New to Auto X and HPDE! From drag to road racing.... with the wife lol!!

[Elbow]

Again thanks for all of the advice. I've considered all three options that you speak of. The first being SCCA, but I got a little confused going between all the aformentioned websites and then having to piece everything together lol. Maybe it was just me. But anyway I liked the way the NASA stuff was laid out, HPDE then TT then Racing! Just seemed like an easy transition with NASA but just as you said you could be in HPDE for a good while. I think that would have been ok if all I wanted to do was HPDE, but I'm going to try and go all the way up if I can. I'm going to check out the links that you put up for me about SCCA, but just in case I still can't find what I'm looking for; How would I go from auto x to pdx then racing? Like stated above I also considered the racing school, I just didn't see how you could really learn something over the 3 days that was worth so much money. I looked into it over the course of a day and found mixed reviews about it. Me and the wife both have decided that starting in auto x is the best decision for several reasons; one making sure that we even like this type of racing and also making sure that its something that we can be competitive in. I would hate to drop $4-$5,000.00 just to find out that I hate it and need to go back to drag racing lol!!! Again I do appreciate all of the advice and more is welcomed. In August at Turner Field will be my first time doing this so wish me luck!!

The biggest difference between autocross and PDX is neither require any license or major safety equipment. Road racing does. PDX is open to anyone with a basic car that can pass tech, pretty much the same tech they do at an autocross, no license or previous experience is needed. They will issue you a logbook that's used for PDX and Time Trials with SCCA, as you progress you will move up to driving without an instructor, than have the chance to drive time trials if you want to but that does require some more gear.

The Skip Barber three day school will teach you more than you would believe, things track day instructors probably don't even know, it can be done at a later stage though if you wanted more input. They also do track days sometimes for drivers and offer feedback, once again at a level higher than most volunteering track day instructors.

My biggest piece of advice is don't worry about modifying the car, just drive, you don't need race tires, aero work, or any of that to get on track, spend all your funding on entry fees and basic weekend prep then go faster as you move up. I see your car is already modded which is fine, but I wouldn't keep modifying it, if it runs strong, has solid suspension and doesn't leak or fall apart, it's ready! Just go out, learn, and have some fun! Autocross is a lot of fun for the price, I did my first when I was fifteen and was hooked for a few years you learn a lot about car control that can be used in other areas as well.

What you really need to know is:

-What car do you want to race?
-Do you want to race or do time trials?
-What is your budget?

I would follow a path that goes along with my plan, meaning if you want to end up racing SCCA GT then start with SCCA and move up to that class, if you want to race NASA TT then do HPDE and move up to time trials.

Remember that actual wheel to wheel racing requires all of the gear such as legal helmet, suit, head and neck device, the works. Time trials with NASA doesn't require much of anything to my knowledge and with SCCA it requires a roll bar at minimum and pretty much the rest of the gear racers use. SCCA time trials is not as popular as NASA TT because it's not typically ran during the club race weekends around here, but it's still a good gig and they run hill climbs as well such as the one at the Dragon.

[SRDFTITAN]

Ok so today got a lot accomplished on the car (body work wise). The car is sitting in the paint booth as we speak!! All I have to do in the morning is tape a couple of things off, wipe down with a de-greaser and spray. When I got home I had a present sitting at the door....





Front springs @ 450lbs/inch


Rear springs @ 430lbs/inch


Very excited, now just have to wait on all the other stuff so I can do everything at the same time. Comments welcome!