Hi, want to get involved

#1

Hello all. I’m Andrew from North Texas. I’m a fan of any type of racing (legal) and I’ve been over on M3F for a few years. King Tut posted a video of him racing and I told him I want to do that so he directed me here and to NASA. I’d love to get into your type of racing. I need to go through the HPDE levels so hopefully in 2 years I can get involved. Meanwhile, I’d really like to watch and learn.

I’m a complete noob and waiting for a HPDE here in my region so I can participate at the very bottom. Any thoughts or advice you have for a complete newbie would be cool. I’d like to get to a race and watch sometime in the future.

#2

welcome to spec e30

heres my advice for you

Do you autox? It helps despite what everyone else here will say. What are you going to drive in hpde? If nothing else before your first hpde get high performance brake pads. New brake pads from the local autozone won’t cut it unless you want to start a fire. Hawk hp+ are great for street/autox/track. You need a SA2005 or newer helmet. ioportracing.com has pyrotect SA2005 helmets on clearance right now for super cheap and they won’t last long. It’s fine to do your first de on crap tires but you should have some max performance or comp tires by the next weekend. It is very frustrating to have tires degrade so quickly that you have less and less grip from one corner to the next.

Let me stress the point of High Perfomance brakes again. On a buddies mustang gt at Road america I went from half an inch of stock pad to metal on metal and skipping over the curb of corner 13 in 15 minutes, my first session of the day. The grid workers were kind enough to tell me that flames were coming from the wheels when I pulled in. The rubber boots around the brake pistons were what was on fire.

#3

[quote=“turbo329is” post=59768]welcome to spec e30

heres my advice for you

Do you autox? It helps despite what everyone else here will say.[/quote]

+!0. Great suggestion! Spend as much time autocrossing you can - it will help tremendously when you hit the track. While different, it starts developing your driving skills at lower speeds and at a lower cost. Typically you can sign up for a autox fro $30-50 per day and drive on near any car.

I autocrossed for about 3 1/2 years before moving over to track events. My first time out on the track, my instructor looked at me and asked how many other DE’s I’d done.

Welcome to SpecE30!

#4

Good on ya, man. I’m still beginning, and here are some helpful webpages that I read many times over:

NASA HPDE Page
NASA Northeast FAQ
The HPDE section of nasaforums has answered most of the common questions as well.

I agree with turbo…brakes and (maybe) tires should be your only worries when starting. Read as much as you can about track driving, and watch DE/Racing videos. As you progress, you’ll start noticing all the subtleties in those videos.

Good luck and welcome!

#5

Glad to see you made it over here. New track brake pads (I used multiple sets of Hawk HP+ in HPDE), high temp brake fluid flush, and a helmet are the keys to a good first HPDE weekend provided you are in a modern car in good shape. If you make a commitment to this and know that SpecE30 is what you want to do, then I suggest starting to look for a car to convert into a SpecE30 or purchasing an already built one and doing most of your HPDE in the E30 versus your street car.

#6

Thanks all. I appreciate the feedback. All I have is my DD Honda. I sold my e46 M3 back in March so I’m without a AutoX or DE car. I might have to rent something for HPDE or maybe find something cheap locally that I can use.