in for our first class room session. We sat and got info on rules and safety. They talked about things to expect as well as things that were of note for that particular track. This must have lasted about 20 min at which point some of the more experienced drivers were cut loose to get ready for their first session. New folks were singled out for even more info and safety and talks went on.

After class we were introduced to our instructors who all had years of experience and many of which were active wheel to wheel racers. I was as anxious as could be and we got out on the track and worked on just finding the line, finding the corner workers and learning to give the pass signal. It felt pretty good and while it was 20 min it felt like 5.

Second session was worse as I knew just enough to get me in trouble. I wanted to go fast and have fun but nothing I had ever done on the street was anything like this. Not even close. I came in frustrated and feeling like a tool.

Third session I just figured I was going to relax and enjoy and turned out to be a good bit more smooth. Smooth it turns out is the key as the smoother and better the line the faster you go and the safer you are while doing it.

Then came lunch which was eaten while a pro-racer gave us a talk on chassis dynamics which pretty well went over my head but I caught some of it, enough to know that folks who were good at track driving were detailed, focused and passionate.

After lunch I had to find some diesel which was not real easy but was able to get some prior to session 4. On that session I started getting quick and having fun. At this point I learned that brakes are your friend and they smell bad when you are mean to them. I quickly learned thanks to my instructor that you attack the brake, get off it and leave it alone until the next braking zone. Overall I was having a blast as I was getting my little oil burner around the track faster than most of the Mini Cooper S's and all the other slow cars which was a treat.

Between 4th and last session I noticed that Mk4 Golfs love to eat tires as my new Kumho SPTs were getting serious abuse on the fronts. Oh well.. I was having a great time.

On the 5th session I was signed off and told I should try it on my own but wanted all the feedback I could get so I grabbed another instructor who I have been talking to and he showed me most of the same things my other instructor had shown me but it was GREAT to hear in a different way. He pointed out a few things that my first instructor had not and he cut maybe 2 seconds off my still slow track times.

At the end of the day I was still buzzing. It had all went by so fast and I wanted more. I was bit, hooked, had, bought in. I tracked that car a few more times but got tired of giving fast cars the pass sign so I sold it and looked for a new car. After a few misses I put on my big boy pants and bought my 05 Evo RS. I have not looked back.

I have had this car out maybe 10 days so far and it never fails to impress. It's FAR faster than I am and you will have to learn a lot before you ever get close to the limits of the car. As such your wise to be cautious as you say you are but you will be tempted.

Stick with the brake mods first, make sure you have good tires and an alignment. After that find a good event and go well rested and open ears. If you decide to roll out to the One lap school I'll see ya there and lunch is on me.

 

To clear some confusion, HPDE is what NASA does as well as others. You do the HPDE as part of NASA. SCCA calls it PDX, but not every SCCA region offers PDX. Group 1 in NASA has only passing on the straights with a signal from the slower car, so it's not dangerous at all. However, don't think for a second that just because you're not doing it competitively that it will significantly reduce the potential for crashing. Yes, going all out to pass someone around a tight curve is higher risk and leads to more crash potential, but just being on track at full speed is enough risk in and of itself. One thing you don't want to do is go out there and only think about NOT crashing, because then you'll never enjoy it, never drive to the car's potential, and never really learn to handle the car. It's really a mental hurdle you have to decide upon...either jump it by going all out within reason or don't jump it and drive slowly in fear but safely at low speed. I'm the former, but I've seen the latter with a local Porsche Cayman - slowest car on the track.

 

After reading your post dsycks, and the others, i believe i have a better understanding about what these hpde events are. It sounds like something I want to get involved with. I will have fun in the car and what happens happens such is life. I will not hold myself back from experiencing this great form of freedom. I will do it within my limits; driving fast, precise, agile, and confident. I can handle my evo on the streets and I will do so on the track. A member on here sent me some videos of him and his buddy tracking there cars. An s200 an an evo. After seeing these vid's on how it is, it does not look at all scary. It looks like having a great time. When people pass it is done safely.

I hear you guys when you are trying to explain to me fully of all possible outcomes, I totally respect that... dont get me worried lol . I think I'm just a little excited at realizing how easily I can get this thing happening is. Its not some overly complex process.


I will look into brake pads for sure as that seems to be a major concern. The SS brake lines sounds like a great security measure (is there a performance incentive also?). I run Toyo Proxies on the street and would probably run them at my first event seeing as I wont care to spend excess money. Im not going to get any more power mods as they don't seem worth it at this point. Im sure at some other time they may be more beneficial

I looked into the beaver run thing and it is 6 or so hours from me one way which is rough I will be at Pocono or limerock, or perhaps the Thunderbolt raceway the new one they are building in Jersey.

 

BTW is that the pictures of that evil, ***** shop / wild west saloon owner from the HBO show on your avatar? Lol