How do you "sell" seat time over bolt-ons?
 

When someone new to performance driving asks you what mods they should do to go faster, how do you convince them that seat time will be a better means of going faster than buying shiny new parts for their car?

I used to just tell people "Seat-time you will crush bolt-on you." but I may have come up with a better analogy that just about everyone can relate to.

Typing

Most everyone operates a keyboard just as most people drive cars. However, I think everyone recognizes the difference between hunting and pecking (even quickly hunting and pecking as I am doing now) and someone, who actually knows how to type, machine-gunning off 100+ words per minute.

More to the point, I can't imagine any two-finger typist watching a real typist and thinking "If I had a keyboard like that, I could type 100 words per minute."

No. I think just about everyone knows that no keyboard on the planet will make someone, who can't type, as fast as someone who can. I think people also understand that one typing lesson won't get you up to speed either.


We hosted a Porsche club event today and this approach seemed to be well received among the new-to-the-track drivers.

This little epiphany, got me wondering how others deal with this recurring theme.

What are some of the approaches you guys use to "sell" seat time as a valuable means of going faster?

I asked this question on the other forum, but figured many here might have some good ideas as well.

I went to my first track day with my supercharger sitting at my house waiting to go on my street car. My second time in the track was much harder because of its power. The thing I remember most from my first day was my instructor saying " those Miatas passing you has noting to do with power!". With that said I try to do both, I keep improving on the car to make it better long term and know the lap times are on me.


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Lol. Good one.

The better me and the car get the more it hurts! I hate those Fn miatas!


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I've been told this over and over as well, and of course have yet to listen. Thankfully I've been able to curb my appetite for more power (forced induction) by reminding myself that there is a LOT of driving skill to tap into first before ever even thinking about more power. I've been lucky that the long list of mods hasn't bit me in the @$$ either though. Someone with a ton of experience would be a beast in my car's setup, but I haven't done half bad for now.

It's funny because the guys at my work understand that, but the one with a 2013 S4 tells me he will shmob on me in a straight line. But they all know I have more experience on the track so they shut up when I argue back. This year should be better since I'm getting much better tires. I just need to convince a few people in my office to come out with me.

I have relatively low seat time and lots of bits on my car.....worked for me.

Gives me hope there! Haha I think I do okay in autocross considering it was my first year. Last event I placed 10th overall raw time out of 110 cars that came out. Have a ton more driving experience to gain, but thankfully my car's setup isn't changing too drastically this year so I won't have to adapt to something new on the car.

......

Ha!

I have passed vettes, mustangs, and a z33 on track in a miata. I have been passed on track in my Z34 by a civic and GTI.

On a related note, I will be needing to actually SELL seat time in our lemons/chump car this year since we will be a few drivers short. Any good tips on doing this?

I was approached by a team a few years ago about this and I remember getting sticker shock from the license, suit, and other costs. It sounded like a lot of fun, but it just seemed like a lot of money to spend.

There are a number of companies that sell SFI1 "lemons" packages that are a bit over $300 that include gloves, shoes, suit, nomex underwear +/- helmet for extra. The license to race a weekend is $150, then normally the team asks for some compensation to let you fling their (read:my) car around.

Biggest expense that I'm going to have to get over is a HANS.

this

This is going to sound mean but think about it.... Go to an autocross, run in your legal class and then look at the pax numbers for the day, anytime you look and see you can beat a "car/driver" like a vette or porsche means that your driving skills are better then said guy with all those "mods" in the car. For instance I went last month and finished 7th, a modded gtr was 24th, he's got tons of money and a lot of said money in that car but was beat by something with half the power but more seat time them him.
hope that makes sense