For those of you who have done track events, do you have any advice on how to set up your cars?? The motor magazines seem to do their track tests with the factory alignment. Does that work?? How about the stock brakes?? Anyone have the optional brake cooling ducts??
TIA,
Barry

 

I agree with claudius on the alignment. That is basically what I use. It's important to max the negative camber at the front. There are other threads here that discuss this. It would be nicer to have more than the max stock negative camber of ~-1.7 degrees.

I don't think you can have too much braking capacity with any car at the track. I put in the air deflectors and made cut outs in the rotor heat shield to get better cooling. Use a high dry BP fluid and change the fluid the day before going on the track. I use a Ford "heavy duty" fluid you can get from a dealer that is very reasonable (~$3 per can) and works well. With the cheap fluid it is easy to do a lot of bleeding to make sure you have all the old fluid out.

Harnesses of some kind hold you in the seat better, make you more relaxed, and let you concentrate on the driving rather than holding on.

I used 34 psi cold front/back in the tires and found they heated pretty evenly after running 30 minutes at Road America (40/39 psi)

 

Thanks for the info!! I greatly appreciate it.
I agree with everything except the harnesses.
I am an SCCA National racer AND a regular track Instructor.
Guys who come up with fast cars and harnesses don't fare very well in roll-overs. The harnesses hold them too upright.
If you're going to install a harness, you need to also install at least a rollbar or even a cage. Just my $.02.
Barry

 

Barry,

It is a very good point about harness/no bar. I've heard that argument before. Are you aware of any study that has been done to show this is true?
You could make the case that with more control (with a harness), you are less likely to roll the car.

 

I'm not aware of any study, but I've been instructing for over 10 years and I have seen first hand what happens in a roll-over. If you have a roll-cage, you're going to be fine. A roll-bar is also very good. But without those things, the regular seat belt allows your body to move enough so that you aren't going to be crushed in the helmet area by the collapsing roof. A harness erases the flexibility of the regular seat belt. Sad to say, but I've seen this happen at the Summit Point racetrack too many times.
So, based on my personal observations, I do not recommend a harness without at least a roll-bar.
Barry

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by tsi90awd
[B]I agree with claudius on the alignment. That is basically what I use. It's important to max the negative camber at the front. There are other threads here that discuss this. It would be nicer to have more than the max stock negative camber of ~-1.7 degrees.
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OK, I got to thinking about this. You guys are saying zero toe at all four corners, more than the stock neg. camber of -1,7 up front, and -0.8 neg in the rear.
(1) How does this differ from the stock alignment set up?
In other words, what are the stock alignment specs??
(2) Also, for you track junkies, what lbs/ft do you torque your lug nuts to??
TIA,
Barry