Total cost of ownership

[Opie Knievel]

Video games have evolved over the past few years but they still don't give you the real experience. You said something about knowing what speed to turn or something because you learned it from one of those games.... I've learned that "feel" is much more relevant in real life driving than knowing what speed you're "supposed" to be at. I hardly ever worry about the speedometer when I'm driving but I know how fast I can take turns at and not push the tires past their gripping point by feel. You become one with the car and it becomes an extension of you. No video game can recreate that.

UNGN was giving some pretty good advice and he actually drives race cars. If it were me, I'd probably listen to what he has to say. I saw a video of him driving his G Body race car. Road conditions were poor and he got sideways at around 100mph. He straightened it back out and kept going with no problem. That kind of stuff looks easy on a game and if you screw up, who cares? There are no real consequences in a game. In real life it's a different story. Just a hair too much turning of the wheel can get you killed. sh*t happens fast in real life and there's no reset button.

I'm not saying don't pursue your dreams. I'm not saying don't try drifting. I'm saying you're 17 years old and you don't have a lot of experience. I know it probably feels like you're the best driver ever but chances are you're not. There are so many situations that you've never encountered that a lot of us have. I'm not saying you're a bad driver, you just haven't been doing it long enough to have learned from experience yet. Experience is the BEST teacher. Nothing replaces it.

 

[pontiacgp]

havn't seen any video games where you are sitting in 90°+ in car temperatures when playing the game....the driver for our circle track cars used to play some high level video games where he would race against nascar drivers and he would beat some of them but he wouldn't be doing that on the real track.

 

[Dngrous]

Drifting is LOTS of fun when you're in an open parking lot. Then you think youre2 getting pretty good, and you decide to play around on the street a little. Cop catches you from his hiding spot, wherever that is, and you get nailed with a reckless driving ticket, exhibition of speed, and possibly driving too fast for conditions. You mortgage your soul to pay the fines, as well as the drastically higher insurance premiums.


Or let's assume you're confident enough to play around in the winter. Life is a bowl of cherries until you get wrapped around a tree. Ask me how I know about that one.... Now drive semi for a living, and I see idiots driving way too fast all the time.

Fast cars and dicks. Not everyone is impressed by them, keep it on the track and in your pants.

 

[UNGN]

My whole point is I beat the hell out of cars. In my pontiac, I'm on my 4th 6 speed transmission, 3rd Clutch,etc. I've missed a shift at 162 mph which slightly bent 13 valves, destroyed a 9" ford Detroit locker and broke the speedometer cable, but screw stopping... I drove the car another 35 miles hitting over 150 mph with a hurt car, and using the tachometer as a speed reference and won the 135 mph class at the BBORR in 2007, beating 5 C5/C6 corvettes including a C6 Z06, and an 2004 NASCAR Monte Carlo. My personal motto is "I break parts for trophies".

But even I think the abuse drifting does to cars is excessive. I don't have a lift, so swapping a clutch wastes an entire weekend and the clutch abuse advocated by the video drifters is like they have never swapped a clutch before (or they have a two post lift and have the motor and trans on a quick release) or have never come out of a corner in 4th gear, matted the gas pedal, had the tach hit the rev limiter, up shift to 5th and their car get slower and slower and slower and eventually coast towards a stop with tach still redlined and thought "well there goes $400 and next weekend".

I just bought 2 rear tires for my '90 miata. With mounting and balancing it was $350. For 2 tires. I wore the old ones down to cords in about 6,000 miles with spirited driving and autocrossing. Though I'm sure it would be a fun weekend, I'm in no hurry to smoke off a $350 pair of tires. My kid might think so, but I'm not made of money.