I’m a big fan of autocross, to the point where I compete in three regions (fairly) locally) as well as occasionally attending events a bit further away from home. My wife also competes, and with similar vehicles and similar modifications it’s always exciting.
Autocross is a time-based event which consists of a course marked by cones, single car on course at a time, and focuses on driver skill and car control rather than just raw speed. Directional changes are rapid and require lots of looking ahead, and courses are changed each event which makes memorization difficult beyond the day of. It is, in effect, sight reading a racetrack. With generally 3-6 runs per event, there is little room for error.
Go-Karts are another thing we enjoy quite a bit. While it’s cheaper than track time, I do occasionally get frustrated with the lack of control over the state of the karts; sometimes a bad kart can really make a good lap time difficult.
With that said, I do highly enjoy karting as a fun activity. Natalie and I particularly enjoy electric karts, as they are capable of higher speeds than most arrive & drive gas karts (shifter karts notwithstanding) and occasionally make trips upwards of five hours one direction for good go-kart venues. Supercharged Entertainment is a particular favorite franchise, with many locations offering tracks with lap times of upwards of 80 seconds.
My philosophy with cars is fairly simple: no one is going to care about it like you do. This all came from a dear friend who once advised (when I balked at hitting the car with a large hammer), “What do you think a shop is going to do? It might as well be someone who cares enough not to miss.”
And well, since then, that’s been my attitude going into any car modifications. Our household is largely modified cars to some extent or another, and I try to make sure I’m doing as much of the maintenance in-house as possible. With that said, I will occasionally farm out jobs that we simply are not equipped for, though with frequent trips to Harbor Freight that list has been dwindling. From oil changes to head gaskets, many jobs have been tackled in our fairly modest garage.
A key factor of DIY is heavy, heavy research. A car is a heavy piece of equipment that regularly travels at high enough rates of speed that a mechanical failure could be devastating, so I do everything in my power to know my limitations, and also have accurate service information in the form of factory literature as well as tenacity with regard to torque specifications and removal/replacement procedures.