Track days?

[Greg]

Anyone ever ran their car around a road track? There is a local shifter-cart track here in Grand Jct that has a pretty decent road course, probably about 40' wide... no idea how long, but I'd guess a 1/2 mile? Anyhow, a local club rents out the track several times a year and they're doing it again this upcoming Sunday. I'm seriously thinking about taking my stock '09 TDI Jetta out there and running it around the track, just for sh!ts & giggles. I watched them 2 weekends ago and it looked like fun, neat to be able to push your car hard and NOT be on public roads.

I've never done this before, they require helmets of course.... I'm going to empty out the car, air the tires up to max pressure and try mount a GoPro in the cab. Any other suggestions? Should be interesting!

 

[Greg]

Here's some pics from the last track day they held... there were about 5-6 Miata's out there, most of them were turbo charged and many had pretty extensive mods. Flyin' Miata (aftermarket Miata parts) is based out of Grand Jct, so of course the Miata is well represented out here.

 

[I Lean]

Not that I've ever done it, but it doesn't seem like max tire pressure would be the way to go? Just because it would reduce your contact patch and affect corner grip.

 

[Greg]

Not that I've ever done it, but it doesn't seem like max tire pressure would be the way to go? Just because it would reduce your contact patch and affect corner grip.

I don't know, which is why I'm asking.... but IMO the sidewalls won't roll as easy with more pressure and the smaller contact patch will have more pressure on it, making for more traction.... theoretically? I wouldn't think the contact patch size would be that different going from 35 PSI to 40 PSI.

 

[RogueJeepr]

I say, go for it.
Wouldn't get a chance like that here with all the restrictions and whatnot.

 

[Tonkaman]

I used to rally a built up STI out at Miller. It's a blast! Do it.

Remember it's not really about acceleration it's about holding speed through the corners

 

[Hickey]

Go for it! Put that car into the corners and see how well it can hold em.

I'd be against max pressure as well. Max pressure is for a loaded vehicle at max weight. I'd be more interested in maybe adding ballast weight to get the front and rear as close as possible to 50/50 balance.

Weigh it on a truck stop scale with the axles on different pads, so you get the front/rear weights. Then add sand/Salt to the rear if needed. You don't really need acceleration, you need grip in the corners so you won't need to decelerate.

 

[Brian P]

Might not be of any use really, but on our M3, there is this sticker in the door.

 

[sixstringsteve]

Go for it. You'll love it, no matter what car you're in.

There's a whole science to determining tire pressure. At autocross, the guys would mark the tire with shoe polish to see how much the sidewall was rolling in the corners, then adjust their tire pressure accordingly. They also use a pyrometer. Lots of crazy science in tire pressure.

 

[nnnnnate]

For police training there is a track just south of Camp Williams in Utah county. I spent a week out there during the academy and then a day each year I was with the department. Its not exactly the same pushing a crown vic around the track but it was fun nonetheless. At a certain point the car wasn't going to go any faster and it was up to the driver to pick better lines or brake sooner/later or when to coast or accelerate that makes the difference. I always enjoyed myself while down there but really only pushed it when I had a line car (not my day to day car I had to work out of.) I would love to do a real track day or take a "fast" car on that same track to see how different it was but it still was pretty fun. I imagine I could do even better if I didn't have to be calling out direction of travel or road and weather conditions and could have both hands on the wheel for a few laps.

 

[Greg]

Well.... made it out to the track this morning! It was SO MUCH FUN, the car actually did pretty well! Picked up a set of 18" Audi wheels with some used BFGoodrich 245/40ZR18's G-Force Super Sport Z-rated tires for a few hundred bucks! The wheels were painted (poorly) and have seen some curb rash & they're beating up... they were cheap though, I plan on using them only for weekend track use 5-6 times a year. It's amazing how tight the turn-in and response to steering wheel input is compared to the other tires that have a much taller sidewall. My other tires (255/65/16's) are nice BFG's, but the sidewall would roll right over when pushed hard. The car is much more responsive in the turns with the 18's, but these tires really make me want a bigger rear anti-sway bar and better struts & coils.... SOON!

So these tires have a max pressure of 50 PSI, I ran them at 45 so they had room to increase when hot. The tires did get pretty warm to the touch after a run, I checked pressure and at the most one of them went up 2 PSI. It took me a few runs to get to know the track, then after that I was trying to remember what gear to be in at every point. Eventually I learned there were 3 places to be in 3rd gear, 2nd for everything else. I hit 60 MPH on a couple of the straightaways. I leaned a lot about when to brake, how to hit the apex, to FOCUS on the apex when driving into each turn and look where I want to go... I think a lot of my motorcycling experience related to the car on the road track. One of the guys that has a decent amount of experience rode along with and gave me tips while driving.

We ran 10 minute sessions, I got out 5 times. My slowest lap was my first time out (of course), 77.25 seconds and my quickest lap was on my 4th time out at 72.09 so I gained over 5 seconds! It was good to get a baseline my first time out for future trips out to the track!

[video=youtube;icEMlUFY4w0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icEMlUFY4w0[/video]

 

[Tonkaman]

Hell yeah, sounds exciting!!

 

[Hickey]

Jealous!

 

[Gravy]

Fun

 

[blznnp]

I want to get my car out on a road course, but last I checked for Wide Open Wednesdays at miller, they wouldn't let me due to my seat belts. maybe Ill do it this year on the hot rod power tour, when they do the autocross. looks like a lot of fun. the local scca group has events but never work for my schedule