That must have been when you passed me That was right before you spun. It looked like you came in a little early and a little fast (I am no expert, just what it looked like, as I was directly behind you). I saw the rear tires begin to smoke, and then your ***-end kicked around. I'm glad nothing bad happened. It was kind of fun to watch.
As far as the Supercups go, I was loving the sound . One of the instructors, Caleb, who drives a GT3, got in my car. When I fired it up, he said "What's up with the exhaust on this car?" I told him they were Fabspeed Supercups, and he said "This thing sounds f#cking awesome!" When we pulled out from the grid onto the track, he said " I love these pipes!" He also thought my suspension set-up was pretty good, too. Nice to hear that, from someone that knows.

 

Darin,

Congrats on your track day, and thanks for the pics. I think your slippery slope is about to get really greasy!!!

 

could well have been Henry (Hank) Watts. He is a legend in NoCal running first with the PCA GGR and now with the Porsche Racing C;lub. Read his book, Secrets of Solo Racing : Expert Techniques for Autocrossing and Time Trials, by Henry A. Watts

Next time see if Hank will instruct you...then you will really go over the edge, big time!

 

Yeah, I think that was him. ... Wicked fast...

 

hank got to 1:55 or so today and the cup car you saw was arnaud's (AW) and he got to 156-157.

 

Mike,

Nice article. Do all auto-x sessions have instructors? Or was this a school? I don't remember instructors at a PCA event i went to or quite possibly it's dependent on the club.

 

Arrwin, thanks!

Every single autocross I've ever been to (that's about 250 in the last 5.5 years) had instructors. Just tell the grid person that you want one and they'll find one. Some are more formal, some are less, usually pretty experienced guys. PCA always has formal instructors.

I still take instructors once in a while to get pointers. It's imperative in my opinion. Too many things to think about, you forget.

One more thing to do is to make videos and have them critiqued. A bit too much hassle, but I have a few, if you'd like to see them.

 

congrats on the track day. you'll probably find yourself sitting at your desk daydreaming and absent-mindedly heel-toeing the carpet and thinking about that perfect apex and getting on the power earlier. just keep the vrooming noises down so your co-workers don't notice

 

Hmm...maybe no one requested for an instructor that day then. I will be going to my 2nd DE in 2 weeks, but have not done an Auto-x yet. I keep thinking that an Auto-x is more wear and tear on the car than a DE (at my level at least). Is it?

 

Autocross is _much_ less wear and tear on the car than DE. I'd venture to say that Autocross is pretty much zero wear and tear until you start going fast and buying race rubber.

You have a whole bunch of very good events around NYC. BMWCCA has great ones, so does PCA, M-club, and assorted SCCA clubs.

I can guarantee you that autocrossing will make you a better street driver and better at the track (but not the other way around, interestingly enough).

 

I hear that a lot actually. I guess it's just the quick turns and constant braking that makes me think there is more wear and tear, where in DE everything is much faster but I guess that leads to quicker wear. I think I will sign up for an auto-x or two before the season ends. Definitely would request an instructor though b/c my goal would be to learn car control over having the fastest time.

Thanks again Mike...Darin...sorry for the hijack.

 

Awesome reading about your first DE experience. I can't wait to get back to the track in two weeks. I try to get in as much performance driving as possible. Auto-x is a great way to get your feet wet and also work on reacting to different types of turns. Personally, I think that if you can hit every apex at an auto-x you can certainly do it at a DE. But for a pure adrenaline rush DEs certainly are the way to go unless you step up to club racing (which I haven't had the stones to try yet).

 

It has been my experience, with my 993, that auto-x has much less track time than DE or Time Trial or Club racing and therefore has less wear overall. Comparing only tires, I think per second of auto-x track driving compared to per second of big track driving time is significantly higher in auto-x. The tires are just scrubbed off with all those tight turns.

 

Very true, Kary. My costs for tires alone are about $9 a minute (not a typo). This is for 13" wheels. If I ran 17" wheels, they'd be about $15-16 a minute.

 

Very cool Darin! Any action shots?