I live in West Orange, NJ (if you're unfamiliar with it we'll just say ~20 miles from NYC) and would like to know of a track or tracks where i can practice driving. I don't want to race, just do some non-competitive laps with my street car (a 240sx). I would prefer to avoid joining any clubs or organizations, but if need be i might do it. Of course the closer the better, but i definitely wouldn't want much more than a 2 hour drive. If you have specific information (a club i need to join, a contact number, a web address, costs involved, whatever!) i'd love to have it. Thanks.

wadiad wrote:I live in West Orange, NJ (if you're unfamiliar with it we'll just say ~20 miles from NYC) and would like to know of a track or tracks where i can practice driving. I don't want to race, just do some non-competitive laps with my street car (a 240sx). I would prefer to avoid joining any clubs or organizations, but if need be i might do it. Of course the closer the better, but i definitely wouldn't want much more than a 2 hour drive. If you have specific information (a club i need to join, a contact number, a web address, costs involved, whatever!) i'd love to have it. Thanks.

Sounds like HPDE is what you might be looking for. (High Performance Driver Education). For a few hundred bucks you can get onto a real race track (with instruction) with your own car without any special mods. There are a lot of car clubs and organizations that offer HPDE. Most will require that you join their club in order to attend their schools, but it's not expensive.

Im active with the Audi Club's Potomac chapter and take my stock Nissan to their HPDE's regularly. It's not a requirement to own an Audi. I just got back from their Summit Point school the other day, and posted a few pics. HPDE's are a lotta fun.

There is an ongoing thread in Gen Chat under the title "Drive your Nissan at a real race track" that describes it with links to the HPDE's that I do, with an estimate of the costs. Here's the link to the thread.

zerothread?id=99270

West orange puts you in within just hours of several great race tracks.

Lime Rock (Lakeville CT), Watkins Glen (Finger lakes region NY) , Pocono (eastern pa), Summit Point (not far from Baltimore). If you extend out a few more hours, add BeaveRun (near Pittsburgh) and VIR (southern VA). I'll be at VIR next month.

There are a lot of good clubs that offer track events like this. Audi is not not the only club that offers HPDE. There are some NICOnauts that just did an HPDE with NASA, for example.

I hope that helps.

I really appreciate all that information, and thank you for taking the time to make such a thorough response. I agree, i think HPDE is what i'm looking for. I will look into the tracks you mentioned. I've taken a couple short courses at Lime Rock, and i love the track but i can't afford those courses. Anyway, they don't let me use my own car. Pocono might be even closer to me than Lime Rock. Those two are probably my best bets but i'll look into all of them. And thanks for that thread link also.

Check out NASA Northeast. They have all the tracks covered near you. If you want to venture further south, you can also go to the Mid Atlantic Region. A NASA membership will allow you to drive at any NASA event in the country.

Also, NASA is the one that coined the phrase High Performance Driving Event (HPDE) I was involved with the group for several years, but my new job required I take a step back. I still attend them and race my 240 when I can.

There is an event at Lime Rock on Nov. 9th, check and see, but it may be full by now.

http://www.nasanortheast.com

Jeff KoehlerFormer Asst. DirectorNASA Northeast

ouch, expensive for 2 runs at limerock

boznuttz wrote:ouch, expensive for 2 runs at limerock

It might seem expensive compared to autocross or drifting, which are held in parking lots, but very cheap compared to the Skip Barber Racing school, which will run you up to $800/day.It's 2 days at Lime Rock, not two runs. Guessing 4 long sessions per day, plus ride-alongs with instructors.

This particular event is restricted to Red/Black, which means advanced students only, no beginners. But I'm sure they offer events that cater to first timers.

If $420 seems too expensive, then autocross might be a better first step, which is less expensive.

I agree that everything is relative, and the HPDE's seem like the most affordable option for me (or perhaps least unaffordable I did 2 days with Skip Barber at Lime Rock and although they were good, the cost was as Bubba1 said, $800-plus per day, and with only a modest amount of track time. What's worse, they don't let me use my own car. Sometimes this can be good, but i want to learn to drive at the limit in MY car safely - not an open-wheel formula Dodge or whatever they're using. There's quite a difference.

$420 is expensive, but for something to do just once or twice a year i'm sure i can swing it, and that experience will stay with me and develop as long as i practice what i learned.