more info guys
 

they say at any given time there are more mazda's on the race track than any other car brand. i'm sure a ton of them must be rx7's...so lets get some feed back on your techniques. do you like to heal toe on a dry track? do you like to brake or downshift for primary means of slowing when the track is very slick. Do you prefer inside or outside lines, regardless of track or are you a track dependent person, choose whatever is faster? i just wanna get some more info. going in this section. i was very interested in reading what might have been in here and there wasn't a lot, so hopefully this will at least pull a little attention this way. i personally don't have any on track experience and is why i'm here to read. i've read one of the skip barber books, and one of the bondurant ones, and i live in an area where i get to practice my driving skills a lot, and i would love to talk to some real racers out there who would like to chat about the techniques they use! have a great day!

Just curious, have you been the Autocross route yet? Should be a little more time for responses now that the racing season is winding down - in much of this country - where it is not as warm ;)

It mostly Miatas out there now, RX7's are good in a few classes but time has caught up with them in a lot of cases.

Its good to ask questions and from a few of yours I could tell you're justing learing before you said so. I'll throw you a few answers.

I always heal and toe,its really more toe and side of my foot on the gas pedal though. Its much better on the tranny and leads to a happier chassis in the transitions.

And your main way to slow down the car should be your brakes. If you downshift and dump the clutch you run the risk of sliding the rear wheels only as the engine slows them down. That could lead to a spin. Weight transfers forward under braking so you can get more from your front wheels than your rears.

The 'Line'. Well every turn is taken a little differently but you try to use as much of the track as you can(sometimes a few feet more than they paved!) You will almost always enter the turn wide, head for a point on the inside of the turn on the opposite side of the track(apex) and then track out to the outside of the turn at the exit. Where you apex the turn depends on a lot of variables.

Get some time auto-xing, it will teach you a lot about car control and finding the line. You go slow and things happen fast, road racing you go fast and things happen slow.

well, first of all, Boostedhulk, i think this is a great idea. though i read and study so much about driving, i haven't made time to put much of it into practice since i stopped racing on the street so many moons ago. i look forward to seeing what the guys with experiences have to share.

anyway, my questions (for now) revolve around the politics, i guess. how does an amateur racer/builder go about getting sponsorship? i see so many guys building cars and telling their story (so-and-so gave me tires, or so-and-so is letting me beta test this part, etc.) and it seems to me that they're either always in the right place at the right time or else they know something i don't. to be honest, i think my natural passion and determination are the only reasons i haven't thrown my hands up years ago after facing so many disappointments. are there any network systems where people can barter services? like for example, i can't weld, but i can port and build engines. are there any ways for someone that can fabricate ... say a manifold or cage or whatever ... can find me and we just work something out? i guess i'm kinda thinking out loud now ...

i just want to know how a regular 40-hour-a-week hump that builds his own shit can sustain in competitive racing environments.

also, how do track rentals work? i'm planning to renew my membership with the SCCA and start autocrossing next year (come hell or high water), but i'd eventually like to run at some tracks.