Thread: Preparing a Street(turbo) Car for a Road Course?

Errrr have you seen my name?? Keep on preaching to the choir

Setup was fairly simple
T3 based setup @ 11-12 psi
willwood 11"
Stock cooling system for the most part (water wetter and 300zx radiator cap)
Street tires
caged
Seats
etc

Fairly simple

Did you run a water + water wetter or a coolant + water wetter or some other combo?

I have some watter wetter and was looking at the back of the packaging a while ago and noticed that coolant + water wetter didn't provide too much of a difference but straight water + water wetter did.

-G

Water + Water wetter as if I had a cooling system failure, I did not want to "oil" down the course.

ahh, that's supposed to be a good setup. I guess the wetter lubricates the coolant just enough so your engine doesn't get messed up.

I'm assuming you flushed it and put coolant back in after the track day?

So is it worth it to get new pads/rotors for the rear or just use what I have? If I do get new pads, should I just get Hawk HPS's or do I need something a little stronger? I was thinking of getting a set of pads for the rear that I could continue using on the street. The front pads/rotors I'll change out just for the track.

-G

What radiator and fans are you running?

g20 radiator 2 slim fans (12" I think). Fans I'm not really worried about because I shouldn't be using those while the car's actually moving on the track unless I'm going to be doing a lot of idling.

-G

Listen to Boostlee, he for the most part is spot on. I've run the AGX R/M combo on the track and what you need to learn is that with the lower settings they will work for a beginner as yourself. as you get better at controlling the car you will increase the stiffness of the suspension. Heat is absolutely your biggest enemy while road racing. I personally turn on my heater at full blast for insurance and I run water wetter, 2 slimfans that are programmed through the Realtime ecu to run at 195 degrees and a Nismo t-stat with a large Modine radiator. Have an oil cooler for the VE and even with all this temps are race normal at 210-215. Running ATE blue brake fluid and holding up well so far but I'm NA and Gomba's turbo car would definitely do better with the Motul 600 for that extra margin of safety. Hawk HPS pads for the rear will work fine for now but may upgrade to the HP+ pads down the road. BTW don't try to catch the Z06s yet keep your boost at 7lbs and learn how to drive your car first. Too much boost especially with too much heat could easily lead to detonation. My son went from 7 to 12lbs of boost without thinking about the increase in heat and in his attempt to go faster fried a piston while on the road course. Patience is your friend, it goes a long way. You do have a full set of gauges, yes?

Well, I have oil pressure/boost/wideband. So not a full set, but I guess it depends on what you would consider 'full'

Stock temp gauge seems to work OK. I know once it gets directly to the middle the car's getting close to 210-215 because I've watched it w/Consult. Interesting the car gets so hot on the track. Only time I've seen temps over 210 was idling. While moving the car would always cool down no matter what I did to it, but I know the track will be a different game because the car will be running at high engine speeds for prolonged amounts of time.

I also don't have an overly tall intercooler blocking my radiator which I think helps. I'm using all stock DET heat shields and have even (recently) wrapped by downpipe with thermal wrap. I'm also using all the stock undercar wind sheilds. Not sure what else I can do for heat management. I think the water + water wetter combo and thicker oil will make a big difference.

-G

i can tell you first hand that nursing a detonating car around the track with an instructor in the car is no fun. you really need to be giving them undivided attention. its not that easy, you are listening to them, learning the track, hitting your apexes, giving pointbys for faster traffic, and watching the corner workers, all at the same time. it takes some practice to be able to mentally slow things down enough to absorb what the instructor is telling you.

i would recommend going through the car well. you don't want to be fixing stuff trying to pass tech when your supposed to be in the drivers meeting.

bring lots of water. bring air and pressure gauge and a torque wrench for lug bolts. check them after each session (after things are cooled down). also keep an eye on brake pads.

also painters tape to tape the leading edge of your magnetic numbers and wheel chocks to keep the car from rolling downhill if the paddock isn't level (since you won't want to be using the brakes).