Street/Drag Racing vs Road/Track Racing?

baron_iv · 12-30-2006, 10:28 PM

Which do you prefer?

For the record...street racing is more like drag racing, but on a (hopefully closed) street. So if you prefer drag racing, you'd probably prefer street racing. Road racing is more like racing on a race track, but done on the interstate or on a nice, curvy back road.

Both street and road racing are illegal and dangerous, so I'm not advocating either, but given the choice, which race would you prefer to drive your GTO in and why?

I haven't had the opportunity to drive on a track yet, but I've done a bit of hard driving on unpopulated back roads (we've got plenty of those around here) and it is a LOT of fun. Given the choice, I think I'd choose road/track racing over drag racing. However, I have gone drag racing and it's a ton of fun, especially if you have a lot of friends with cool, fast cars who go with you to compete against.

Anyway, I'd like to hear the thoughts of the other GTO owners out there.

nagoat · 12-30-2006, 10:31 PM

if i did race i probably would prefer road. to me it's more challenging and exiting rather than just speeding down a straight away.

baron_iv · 12-30-2006, 10:46 PM

I'd imagine that road racing is even MORE expensive to get into than drag racing. Coilovers for our cars aren't cheap unless you've won the publisher's clearing house $10 million cash prize. It would be nice to have a car that handled like it was on rails though. Oddly enough, I had a chevy beretta indy car that handled better than ANYTHING I've ever driven. It outhandled the goat by quite a bit. It was slow though, with only a whimpy little V6. That car was wicked fun in the twisties.
I have a sway bar set, waiting to go onto my GTO, so hopefully that'll get my handling improved. Eventually, I'd like to get some coilovers, or maybe an air shock system, and see just how well one of these babies will handle.
I am watching a movie about street racing, which is what prompted this question in the first place. They showed a 04 YJ GTO racing a 69 GTO Judge...both stock and the 04 handed the 69 its ass (which is what I expected).

koman · 12-31-2006, 12:03 AM

i'm actually getting into trying to get the most out of my goat by looking into some road racing/ handling and various driving techniques. i read on here from someone that most of the gto owners will never drive their car to the full capability of it. i've been working on some power sliding, double clutching and more. heel and toe doesn't work for me, i'm not set up for that. i'm not sure if i want to go with the radical camber set-ups i have read about. this car has evolved me from just wanting get up and go to me wanting more out of it or more out of myself to get the most out of what i have. drag racing is one dimensional which i loved and still do whereas road racing is like a second dimension. cut some corners while doing a max effort. anyway i'm still a green thumb due to a lack of roads or time give me road racing but NO absolutely NO circle track(nascar).

baron_iv · 12-31-2006, 10:33 AM

I'd love to get my car on a big circle track, to see just how fast it'll go!

The track that nascar races on in mexico looks like fun too, it's a road race course (literally...they close down the streets and let them race around). I'd prefer something a bit smoother, at least in the beginning. I'd rather worry about getting my technique right than dealing with bumps.

I really don't drive my car anywhere near its potential, except for straight-line acceleration. I rarely reach over .73 lateral Gs. I've used braking to its full potential too.

nagoat · 12-31-2006, 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baron_iv

I'd imagine that road racing is even MORE expensive to get into than drag racing. Coilovers for our cars aren't cheap unless you've won the publisher's clearing house $10 million cash prize. It would be nice to have a car that handled like it was on rails though. Oddly enough, I had a chevy beretta indy car that handled better than ANYTHING I've ever driven. It outhandled the goat by quite a bit. It was slow though, with only a whimpy little V6. That car was wicked fun in the twisties.
I have a sway bar set, waiting to go onto my GTO, so hopefully that'll get my handling improved. Eventually, I'd like to get some coilovers, or maybe an air shock system, and see just how well one of these babies will handle.
I am watching a movie about street racing, which is what prompted this question in the first place. They showed a 04 YJ GTO racing a 69 GTO Judge...both stock and the 04 handed the 69 its ass (which is what I expected).

let me know how the swaybars work. have been considering them myself.

b_a_betterperson · 12-31-2006, 06:03 PM

Got into racing when I was six years old living in North Carolina. Huge drag racing and NASCAR fan for years. Moved to Chicago -- where the Indy 500 was the thing.

My interest in IndyCar crapped out with the split. NASCAR a few years later. Two door Tauruses, etc. and all the BS marketing killed it for me. NHRA shows are really boring now -- except for the nitro stuff and Pro Mod.

I really got into TransAm racing in the 90's -- but it has pretty much died out. Of all the racing out there, I really enjoy the Speed World Challenge GT class, the ALMS GT1 class (Pratt & Miller Corvettes) and the Grand Am Cup the most. Acceleration, braking, handling and drivers that need talent to win are the appeal.

I wouldn't consider racing my GTO in any way, shape or form. Too dangerous on the street -- and street cars have so many handicaps from the factory you're just better off buying a purpose built race car. You can get a really fast shifter kart for a fraction of the cost of a GTO -- and will be in a far better place to push yourself and develop better skills.

That said, I do enjoy going out on a canyon road and running the car at around 9/10ths of what it can do. Enough to enjoy the car, hit my shifts and apexes, but not to the point where the chances of an accident are greatly increased.

Supposed to be taking the GTO out on Laguna Seca later this winter. Some guys I know have rented the track. Hopefully, my schedule will allow for me to go down.

GTJimbO · 12-31-2006, 08:58 PM

A very cheap way to "road race" would be Autocross. You in a closed course defined by cones against a stopwatch. Usually three heats, sometimes more if you can fit them in in a day.

Great fun, and no chance of scraping paint.

Check out SCCA Solo (another name for Autocross).

Yet another form of motorsports that has been around for ever, but not well known in the US is road rallying. Not quite the Pro-Rallying you hear about on your X-Box 360, Road Rallying is also a timed event, but on open roads and quite legal. Road rallying promotes following a course defined by instructions that a navigator (aka, co-driver) reads off to you from the passenger seat and you, the driver, follow. Interspersed throughout the course are checkpoints where your time is recorded. Arrive too late and you are deducted points. Arrive too late and you also are deducted points. The goal is to drive the "perfect time". Of course, being written driving instructions, if you get lost, you have to get back on course, thus times can be thown off -- part of the fun....

Again, a blast to drive, and little chance of nicking the Goat.

Oh, and to your question of road or drag racing, I actually like both, and have done both. Each very different from the other, but both a blast and quite easy to get into from a $$$ point of view. There are different classes from mild to wild, so your bone stock Goat can compete very very well.

Jim Miller

'06 M6, 18", Phantom Black (haven't raced it yet...)
'02 Saab 9-5 Aero Wagon (probably won't race it -- wife's primary car)
'93 Saab 900 Commemorative #116 of 325, modified (Drag raced, autocrossed, and road rallyed...)
'91 Saab 900 Special Edition

baron_iv · 12-31-2006, 09:48 PM

Yeah, I have heard about the time-based races. They do look like quite a bit of fun. It would be something that my father and I could go out and enjoy together. I read about one out around Las Vegas. With my mostly stock GTO, I'd be limited to the under 80mph classes though, which is ok I guess...but I occasionally go faster than that on the interstate! haha.

I wouldn't want to go door-to-door with other cars on a racetrack with my GTO...there's always an idiot who will do something stupid, even if you are being "careful" not to destroy your car. The optimal situation would be if someone opened a race track to a car club or something, and I could get in like that. It would be a lot of fun. Short of driving on the autobahn, that would be about as close as I could get to taking the car to its limits. It would be mighty nice if the idiots in congress would make a cross-country road with unlimited speeds, something similar to the autobahn. It sure would cut down on the time it takes me to get to vegas on our yearly trips. Of course it was only 2 lanes, there would inevitably be some jackass who insisted on driving his ford taurus in the fast lane at 55mph...which seems to ALWAYS happen to me. I don't know if the yellow of my car frightens them, and they're like a deer in the headlights or what, but I get these doofuses that just drive in the fast lane (usually SLOWER than the posted speed limit), despite dozens of cars who have to pass them on the right. It's those people who cause accidents, not the folks who are going a little bit fast, trying to get somewhere a bit faster than normal. There is zero courtesy on today's roads, which isn't good for someone with a mild to severe case of road rage like me. haha. I'd better shut up about this, I could go on FOREVER about bad/dumb drivers.

Anyway, once I get my sway bars installed, I'll report back. I have a G-force meter in my car, so I have approximate values for before and after. I'm not sure if it's 100% accurate, but it should let me know if it increased the handling capabilities of the car or not.