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SNiPER_Magnum posted:Good note on the NASA passport or other log book. I like to read over mine before every weekend to figure out what I need to improve on. I think every club has some form of logbook for students, be sure to get one. They all vary slightly, but generally they have a list of skills graded 1-5 or 1-10 and a small notes section for instructor comments. When all your skills are very good or great for your run level, you get soloed/promoted. Instructors usually have a duplicate sheet to fill out and turn in to the club for their record of your progress. Instructors can also put this info on Motorsportreg so you have a record online too. I've done probably 50 track days with 4 different organizations and have never had a single person ask to see my NASA log book. Its mostly self policing with regards to run group classing. If you're a total slug who lied to get into the expert group they'll probably black flag you and you'll have a conversation with the head instructor after which you'll probably get bumped down into a different run group. c355n4 posted:Cons: Other con is that usually your financially responsible for any damage you do to the car before you leave the track that day. You wad it up into some armco and destroy the car then you better have enough cash in your bank account to replace it. At least with a personally owned car you can you can cry yourself to sleep over the loss of your car and deal with the financial consequences more slowly over a longer time. As far as per day costs of the rental if you really look at your costs to run your own car you probably arent too far off anyway. I know I totaled out my total trackday expenses from an entire year a year or two ago and divided it against the number of days I did and it cost something like $1100 a day between travel, damaged parts, consumables, and track fees. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTG579ORDqo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjfJntYph_4 and just some awful driving at Monticello https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZPxV-Ws-7c kill me now fucked around with this message at 18:23 on Jun 15, 2012 |
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Jun 15, 2012 18:17
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c355n4 posted:Question time! The east coast definitely is primarily older folks. I'm 28 and still usually one of if not the youngest drivers at the tracks I go to. c355n4 posted:If you run HPDEs or TTs, what, if anything, keeps you from wanting to run sprint or enduro races? as Phone said poo poo Is Expensive. It's a whole nother world having to maintain an additional non street legal car, have a truck and trailer to tow it, and deal with the consequences of "racing incidents". I would love to make the jump into proper racing, but my budgets tight enough as is. c355n4 posted:What do you consider a good day? Personally, I like a day with no incidents for anyone on the track. Do you tend to always run with the same organization? Or do you just go by track? I know a few people who will only race at NJMP. What do you look for in a good organization? A personal good day? Slow cars/drivers staying out of my way, feeling in the groove and ripping off a bunch of 10/10ths laps with nothing breaking and good weather. On time sessions is always another part of it (which also means no one wrecked their car on track). There are 3 or 4 organizations I'll run with, but I definitely prefer SCDA up here in the north east. If they don't have a day at the track I want to go to that fits my schedule I don't have a problem going with another group though.
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Jun 18, 2012 15:11
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Some Random rear end in a top hat posted:Quick Warning Re: Tires and Track Days uhhh what? I ran through numerous sets of pirelli grand am slicks for a few years and never had any sort of major issues. I also know lots of people who run slicks like conti scrubs, hoosier R6/A6/R100 that have never had any issues beyond eventually developing some play in their wheel bearings or having to replace a tie rod. You are over exaggerating this as an issue. Maybe don't run slicks if you're driving some 20 year old rusted out E30 but there isn't some epidemic of slicked up track cars having massive on track suspension failures. If you're tracking your car you should be going it over with a fine toothed comb before you get to the track as well as looking it over as well as you can between sessions. I caught some play in a tie rod one day (I was on street tires) while checking over the car during the lunch break. I ended my day early and that was that, had I not looked over my car then there may have been a bigger issue. To be contrary to everyone else, as long as you've had some prior track time and are confident with your car slicks are awesome and can be super cheap if you get once used scrub slicks from a race team. Slicks + dedicated track pads = Serious fun
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Jun 20, 2012 02:50
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jamal posted:No I was mostly talking about the front where you usually want to have more camber. It does depend on the drivetrain and weight distribution too, so most regular cars that are front heavy and have struts need a bunch of camber. I'm at -2.5f and -1.1 rear on a Subaru to get even wear and a good handling balance. Bushing flex is really another big thing to consider in regards to camber. There is a lot more flex inherent in the stock bushings which will cause you to lose some of your camber under load. This means if you have -2.5 degrees dialed in and have flexy bushings you're probably only really getting an effective camber of -1.75 or so. If you have a dedicated track car then new bushings are something you should really think about installing. I was running -2.7 front and -1.8 on my SRT8 and wish I could have dialed more into the front. It probably would have been ok if I had upgraded my bushings but I always got more outer shoulder wear on my slicks then I wanted. Unfortunatley the only game in town for bushings on the LX platform at the time was Pedders and well, gently caress those guys. To get in on tire chat, I had really enjoyable results with Nitto 555R2's. They arent the absolute fastest tires but they give good stick and didn't get greasy even under the 4000lbs of my magnum.
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Jun 20, 2012 15:33
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needknees posted:That's basically the same one I have and it works great. You're generally only making adjustments of a couple PSI, only takes a few strokes on a bike pump to manage that. Unless your an idiot and forgot to check the starting pressure on your tires and only realize at the track that you've forgotten to air up your track wheels after emptying them for storage over the winter.  Its nice to have a way to fill up your tires sometimes.
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Jun 22, 2012 17:17
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well http://www.hoosiertire.com/rrtire.htm FAQ #8 Hoosier's tire page posted:TIRE STORAGE Probably doesnt matter so much if you're running a DOT street tire or r-comps so much. But I always did it with slicks.
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Jun 22, 2012 22:55
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FatCow posted:Something I realized when starting out. Low HP cars are comparatively faster the slower the run group. The fancy guys with their S2ks, Corvettes and M cars are afraid to actually use the power they have. It's easy to mat it on corner exit when you only have 100hp. My Miata used to eat poo poo up in Green/Yellow groups, now I'll either see no-one or just get passed. Depends a lot on the car and the person driving it. My SRT8 is an easy to drive marshmallow at the limit despite its power. At the same time some people are afraid of their car and going fast and will be no matter what its power output.
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Aug 20, 2012 16:35
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Ill be honest I'm kind of glad we have a winter season up in the Northeast. It gives my bank account a few months to recover a bit each year. And i've got a Bell helmet too and it fits well and is plenty comfortable.
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Jan 18, 2013 23:39
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those $80 harbor freight racing jacks are actually not complete garbage and are perfect for track days.
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Feb 10, 2013 01:08
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I've used dual purpose pads and have had a set of street pads and track pads. I very much prefer having two sets of pads for a number of reasons. First off any pad that's good on the track is going to squeal, a lot. No dual purpose pad is going to anywhere near the braking performance or heat resistance of a dedicated track pad. You can always get home on a set of pads even if you smoke your entire track set. Changing pads gives you a good chance to examine your rotors, calipers, and lines while you have the wheels off. It took me maybe 15 minutes tops to swap pads and change wheels on my SRT8 when I arrived at the track in the morning (and that's without an electric impact wrench). Granted the calipers on that car were very easy to get the pads out and in but its probably not as much of a hassle as you think it is. For a dedicated track pad I really like Carbotech XP12/10's if you're running slicks or 10/8's if you're just running r comps or street tires.
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Mar 8, 2013 17:56
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Have a track day cued up for the 12th and surprise surprise the weather forecast is calling for rain. This will be the 5th time I've been to this NJMP Thunderbolt and would be the 3rd time its rained while I was there. Sometimes I wonder why I bother scheduling days before late May at a northeastern track.
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Apr 4, 2013 16:07
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Cancelled due to snow I could deal with because then I would at least get my money back. Rain I'm out my entrance fee, track day insurance and the gas to get down there. All for a day of nervous slow driving.
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Apr 4, 2013 21:32
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NitroSpazzz posted:You're looking at rainy track days all wrong. Rainy days are great because you can work on playing with your car at the edge of traction at lower (less expensive) speeds. Go slide around for a day in the rain and have a great time while everyone else is sitting in the pit bitching about the weather. I've had more than enough rainy days to test that theory out. and don't kid yourself you can still do a whole lot of damage if you go sliding off the track backwards even at slow speeds in the rain. Cars accelerate on wet grass  I also get enjoyment from both getting to the edge of grip but also winding it out on the straights and feeling my face attempt to detach itself from the negative g's when I'm braking hard into the corners. That doesn't happen when its wet out. kill me now fucked around with this message at 06:43 on Apr 8, 2013 |
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Apr 7, 2013 22:09
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NitroSpazzz posted:You're looking at rainy track days all wrong. Rainy days are great because you can work on playing with your car at the edge of traction at lower (less expensive) speeds. Go slide around for a day in the rain and have a great time while everyone else is sitting in the pit bitching about the weather. Just wanted to reiterate why rain days are not as fun as dry days https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdMsyupVZcc highlights at 2:30, 8:55, 14:25, 15:05, 15:20, 20:55 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipzf0065Z3w The driest session of the day (it was still very slick) 6:30,7:45 There were 3 red flag worthy crashes during the day and the organizer ended up calling it a day early at 3pm because of the weather and subsequent wrecks. Also learned that corvettes dump a whole lot of water on the driver with the window open in the rain. My left arm and leg were drenched every time I went out. kill me now fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Apr 15, 2013 |
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Apr 15, 2013 19:46
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c355n4 posted:You guys realize that the line is different in the rain. And you should adjust your driving accordingly for wet conditions. We do?.. It was about 50f out so the tires never got warm and it was very very wet all day. And as far as the wet line vs dry line there were points where I was driving a different line then normal. The long left hander is usually one where you start half way out and slowly close down to the apex but there was more grip by hugging the inside. Not all turns have two lines to drive. I'm not really sure what your trying to infer though because I felt like for the most part I kept the car under control given the conditions and none of the saves got that sideways. As for the crashes one crash was an STI in the intermediate group that im assuming put too much faith in his AWD car, another was an instructor in a new gen mustang and the third I have no clue about because I called it a day after the 3rd of 5 sessions (before they wound up shutting the day down).
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Apr 16, 2013 02:05
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Admirable Gusto posted:I disagree. Rainy days provide variety, challenge, and are much easier on my brakes and tires. Rain also makes it harder for people with high hp cars on 325 section R-comps to brute force the track. Well let me just put it this way, I only went out for 2 out of the scheduled 5 sessions (skipped the 2nd session of the day because it was raining even harder than in the first video) and they cancelled the rest of the day shortly after my third session. Even if driving was just as fun or more fun it would still blow that instead of 2.5 hours of scheduled time on track I spent a grand total of 35 minutes of actual running. Besides my car is one of those high horsepower cars with 325 width tires and I don't really want to toss it into the wall. Driving it at 9 or 8/10 is still enough to provide a thrill in the dry without feeling like you're going to crash but in the wet 8/10 is slow and boring and 9/10's feels like the car wants to kill you. Face it paying $300 (and another $400 on top of that if you want to talk about trackday insurance for my car) for a rain day sucks. Stop trying to make lemonade out of lemons. But please continue to tell me that this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3Hu0zP-1_k is less fun than this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdMsyupVZcc
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Apr 16, 2013 05:01
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aventari posted:I feel you dude, that totally sucks no two ways about it. How far away is the track? It was only about 3 hours away but that means its a day trip for me. Still 6 hours of travel for under an hour of driving is tough.
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Apr 16, 2013 15:10
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I used XP10's on my SRT8 for a few years and didn't swap out or resurface the rotors when i would go to the track. They wore relatively well considering the weight of the car but I may have gotten an extra day out of them if I had done the proper bedding process and used fresh rotors. I will say that after a track day my brakes with my street pads would squeal like a city bus for weeks after using the carbotechs as I assume the race pad residue would slowly wear off. That being said, if you're doing track days often, having an extra set of rotors on hand isn't the end of the world.
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May 10, 2013 03:13
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kimbo305 posted:- I don't know how kill me now was getting away with lowering his Grand Sport. Any of the more abrupt elevation changes scraped the air dam hard and used up most of the front suspension. I get what people say when they talk about the inherent compromise of driving production cars on the track -- their suspension will always be too soft and make you feel wallowy in some fast transitions. The air dam is a wear item, it scrapes... often. I'm ok as long as the splitter itself isn't scraping. I also have the magnetic ride control which actually helps a whole lot with dips in the road surface at speed. But yeah street suspensions are always too soft if you have sticky tires in any way shape or form.
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Jun 30, 2013 16:45
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Sab669 posted:http://www.glen-scca.org/Schedule.asp#Dec Doesn't look like anything is happening any time soon. you just missed Chin's labor day weekend day there, but NASA northeast is doing a weekend on 9/27-29. Watkins glen is my favorite track in the northeast. So much fun and so much buttpuckering this was from a few years ago when I still had my SRT8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjfJntYph_4
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Sep 10, 2013 01:43
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rotard posted:Anyone have an opinion on carbotech 10s or even 12s on a heavier track car. I've got to decide on tack pads for my sti in a few weeks and there price is rather attractive I ran the 12s on my SRT8 Magnum with pirelli grand am slicks and they were great pads. This was with the OEM brembos and rotors along with spindle ducts for cooling. The car weighed in at right around 4,000lbs with me in it. They were way too much pad when I had to run a session or two on my street tires after having corded the slicks earlier in the day. I would definitely recommend them.
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Apr 4, 2014 19:54
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