Why you should let her drive.

Janel's face after cracking 2 minutes at Laguna Seca. Her instructor (our friend Rick Weldon) commented that with her consistency (about 5 laps with a 0.2 second variation), she'd make a good endurance racer.

Two days later, she innocently asked me how you get involved in endurance racing...

Awesome.

Also, I have the same seat in my CRX.

Uh oh, looks like you're gonna have to take your name of the car and put hers on there instead.

I asked my girl friend whether she wanted to try an autocross or a rally cross next month, she said both look fun but she doesn't want to wreck my car in the dirt.

No problem, the autocross is cheaper and closer anyway. I'm also teaching her how to do a tuneup on her own car friday.

I did, and the son and the daughter. Now I stay broke trying to keep two cars running and in tires.

Fun though, at least until my son beats me in my own car.

Your kid's face after driving the Abomination was worth every bit of time and effort.

Jensenman wrote: Your kid's face after driving the Abomination was worth every bit of time and effort.

Truth.

I've been trying to get mine to do a HPDE for years. I've finally given up. I know she'd love it once she tries it but she worries so much about being embarrassed that she's unwilling to give it a try. The skills she could pick up are what's most important to me, not turning her into a racer. Autocross? Forget it; people watch you.

Endurance racing? I've got one word for you: LeMons.

That is what I don't understand. My SO does autocross with me, but she is worried about pushing it too hard, "because, well, what if I do something embarrassing, like spin".

spining is awesome! Tell her its a rush, everybodys done it, and its sometimes fun to watch!

"Embarassing"? I've never seen an autocross spin that didn't get an enthusiastic standing ovation, unless it ended with bent parts.

See - this is EXACTLY why I wouldn't let her drive. I cannot afford another race car and I don't want her along messin' up my weekend by being faster than me.

Unfortunately my wife gets motion sickness...

Innocently?

My wife just has zero interest in it. She did a Bondurant day at Oscoda once (they did some Ford training there) and was really good, but it just doesn't interest her :(

My SO was worried about being embarrassed too so we did a rally driving school where we had 5 hours of classroom instruction on Friday night, then all day doing exercises with an instructor on Saturday. By the time we got to the rally cross on Sunday she felt like she knew roughly what to do with the car and was willing to give it a shot even though people might be watching. It helped that it was pouring rain and everybody was more interested in staying dry than spectating.

She ended up loving it and asked the next day if it's time for us to buy her a new car and turn her '96 Impreza into a full time rally car... I kid you not.

The school, by the way, was the Primitive Rally School featured in the April GRM. I'll try to post some pictures and a full recount of the adventures in a new thread this weekend when I get some time.

My wife did the Miatas at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca event for the second time this year. She loves it and was always excited about the download sessions, getting different instructors to ride with her, and looking for ride-a-long opportunities when she wasn't driving. Her biggest disappointment of the weekend - that we didn't have a transponder for the track timing!

Lucky, I'm having a hard time teaching my SO to drive stick.

4cylndrfury wrote: spining is awesome! Tell her its a rush, everybodys done it, and its sometimes fun to watch!

Its really the easiest way to get a round of applause at an autocross...

Capt Slow wrote:

4cylndrfury wrote: spining is awesome!

Its really the easiest way to get a round of applause at an autocross...

Yes, but I always thought that was a little Schadenfreude

I learned that word from muppets!

I dunno, we've all done it, so we can all appreciate what it's like...

I taught my SO how to drive stick. She stalled twice because she forgot to release the handbrake and then never stalled again.

I think Janel and I were in the same group. I wasn't that consistent because I kept getting stuck behind people. I hoping to break two minutes this year. My best lap of the weekend was 2:04 and some change. I guess its not bad for a 163,000 mile 1.6 Miata with street tires.

TypeQ, that photo was taken on Friday when she was running with much faster cars. At the Miata event, she was running in C and was frustrated by traffic.