It happens after one long, tough night on the cold slate floor of your garage. You've just finished up a grueling exhaust, suspension and brake upgrade and you're covered in grease, dirt and oil. Your girlfriend's been bored for hours, the neighbors called the police after the third open header run and the dogs are howling to the moon. You take a moment to rest and ask yourself, what's the point of spending all this money on upgrades? Is it to build a faster car, or is to test the limits of your skill in a never-ending quest to attain that "racecar" driving feel? If it's the latter, let the National Auto Sport Association (NASA) help you out.
Founded in 1991, the non-space faring NASA has grown into a nationwide chain of regional organizations that seek to provide public track days and amateur racing series. With thousands of members currently in NASA, chances are, if you own a car worth taking to the racetrack, there will be a NASA region organizing events at a track close to you. Although they also sanction rally and autocross events, NASA caters mostly to the hardcore road-racing crowd. The kind of people that swap engines at the track in order to make the morning race, and then drive 100 percent at the limit when the time comes. The kind of racers that really know how to drive, and will teach it too.
NASA's High Performance Driving Event (HPDE) series is perfectly structured and suited for those of us that have built heavy-hitter street cars, but don't have the disposable income to also own trucks, trailers, rigs and pit crews. Anybody and anything is pretty much legal to run in the HPDE system, provided it's in good mechanical condition, which makes it perfect for any daily driver. We have personally completed an entire season of HPDE driving using nothing more than a stock Civic Si with TEIN suspension, brake pads and Kumho MX tires.
HPDE is run in 20-minute heats throughout the day, with breaks in between every run session. A session consists of you, your car and the racetrack-nothing more, nothing less. Imagine your daily driver blasting around Homestead-Miami Speedway, Virginia International Raceway, California Speedway or Texas Motor Speedway, that's what an HPDE event is. The sensation of driving your car at its fullest limits in a safe, controlled environment is something that every tuner should experience at least once. Trust us, even if you think you drive fast on the street, there is no comparison to driving on the track. Once you get a taste of real driving, you'll soon have visions dancing in your mind of conquering the racing world, and NASA knows this.
 NASA events are some of the...  NASA events are some of the safest around, run with full fire and ambulance crews, as well as multiple trackside corner worker stations. |  Regardless of your skill level,...  Regardless of your skill level, NASA will always have instructors available to ride along and teach you the correct way around a racetrack. |  Heavily modified cars such...  Heavily modified cars such as XS Engineering's R32 Skyline GT-R were built to do one thing - go fast at the track. |
The HPDE system is simple to understand and is divided into four groups. Group 1 is the first group, designed for those drivers that have never driven on a racetrack before. Driving instructors are required and will be assigned to ride with you throughout the day for no extra cost. These instructors are NASA veterans, often with years of road racing and driving experience. They will take the time to teach you car control, the racing line, safety flag recognition and ultimately, speed. Group 2 is for beginner drivers that are able to drive on their own without the aid of an instructor. Intermediate drivers are assigned to Group 3, and the pace is significantly higher than the lower groups. Here, drivers are expected to be able to handle themselves with ease, and this group is often treated as a racing preparation class. Group 4 is the playground for advanced drivers, where some of the fastest cars and the lowest lap times of the day can be found.