New Here. Hello All

Happy Thanksgiving,

Hope everyone stuffed their faces well this holiday and enjoyed their friends/family. 

A little about me; I'm in my mid 30s living in the (far) east bay area and would finally like to get into some amateur racing. I would love to do this in another state without heavy regulation, but California it is for now. I recently went back to school for medical imaging, and will soon have much more expendable income. No better way to spend it than on a money pitt car project.

I have my eyes set on autocross due to its initial low entry cost and commitment, however I do plan on going full send depending on how this works out. It's possible I could switch to road course racing in the future, but autoX sounds perfect for now.

I need help choosing my car platform. I currently DD a stock 2014 Hyundai Genesis Coupe R-Spec with 60K on the dash. And when I say stock, i literally mean stock - no changes have been made under the hood AT ALL. I'm not opposed to using this car for racing, but idealy my autocross car will be dedicated and not daily driven. The genny isn't a very popular platform. There's some shops who modify them (BTR Customs is one shop I know of), but using this car I think will end up being quite expensive and they have lackluster results with their low end torque if I end up modifying in the future.

My ideal car is one that will grow with me through all but the top modified classes. I'd like to work with something stock for awhile until I learn the basics and begin to improve my track times consistently. I'm not into minis or mazdas. I'm mostly into Honda's K series and GM's LS, and I'm not opposed to an engine swap later on down the road. I'm not knowledgeable on what cars belong in which class and really need some help on which direction to go. I don't necessarily need to pick the top competing car in the class. Winning is not my goal here. I really want something fun.

Thanks in advance for your help! Please don't hestitate to ask if you want more information.

-David

Hi.

IMO - Autox the stock Hyundai, have fun, do some track days,  go from there. Don't let trying to find and mod a car first thing keep you from getting started.

Worry about picking a dedicated car after you've gotten a bit of seat time and a better idea of what you want to do. Finding what you do and don't like about the Genesis might give you more direction that way too.

Renting a seat in 24 Hrs of Lemons, Lucky Dog, Champcar, etc is a great way to find out if wheel to wheel road racing is something you want to pursue.

Edit: going to events lets you check out what other people are using and get ideas from that too.

In reply to BlueInGreen - Jon :

Thank you for the input! I'll definitely take the Genny out first! 

Greetings!

And yeah, I will also suggest running the stock Coupe and having fun. It's a decent starter platform and seat time is 10x more important than the specific car.

Welcome aboard!

In reply to Duke :

Thanks Duke! Also where do I find info for my area? I'd like to start soon if possible!

My first start would be to sign up for a free account at www.motorsportreg.com and search for autocross events near you.  Many clubs list their events there and you can preregister through the same place.

In reply to Duke :

Excellent! Let's go! Thanks!

Welcome aboard!

Do an Auto-X or two, maybe a track day.  Car people love talking about their cars!  Even as a spectator you may learn cars, techniques, tires AND pitfalls.

Have fun, walk around and stay in touch.

 :- )

Dan

For road course stuff: find out what tracks are in your area, find out what groups do stuff at those tracks, check out their websites. SCCA Track Night in America might be a good place to start.

With motorsportreg.com you can sign up for a monthly Email that shows you the events coming up near you. You can set it up it to filter certain types of events within an area of however many miles you want.

+1 to sticking to the Genesis for now. It's not the best platform, sure, but it's certainly not a bad one.

In reply to GameboyRMH :

Good point. It's also something I'm VERY familiar with since I've been driving it for so long. 

In reply to BlueInGreen - Jon :

I do know there's thunder hill raceway nearby me for that. I have a coworker who does track days there on his Ducati 

In reply to 914Driver :

Thanks! I'm looking forward to that part. Hopefully i can connect with local people with the information i need. 

In reply to DavidH88 :

I keep turning your name into David DH88. Which isn't a bad thing. I guess I see aircraft in everything.

I'm also in the Bay Area and am just starting out too, definitely just go with what you have now and learn as much as you can whether on autocross or on track during HPDE.  

Thunderhill Raceway is a couple hours away and they have a section for autocross and two tracks for HPDE.  I really like going to the SCCA Track Night in America events there, they are on the 2 mile west track and the novice group is well run and the instructors make sure everyone knows its not a race and everyone there is on the same team and needs to work together to have fun.  Usually run on Thurday afternoons and I believe they will start up again in March.  Other groups like Speed SF and Golden Gate Lotus Club run events there as well, which you can find on motorsportsreg as recommended in the above posts.

Sonoma Raceway is closer, but most groups dont like to run a novice/beginner group.  However NASA does, and will have instructors available for the novice groups (HPDE1) which is super helpful to learn the track.  I did a HPDE1 event once this year, there were a lot of other run groups and some races going on that day so there was a lot of break time between sessions, so check the schedule and plan accordingly since it may be an all day type of thing.

I've also seen some autocross events scheduled at Crows Landing, but haven't tried that yet.

The whole point of HPDEs and Autocross is giving people and opportunity to run the car they have.

Doing these events with the Hyundai will give you a chance to see what you might like to run.

In reply to Appleseed :

lol well with a top speed of 237mph I'm with it

In reply to Don Fip :

Thanks for the info! Maybe i'll see you out there sometime. Do you run the audi?

Tom1200 said:

The who point of HPDEs and Autocross is giving people and opportunity to run the car they have.

Doing these events with the Hyundai will give you a chance to see what you might like to run.

I hope so. With a few exceptions, I'm open to most platforms. Even though I do have some preferences, I'm not 100% sold on particular brands/car manufacturers so it's going to make it difficult to really narrow it down for me. I could just as easily use a ford powerplant as I would a gm. That's a ways away for me though. I'll be cutting weight, upgrading suspension, and tire width before I even think about touching the engine.

In reply to DavidH88 :

Yes, though I only got it a few months ago and have done 2 track days so far.  The S4 is not as fun as I thought it would be, bit too heavy and I'm not confident with the brakes.  Not sure if it's worth throwing upgrades at it, might keep it as a backup DD and look for something else.  I have the automotive ADD too and this place just enables lol.

Hey .....Hi welcome aboard ..love the Genesis, wish there was more of that here , but hey you're it ...will be following along!

The Genesis is a fine platform for what you want to do, better to learn the basics in a car you have before investing in something. If I had to do it over again, I would start with a second set of wheels/tires for the Genesis for autocross and track use, then attend the Evo Autocross School and/or the SCCA Starting Line Autocross School. Better to work on the right things from the start rather than having to unlearn bad habits. Do the SCCA Track Night in America for some track time and instruction. Then you will be in a position to decide if you want a Miata or Fiesta ST as your dedicated toy. 

In reply to pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks! After my first few sessions, I'll see about getting a new set of wheels/tires. 

If you don't already have one, buy a helmet. Borrowing is a pain. Make sure its snell SA rated, not just M. This is legal for track days etc, not just autocross.

In reply to Gearheadotaku (Forum Supporter) :

I have a motorcycle helmet. I read somewhere that they accept those for now but in the future I will need to buy a new one rated for autocross.