Quote:
Originally Posted by Todd0131
the problem is I have already done about everything but safety stuff and rear bbk, and coilovers. I figure why not get it setup from the get go so I can learn with the car.
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I'm speaking from experience. Take with a grain of salt.
My friend and I started doing HPDEs at about the same time in early 2000. We both had the same car when we started, E46 323Ci. We both had a bunch of work done to the car already, but me being the tinkering type, kept changing out brakes, wheels, tires, suspension...etc thinking that I can be faster if the car is faster.
He was made instructor in 2003 while I toiled away as a B/C student for nearly 6 years, attending every single HPDE I can back then (choices were slim, just BMW CCA and Driving Concepts holding events in my area). During the period of time, not only did I change the parameter of the car constantly (Wheels. Tires. Big brakes. Brake compound. Springs. Shocks. Intake. Exhaust. You name it. I changed it), I also took a bunch of different cars to each event: My 323Ci, Z4 3.0i, Nissan 350Z, Subaru WRX...etc.
At one point we joked that I never drove the same car in back to back events. And in reality, I didn't. I was never able to do consistent laps, something was almost always changing in how the car performed. I never got comfortable and I never LEARNED as much as I should, because every single event I was struggling with something that was changed on the car.
In hindsight...I should have just stuck with the same car with the same mods while I was learning to become a better driver. All that tinkering should have been done after I made the Advanced group, because not only was I struggling with understanding the dynamics of my car, because it was constantly in flux, I wasn't even near to taking full advantage of each and every mod I was installing between events.
Now, if you were to say, my friend was a natural driver and hence he progressed through the ranks much quicker? I dunno. All I know is, now, nearly 2 decades later, you throw the two of us in the same car, like ///M days at Thermal, our AX times would be within hundredth of each other (with me coming out on top most of the time) and our battles on the local electric kart track is EPIC.
I think my constant tinkering and changing of cars is what held me back for so long.
The ONE side benefit from all that tinkering? You can throw me in any car and I'll figure out how to wring the mofo out of it fast within 3 laps. But honestly? 99% of fundamentals of driving fast doesn't change from car to car.
My advice? DO NOTHING to the car except for tires and vital fluids. Keep going to DEs until you get to a point where you can rip lap time without traffic to within tenth of each other, lap after lap. When you can feel the difference in 2PSI's change in tire pressure, and can anticipate the change in car's condition (brake getting hot, tires getting greasy...etc) and account for said change, and still keep within a few tenths of a second of your fast lap? Then start altering the parameters and see what sort of behavior change the car exhibits.
Otherwise you're just wasting time and money.