Quote:
Originally Posted by nchiarel
Nice, I would love to get into it. Is it too much of a beating on the car to use the car I drive to work every day? I am about to sell my S4 and would love to drive the 135 to its' potential, but not if it will jeopardize me getting to work.
What are some upgrades that are necessary in order to participate without breaking anything? Any weak links?
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You won't need any upgrades, but it can be a slippery slope because you may want upgrades. The number one thing it will be hard on is the tires, particularly as a novice and with the understeering tendency of the cars. You may want to consider a dedicated auto-x wheel/tire setup, but it isn't necessary to have fun.
I suppose over the long term, it could be a bit hard on some steering/suspension/wheel bearing components over the life of car, but you are only talking about 10-ish minutes of "hard" driving once a month. So this is maybe 2 hours per year... a very small fraction. And it really isn't that hard on the car, especially if you drive smoothly.
With any car, definitely make sure to warm it up properly because you do spend a large portion of each run at high RPMs (in 2nd gear), so you want the oil to nice and warm before each run.
Maybe someone like Larry can attest to any longer term, I only did it for about a year, but 90% of the people out there are using their DDs (or at least not a dedicated auto-x/track car).