kimnach

OK, I will admit I never have gotten into "racing" my car on the streets--just plain idiotic, imo. But for those who take their cars out to tracks, here is a vid I just watched. I will not make a judgement call about the accuracy of the info because I don't have the background to make an assessment.

QwkTrip

iTrader: (22)

Yes, road racing is brutal on a car. If you want to know what your car is made of then go all out for 20 minutes straight. I have friends that do track days and it is an expensive hobby. All my friends blow up their junk except the Porsche guys.

QwkTrip

iTrader: (22)

And there is nothing more embarrassing than being passed by a Miata..... so I've been told.

TallTim

iTrader: (2)

Good info thanks for posting.

I am an amateur having had my car on the track a couple times for SCCA track night and plan on doing more. These are full out 20 min road course sessions around a ~2 mi course. Up to 4 sessions a night. I get passed a lot but so what. Here near Palm Beach where the rich dudes bring expensive street cars there is a lot of passing going on.

My take aways are always being on the lookout for bad things because you are asking for it. Inspect everything underneath, check torques, look for leaks.

Re: Miata passing Ferrari, I would say that speaks as much to the drivers experience as anything else. 3 across around turns is pretty hairy.

Cheers.

TallTim

iTrader: (2)

Huh while putzing around the car last night noticed a wheel weight has gone missing. Go figure.

Hotdogstand

To the video:
"The younger guys put on sticky tires etc and thing they have a race car." I'm not certain that anyone e genuinely believes that, first of all. Second, that's how racing started out as a sport, and third, good job pissing all over grassroots racing as an activity for the masses. Not all of us can afford to build 700 hp revmonster F1 cars. My first car was $650, and my first Camaro was $500! Pardon me (and everyone in the same boat) for trying to learn a few things and do some backyard engineering rather than write checks for each and every ride.
For the record, "professional" race car drivers are typically independently wealthy (so-called gentleman racers) orhave excellent marketing skills to drum up sponsors.
/Rant.
I just really can't stand elitist attitudes like that. What if the Wright brothers hadn't bothered? We all start somewhere...

turd_gen

I don't think his intention is to dissuade new guys from the sport, it seems like he just wanted to give some examples of what maintaining a track car is like. Canyon carving on the weekend is one thing, but a full out track day is totally different. Very few street cars are made to run at 100% for extended periods of time and our cars are no different. Hell a lot of our cars had structural issues back in the day on regular old tires. These days, running an otherwise stock third gen on R888's or similar could be asking for trouble.

Hotdogstand

Maybe so, but the price of R888s vs subframe connectors makes the latter a no-brainer.
I'm no fan of autocross, for instance, but for the guys that do it, literally a couple bucks for tires and whatever the entry fees are and you can really challenge yourself and the car.
Spec E46, on the other hand, will set you back $10-20k before you even see a race track. I just don't see a lot of "run what ya' brung" events, except drag racing, for your typical everyman 20-something. Unless you already have a fat wad of cash and a decent donor car, it's hard to get into competition legally.
Nothing is safe, life is about mitigating risks and tempering them with reward. Someone dies on the way to work in my town every other day. Cracking your Camaro in half around VIR might at least make the sacrifice worth it