*The FL5 Track Junkie Thread*

[Rexpelagi]

Fair point. I should say, I don’t just watch anyone’s videos. I watch my friends videos because they are instructors and know the track.

Yep, if you can find videos like that it can be quite helpful for sure! That's what I was getting at as well.

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[MooMoo]

I jump on the sim before a track day, it helps a lot to know your way around the track but I can see how it could also make for some bad habits, I can do a 58 sec around lime rock on the sim but no where close in real life lol. Also a lot of the tracks are amateur made and not very realistic. That said its an amazing tool. I like to watch a good video or 2 to see the line then jump on the sim for a few laps.


Should make a stick with all this info about safety, etc... There is a lot of good stuff out there already but there is also a lot of bad information. I am just an intermediate driver, have probably close to 20 track days and found my first days into the hobby really welcoming actually. The key is to go through a good club, don't focus on the price (aka please DO NOT GO with track night in america as your first DE event), pay a little more and go through a good club with good instructors. I was lucky to go with SCDA and BMW CCA and they had great instructors, good classrooms (go to the class rooms, not just to learn but you get to meet people).

The point of all of this is to learn more and have fun so no point trying to go to the next group as fast as possible, stay in novice as long as u can, specially if u can get free instructors. The other thing that I am super glad I did is car control clinics, not sure if every track has em but Lime rock does and its pretty amazing, learning how to control the car on a skid pad and just on a small course that has nothing to hit is pretty clutch.

 

[TW00Si]

What I usually talk about with friends at the track is whether being in a certain gear for the corner is better or not. Shifting points so to have enough time to settle car, etc. those can’t be really seen from videos.

 

[Rexpelagi]

. The other thing that I am super glad I did is car control clinics, not sure if every track has em but Lime rock does and its pretty amazing, learning how to control the car on a skid pad and just on a small course that has nothing to hit is pretty clutch.

I agree completely on this point - I started out with autocross and even though I don't really do it competitively anymore I still usually take a new car to a local first just to see if it has any unusual behavior before going out on track. A skid pad or even a skid car is such a great learning tool as well. I definitely wouldn't want to try to learn car control on a fast track as a new driver.

 

[PointByPatrol]

What I usually talk about with friends at the track is whether being in a certain gear for the corner is better or not. Shifting points so to have enough time to settle car, etc. those can’t be really seen from videos.

I'll call @Djseto out on this one. He watched my video where I was coaching a DE5 driver, and had mentioned to me how much my conversation with the driver about where to shift and what gear to be in helped him improve personally. I can't take all the credit, but he ran 2 seconds faster last weekend than he ever had in the R and his consistency lap to lap was impressive!

 

[PointByPatrol]

I wonder if I should pull out the post and start a new one titled "track novice" thread or something like that. What do you guys think? And the entire purpose would be to help those that are new to the sport, and wanting to hit the track, or should we just keep it in this thread?

 

[TW00Si]

If you want to do that, just make it into a sticky. And limit the number of cooks.

 

[MooMoo]

I wonder if I should pull out the post and start a new one titled "track novice" thread or something like that. What do you guys think? And the entire purpose would be to help those that are new to the sport, and wanting to hit the track, or should we just keep it in this thread?

problem with this thread is that this topic will get buried in like a week when we start talking about brake pads and brake fluid boiling points lol.

New thread gets my vote, I am all for welcoming people to the hobby, its great that its one of the few that seems like it has few gate keepers, its pretty great. But the more information before going out to the track the better, tons of good stuff out there but the more the better. Not even just safety but crap like don't use your hand brake right after coming in from a session, etc...

 

[PointByPatrol]

problem with this thread is that this topic will get buried in like a week when we start talking about brake pads and brake fluid boiling points lol.

New thread gets my vote, I am all for welcoming people to the hobby, its great that its one of the few that seems like it has few gate keepers, its pretty great. But the more information before going out to the track the better, tons of good stuff out there but the more the better. Not even just safety but crap like don't use your hand brake right after coming in from a session, etc...

Might be neat if we all pick a topic area and write up some best practices. To your point the "what to do when you pull off the track". We could also cover flags, driving techniques, track lingo ex: track in, track out, open the wheel...etc.

Who wants what? I've already finished my homework

 

[Club Version]

I agree completely on this point - I started out with autocross and even though I don't really do it competitively anymore I still usually take a new car to a local first just to see if it has any unusual behavior before going out on track. A skid pad or even a skid car is such a great learning tool as well. I definitely wouldn't want to try to learn car control on a fast track as a new driver.

This is a good point!

My first ever track outings were back in 2008 at Drift Skid pad events in an S14 with a welded diff. That definitely gave me a good basis on car control before ever touching a real track.

 

[PointByPatrol]

If you want to do that, just make it into a sticky. And limit the number of cooks.

How do I make it a sticky?

 

[PointByPatrol]

Alright, done. I made a separate thread. Would anyone like to cover and create a topic to add to it? We can use this space here to discuss it prior to you posting it so that we can make sure that all of the important key points are covered!

 

[TW00Si]

How do I make it a sticky?

I have no clue. lol
Maybe message the admin

 

[MooMoo]

yeah I bet an admin has to do it.

Anyways I posted some things over there

 

[PointByPatrol]

yeah I bet an admin has to do it.

Anyways I posted some things over there

You posted some super helpful things! Thank you for doing that!

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