Originally Posted by treekiller

now now, we were all kids once, it's the duty of us older car nuts to help point the kids in the right direction, they will never learn if no-one helps them. Now if they get belligerent and insist their lies are true, there is not much you can do. but if they are willing to learn help get them to the races. and not that Street race honk 3 times bullshit either. once I quit drag racing (bracket racing at night) and started surrounding myself with engineers and REAL racers. my knowledge started to compound on itself. and I stopped reading "fluff" magazines and started reading Carrol Smith Books. The awesome thing about Cars, the more you learn the more you realize how much is out there and you want to learn. however before that, I remember when it all changed for me, one day I had my mom drive me to the bookstore (and I'm 34 so you know how long ago that was) and instead of heading right to the magazine rack to get a copy of "hot rod" or whatever was popular. I went to the technical section and bought "Turbochargers" by Hugh MacInnes. While the Info is a bit dated, (published in 1984) It opened my eyes. I read that book cover to cover about 20 times. it had a profound effect on how I've approached racing and tuning ever since... and I can honestly say it had a direct correlation on me making this my career.

Other Good Reads
RACE CAR ENGINEERING & MECHANICS: By Paul Van Valkenburg.
How to Make Your Car Handle: By Fred Puhn

Or any of the Carrol Smith Collection
Tune to win, Prepare To win, Engineer to win, Drive to win, Nuts, Bolts, Fasteners and plumbing handbook (aka: Screw to win)

Stuff that you find funny, I see as normal yet still sad. it's the ones that know enough to be dangerous that I REALLY find hilarious. but it's all stages we all have to go through..