Originally Posted by adam c

Perhaps you should reread what I wrote.

Originally Posted by jstefanon

GENERALLY inexperienced.

Experience is not a function of time-on-planet, but a function of what you spend that time doing. I know plenty of drivers in the 18-21 age group that have great experience. These are young racing drivers who spend nearly every waking hour thinking about going fast or doing it. The percentage of SCCA national champions under 25 has more to do with money than experience. A kid who spends all his time racing won't have earned much money, and few racing families are willing or able to campaign a car nationally for a kid that young. Regional SCCA racing is expensive, and nationals even more so if you want to be competitive.
That said, many very young racers succeed at national and international racing. Valentino Rossi comes to mind. Jeff Gordon was 24 the first time he won the championship. Brian Vickers won the Busch series at 20. Grandma is WAYYY over 25, but she's not a 'better driver' than any of these guys.
Kurt Busch notwithstanding, the skills a racing driver works to perfect are applicable to street driving; an experienced racer is an experienced driver in both areas.



Generalizations are ok if you're an insurance company. Orr89Rocz is an actual person. We don't know his qualifications.
Likewise, a 17 or 21 year-old may know very little about life in general, and probably knows very little about anything at all. However there may be some doubt that he is inexperienced as a driver. He could in fact be very experienced as a driver.

If you're looking to counter somebody, I think it's better to base your attack on things they say rather than generalizations based on age. You come off sounding ignorant yourself, even though I think you're correct that most of the young drivers here are inexperienced and unskilled. Except for mirabile, who's been karting and racing since an early age, it doesn't sound like any of them know what they're talking about..

If you think you beat a 'vette by short-shifting a rotary, either you are wrong or the 'vette was sick. My mom can take you. Seriously, she has an STI and pushes it. Learn your shift points before you get dropped by an old lady with gray hair.

If you think drifting around a wet parking lot prepares you for high-speed adventures, you are only partially right. There are many skills you need to go fast safely. Those drifting skills come in handy sometimes, like if you're going 100 in a first-gen RX-7 in 6" of snow. (Not that I would ever do that. And if I ever did, I would make sure to do it on rural interstate with nobody around. Are any of you Virginia State Troopers?) Throttle-steer is good to practice, tho!

If you're 19 and your parents bought you a Z06 I personally would like to kill you. ;-p (Kidding: wish I had your parents!)
I had to learn to go fast in a Volvo Diesel 245. Talk about a momentum car! It was easily taken to its limits, so I spent most of my time testing them. Trust me I was a very experienced 18-year-old driver, but nowhere near as much as some racing drivers at that age. Still, I learned the most important lesson that any racer will agree with: you have to go smooth to go fast. I was usually faster than my friends in 5.0s and Chevelles, but never in a straight line.

Originally Posted by jstefanon

GENERALLY inexperienced.

If you're 19 and your parents bought you a Z06 I personally would like to kill you. ;-p (Kidding: wish I had your parents!)
I had to learn to go fast in a Volvo Diesel 245. Talk about a momentum car! It was easily taken to its limits, so I spent most of my time testing them. Trust me I was a very experienced 18-year-old driver, but nowhere near as much as some racing drivers at that age. Still, I learned the most important lesson that any racer will agree with: you have to go smooth to go fast. I was usually faster than my friends in 5.0s and Chevelles, but never in a straight line.