# General car talk **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 30, 2022, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-car-talk/970611 "2022-08-30T15:18:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 468
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2024, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-car-talk/970611/468 "2024-08-06T13:59:53Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > I don’t take it to the track or anything like that, but it is fun to drive it in a “spitited” manner from time to time. Why not try a track day sometime? It was after I bought my Miata in 1998 that I took my first one-day High Performance Drivers Ed (HPDE) class, setting me off on my major hobby for the next 12+ years. > [@Ask the high-performance driving instructor](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-high-performance-driving-instructor/354791): > > Based on the requests in [a previous thread,](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=362455) I am launching this thread to offer Dopers a chance to learn more about High-Performance Driver’s Education (HPDE), and perhaps to encourage a few of you to enter this fun and exciting, if little-known, area of motorsports. \*\*What is HPDE? \*\* First, it is not racing. You are not timed nor do you compete with other drivers in any way. HPDE is an opportunity to learn basic race driving techniques in your own car in a safe, controlled, and non-competit… There are many great tracks in California, including Willow Springs and Button willow in Southern California, and Sonoma and the great Laguna Seca in Northern California. One of my great regrets is that I never got to drive Laguna Seca. If you’re at all interested, go to the websites of the tracks, look at their calendars for car club events. You can’t race with your street legal Miata, but most events will probably be non-racing HPDE. And you can probably join in a non-Miata club event with Porsches or other makes. They usually aren’t exclusive. The track itself might also offer track days with instruction. Even a one-day class will make you a better driver on the street. Or you might get hooked, like I did. Then you’ll want those summer tires to start, and may work up to track-only racing slicks. And performance mods to the car, and a dedicated track car, and… --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-car-talk/970611)._