For tires, I would recommend taking a look at the Bridgestone RE-01R as well. They perfectly fit your "usable on the street, good for the track" description.

I would add to take out any unnecessary loose items in your glovebox, door pockets, and center console the day or night before the event. There's nothing worse that forgetting to take junk out of your glovebox and realizing it as you dive into turn 1...

Remember to have fun and don't put any stock in how you're performing vs. others in your group.

 

I have heard very nice things about those tires.

Second on the loose items thing too. Last thing you want is to have something slide up under your feet and get jammed under a pedal.

 

lol, I knew there'd be tons of advice here.
-Def flush your brake fluid and use the best you can afford (motul rbf600 reccomended)
-Other than that, just bring your helmet and be willing to listen.
--You may enjoy looking up an in car video on the internet of the track you plan on going to. It will help you memorize the track better, because as soon as you get there people will be calling the turns out by number, it's easiest to communicate if you know what they're talking about. (The first turn of the track is turn 1)

 

good advice. I'll do that for sure.

 

^^ I've got vid on YouTube of Gateway.

 

I knew you would get a lot of over the top advice here. There's no way you need to replace you brake fluid with Motul 600 for your very first track day. Just use common sense, like not running the motor 2 quarts low on oil and you will be fine. Have fun.

 

Better safe than sorry.

All good advice given above.

Summer tires to consider:

Falken RT-615
Yokohama Advans
Bridgestone RE01-R
Dunlop Direzza
Hankook Rs2 Z212

 

Sorry friend... I boiled my stock fluid on my first track day in my evo because I thought like you talk. I for one WISH someone would have given me the good advice to fully drain and replace my fluid with Motul 600 as its one of the best investments in safety you can make period. Then again when it's someone else's a$$ and car that your risking it's easy to be bold.

As for running 2 quarts low on oil, if you do that your gonna blow a motor. If your fluid boils you go off hot on what is most likely the fastest part of the track... Which one is better to avoid?

 

Azenis are the best tire for the price HANDS DOWN. If anyone says different they are lying. Get some 245/45/17 Azenis, make sure your pads are ok and have fun! Also if you get Azenis make sure you do some driving on them to wear them in (and be careful) mine were pretty slippy until they got some miles on them (100+).

 

Sorry for the OT.

You really don't have any issues with the tires getting greasy like the old Falken 615s in warm weather? I hate the RE01Rs, they go off in 2 runs in AX. It may be the relative small size of the RE01r, I'm limited to 245s. Of course the high $ Neovas are nice, but I'm really liking the new Dunlop Z1s. We were about .5sec quicker on the Dunlops over the 'stones on a 50sec course.

See my input here if interested:
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...75#post5163975

 

Well that's AX and the OP is taking about a full ~2 mile track.

Btw, I know the course he's going to be running and it's not that brutal on brakes.

 

The correct answer would be both, and more.

Yeah, you don't need to buy anything new, except tires if your's are worn badly enough and brakes... and anything else worn bad. But I would highly, highly... HIGHLY recommend getting ALL your fluids checked and maybe even changed (esp. if needed) before your first real track event.

Check your oil after every run group and make sure you give your pads sufficient time to cool down before you slam the e-brake in a parking spot.

But yeah, definitely DON'T ignore checking your fluids, and if you haven't already change out the brake fluid for high heat brake fluid. I had the Evo on track for 3 years and never had problems (because I had high-heat fluid) I assumed the Porsche would be fine enough since I was on summer tires and everything was stock... Turned out my coolant was low and my brake fluid was crap OEM, meaning after about 15 minutes of hard driving (this is in the Advanced group, but the point still stands) I had to pull in to cool down the engine or the brakes, both situations could've been avoided and I would've had 15 more minutes each session.

Granted, yeah, as a beginner you likely won't heat up nearly that fast or have many issues with your fluid, but what IF you do? To me, it isn't worth the risk, even just a risk of not having as much fun...

 

Do what you wish, but if you have any natural skill that your instructor recognizes, that mixed with the simple fact that you drive an EVO will likely put you out front so you're not stuck behind anyone. If that's the case you'll have the ability to go 'fast'. On my first HPDE I boiled my fresh valvoline fluid every session... It just depends on your starting point. I was comfortable with very late braking from day 1. (also what planted my car into a mustang last July...) You may never need the fluid change... but seriously... for like $20 why not have the added security to go fast?

 

Fresh Motul 600... all the cool kids a re drinking it.

BTW, if I were going over the top I would tell brother he needed SRF.

 

I'm sure I'm beating a dead horse, but change your fluids before you go

brakes
trans
engine
t-case
rear diff
coolant