wasa guys... i just have couple questions about tracks... i live near summit point MD and am thinking about going to the driving school and seriously get into road courses... i have dc4 currently and was thinking about 3 options
1. if i should sell my car and just get a s2k or
2. just keep my car (possible turbo)and get a miata for tracks...
3. or mod my dc4 for track and daily...
whats your recommandation???
also any info about the driving school at summit point??

 

Sorry - What is a DC4?

How much do you have to spend?

Do you aspirations of racing W2W?

 

It's a four engine version of the DC-3.

 

dc4 is an LS/RS/GS Integra 2 door. Basically non-vtec integra 94-01 model years.

 

If you're only interested in becoming a better driver (or 'racer'), then just stick with the car you have and don't modify it (other than necessary safety stuff, like brake fluid, pads, etc). It will work just fine as a learning tool. Once you can drive to 90-95% of the car's limits, then you can pick & choose the areas to improve on the car (turbo is likely not the right place... more likely you'd want better brakes & suspension).

If you decide to get into competitive racing, here are some things I'd recommend before spending any money:
1) Find what organizations hold events in your area.
2) Download and read (and understand) all of the regulations for the classes that you'd be interested in racing in (all classes that your car could qualify for, as well as classes for cars that you're interested in, like the S2K & Miata).
3) Attend a couple of the events held by that organization and talk to some of the drivers in the relevant classes. They can give you tips to get you started in the right direction (what instruction/qualifications you'll need, and maybe even some "lessons learned" from their experiences).

Once you've done that, then you will be more prepared to pick a good car for racing or to start prepping your own car. This will also hopefully prevent you from spending money on "mods" that you'll have to remove or undo before you can race in a particular class.

 

Damn good advice right there.

 

I really like the part where he said read and understand the regs.
I made that mistake building my car and had to find parts I had gotten rid of.

so that is a BIG one!!

on the car thing.

Just from what I have seen racing the S2k
there are not that many around and there are o...5 gazillion miatas around.
that said I really like racing the s2k but the miata would be easy to have help in parts and repairs at the track...
on the other hand the miata guys bounce off eachother like its going out of style.

 

mxt_77's advice is spot on. I went through the same decision process a year ago, and here's how I ended up where I am.

I tracked my S2000 for two years, and enjoyed every session with it. But I started to get antsy about the fact that I stick about six inches above the plane of the windshield and the roll hoops, and I wasn't so big on risking a relatively expensive car every time I went out. I don't feel that it's safe to drive a convertible with a roll bar on the street, and, besides, there was no good way to get a high enough roll bar and keep the convertibe top operating. So I needed to get a purpose-built track car.

And then I got the racing bug. So it was important to get a track car that would fit in a popular class around here.

I spent a lot of time doing what mxt_77 suggested, and even got the chance to drive a Spec Miata at Thunderhill. I was sold. SM racing is as "inexpensive" as racing can get (still quite an expensive hobby, though); you can buy a good, fully set-up car for $10k, and they're quite reliable. And they're everywhere, so that you always have people to race with. Around here, they also fit reasonably into two classes, so you get lots of track time in a race weekend (I just finished a weekend with 100 minutes of track time on both days, including four races yesterday). I have yet to see an S2000 racing around here (Seattle/Portland), but Oregon Region SCCA has Spec Miata as its own run group (and they're really good racers and helpful, collegial folks--there was a fairly bad crash yesterday in the first SM race, and everyone pitched in with parts and expertise, worked like hell, and both cars were back on the track, competitive, for the second SM race). Very cool to be part of.

I still daily drive my S2000, and autocross it, and I do love it. But I am quite sold on Miatas as race cars.

 

where do you live?

 

I agree w MXT 77---do everything on his list.