OK, maybe not quite the right place but I wanted to make sure as many see it as possible as soon as possible.
_________________________________________

And, far to many think getting looked at is the most important thing about a car, cool, sure is nice but learning how to drive better and quite possibly save your car and or yourself someday because you have a higher skill level.

In all sincerity and respect I mean this, very few of you really know how to drive well and you are not going to learn how on public streets or playing video games. The only way to really learn is real world, no hold barred, letting it all hang out and in a safe place to do it. There are other methods to achieve great skill levels but they are far beyond the means of most people in time and budget.

Autocross by far is the lowest cost, safest and fun way to really find out what you are made of and increase your chances of surviving to an old age that has been filled with alot of fun behind the wheel.

To drive fast and safely, to avoid accidents from your own errors or others on the streets takes instant automatic reaction, it is not something you can learn from reading, playing on ramp commando, etc, you can gain some level of competence but not enough nor nearly as much as you may think you have, I can garrantee that;)

There are a few gifted drivers out there that seem to just learn it very quickly and are above what most of us can acheive so easily, the rest of us need practice and we need to learn what happens when we do it wrong, put your ego down, you are not likely one of the gifted ones, I am not, but I am pretty dang good now
____________________________________________

It is obvious I am very passionate about this issue, I lost friends, family, and alot of my rights to mod my cars because of unskilled, over confident young gun drivers bringing alot of heat down on us that mod imports(something I have done now for close to 40 years;) And, I care about you guys and want to see you have some fun getting better at driving your cars!

____________________________________________



There will be events both days at the Portland International Raceway, Oregon, Sat and Sun.

Event list

I plan to be there for the morning sessions both days if I can resolve one issue on the car in time, if not then just on Sunday.

Let's make this a mini meet and greet! Run your car, learn some real driving skills you cannot match on public roads or on video games, really

If you do not want to run the events that is fine, would still be great to meet anybody that can make it!
_______________________________________

If you are not in my area, no problem, you can find autocrosses all over the country,
search for SCCA and local clubs that run events.

________________________________________

Rick

 

well.. if you aquire these "skills" where would you use them?
i kind of disagree... no disrespect. but if a bad driver is going to hit you... then a bad driver is going to hit you... some things can't be prevented... it's kind of like saying red cars get pulled over more... they don't. better driver or not... the less chance of you getting hit or into an accident is slim. i don't think it would really make any kind of difference. i'm not putting you down. i'm just saying i kind of disagree. we should take a survey and compare average drivers to autox drivers and see if there is anything in the accident to none ratio.... until i see something like that i don't agree

 

i don't think he's only talking about other people slamming into you blindly. if you think about it he makes a great point. when in rain your car will under and oversteer more. spirited driving that you may not be able to do on the streets will help you understand the limits of your car in extreme situations. not just getting hit.

 

I understand his point. Call me crazy but it all depends how you interpret what he is trying to say.
Don't read things LITERALLY. Just my 2 cents

To the OP, thanks for the advice

 

Sorry if I offend anyone but seriously, if you cannot understand what the point is, you probably would benifit the most from participating in what I am recommending;)

Most "accidents" are caused by carelessness, distractions, not being focused on the task at hand or over confidence with lack of real skill.

I may have driven a million miles by now and all my problems occured at a younger age when I thought I was a bad **** driver. Once I started autocrossing I found out where I really was in the skill department and worked on improving until I was much more competent in reality instead of just my imagination.

I also learned I have my limits and to stay within them, they are high but I have seen much better drivers than myself so I do have a realistic idea of what I can and cannot do.

This is a learned skill by doing, not reading, not pretending, not playing a video game, the only way is doing it and the safest way is off of public streets.

I had some fun today autocrossing and learned even more of the limits of the current setup on the car which are quite high but not perfected yet.

Knowing my actual limits at the very edge of control allows me to react in an emergency situation and avoid almost all possible dangers, but not all, skill and vehicle dynamics do not always save the day, just watch any good car race, sheat happens!!

But, I am able to have some fun, well below the car and my own threshold yet fast enough to enjoy and be pretty much assured I am going to make it just fine

The motor skills I have learned over the years have saved my **** many many times when I was just cruising along and somebody near me made a deadly error.

Rick

 

^ i agree with all u have to say! most people on this forum aren't as good as they think they are at driving. I plan on running some auto X events and taking a few lessons from a professional driving school.

 

Glad you understand, we need more people to learn how to drive better and this can be a lifelong aspect , you can always gett better

I have lost alot of my reflexes, etc, just naturally happens as I am now 54 but I have a vast reference of learned skills to rely on and thus am pretty fast for an old dude

By the way, Paul Newman is now 80 and I garrantee he can kick anybody on this forums ****(myself included) on a road race course and do it for hours on end, really.

He won races at the age of 79, in cars insanely faster than any tC(not talking abour drag racing , not dissing those that love that sport;)

Rick



Rick