It's the instructor's responsibility to provide the communicator, not the student's. The vast majority of instructors have them but occasionally you will run into someone who, despite getting a few dozen hours of free track time throughout the year, is still too cheap to spend the $100.

NASA events are generally good but Hyperfest in particular is a damn zoo, I ran in HPDE last year. You're supposed to have a sticker to get into the main paddock, to limit it to track cars and one tow vehicle & trailer if necessary so there's enough room. Of course, they didn't police the stickers so there was too much extra bullshit allowed in there. People had to paddock all the way down in the grass to Turn 1 (usually it's only motorhomes & campers down there) and partially in the woods. It's kind of annoying when you come in from a session to find some TT driver's entourage of non-track-participating forum fanboys and their 4 extra cars parked on top of the area you have clearly set up with your chairs, tools and whatnot. But at least I didn't have anything stolen.

The Hyperfest girls last year weren't even that hot. Mostly butterfaces, a few decent looking bodies but a lot of chunky ones too, and the skank factor was sky high, as if NASA just went into whatever strip club they could find in Podunk WV on a Wednesday night and asked who wanted to work a car show that weekend. There were some hot girl-next-door looking chicks in the crowd, but they were a small minority.

I was there. One of the better Hyperfests I've been to, and I've been going on and off since '00 or so. I parked either right up front by the main gate or way back in the woods near the main track. No theft problems, although this event in particular has the most ever for the year.

It was really nice not instructing or driving in the event for a change. Got to hang out with the racers and hit up the kart track. Also drove in the karting enduro Saturday night, which was a lot of fun despite all the rain.

Stinkycheezmonky, what car are you driving now? Turbo miata?

I could use some instruction when I start driving on the track this July.

I think I disliked it partially because I had no idea what was going on. Took me like an hour to find & get my hyperdrive tickets.

your car will break :giggle:
I might go to Trackdaze but I'm scared of my transmission taking a shit. 4 hours of track time though :drool:

What events do you have lined up?

nothing really lined up except autox on sat and sunday. on saturday event you can actually register twice (second time is $10 off!) and do 12 runs instead of just 6. I might do that.

for actual track I'm pretty poor. Choice was between Friday at the Track in August vs Trackdaze. Trackdaze seems like a way, way way better deal especially since I have friends in Winchester to bum a couch :makeout:

Just an NA Miata currently, won't be track-ready for some time. Sold/parted out my caged Civic that I'd been using for the last few years. Unfortunately, I'm also hanging up the instructor jacket. I've been having inner-ear problems that lead to me easily getting nauseous when riding shotgun on track, to the point that I can't continue past maybe two sessions. I'd be happy to help from the sidelines though :) If my brother wasn't such a giant I'd recommend him, but he REALLY doesn't fit in Miatas.

If you sign up with NASA or Trackdaze though they'll give you a good instructor. They have a pretty solid group of people, with only a few not-so-good exceptions. Brian Maeng (sp) is an excellent instructor and had a Miata up until recently (now has an S2000). There are also a bunch of Spec Miata racers who instruct who would also be good. I don't personally know any turbo Miata instructors in the area, though there used to be a guy who had a supercharged one.

One thing about FATTs for you guys: you are NOT assigned a specific instructor. Typically you have 3-4 different ones over the course of the day. Some people enjoy this, some people find it hard adapting to 3-4 different teaching styles and showing the next one all over what you can do and what you need to work on. I am not a fan of that system, honestly, but track time is track time.

Also, +1 for the Hyperdrives/Shotgun rides thing being terribly disorganized. I found the booth just by chance walking around, and had actually been directed to a totally different/far away/wrong location prior to that. Missed out on getting my buddies signed up for Hyperdrives because of it... >:(

Soviet and Fae, what groups do you autocross with? I did want to take the new car out to one to shake it down/get used to it but don't want to mess with the huge crowds of the SCCA Fedex Field region. I remember there used to be events at Ripken Stadium, but don't know the org that runs it.

Trackdaze it is then.

I'm slow

capital driving club - http://www.capitaldrivingclub.com
mercedes club - http://www.gws-mbca.org

capital driving club gets about 70-100 cars per event and mercedes club is like, 30 tops. so latter is better but they only run once a month at most.

Cool, thanks. I have limited time anyway, so once/month isn't a problem. I'd rather get more runs on one day than anything else too.

I see MBCA has one this coming Sunday...interesting... Try to run on mismatched all-seasons/winters? Eh...I should probably wait a liiiittle longer :)

I was thinking about going to Saturday, June 25th, 2011 Autocross James Wood High School, Winchester, VA

I won't be able to go Saturday :(

Fae, did you wind up going? Beautiful weather yesterday. Unfortunately, my alignment was so bad after swapping the new shocks that I had like 2* of toe in on the passenger side and 1* on the driver's side. And my bushings/rust was so much worse that the alignment shop couldn't/wouldn't do anything :vash: So, new control arms on the way but the car is down for awhile :jerkit:

I did not go. I didn't have time to do my brakes :(

What kind of shocks did you get? I would like to trade in my KYB AGX. My GF's stock mazdaspeed suspension is much better, despite the extra body roll.

NB Bilsteins revalved to...something. 550/325 lb F/R springs. They came off a SM car, and feel WORLDS better than the Tokico Blues that were on the car before. The car won't steer for shit right now, but up to at least 35-40mph they feel fantastic :) :-P