Gary R.

Some amateur stuff? What does that mean exactly? 98% of us here are amateurs..

MUSSBERGER

These are good questions. I will defer to the collective wisdom that this community provides.

DanR

not sure there is better or worse - why not both

BostonDMD

The other 2%, (me included) are worst than amateurs.......

But it is all about the fun and bragging rights......

Larry Herman

Autocross, absolutely. It develops car control at a level that cannot be easily attained at the track. And without car control, you can never get right up to the limit, because if you go a little beyond it....... A couple of dozen autocrosses will put you light-years ahead of some one who just starts out at the track.

RonCT

Others can answer better than I can, but I think a lot of this comes down to seat time on a road course at speed. Start in Green and learn the basics. Once you are in White (our chapter goes Green, Yellow, Yellow Solo, White, Black), you probably have the skill set you need in order to compete. I can remember the day at Watkins Glen when I had the "big change" (don't know what else to call it). It was the moment when everything went from the nervous conscious into the relaxed subconscious. Instead of looking for every marker, they all blended together. Almost like autopilot. Once that happened, when unexpected things would happen on the track, like the spin Bill did at LRP where Victor and I had to do a quick dance to avoid hitting him, there was no elevation of heart rate, we just automatically knew exactly what to do, avoided the crash, and went on like nothing happened.

I would think that once you were that comfortable in a hot car on a race track that whatever might come your way in racing would be second nature to resolve. To get there will take some work and lots of seat time, but that's what programs like PCA DE are all about - learning things like vehicle dynamics. Another helpful factor is a car that is set up well...

dave morris

Yup. Agree. Maybe a few less than a couple dozen. And spend as much time as you can on a skid pad.

FredC

Karting. Get a 100+ CC 2-stroke kart and race it.

Wiles42

Thanks guys I have done a bit of go kart racing but it seems like they won't transfer over to the track. I definitely will try and find someone to drive with me and teach me the ropes. And what is the skid pad? Sorry im kinda confused about this. And thanks for all the great advice

Barfly

Could not disagree more. Suspension or not, the principles are the same.

Vroomvroomboom

Here is an easy way to get track time for free. If you don't get the tickets you could also get some other stuff too.

http://www.facebook.com/RedlineTimeA...8362724&ref=nf

Gary R.

Seems to be a dead link..

verhag

Autocross....if budget is tight....most bang for the buck. From my experience, again, budget being a key factor, the next step is karts, or DE. Karts are great, tremendous camaraderie. Years ago, running a National at Road America, I blew a motor and my competitor insisted I use his spare for the race.

Autocross will tell you a lot and it will provide tremendous rewards for very little investment.

my 2 cents....

TexasRider

Yes I wish I had done this both with motorcycles for 30 years and with offshore boats. I could have had a pretty solid Porsche with all that money !

todinlaw

I will give you a different answer, BOTH. get as much seat time as you can. Auto x is good cheap learning and not a big expenditure of time or money, but if your hungry you will want more. This is an addiction you are playing with so, get to it. Road course experience is also necessary but different. we try to unlearn some of our Auto X habits of quick hands on a road course, so by doing both maybe you can get up on the learning curve. If you have money to spend take some lessons. But by all means, Just do it.