what's the best way to gain performance driving skill for a beginner?
 

what's the way to gain track skills and experience for a complete beginner with zero experience? plain old open lapping? or open lapping with instruction? or rather first taking some advanced driving courses though these tend to be pretty expensive!? how did the experienced track drivers here start off?

Steroids or HGH.

Just practice, but you also have to make sure you are learning from the right people. Tracking for 15 years or have a race car doesn't make you fast.

very simple... nasa, scca or other local club... search for "drivers education" or "HPDE" and go do it

To quote a clown: "Lol"

ya know, alot of people surprisingly begin in cart racing, learning lines/braking points, etc. And its a relatively cheap practice.

Auto-X, without question - the best place to start.

Once you understand feeling real G's move up to HPDE's then full on track days with passing anywhere.

Cheap?? I guess that IS relative to the person's piggy bank. Been there, still do it. But, you are right if you are comparing it to the world of racing in general.

Racing simulation on video games it's a good start. Forza3 on XBOX360, Or Grand Tourismo Prolog on PS3.

They will give you a good idea of racing lines Or the fastest way around a race track. and you mite be lucky and find a track that's close to you, So you can practice on it.

One other thing you will need an engine oil cooler if your going to track your car.

Autox should be your first stop....

It is VERY inexpensive to start, bring your car, add air to your tires, pay your $40 entry fee and begin to learn basic car control while being able to safely push the car to and beyond it's limits...

From there, then look at some drivers schools (with instruction), HPDE, etc as mentioned....

A paraphrase from way back goes something like....a good autoxer makes a good road racer, but a good road racer doesn't necessarily make a good autoxer....or something along that line...

I think the bottom line here is in Autox, you can more easily learn all aspects of car control, choosing lines, setup basics, etc....that is much more difficult to do on the track.

my $.02

let me rephrase it, cheaper than full size race car race instruction.

I use computer sim a lot, iracing is a good start.

Autox helps, but it doesn't help that much. It is two different activity.

I wholeheartedly disagree.......

Computer sims, 'iracing', doesn't do anything but teach you lines and basic physics. There is no substitution for seat time and feeling real Gs and how the car behaves PAST it's limit.

Try doing that on a track as a novice and you'll end up without a ride very quickly. Or you auto-x for awhile, then get on a big track. So when you get loose for the first time on the big track @ 90+mph you know how to handle the car - THANKS to Auto-X.

I speak from experience. I did an HPDE after I had one auto-x experince. I simply did not have a good enough feeling of the car to push it past 7/10 on the track. I was scared to wreck it. I've played sims all my life, and the didn't prepare me for Gs. Sure, I knew all the basics of weight transfer, grip circle, lines, etc. But I can't stress it enough, until you FEEL them in a car, it is very different.

Fast forward to this year after I've had a lot more auto-x experience and I'm fully confident on a track. Driving 10/10's and having a blast.

It may be two different activities, but G's are G's, and car control is car control. There is no substitute for seat time, period. I can push my car much harder now, if I tried to learn it all on a 'big track' I would have spent a ton more money and time building confidence in the car and the limits. I got much faster, much more experienced, and a much better road race driver thanks to Auto-X since all I had to worry about when I pushed to far was hitting a cone. I didn't have to worry about those concrete barriers. Sims don't help with that either.

And pgrmst has is right on:
"a good autoxer makes a great road racer, but a good road racer doesn't necessarily make a good autoxer"

or another one I like:

"Drag Racing is for Fast Cars - AutoCross is for Fast Drivers"

I think there is a place for AutoX and that is to learn how weight transfer affects the balance of your car. Teaches you patience and precision up to a certain point. That is all it does though. Auto-X can be fun, but it is very rough and very different than a real road course. You can always tell who the auto-x'ers are on the track because they make sudden jerky steering inputs and brake inputs. As anyone who has been on a track will tell you, those are both nono's.

If you want to get some experience there is a good path in my opinion. The first thing you do is take a High Performance Driving Class or as its called in some places, a high performance accident avoidance course. They will teach you the basics about breaking and accelerating as well as allow you to safely test the limits of your car. This will also give you a feel for understeer and oversteer and will help you start to get accustomed to responding to it.

After you do that, go to MotorsportReg.com : Online registration management tools for driving and social events and find out which events are going on near you. Sign up for a one day HPDE (High performance driving education) and go to that. They will have an instructor ride along with you in the car and they will teach you everything you need to know.

Fixed it. ;) You have to watch out for those that don't know any better. Personally, I've never met an auto-x driver that is jerking the car around @ speed. They shouldn't be on a track if they don't know any better.

Jerky inputs are also a no-no for auto-x. Inexperienced drivers may feel that jerky inputs are faster (you may feel a higher initial G spike, but the jerky inputs will bring you average G holding down vs. smooth inputs). I used to do the same - but never on a track.

That is one of the first things an advanced course such as EVO school will teach you.

But that is also why some Auto-X'er never get beyond mediocre drivers, and watch out if you are seeing these drivers try to bring that to the track, which like you say is a no no. They must not know any better.

But not all auto-x drivers have bad track habits. Thanks to Auto-X, road tracks feel like slow motion to me because I'm used to the faster pace of Auto-X.

I certainly disagree with you as Gs are only a part of what you need to drive a car fast. I don't know how much experience you have in sims, but a good sim can show you the limit of the vehicles by making tire noise or by giving you feedback based on the steering or throttle response you put in.

I've been autox for 10+ years and I have participated in the nationals, the only thing autox teaches me is car control. When I am out on the track, I take a completely different approach as there is the speed factor, the $$ factor and lines are somewhat different too. In autox, you might take the line with the shortest distance vs the higher speed.

I also disagree with you regarding the autox guys are fast at track because many of them can't control a car past 70mph. Also with their kamikaze style, they are going to have a tough time going fast at twice the speed.

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