Who Likes Track Days? Who's Scared Of 'em? Who Can't Afford It?

[sindows]

yeah thats true matey!

[Majanal]

Can you elaborate on that for me Bob? What other fetaures are you referring too? Official timing? Guidance from senior members? ????

Kennedy,

Official timing and guidance from senior members is probably the biggest thing. The days we do we actually insist that new drivers go out in the more experienced members cars and also have the more experienced members come with them in their cars.

The reason that no speed limit days are so cheap is because you don't get any of the tutoring, lap timing, you usually find that the track owner is sitting in the recovery vehicle, there is no limit on number and type of cars that can attend, and no grouping of cars so you have fast and slow sessions.

When we hire the track they charge us more too, I believe that the Oran Park GP Circuit is $4500 just to hire, then you need medical crew and recovery vehicles also. And pit garages are extra again.

So you can see that to split that between 40 odd cars we don't make any money from these days, this is why we need to ask what you guys want.

I have signed up and payed.

But the more i read, the more i too am getting a little anxious!

I dont want to hit a wall as well as i have just forked out $250 for a set of rear tyres and just realised i am going to be chewing 50% of my fronts as well!

On top of that, to sum it all up. Its going to cost me about $470 just to attend and enjoy the day, that doesnt include extra oil, coolant, petrol and food.

So for 1 day costing over $500 its quite costly and as everyone else has said, this is the main reason i wont attend very offtern.

my 2c.

So many people are scared of hitting a wall, I have as many of you know, but I was drifting very hard and pushing right to the limit, I knew that I should take a few laps of rest because the tyres were red hot and I didn't, I knew that I had pushed too far 50m before I hit the wall, and I had time to correct myself enough that I hit with the back of the car... and only just, so that there was less damage and the engine was not hurt.

There won't be drifting at these days, except maybe a Demo by some of the national guys as far as I am aware, so you won't be going anywhere near that limit of the car.

The best thing about skylines is the amount of "feel" you have when you are driving them. You know 4 laps before you go off that your tyres are getting hot and slippery, it then becomes up to you to say, if I back off for two laps I should be able to get a few more hot laps in before my session finishes, or if not at least my car is nice and cool and back to normal operating temp before I pit in.

I have never used 50% of my front tyres at any race track, even at the Drift meetings, in fact I did 4 rounds in a row on the same set of fronts, and only changed them because I wanted fresh tyres for the last round. I had used these fronts for practice days in between also.

Before I was drifting I found that I could run a set of tyres for about 3 to 4 track days with driving approximatly 10,000 road km's as well. The trick I found was to run them on the road for a some kms before taking them to the track, "scrubbing" them I guess, but not giving brand new tyres a flogging from the word go.

I have also done 100,000 kms in my car and I would say that between 40,000 and 50,000 of those were track kms, I have a total of one warped exhaust manifold, which again was from pushing the car too hard on a hot day and I knew that I was.

To prep for the track I spanner check my car, make sure all the suspension, engine bits and stuff is tight and no leaks. I change the oil and oil filter, fuel filter, and clean my air filter. I also run octaine booster with my 98 ron fuel just to be sure. I check all fluid levels and also my Brake pads. For anyone that wants a top mechanic then I can't recomend Jamie Waterhouse from Waterhouse Auto Care at Penrith 4721 7227 enough. He has always done a great job on my cars and works on alot of rally, race and drift cars.

Anyway guys, Keep up the chat, and I hope that my post helps you all a bit. Remeber if you can save up and support the club days then we will run more of them

Cheers,

Dan.

[someonestolecc]

Me =

Selling car, prefer drift, no money, tyres cost, fluids cost, pads cost, petrol costs, food costs

Money :\

But on the other hand, I've only been on a track once and if I can start doing 100kmh+ entries 3-4th lap ever and not crash my car into a wall then anyone here doing proper circuit work won't either.

Assuming they aren't driving like in a video game.

[rukus]

id love to go.. but ..

#1 car isnt ready yet

#2 cant afford it atm :

[hanyou]

im convinced to go!! but i have snow tyres on atm hahaha is that a big no no??

[ferni]

im convinced to go!! but i have snow tyres on atm hahaha is that a big no no??

You will actually get a lot of warning with snow tyres before they let go... give it a go.

[D_I_F]

im scared i would hurt my baby.. im broke from fixing it.. a big thing is the $$$ which im sure for what it is.. its quite cheap for the day..

and because of work.. i cant do anything.. nor get time off..

oh not to mention.. that everytime i think about it.. my bf tells me that girls arent susposed to be on the track.. so that always kinds of puts me off.. but makes me want to do it more to prove him wrong..

[mr 32]

1. clutch is on the way out (is very bad now thanks to 2wd/4wd switch from DIRTgarage time for jim berry clutch might get a discount if i get it the same time as the capri)

2. all spare money is going into the capri now

3. car is not ready yet

[Abo Bob]

Ok I'll try to give as many answers as I can here.

BWA - no you are not the only girl going to this track day. There is already 2 booked in with another one or two possibilities. DIF - There's your answer too. Does your boyfriend enjoy wanking more than sex because that's the kind of sttitude he seems to have?

Sam - Dan is right in that official timing and more supervision are the main things. On an SAU/RENEW day the newbies, and anyone else who wants to call themselves a newbie for the day, go out in the instructors cars for the first short session then they go out in their own cars with the instructors in the passenger seat.

The instructors are the experienced guys like me, Dan - Majanal, Duncan and others who have spent at least a couple of years doing track days. We will show you things like the racing lines and braking distances, what causes oversteer and understeer and how to recognise what your car is telling you in terms of brakes, tyres, heat, etc.

The great thing about going with an instructor is learning what your car is and isn't capable of. I remember nearly crapping myself in the passenger seat of Duncan's old pretty much stock GTST thinking there was no way we were going to pull up in time then when we did accusing him of having upgraded the brakes. He replied that they were stock brakes with only Bendix Ultimate pads.

The other thing you learn is how and why you will lose it and therefore how to stop it. It's quite usual for the car to go the opposite way to what a beginner would expect and we will explain to you how this happens and what to do in emergency situations.

The closer to stock your car is the safer it is to take to the track. Stock brakes and suspension on Skylines are very good.

Ok so we've dealt with hitting walls; rule of thumb is - if you are a dickhead and also you ignore everything we tell you, you have a reasonable chance of hitting the wall. If you are a reasonable person, out to have some fast fun and you listen to what we tell you, your chances of hitting a wall are minimal at worst.

Right - Tyres.

50% tread wear in one track day is no chance. I got 7 track days and around 10-15,000 km out of my compliance tyres and even then they got stolen or I would have tried for another track day.

So yes you can bring your daily tyres and although you will experience accelerated wear, it's no big deal.

Mechanical breakages.

Generally the more stock you are the better off you will be. While my car was stock I broke nothing. I wore out my stock rotors after about 6 track days though. If you normally run your stock turbo at 12psi on the street, turn it down to 10psi for the track day and consider putting a cheap bottle of octane boost in the tank. $9 insurance. More highly modified cars can have heat issues if they don't have extra cooling devices but you can still turn the boost down or just go out for 4-5 laps then cool down then straight back out.

You need about 50% meat left on your brake pads just to be safe.

You should bleed your brakes if they haven't been done in a while or ever to your 100% certain knowledge. All you need is two people, a bottle of brake fluid (about $12 super dot 4 will do), a 10mm spanner, an empty dolmio or similar and read up on the forums as to what to do. (BTW you have to take the wheels off one by one to do it.)

An oil change afterwards and possibly before if it's been a while. Don't worry too much about the filter if you are doing a couple of quick changes.

That should do you.

As for safety on the track. We do segregate people according to speed and ability and there are strict rules on overtaking to ensure everyone's safety. Dangerous people will be warned once and then kicked off if they continue their unwanted behaviour. Stay away from S15's and you should be right.

You do need a helmet which you can borrow or buy second hand from cash converters or buy new from $150 at a motorbike shop. You need this for drag or anything really so it's worth owning one in the long run.

My car has always been a daily driver although I do generally catch the bus to work, it is my only car though. If you follow my, and others, advice, you are unlikely to hurt your car.

That's about it for now. Keep the comments coming if you've got something new or not addressed yet.

[N1GTR]

Just with the helmets, the Sydney Motorcycle shop at Kogarah sells decent ones for around $80 - so its not really worth renting

[SECURITY]

group buy on helmets anyone

[Primordial]

group buy 4 sure! I'm in!

Edited March 30, 2006 by Primordial

[ido09s]

normally price.... i dont mind spending money to race the car but when you have a few events happening in close succession that you want to attend the $200ish that you need to pay turns out quite expensive.

eg the UAS track day this Sunday and then the Autotech drag day (i know they arent SAU events but its just an example) the $400 i would need to spend in a little over a month is a bit of a stretch when you need to take into account fuel and tyres etc

[Trust33]

Well i would have coughed up the cash by now but atm i have just been hit with a possible $1500 bill for tooth and the car also needs new tyres $1000.So i am still deciding about what to do

[sanger]

Wise words from dan and abo bob!!!!!!

One extra peice of prep.... Check your wheel nuts and get a full tank of petrol!!!!!

[sindows]

Kennedy,

Official timing and guidance from senior members is probably the biggest thing. The days we do we actually insist that new drivers go out in the more experienced members cars and also have the more experienced members come with them in their cars.

The reason that no speed limit days are so cheap is because you don't get any of the tutoring, lap timing, you usually find that the track owner is sitting in the recovery vehicle, there is no limit on number and type of cars that can attend, and no grouping of cars so you have fast and slow sessions.

When we hire the track they charge us more too, I believe that the Oran Park GP Circuit is $4500 just to hire, then you need medical crew and recovery vehicles also. And pit garages are extra again.

So you can see that to split that between 40 odd cars we don't make any money from these days, this is why we need to ask what you guys want.

So many people are scared of hitting a wall, I have as many of you know, but I was drifting very hard and pushing right to the limit, I knew that I should take a few laps of rest because the tyres were red hot and I didn't, I knew that I had pushed too far 50m before I hit the wall, and I had time to correct myself enough that I hit with the back of the car... and only just, so that there was less damage and the engine was not hurt.

There won't be drifting at these days, except maybe a Demo by some of the national guys as far as I am aware, so you won't be going anywhere near that limit of the car.

The best thing about skylines is the amount of "feel" you have when you are driving them. You know 4 laps before you go off that your tyres are getting hot and slippery, it then becomes up to you to say, if I back off for two laps I should be able to get a few more hot laps in before my session finishes, or if not at least my car is nice and cool and back to normal operating temp before I pit in.

I have never used 50% of my front tyres at any race track, even at the Drift meetings, in fact I did 4 rounds in a row on the same set of fronts, and only changed them because I wanted fresh tyres for the last round. I had used these fronts for practice days in between also.

Before I was drifting I found that I could run a set of tyres for about 3 to 4 track days with driving approximatly 10,000 road km's as well. The trick I found was to run them on the road for a some kms before taking them to the track, "scrubbing" them I guess, but not giving brand new tyres a flogging from the word go.

I have also done 100,000 kms in my car and I would say that between 40,000 and 50,000 of those were track kms, I have a total of one warped exhaust manifold, which again was from pushing the car too hard on a hot day and I knew that I was.

To prep for the track I spanner check my car, make sure all the suspension, engine bits and stuff is tight and no leaks. I change the oil and oil filter, fuel filter, and clean my air filter. I also run octaine booster with my 98 ron fuel just to be sure. I check all fluid levels and also my Brake pads. For anyone that wants a top mechanic then I can't recomend Jamie Waterhouse from Waterhouse Auto Care at Penrith 4721 7227 enough. He has always done a great job on my cars and works on alot of rally, race and drift cars.

Anyway guys, Keep up the chat, and I hope that my post helps you all a bit. Remeber if you can save up and support the club days then we will run more of them

Cheers,

Dan.

Someone likes to write essays!

[sindows]

group buy 4 sure! I'm in!

We have three people in now! Is there like a guideline for helmets, could i just use a moto helmet?

[Kennedy]

Wise words from dan and abo bob!!!!!!

One extra peice of prep.... Check your wheel nuts and get a full tank of petrol!!!!!

Good point. I wen't through a whole tank in one day. Had to duck out at lunch to get some more :-) next time I'll bring the big asse fuel cannister full of Optomax Extreme so I don't have to resort to using Inferior 98 fuels

[Kennedy]

We have three people in now! Is there like a guideline for helmets, could i just use a moto helmet?

A Moto X helmet will be fine but a Moto Street bike helmet would be more comfortable. That Yamaha shop on Epping Road has them starting at $120.00 for a full face helmet. $60.00 for open face

[steve_gts4]

i am really really keen to come to the track day, but it looks like ill be overseas for work