Driver Talent

[Roy]

If i could have my time again i would never buy a nice road car, but stuck with Handi Vans and a dedicated bucket for any form of motorsport. Something cheao like a log booked Mk 1 Escort will allow you to do hill climbs, motor khanas, tarmac rallys liek Classic Adelaide, Rally of Tasmania, GP Rally, duttion etc etc. The you always have weekend sprints and practice days at circiuts...after 2 years of spending all your money driving the thing instead of purchasing the car..by most ppl standards you would be a gun driver

[ellie]

Ideally thats what I actually would prefer to do as I am capable of doing the work myself but unfortunately I find myself in a rather depressing situation. I bought my car at a premium price for a stock clean example just before the market was flooded so if I now sold my car I would estimate at least an $6-8000 loss straight up! My last car cost me a cartoon of beer and never missed a beat or cost a dollar for two years.

I now ease the cost of the car by getting around 90% of the time on my trusty postie which is the best weapon I have ever bought all be it very impractical to carry things, get dressed to go somewhere nice and of course when it rains!

So now I face the dilema of 1. sell the car (which I'm positive would be a long and painful process) and cut my losses

2. Settle in for the long haul with a car I didn't intend on keeping for longer than a couple of years

3. Start spending money on the car to get it to a state i'm happy with but will never see any financial return on

I tend to treat my vehicles pretty well but I'm tired of seeing my car as a financial loss instead of fun, hence this thread = time to get out and enjoy it!

Edited May 2, 2006 by ellie

[siksII]

3. Start spending money on the car to get it to a state i'm happy with but will never see any financial return on

I tend to treat my vehicles pretty well but I'm tired of seeing my car as a financial loss instead of fun, hence this thread = time to get out and enjoy it!

Enjoying your car is what a lot of people miss while worrying about them! just maintain it well.

I dont know the state of your car but even if it is dead stock it wouldnt cost much to make it fun on a track (being a r23 gts-t?)

stop worrying and start thrashing! since u lost so much to start with the longer u keep it the better value it will be since it probably wouldnt depriciate as much as it initially did in the near future...

[Duncan]

hahah I am reading all these threads backwards!

Anyway, there is only 2 things you need to drive faster.....practice and tuition.

So, don't buy a race car. Don't modify a skyline. Buy a cheap to run car so you can get to as many events as you can.

CAMS motorkhanas, supersprints and hillclimbs are the cheapest and easiest, in NSW the 3 state series are 25 events over 52 weekends, it would be a miracle if someone could make that many events.

For tuition, formal advanced driver training and informal "find someone who seems to know what they are talking about and get them to sit beside you" is the way to go.

I have very natural little talent as a driver (unlike say fatz for instance). seriously. But I've had plenty of practice over the last few years, and have scored some lap records, top 3 finishes etc. following this theory

[predator]

ellie: keep the 32.. its an evil track weapon in disguise but its a long term process to get it to a balanced state of everything, like any car.

I ran my stock as r32 as a underpowered auto, and it was still plenty of fun, and was only a couple of seconds off the R33 and some modified cars. That made me go "well that wasn't bad actually.. hmm, it's going to be great with some more power"

You read a lot on here, and think the "must haves" are a lot and if you don't have them it's a waste of time.. but they're not. You can get out there with no fmic, no oil cooler, and nankangs and still do ok and have plenty of fun and not really risk the car.

Just know your car, that's the main thing.

[Laurence]

I am king of the last picks in any sort of real sport, so motorsport was an individual thing that I could

practice to get even remotely good at, short of F1 I don't think talent is really as important as a PHD

(according to Dick Johnson anyway)

Buy oil and water temp gauges (don't forget to actually look at them) and ideally some suspension.

Get an oil cooler and radiator when you can, then stick a fork in yourself because you're done.

You can sell some pretty gauges when you get rid of the car, your car is clean so it will probably stand up

for a couple of years of thrashing around and you can laugh at the idiots spending thousands to win a $10

plastic trophy while you are busy enjoying yourself in your car...

There was a time when a 200hp rwd was a powerful car, people have seem to have forgotten that for some reason.

I was thrashing my busted old S14 the other week and having a ball, despite being blasted past by the

cast of Gran Turismo. The S15 with wheels worth more than my car spent most of the day parked in the pits.

p.s. Yes that is an L-plate in my window

Edited May 8, 2006 by Laurence

[Roy]

Yeh...i look at how fast a GT3 Porsche is and so many guys are talkgin about 250rwkws like its not enough for a GTST Skyline, something that weights less then a GT3.

As for idiots to win a $10 trophy...i love goign to the track, but after 6 years i have found that participating in Sprints has added a bit of excitement/anticipation to track days...but it has come at a big price. And tend to agree that overall it takes away fromt he fun...but a motorsport trophy would be cool

[fatz]

track days are all about the beers afterward

thats all

[JCMarshall_Law]

Get on Paul's (aka SAU: mountian runners) email list about QLD raceway track days. He is running a motorsport driver training course at the next one. Cant remember who the trainers are but they know what they are doing. I think the next one is full but I'm sure there will be another one.

Get out there and practice. The following list is my times for the clubman track at QLD raceway:

My first track day: best time 1:12.97

Second: 1:10.6

Third: 1:09.0

and so on, my best "unofficial' time now is 1:06, there may have been something wrong with the timing that day because that is a very good time. So what I'm trying to say is: get out there and drive.

There was minimal mods between those track days and I still have a pretty close to stock r33

Edited May 9, 2006 by JCMarshall_Law

[Snowman]

And in your spare time play your gran turismo! It helps.

Especially go back and do the licenses. There is some little things in some area's that really do teach you some important things on the track. And I'm not talking stage 3 turbo upgrades are what you need for fast lap times.

Also - and this is going to be hard to do on a pushy - but practise practise practise heel - toe on the streets. Make it so that its second nature. It makes such a difference to driving quickly if you can do this well.

[Sammie]

racing karts competitvely for around 3 years + starting to race interstate aswell and i nthe future wanting to go international

[Roy]

Cool...but tell us about the coin its costing...some dont have the money, some arent willing to make big sacrifices to fo racing...so that leaves us with club cars/events...

And Snowie tell your co-driver...he still doesnt believe me

[ellie]

Keen as mustard now to get out there. For my sake though, I just have to get on to GTRgeoff and remove this flaming Hi-cas!

I'll definitely E-mail paul but the ownious is on me for now to fit all the stuff sitting on my bedroom floor!

If only I could figure out how to bend time!

Thanks guys for your positive responses! I think the R32 is going to be in the stable for a while yet so it's time to have some fun! ! !

[ellie]

I have to agree with Roy on the karting. Awsome fun and probably the most economical form of motor sport but when your 6foot2inches and wiegh 90kgs you have little chance of being competetive.

And yes be in it for fun but when your constantly outlaying money you want to win or at least be in the fight! Tyres alone would send me broke!

Edited May 9, 2006 by ellie

[fatz]

i remeber being 6'2 and 90 kgs

back in year 9

[Snowman]

Yeah but have you dirven his car? I don't know what it is but the gearbox is freaky. You almost don't need to heel-toe in his car as it is so smooth on down shifts.

Thats why when he first drove my car his head nearly smacked into the steering wheel when he did his first big downshift as he's so used to not having to do it. Not to mention what it did to my poor gearbox.

[Sammie]

racing karts is a awesome sport to get into however if you want to race competitvely at top level it can get costy

[VB-]

i remeber being 6'2 and 90 kgs

back in year 9

LOL me too, but now being 17, im pushin 6'5" and 150. anyway, back on topic, anyone know what are the good and bad advanced driving courses out there. hopefully getting my P's in a few months, and as soon as i do, i want to go do a few courses, like start off with defensive, then move onto advanced car control, but are all of em good? are there any courses out there known for being sh*t?

i want to get as much experience as i can, would it be better to get more normal driving experience on the road before going to these, or would it be better to go learn from the pros first?

[slip]

mt cotton is great for getting comfortable/capable when things go sideways/out of shape. spent over 1k there when I used to organise all the SAU skidpan days. major improvements, 8 days overall i think.

the rest (for me) has been just racing bmx, riding motorbikes, and doing a lot of hard mountain driving. this is stupid, irresponsible, and dangerous.

There is a certain natural something that people have, but theres also a huge amount you can develop.

self control is also a big thing. sometimes the harder you try the slower you go. the fastest times at mt cotton on the skidpan/lvma always looked the slowest.

get someone who can drive, and i mean really drive, to go passenger, talk to you, spend time building you as a driver. mega hard to find, but would be good.

contact sideline motorsports they may be able to help you out or point you in the right direction if you are serious.

[ellie]

I've been sidelined for a little bit but I think Im going to go with Mt. Cotton training as total driver seem to have fallen off the face of the earth!

Does anyone know what happened to them? And what courses have you guys done and how do you rate them? In QLD!