I am looking to get started in road coarse/ time attack events. Right now I have fully built up suspension, corner balanced and ready for the track. No power mods as i would like to get a feel for driving the car aggressively before i up the power.

I really want to do things the right way, I dont like cutting corners. So if you can, offer some suggestions on how to get off on the right foot, what class i should register (SCCA) for and what all is needed, it would be greatly appreciated. It would be great to know. Tips Tricks and pointers are all welcome. I am located in AZ so if any local guys have some useful info thatd be good too.

Thanks!

 

Can't really suggest a club to run with out west, but best advice is to find a local club and just get seattime, seattime,seattime. You don't need additional power. I've run 50+ track days using stock (or just slightly above) power levels, and it gets you moving plenty quick.

Not a fan of SCCA at all, Nasa is "alright", but neither give you a ton of time on track relative to the private clubs (chinmotorsports is my fav, southeast US based though).

You will want some upgraded brake pads and definitely some racing fluid for them though.

 

What part of AZ? Lots of good clubs to get started in in So cal/NV just doing trackdays for fun. Not too sure about AZ area though... You might have to travel a little bit.

 

Best way to get started is to go out driving at Driver Education events in your stock car on stock tires. Mod the car only when the car tells you it needs a mod or when you notice something that you want changed. General rule of thumb is that you learn to become a better driver using a stock car vs a modded one. Modded cars have a much smaller safety feedback buffer making it a lot harder to learn how to reach it and control it. It is also a lot more riskier in terms of damage to yourself and the car.

The trend I have seen & experienced as working well is usually 3-5 events on totally stock car. Then people get to a point of upgrading tires & brake pads. They are good learning with that equipment for another 5-10 events. Following that is some simple suspension mods, such as just springs and bars and a few other tweaks like alignments. This satisfies the learning process for another 5-10 events. At this point you should be a comfortable & safe intermediate driver consistent and smooth enough to be able to experiment with more complex mods such as bigger brakes, more power, fancy coil overs and so on...

Good Luck.

 

yeah, but i'd never recommend anybody go out on track with stock pads and stock (even if it's fresh) brake fluid.

That should be as important as checking the oil, or putting gas in the tank.

Also, prepare to empty your wallet. Rule #1. Never add up your track day expenses.

 

EVOs and generally performance oriented cars stock pads are just fine for the first 2-5 events. I liked the stock pads more than some of those "novice track/daily driver" pads such as the HP+'s. The advantage of stock pads is that you will learn what an overheated pads feels like and how to tell it apart from fluid boiling. This is something one must experience to be able to catch these symptoms early on in the future, before you are hauling a** and braking real late.

Again, using stock parts allows you to experience this at lower speeds and with a bigger margin of error. Boiling fluid with stock pads and stock fluid is nice and progressive over a number of corners as the pedal gets spongier and spongier. With race pads that generate a lot more heat, you can have a solid pedal one corner and almost nothing the next. Again, it is about having a bigger margin of safety while learning and experiencing things that are new.

Fresh fluid is always recommended, but if you choose a race fluid that almost never boils, you may not learn that experience until you are an advanced student and it may catch you off guard at a much higher speed and dangerous situation. Not saying one would not know what to do or pick up on it, just saying the risk there is greater without experiencing it before. Again, it is about experiencing things with a progressive and bigger margin of safety.

 

Nasa's got a AZ chapter, start here:

http://www.nasaaz.com/

They're always friendly and they give you lots of instruction with goals to hit. From there you'll learn the rest as you go.

 

Sorry man, you must have never actually pushed your car at all when beginning to track it.

I totally agree with stock components, tires, hp, suspension.

But going out with components that are going to KNOWINGLY fail? How are you gonna get more seattime, when you're sitting in the paddock with a mushy pedal, because you didn't properly prepare for your track day?

I've instructed literally dozens upon dozens of students that mush their pedal on the first, even 5th day... and after that, they're done. Sure, you can let it cool down, but the pedal is now soft. The feel is no longer there. Almost every club I run with requires a fresh brake fluid bleed prior to an event to pass tech, and theres very good reason for that.

In the first days of tracking a vehicle, i'm much less concerned about the driver learning threshold braking and having that car at the limit, than I am simple car control. And you can't control a car, with no brakes. (this isn't saying start out running full race pads, but get something better suited to the task, a middle-type pad. and some good fluid.) Especially if the original poster is out in AZ...

 

I've instructed literally dozens upon dozens of students as well. Most beginner students are too busy learning where to go, where to look, and general event/track sensory overload, etc. their first few times out. They don't even come close to using the capabilities of a "stock setup" at all.

Again, I am NOT suggesting to drive with components that fail repeatedly because as you point out, it is neither fun or valuable. My point is to experience it (while keeping the buffer of error as large as possible), learn what the car told you, then change/upgrade it and next event see how the fix worked (or not worked). So, use stock pads until you experience pad fading, then upgrade - there is no point doing it sooner. It could be the first event for some, or the 5th event for others.

As I suggested already, the EVO stock pad is already like a "middle grade" pad. It is not like a toyota camry pad that will fade after 4 corners. A HP+ or DSP2500 pad is not significantly better/worse/durable than the stock EVO one so if you do switch to that, then it is like 1/2 dozen of one or 1/2 dozen of the other. My point is don't switch to a full out race pad until you feel what pad fade feels like on the "middle grade" pad.

As stated before, I totally agree with using fresh fluid - not sure what I'm typing to make you think otherwise.

 

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/mo...xperience.html

 

I agree with Xtnct; Stock pads and fluid should be good for the first couple times out on a track for sure. I used mine for the first 3 or 4 events on my car (in the X, been on track many times before in other cars). But I also agree to changing the fluid. Its cheap, so just do it. The pads (track pads) can get quite expensive, so the fuild is a little inexpensive insurance for your brakes.

Just get out on the track and have fun, thats the main thing!

 

Stock pads are not completely terrible compared to some other cars BUT remember a lot of people picking up used, older EVOs may have switched to a cheaper, dust-free, DD only pad that sucks. Please at least check your brake system and make sure you have a decent pad with plenty of life left (same with rotors). And good fresh fluid. You should be doing this anyway really.

I also agree on starting as stock as possible in terms of power and suspension (and we say that even as a suspension shop).

- Andrew

 

I appreciate all the reply's. There is some really great information in this thread. I dont have access to this site at work so it takes a while for me to reply, but from all the information on here before I take it to the track i will replacing the brake fluid and new pads are probably a good idea as well since i have 16000 miles on the car.

I should mention that i have auto x'd a little in the past just nothing with this car. While I cleraly understand everyones point of view, I dont think i will be switching out my coilovers, wheel, & tire setup for the stock setup since i had the car professionally corner balanced and aligned. Im a mechanical engineer and by trade and i am very precise with how i go about things. I am not the type of individual who will go out and push the car to its limits for quite some time until i feel i have enough time & understanding behind the wheel to do so. In that aspect I think i should manage okay with the aftermarket suspension.

I would really like to see if there are any local classes available to sign up for, so i can learn the proper way to read a track, from there i will progress slowly. This is something that I have put a lot of time and thought into. I will reading up on the local NASA to see whats available.

Also are brake ducts something i should look into? any particular brand? overheating the brakes or brake fluid is obviously a big concern especially living out in AZ!

Thanks again for all the info

 

I guess i've just had students that are a little more eager..

I totally must have missed the part about fresh fluid... i was thinkin... this dude's a nut going out on old stock fluid!

I've browned my calipers on stock pads before, and definitely got them black cherry running my pf97's. I agree about not going full race, but there is a bit of a window between full race and oem pads (especially if they're fairly worn) (just my opinion).

 

Dats what we're here for....and to pick on each other but hey . Far as brake ducting goes - i'd only get em when I got experience, cause they're not gonna provide enough cooling to help any street pad out, and may provide too much cooling depending on which pads you pick up if your not driving hard. But kits from AMS and Forge are your "bolt on" choices and you can re-engineer from there.