Autocross is better than Karting for car control skills.

Karting is best for racing skills.


Reason is that karts react very differently from cars. Simply due to the mass and steering. I have driven karts and they are not similar to cars.

Autocross is very similar if you are looking for 95% speed. It is in getting that last 5% where the skills differ. However there is NO BETTER PLACE TO LEARN CAR CONTROL THAN IN AUTOCROSS.

I do partially disagree with your above statement if you want to be really really fast on the track. If you just want to quick then yes, but it if you really want to make serious speed from your car you will need to put it in situations where it could got off. That is really what seperates the men from the boys in racing. Pro with the money to write off a car will push harder and harder and risk everything in most corners. DE guys won't and will never go as fast. Untill you have pushed the car past were you think it will go you will NEVER be as fast as you could be. Start by doing this at autocross speeds to learn the basics. Then start doing this at tracks where you have the room for error. You will in time go faster than you everthough possible. If you always leave a little bit left on the table you will never be superfast.


That said however in DE you are not required to go superfast. There are no prizes for pushing, but great risk in making a mistake. So you don't need to push really. However if you want to be fast racer you better push like hell and you will go off. Any racer who has never spun or gone off track simply is not going fast enough. The smart racers learn to push like hell in places were an off will not mean car damage. The superfast guys push like hell were on off WILL MEAN car damage. Simply they get max speed where others are afraid to. And yep some times they screw up.

 

I have been driving a 911 SC for 12 years before I got my current 996 with PSM.

I like PSM a lot and think that I have learn how to apply my car control skills that I acquired when driving my ex-SC to get the most out of my 996 with PSM on.

It is interesting to note that one CAN drift a PSM enabled car if you do it in a very smooth controlled manner. I've been concentrating on how to drive my 996 fast through corners without PSM come on and it worked for me.

It takes some car control to do that. What I mean is that you need to control youself not to over drive a corner.

Kam

 

Some more thoughts....

Do not disagree A/X is a good place to learn car control basics, but at some point, the situations you get on track are decidedly different... the speeds are much higher... the corrections need to be smoother and more subtle.... the "sense" of when something is about to go wrong needs to be re-calibrated... IMHO this stuff can only be learned on the track... not to diminish A/X experience... but it has its limitations.

Kam makes a good point... a driver who has experience in car control can adapt to PSM, and understand how to use it. I think the concern is a novice who only used PSM (or ABS for that matter)... how will they every learn?

Or do they need to???

Back in the 50s, brakes were so bad drivers had to learn how to race without them by sliding cars into turns to scrub off speed, and saving them for critical situations like key passes etc...tires were hard as rocks, and frailed frequently.... wire wheels came apart.... I'm sure they would feel the same about the current fade-free, no-brainer brakes and race tires we have as we probably feel about ABS and PSM.... progress marches on.

Driving skills change over time, but the best people will always win...