So Forza, and especially last night's awesome Race Night, has really turned me on to cars and racing. 
 
It's a sad fact, that I am 27 years old and have no clue when it comes to driving: I was learning just before I left England, but due to immigration paperwork have still yet to learn here in the US.
 
So I was hoping to enlist a few of you could get me on the path to being a gear-head, both in-game and in real life. Websites, reading material, and maybe some messing around in-game would be much appreciated.
 
Now I have to go think up a rad paint job for my clunker.

Slow down around corners. Especially if you're doing hairpin turns on a steep cliff. 

it's easy:
 u just buckle seatbelt (safety first :)  ) 
adjust mirrors to be in blind spots
put in drive
press on gas
???? 
profit!!!
 
 read some car and driver magazines. start by playing forza on easy to get a hang of driving. the game is different compared to say arcade racing gmes.

Practice

Driving on the road is braindead easy, driving safely on the road is only slightly less straightforward but driving on the track takes a bunch of technical skills.
 
What sort of driving were you wanting advice on?
 
When it comes to driving on the road all you need to know is:

• put the clutch in when you're stopped so you don't stall
• release the clutch gradually while applying gas to get going
• don't drive like other tools do and actually check your mirrors before you change lanes and stuff

Ever play burnout? yea its alot like that, just hit slow mo when you get scared.

If you are just beginning to drive, then I would suggest getting a car with automatic transmission. That way you don't need to manually shift gears and worry about a clutch and instead focus on not hitting oncoming traffic.

Depends on what you want to learn dude, Do you want to learn about cars or just how to use em?

I can give you some advice or I can link you some sites if you need it.

Make sure to always use both feet.  One on the gas and one on the brake.  Yep.

Try not to crash.

"

Depends on what you want to learn dude, Do you want to learn about cars or just how to use em?

I can give you some advice or I can link you some sites if you need it.

"

• Survive the track: Work on making it around courses at a decent speed without crashing or going off at any point. Pretty basic.
• Learn the racing line: Work on finding the fastest way around the track (which suggested line will help with quite a bit). Don't try to be absolutely perfect, but try to reach a point where you're able to run reasonably fast lap times on your own without too many problems.
• Learn multiple lines through turns: Work on making it through turns when you can't use the optimal racing line. There will be times where you'll either brake too late, lose a little control, or have to race side-by-side with an opponent. Learning how to make it through these situations while maintaining racing speed will help you place well in races.
• Refine: Well down the road, and where pretty much everybody ends up. It's getting that extra speed coming out of a turn, hitting the racing line perfectly, setting up cars, and all the stuff almost no one masters 100%.
  

Nothing we can say here can compensate for real world driving experience. Get out there and practice in all kinds of conditions, because day-time driving will only help you to a certain point. Experiencing how a car feels under heavy braking, losing traction in the wet, driving with poor visibility, these are all the kinds of things that can only be learnt through experience. Before I got my licence, I picked up a certain amount of driving nous from Need for Speed Special Edition, and now Forza 3 helps me understand the way a car's weight shifts and that locking up brakes is a very bad thing, but ultimately it doesn't translate to the real world all that well. 
 
I would highly recommend an advanced driving course. I completed one in Australia, and not only was it a lot of fun, but it has helped me out in a number of potentially dangerous situations. With regards to mechanics, start with learning how to change a tires, oil and water, and spark plugs. More advanced mechanical adventures aren't something you want to carry out on your daily driver.

If you're looking to get into car culture in general, Jalopnik.com is a great place to start.  It's a good mix of casual car fan info and stuff for the real enthusiast.  If you've got Netflix, then Top Gear season 10 is available for instant viewing, and it's probably one of the best car shows ever made.