jester911

Alexander, as a guy that has played competitive tennis for 20+ years I relate to your analogy.
The amazing thing about levels in tennis is that on paper there is not that much difference in a 5.5 and a 6.0 player. On the court the difference is very pronounced and getting to that next level is the biggest jump.

Droving for me is much like that. Although a drover may only be a second or two slower than the pro, that is the biggest leap. I gave myself a 4 but realizing how much there is left to learn there seems to be a lot more than 6 levels above me.
I am still a student of the game of tennis after all these years and so is true for droving all though I may never equal the seat time vs court time.

Bull

The set-up guarantees it!

smlporsche

I took a somewhat more pragmatic approach..

1 - soccer mom, clueless street driver
2 - green student
3 - blue student
4 - white student
5 - black student
6- red / instructor
7 - club racer, level 1
8 - club racer, level 2, level 1 pro
9 - pro raer, level 2
10 - top tier level pro (insert series here)

I gave myself a 6 but as others have said if VR and others consider themselves in that catagory I have no business there.

If you were to put one of each of these people in an identically preparrred car on the same track I think the time differences would be more pronounced at the lower levels than at the upper ones...

cooleyjb

Without a defined meaning for each of the numbers the comparison is somewhat meaningless. the voters opinion on what the number means will have more of an effect on their vote that the voters opinion on their driving skills.

Bull

Exactly!

Veloce Raptor

Excellent, and true, point.

Flying Finn

I kinda agree that driving F1 must be different than driving a saloon or something but in general I think fast driver is fast in pretty much everything.

Did you see when Mika Hakkinen drove 964 supercup for the first time in his life?

kurt M

The last second is far harder than the first 10. Getting faster is a Log scale for sure.

Dropped in for a 6 before reading any of the thread. I think it hard to judge your own skills. I would put myself in Eddie's instructor line so 6 it is per his listing. Unless I drop being a father and regular working stiff I will not improve much more. Talent has run low and the rest is hard work and solid seat time for me and seat time is getting harder to come by. I should have started club racing at least 2 years ago per the standard saws of driving without thinking about it and having some heads up awarness. Time and $. DE other than the instructing part is getting a little boring for me. A poor choice of car is part of it. I have a hard time getting up into or past the comfort zone unless I have a rabbit to chanse or am the rabbit and am getting chased.

Using the log factor and F1 at one end and mom driving the dented mini van at the other I would be a 4 best and likely have run out of talent at this point.

The more I know the more I know I don't know.

Larry Herman

I put myself at a 7. I know that I am pretty quick, and very consistent, with excellent car control and good feel. At 53 though, I also know that I probably do not have that blazing series of hot laps in me anymore, and I feel that I do leave just the slightest bit in hand, which would separate me from the pro who races every week, and is used to being right on the very edge all of the time. I would put them at an 8, with the upper level pros at a 9, and the very best at a 10.

SundayDriver

Guys,
You are making this way too complicated. There is no absolute scale nor explanation of what each level should be. It is very simple - rate yourself considering the full range of drivers out there. Use your own judgment about how you stack up in terms of driving skills vs. what you think is possible and what exists out there.

TD in DC

run rabbit run!

kurt M

G Dm't, Why did you sell the '44? now I got no one to even remotey play with at all. They ether suck with what they brung or brung more than what I gots. But we digress....

M758

Yeah,
Even racing in a spec class makes this tough. When I first started in the class I was a 10 (in my class). Now 5 years later I am maybe a 8 in my class of 944 drivers. However how do these guys rank in a field of real racers. Makes me think I probably suck alot more than I imagine.

However one drive on freeways around here makes me think I am a 15.

multi21

Where is LV Dell with his statistics when you need him? Once again Mark, if we're to take the entire general population of drivers on the road, then I'd say all that have responded on this thread with the exception of A. Wayne (I couldn't resist, you know), then we're all 9.9 as I truly believe we're better than 99% of the driver's on the road.

However, the question is vague in that it doesn't say track driving. I believe we're all answering about our track driving ability, not road driving ability. If we're to take track driving ability, the soccer moms are at 0 with F1 drivers at 10 and we're probably at a 1 or 2 because if we're better than 99% of the drivers on the street today, then that leaves 1% and we're all in that pool. However, when we separate that 1%, I'd say that we're on the shallow end of that pool. Does that make any sense?

seege

I'm all for humility..so I gave myself a 9 because I haven't won enough races to be a 10 yet. The 10's are top data and set-up people as well.Oh wait, those are 9's.The 10's are top drive, data, set-up and drive for top teams.No that's not quite right either,the 10's are consistent winners. Ok..I'm an 8.