(crowd cheering) (car speeding past, crashing)
(screaming) (car crashing)
- [Spectator] Ach du Scheisse!
- [Spectator] Scheisse!
(coughing)
- [Alex] So, in today's video of food that Alex gets to eat
(clearing his throat)
I've yet to get it sponsored by anybody.
But (swallows his words).
Bro, potato (beep) is.
We have to beep out the name of it,
because we're gonna say it's not suitable
for some advertisers.
(clearing his throat)
But, you know, we just say, Olé today.
That's all that I'm saying.
(sighing) Sponsors please.
That is really fast (beep).
So you've decided to do it.
You've finally decided to pull the trigger
and decided that you want to track your car.
And hey!
Congratulations!
That's a big leap for a lot of people.
The track can be pretty intimidating.
It's scary out there.
It's not like your car shows, you know,
where you just pull into the parking lot, ramp,
or whatever it is where you just park in
and walk around, judging everybody else's car.
No.
At the track, all eyes are on you.
If you (beep) up there.
Oh serious.
If you frick up there,
because of monetization issues
I can't say the other one anymore.
There's like stands full of people watching you.
And they aren't just, like, looking at how your car looks,
they're judging how you drive your car and how you perform.
(engines revving)
And if you're an under-performer,
(throat clearing)
that can be a little humiliating.
And if you're not, you know,
if that's not nerve racking enough,
the guy next to you that you're racing,
more than likely is more experienced than you
and is probably going to make you look like an idiot.
At least on your first pass.
Not saying that's happened to anyone ever before.
That's me.
Oh, there are some things that you should be expecting
and that you should be ready for
as you go in to track your car.
By the way, I'm Alex from Fitmentindustries.
Don't forget to subscribe, hit the bell button
so that we can do all of the extra stuff
and I can keep having to try and get free food
from massive organizations.
The first tip is, don't crash on your first lap.
Now, I know it sounds funny and and simple,
but it happens a lot more often than you would think.
You're all hyped up on Red Bull,
because it's your first day on going to the track.
You've talked yourself up to all of your friends
and you're just anxious to get out there.
You're going to get on the track,
you're gonna go fast as possible,
like Steve McQueen, ka-ciao!
You know, that's the game plan.
But you don't take into account
the fact that the track is cold,
your tires are cold, your engine is cold,
everything is cold.
And you know what happens when you're cold
and you overdo it?
You crash, into everything.
Including other people.
And that's really kind of embarrassing, not just unsafe.
Along with crashing,
just don't have high expectations going in.
Now, you might think that you're the best driver
in the world and, you know,
you're a killer in changing lanes on the highway
and you know when the light's gonna turn green,
but that does not mean
that you're the best driver in the world.
That just means you can drive your car efficiently.
But when you actually start driving on a track,
your car will all of a sudden seem a bit harder to handle.
You're all hyped up and the helmet,
you got the helmet on,
you're ready to go down the drag strip,
you know you're ready to kick it,
you're ready to go.
Finally your turn to run.
You've got traction control off,
you're going to do, like,
the biggest, fattest, gnarliest burn-out.
And then you're going to wax the dude next to you.
That's not gonna happen.
You're gonna get to the water box,
that part we have correct.
You're gonna try to do a burn-out,
but you're probably gonna (beep) it up,
because you're all nervous
and you can't hear anything through your helmet,
which throws you off more than you would think,
because you can't actually hear your car
as well as you normally could.
And then you're gonna charge into the staging line
and you're gonna realize that that's actually
closer than you think, which is gonna make you overshoot it.
Then that old and grumpy old man in the middle
is gonna be like:
And then you're going to try backing up,
but you're going to start stumbling' over a little bit,
everything's really hot
and the old guy is going to get more aggravated
and he's gonna do one of these
and then you're gonna move too far back
and then he's gonna tell you to stop, but you didn't stop
because you accidentally slipped the clutch
and the car jumps back a little bit further.
Then you're going to press on the brake.
Then you're gonna realize you're too far back at this point
and you're thinking at this point,
why am I here?
Because it's not, it hasn't been fun so far.
It really hasn't.
And who the (beep) would put the staging line
in such a dumb (beep) spot?
And then there's muffled screaming
coming out of your helmet,
you have the old guy getting mad at you.
The guy next to you just wants to run,
because that's what he's there for.
So finally, you're about to go.
You're ready, you see the two yellow lights light up,
but it's way faster than you think.
You thought that they would launch in sequential?
Hm.
Na ah.
Nah, in some places they just do 'em at the same time
because (beep) that, right?
They light up more, they light up faster than you think
and then you get ready to launch.
The tree's dropping, you're not ready,
it's going too fast, your brain is just messing up,
you go to launch your car, you're there
either too early, too late,
or you messed up the whole thing.
But it's okay, because everyone has to learn.
Everyone goes through those terrible,
gut-wrenching first passes.
And we made it out alive too.
And so are you.
You just wanna make sure that you shouldn't expect too much
when you're going into your first track day.
Now, either that's at a drag strip or an autocross event,
it's probably going to go the same way.
If you're gonna go to a track with others
that have been there before,
it'd actually be a good idea to listen to them.
A lot of times your friends are gonna give you advice
and you probably shouldn't be offended when they do.
They mean well and they just wanna help you do better.
So if they notice something that you can improve on,
you probably just wanna, like, do it.
You should be open to it,
because they see it and you don't.
And unless you have a camera
that's actually recording your track time
or anything like that,
they're going to be your eyes to improve your time.
You're actually gonna be more than likely
to be a better driver as a result of it, too,
because this is especially the case in autocross.
It's not uncommon, actually, for other drivers
or event organizers to ride with newbies
and give pointers during your run.
It's weird, it's slightly uncomfortable,
but it helps everyone make improvements
they just didn't know they needed to make.
And that is probably one of the best things
you could possibly take advice on.
Another thing is to remember,
if you're unfamiliar with the track,
you probably gonna wanna take some time
to go through the event beforehand
to see how everything works.
You're gonna wanna watch the drivers,
you're wanna see what they do,
as well as what the staff does,
what they include, what they don't include
and what they want from drivers.
Otherwise you're just gonna go in blindly
and that's pretty much never a good thing.
Pay attention to what supplies you'll need
and what kind of helmet you'll need
and all that sort of stuff.
(talking rapidly) into, like, clothing,
because that's something that a lot of people
have a tendency to forget about.
Most tracks want you to wear pants and closed-toed shoes
for your safety.
Don't be like (clears his throat) Claire,
show up to the drag strip wearing shorts,
because guess who had to sit on the bleachers
and watch the whole time,
while her car was sitting in the pits?
(claps his hands)
That girl.
Still ran against your boyfriend, though.
His worst time was my best time.
That's a win for me.
And that's not fun for anyone,
so make sure you're prepared.
You're not the only one that needs to be prepared, though,
your car does too.
And I know, that weird thing that you actually plan
on actually racing on a track.
You're gonna need to go through tech inspection
before you race.
So you gonna wanna make sure that your car is at least
at, like, the fundamental level ready for a tech inspection.
So that it doesn't have, like, any weird (beep) going on.
You're gonna wanna make sure the whole thing
is just just okay, that the battery is actually tied down.
That, depending on how fast you are,
you have a cut-off switch.
That your seatbelt works, you know, things like that.
That you don't, that you're not running on quarts,
that you're not leaking a quart of oil every hour.
Just don't run it at the track.
Because let's say that you lie about that
and you run your leaky something or another down the track,
you're gonna end up ruining it for everyone.
Because next thing you know, you're going to be doing a pull
and the coolant leak that you had, that you're aware about
is worse than you thought and now that it's overheating,
it's actually just, like, pissing everywhere down the track.
And since it's night time, you don't really notice it.
You just, kinda, run down the line
and then the GTR behind you almost crashes into a wall
because the track is slippery and unsafe,
but no one could see it.
And it's just not cool.
Now everybody's waiting in line for 5000 years
so the track staff can clean up your mess.
So if your shit don't work the right way,
just leave it at home and fix it and bring it back.
Our next point is especially true
if you haven't done much racing.
Don't go faster than you're comfortable with.
I know the peer pressure weighing on your shoulder
is gonna try and push you to go as fast as possible
to impress your friends.
But it's not worth it, it's not fun,
you don't know what you're doing,
you're gonna make a fool out of yourself,
you're gonna look dumb.
Just don't.
Coz you're gonna lose control and you're gonna get hurt.
We don't want you to get hurt.
Take it slower.
At first.
Then build up to the high speed,
so you're actually going to be able
to keep control of your car on the first track run.
Lots of times not many people will realize
that their car behaves much differently at 70 miles an hour
than at 110 miles an hour.
And the difference is like an exponential curve,
for those that paid attention in school,
that, when the difference goes up in speed,
the actual difference in how your car behaves,
almost gets magnified.
Like you know that things can get loosey-goosey,
so make sure to feel out, at least the first time,
how the car feels, before you go balls to the wall
and just try to send it.
So at this point you're a bit overwhelmed,
which is why you need to take breaks.
When you're at the track, you shouldn't be beating
the (beep) out of your car the entire time.
Take some time to park it, let it cool down,
grab something to eat and just go rest.
I don't know, like, maybe go lie down or something.
Really what it comes down to,
it allows you to reflect on your actual drive time,
your practices and things like that,
plus you can get tips from the people
that were watching you run.
If you're doing full autocross or HPD event,
this also allows you to stay alert
and pay attention when you're at the track
and it allows you to watch what others are doing
so that you can improve yourself
and not get any sort of driving fatigue.
Which is actually a lot more common
than what people would think.
Or you can just run your (beep) like I did,
because I could not figure out for the life of me
how to run the car.
And I was just willing to risk it for the biscuit.
Most importantly, be aware.
Keep your surroundings in mind, as well as your safety
and how your car is reacting to what you're doing.
You might be a good driver,
but Billy next to you might not be
and he just got his license
and he's trying to figure out how he can run
his Chevvy Malibu, all the way down the track
as fast as is humanely possible.
And he thought it was a great idea
to beat the shit out it,
because it wasn't his car, he got it from his parents.
And guess what?
He didn't watch this video.
So we just don't know what could happen in that scenario,
but if you have watched it, we may have saved a life.
We don't know what could happen at the track,
so be mindful of yourself
and alert of what's happening around you.
Those are our tips for if you're going to the track
for the first time.
We wish you the best of luck.
And of course, don't forget,
if you're looking for wheels, tires, suspension
be sure to check out fitmentindustries.com.
We also have a wheel give-away that we partner with ESR,
it's in the month of April,
so if it's past that, I'm sorry,
we probably got another one.
You can check it out in the description link below.
Don't forget to subscribe.
I'm Alex, from Fitmentindustries and we will see you later.
Peace.
(electronic music)