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, Wed, 9 Mar 2005 18:20:06
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Oh, boy, track work. Gotta love it. Be prepared for the inevitable addiction that follows.
This is going to be long. First off, change your oil and brake fluid before going to the track. You want maximum protection for the engine and maximum boiling point for the brake fluid under all that stress. Check over EVERYTHING else, especially steering linkage, ball joints, control arms, wheel bearings. You do not want a failure at speed.
Brake fade - you know you have it when your eyes get as big as dinner plates and pop out of your skull as you nail the pedal at your braking point and it does precisely nothing to slow you down while going to the floor. Very unsettling. This is why you want new brake fluid. And probably track compound pads. In a front driver brake fade can be worse, particularly if you trail brake into corners or left-foot brake.
Stock suspension is soft. You'll find there is a lot of body roll in transitions, which will unsettle the car if you're not smooth. You want to be smooth. I haven't got any track time on my 9-5 so I can't speak to specific behavior, but you will probably want to try to keep the tail in unless you've got experience rotating a FWD car with the brakes, so watch how much you trail-brake on turn-in. Understeer is going to be the prevailing cornering state - don't fight it, just learn how to cope with it at this point. Work up to speed, don't try to go out at 10/10ths the first time out. Remember, smooth is fast.
Those tire pressures might be too high - mark the sidewall of your tires with white shoe polish in a couple places to see how much they are rolling over. You want maximum tread contact without rolling onto the sidewalls. Front and rear pressures will very likely be different.
Finally, be prepared to be schooled by more experienced drivers in lesser cars. Smooth drivers who can carry momentum will routinely beat drivers of high-powered cars who yank them around. The most important component in any car is the nut behind the wheel.
Any other questions, just let me know.
posted by 68.199.129...
, Wed, 9 Mar 2005 18:20:06, Wed, 9 Mar 2005 22:44:59
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