I visited a local club recently and found an instructor willing to drive my car with me and then turn me loose. Honestly being my first day I was way too excited to retain anything and when I made my couple of first runs I was balls to the wall, with cones bouncing and dragging and people smirking (maybe my imagination but I know I was a disaster. )

I joined the club and have just registered for their next novice event. I plan to take it very slow and try to learn something, and hopefully not break anything.

So starting over and pretending first try did not happen, what should be my focal point for the day?

Thanks
John

Focal Point - Have Fun!

Walk the Course - Solo and maybe with the Guy that will Instruct you.

Build Speed through your Runs - Slowish the 1st time to make sure you stay on course & learning the track. The last run, Drive it like you stole it

Have Fun!

I don't know what club you found and probably would know nothing about it
anyway. Consider going to either NCR PCA and/or
NER PCA. Lots of good and fast people,
many mid-engine cars, best location around here (devens moore airfield).

We always have a novice course walk where one of the instructors will gab about
important points to anybody who thinks they need it. Also, do ride-alongs with
experienced people.

Your car is not going to break any more often than normal driving, unless you
neglected the car. In 15 years, the only bad things to happen to my car at auto-x
were my fault. Not keeping the CV bolts tight; a bit of wiring that I installed without
a strain relief; dirt in carbs that I installed without proper cleaning.

First, learn to memorize enough of the course and learn to look ahead far enough.
Next, learn a proper line. Learn to either use max acceleration or max brake as
much as possible, and learn the feel of the brakes.
Eventually, learn to get closer to the cones.
Over many events, tune yourself to run 100% of car's limit (or more ).
Possibly tune some elements of your car also for more fun factor.

P.S. don't sign up for clubs above for 8/23-8/24, as this is actually the PCA
Zone1 event which is not going to have instructors, it is more serious.

Mark S.

Thanks Mark

I belong to PCA NER
SCCA NER and
Sports Car Club of NH that uses Louden. This Novice event is SCCNH.


I have been to Devans as an observer and walked the course of the day there, but I decided not to run
IT was SCCA the day I was there.

I have not been to a PCA event yet. But I have a friend Chris Jacques that is a regular with his boxter.

John

on all points.
I started as one of the slowest cars out there.
Its all about having fun!!!

DRIVE IT LIKE YA STOLE IT,,,and dont take advice from people that dont

All of the above are very good recommendations, however, you must work your way to the "Drive it like you stole it" part. In the beginning, until you learn how good your tires stick, how fast your brakes stop you and how close you can get to cones, you will find that your fastest times will be when you are not pushing it. You will know if you had a good run by just the feel of it. When you are comfortable that you know your car well and what your own abilities are, then and only then start to push it. You will know when that is.

if you dont spin out your not driving hard enough! take advantage of the closed course smash the loud pedal and hang on! Thats how you`ll learn the car ,not pussy foot n around, you can do that on the street..JMO. 2 time PNWR AX champ,Colorado Parade AX class winner
Look where you wanna go not where your going

where else can you go and spin your car out , drive it like a madman SAFELY and with out go n to JAIL..that`s all i`m say n ...its a closed course ,find the limits and experience them,then go from there...P.S all above advice is good

Well I see from videos if you get long dreadlocks and have a shop in
downtown L.A., at night you can drive 911's like a madman through the
streets

no dreads,not in LA,and the 911`s engine is backwords and in the wrong spot, so that dont count

Well the car and I survived.

They set up a braking course of three triangles

A figure eight

And a slolum.

They did not use any pointer cones so the figure eight was confusing. We ran it both ways.

After lunch they set up a nice course. There were 9 groups of three cars so we only got two timed runs each. First run I ran off course so I took a 20 sec penalty. Second run was more consistant and I felt good.

Overall I finished 13 even with the bad run averaged in. I thrashed a Ferrari 460? And a Carrera 4S.

The big power cars had trouble because they were heavier and the transitions were to short for them to put any power down. Turbos also had trouble spooling up. So the lowly 1.7 showed poise and balance and did ok. I drove over an hour to get there and the same back at speeds of 80-90 mph and thrashed her good on the course. I got home and got out of the car to open the garage and I heard something snap and the gen light came on. Felt behind the fan and the belt was just lying there. It did not break and the alternator and pulley was not loose so the belt must have stretched a bit.

Did not get to it today, on the to do list.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will be going back. My instructor was good and he offered encouragement. There was a kid with a 85 944 there and we kind of bonded. A 5.0 ltr Mustang could not put any power down, his rear tires just kept burning up. So all in all a fun day.

John

I'm a Oregon PCA instructor.
Seat Time is the key. Walk the course as many times as you can.
If your run groups are large enough. Try and catch a ride with one of the instructors in their car.

What tires are on the car?

I'm sure you will get different versions of this suggestion but here it is:

I think beginners should start with tires that are not too sticky.
(use street tires before buying hoosiers).

I think there is an advantage to learning how the car behaves as it reaches (and exceeds ) the traction capability.
If you start with poor tires, the car will show you how it behaves when it begins to spin, and you will have a chance at learning how to recover.
This car gives plenty of warning when it wants to cut loose.
Learning with less grip will give you more experience with taking the car to the extreme and recovering it.

Once you know how it behaves at the limit and "speaks" to you as you approach the limit you will be better prepared to drive with the stickier tires.

If you go straight to sticky tires and THEN learn to spin it, your very first spin is guaranteed to be exciting.

Some of the pro driving schools uses a wet track to achieve the same result.

SO I vote against the "drive it like you stole it" mentality.
Some people start out trying to drive too fast, then you need to teach them to "slow down to go faster'.

I am running 205 55 15 Dunlop Dizenzas. New tires this spring with about 3500 miles on them. I ran 36 lbs all around.

Might be a little too hard. Suggestion was 5 lbs over factory recomendations.

John

you will learn the most from your ass not the ass,s on here ..no matter what your driving

Signed up for three more events....

Which ones?

PCA #4

SCCA #9
Actually I had to cancel SCCA #9 because of conflict
[s]
SCCNH #8

Unless my car breaks, I should be at NER PCA #4.

Great. I look forward to meeting you.

John