First track day of 08 (for me), March FATT

[McCoy]

I've spent the last few weekends and nights getting the car ready for the first track day of the year. All the little things that failed on me last year have all been repaired/fixed along with everything else that has been added to the car.

The event is called a FATT (Friday at the track) and is basically an open lapping day, no sessions and the only rules on passes is that it has to be with a point-by... it's fun practicing passes in the corners :)

The only real factor right now is the weather... we had 5 inches fall last night, luckily most of it has melted already, but tomorrow doesn't look much better :(. The wife's calling me crazy, but I'm still going :D

tomorrow's forecast...
http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/959/FATT_weather_forecast.jpg

[spool_sample]

The wife's calling me crazy, but I'm still going :D

That's the spirit! :p

Good luck if it happens.

[McCoy]

Thanks, I just got an email back from the track cordinator and he tells me that the track is still going hot at 9am tomorrow and that currently the track is dry :).

Oh yeah, this is also the Friday before the BMW driving school... basically this means that I get to play with the instructors tomorrow, those are the best :)

[WilloW]

You're lucky to have the time, money, and an understanding wife to do it. I have an understanding wife with no money or time. Have fun and take some pictures.

[McCoy]

You're lucky to have the time, money, and an understanding wife to do it. I have an understanding wife with no money or time. Have fun and take some pictures.
It probably won't always be this way. I budget each year for the parts for my car and a track day every month. As long as we (wife and I) are still doing fine financially (no debt except house), then I'll continue doing track days. I keep my hobbies to a minimum and my vacation time is never an issue with work.

As for the wife being understanding... it's a fine line. Luckily, the Friday stuff is ok, since she's at work and doesn't even realize I'm away. It's the weekend stuff that I can't get away with as much.

[ecugrad]

GLOVES!!!! Even if they are Mechanix gloves, brings some damn gloves.

The group I run with has an event every 2nd weekend in February at VIR. Even in Virginia, it snows from time to time. 3 years ago its was weather similar to what you posted in the forecast. I didn't have any gloves and let me tell you, 30 mins going that fast in the cold and wet will kill your hands.

[BigOdom1]

ME TOO butim getting my V card taken

TGPR (talladega grand prix) my first track day kinda fell in my lap this afternoon but luckily the car was ready except for an oil change and i took care of that.

[McCoy]

Gloves I have... a good set of clean mechanics gloves for the really cold days and a much nicer set of reversed-seamed driving gloves for all other track days.

I've done alot of cold wet track days... typically snow is not in the forecast though.

[McCoy]

Well, the first track day of 08 was a success I'd say. I made it there in one piece, got in 200 track miles with no major issues and made it home by dinner time :).

The weather was basically as shown in the forecast in post #1, with the exception that the snow didn't start falling till about 1:30pm. The track went hot at 9am and I was out at about 9:10 after dumping everything out of the trunk, changing over to the new driving shoes (thanks Richard), and setting the struts and tire pressures.

Overall car setup:
I set the front compression to 4 clicks (out of 12) and rebound to 1.5 turns (2.5 total). The rear I turned the rebound up to 1.25 turns. I didn't make any changes to the dampers the rest of the day... mainly because it was so dang cold, and also because the car was handeling good on track so I left this for a warmer day. I set tire pressure to 37psi hot front and rear, anything above this and my tire temps started to get out of wack and so did the handeling of the car on track. The progress bar up front was set to the middle and the progress rear is set to soft. I turned the boost down to 10psi so that I could just have fun and not overpower the 235/45/17 Advans which kept going all day for me.

The first session went great, besides the fact that there was huge sheet of ice on line on turn 10... at first I thought it must be something else till I hit it and the whole car side stepped 5 feet, then it sunk in.. it was ICE! I think I might have missed that in the drivers meeting since I arrived alittle late:o. I spent a few laps feeling out the braking zones with the new CR6 pads and relearning when to apply throttle mid corner. The HLSD and the alignment have done wonders, I was able to apply throttle just past the apex on most turns now, this was not possible last year unless I wanted to kiss my tail goodbye. The car is so neutral in the corners now, just brake down to the appropriate speed for corner entry, turn in, and wait for the moment that I can feed the throttle to exit me out of the corner. If I push the speed to much into the turn, the car will start to understeer just a little and a small bit of throttle will get me back on line again... gotta love it. On a side note, the new driving shoes are to narrow and I wasn't able to heel-toe, so I switched back to my vans which are wide enough to allow me to catch the gas peddle with the side of the shoe... oh well.

The brakes were great! I have the CR6 pads up front and HPS's in the rear. The pads just needed alittle bit of heat in them and they did me wonders all day. By the end of the day I was able to move my braking zones up pretty far, and really think there was more there. I just didn't push it that far due to the cold temps and still had alot to learn. Only on a few occasions did I start to feel some fade, but I was doing 30-40 minute sessions and pushing them pretty hard. I never once locked up and really thought I would on a few occasions of me getting to excited. I don't think they'll work so good on a hotter day, but my only requirement for these is for wet/cold days and street driving... and they more than meet that.

The next few sessions before lunch I just enjoyed the track and had fun. Since this is the friday before the driving school, I got to enjoy passing/being passed by some fairly nice cars... see pictures below. It was kind of nice that I was getting my speed up enough that typically I wasn't being passed unless it was on my first lap or the cool down lap. I got to play around with one of the lead instructors in his Carrera 4S, I had a bit more speed on the straights, but he had me by a small margin in the corners... he was on shaved RA-1's, what can I say :). Due to it being so cold, I was able to go for 30-40 minutes sessions... the only limiter is mental fatigue, I found that after 30 minutes I found myself not focusing as much as I should on my lines and finally had to come in to get some water and food on two of my sessions.

Here is the S13 in the pits after a few sessions
http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/959/medium/March_FATT_01.jpg

Rotors looking happy. Rotor temps after a cool down session were in the 250F range up front and 200F range in the rear. The one time I came off hot, the fronts were at 350F and the rears at 325F...
http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/959/medium/March_FATT_02.jpg

Some of the instructors cars... actually if you just multiplied the cars you see here by 4 and that is basically what all the instructors drive.
http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/959/medium/March_FATT_04.jpg

There were quite a few Canadians that come down for this school, here is a GTR that usually shows up... they drove 11 hours.
http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/959/medium/March_FATT_03.jpg

________________
After lunch, I got in one more good session before the snow started to fall. At first it wasn't sticking, just blowing across the track... so there was no need to really slow down yet. After a break, the track seemed a bit more slick... it was more like a wet track day if anything, still fun though. The last session it started getting really slick. I couldn't really apply any throttle in the turns and had to be careful in the braking zones too. I know I was doing ok, since the C5 Z06 (instructor) was not getting away from me and the M3 (seasoned student) behind me wasn't catching up. I finally called it quits after the snow started sticking and it was looking more like a blizzard than anything else out there.

After my last session of the day... you can see that the back of the car is covered in oil mist. After every shift on boost I'd see a big puff of blue smoke from the back. The T28 seals are mostly gone.
http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/959/medium/March_FATT_05.jpg

The wonderful ride home.
http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/959/medium/March_FATT_06.jpg

[veilside180sx]

Wahoo for track days in the snow=)

[Your Mom]

wow thats some crazy stuff.

[2Fass240us]

Track days in the snow...gross. Good to hear you had fun, that the car is doing what it's supposed to.

[McCoy]

Thanks guys. Driving in the snow wasn't that bad... it's not like the snow was sticking, well not till the last lap when I decided to call 'uncle' :).

I forgot to mention before, but on the last session (in the snow) I was keeping a pretty good pace with the other cars, which really wasn't that fast. I started to notice something big and black in the mirrors quite a ways off. It seems one of the instructors decided to take his tow truck out there... a trailblazer SS to be exact. He was actually keeping up with me, as I was entering 6, he was entering 4 on every lap for about 10 laps staight.


On the way home, on uphill straights, I started to notice the car started to bog down (slight loss of power) while still in vacuum. If I gave it gas it would overcome it somewhat, but sound more like it was running rich. It was also only on sections of road that were rougher than normal, so I'm not sure if this is an electrical or MAF issue related to the rough sections of road or not. I need to investigate later today or hook up the calumsult and try and go out and reproduce the problem while datalogging.

[Your Mom]

brake swap work good?

[McCoy]

They were great, Brian. Of course all that I can review on them is that the CR6 pads are amazing in cold/wet conditions and the brakes work great in sub 30F weather :). I never once had an issue in my braking zones, even when I pushed them a little to much and modulation at the threshold was amazing... again I contribute this to the pads Advan (evo8 takeoffs) tires.

A better review won't happen till May, if I'm able to attend a track day then or not.

[a_ahmed]

wow thats an awesome writeup, awesome thread, awesome pix :) maan its suppose to snow tomorrow here too :( I want winter to be all over 100%.

I might be selling my winter beater he he he, so soon I'll have to get the 240 back on the road anyways :) Still no tax money back.. waiting... looking forward to this year :D I'm so excited...

[McCoy]

I forgot to mention that I went through 20 gallons of fuel on track, sure glad I get 5% cash back on my CC for fuel purchases :). That worked out to 10mpg, which alot better than I get on a warm days where I'm on the throttle alot more.

[McCoy]

I finally got around to inspecting the brakes since the track day. I measured about 2mm of wear on the CR6 pads... not to bad for a good 200 track miles. If the temps were warmer, I probably would of had alot more wear.

The good part is that there was zero wear on the rotors that I could tell, much better than the blues in dry/wet conditions :)

[Def]

I forgot to mention that I went through 20 gallons of fuel on track, sure glad I get 5% cash back on my CC for fuel purchases :). That worked out to 10mpg, which alot better than I get on a warm days where I'm on the throttle alot more.

Last track day was about 7 mpg for me... That's going to totally suck next day with near $4/gal 93...

[McCoy]

Last track day was about 7 mpg for me... That's going to totally suck next day with near $4/gal 93...
Yeah, I typically get 7-8 mpg on warm days, not sure how much worse it's going to get once I get the car sorted out though. My friends with STI's/Evo's typically get in the 5 mpg range.

I was going to plan a track day in Portland/Seattle in the next month or two, but after doing the math, I'd be spending over $225 for just fuel alone for getting there/back and track time. This doesn't count for the $185 (typical) entry fee, hotel for two nights, food, and one pissed off wife I'll have.

Needless to say, I'll probably wait till the next FATT in July at the local track.

[veilside180sx]

Yeah, I typically get 7-8 mpg on warm days, not sure how much worse it's going to get once I get the car sorted out though. My friends with STI's/Evo's typically get in the 5 mpg range.

I was going to plan a track day in Portland/Seattle in the next month or two, but after doing the math, I'd be spending over $225 for just fuel alone for getting there/back and track time. This doesn't count for the $185 (typical) entry fee, hotel for two nights, food, and one pissed off wife I'll have.

Needless to say, I'll probably wait till the next FATT in July at the local track.

You know you wouldn't be paying for a hotel for 2 nights, and hardly anything for food.=) I can't account for the gas you'd spend though.

[McCoy]

You know you wouldn't be paying for a hotel for 2 nights, and hardly anything for food.=) I can't account for the gas you'd spend though.
Very true... then it's just the wife I need to worry about :(

[veilside180sx]

Very true... then it's just the wife I need to worry about :(

Your on your own there.=)

[McCoy]

I thought I'd have a track day on the 13th of June, but it looks like the new owners of the track don't take over till July 1st... so July 12th and 13th will be the next set of track days that I attend.

Dang, I need to go do some go-carting or an autoX before July :(

[vw_nissan]

Autox isn't that bad.....less fun than track day, but still fun.

Can't say that about go-kart though.

[McCoy]

Autox isn't that bad.....less fun than track day, but still fun.
I've autocrossed for years, not as much since getting into doing track days. The 240 is no where setup to be competitve in SM, tires especially. Sadly to say I like being competitive, and if I'm not then I'm not as interested.

The new DD might make a nice little STS car though someday:)

Can't say that about go-kart though.
Depends where you go I guess. Our local indoor go-kart facility has fairly fast go-carts, a technical track, and you can do 40 lappers with a qualifying session to get your starting position. We typically do this once a month in the winter months to keep our sanity around here. You can get some pretty good wheel/wheel driving once you get some good drivers together :)

[2Fass240us]

I've autocrossed for years, not as much since getting into doing track days. The 240 is no where setup to be competitve in SM, tires especially. Sadly to say I like being competitive, and if I'm not then I'm not as interested.
I have continued autocrossing because I'm able to and not as able to squeeze in track days, and I'm in the same boat as far as competitiveness. I am classed in XP and am only competitive because I'm the only one in that class. Otherwise, I'd get pwned all the time. My Raw and Pax times are consistently higher than 60-70% of all cars there though. :( Most of this is driver, however. :cool:

[McCoy]

The last year that I autocrossed, I co-drove my friends 04 STI for the most part in SM. I beat him almost everytime. Needless to say, he stopped autocrossing after that year... not sure why.

[vw_nissan]

The last year that I autocrossed, I co-drove my friends 04 STI for the most part in SM. I beat him almost everytime. Needless to say, he stopped autocrossing after that year... not sure why.

You destroyed his self-esteem, that's why. :D

The worst thing you can have is to have someone else beating you when he drives your own car. (unless you already knew the person is a better driver)

Hard to have fun in go-kart if you are on the course with people that block you throughout the whole session, other than that I agree that go-kart is a good way to practice your driving. :)

[McCoy]

You destroyed his self-esteem, that's why. :D we joked about that a few times... luckily he's not like that and the reason he stopped was for the same reasons I did, we both progressed onto track days and set our cars up for that.

The worst thing you can have is to have someone else beating you when he drives your own car. (unless you already knew the person is a better driver)
I had a 17 year old kid beat my best time *in my car* by 2 seconds in a fun run, I felt pretty bad till he told me he has been carting since he was 11 years old and had several trophies on the wall. It did seem like he was driving my car like a go-cart :)

[McCoy]

OK, the track sale was finally approved yesterday... so it looks like I might, just might, have 2-3 track days in July. I've got to make up for lost time here :)

[McCoy]

lol, I was searching youtube for track videos at SRP and found the following from the March FATT that I attended... I was on track the same time as this guy, just didn't make his footage he posted.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3hlZ-gt5jg

I forgot that there was snow banks still in a few spots :)