Tracking a street car

"PyramidHat" (pyramidhat) 03/27/2020 at 01:47 • Filed to: None

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...anyone do this? Since I got the Z3 and it’s not my primary mode of transport, I’ve been getting the itch to do a track day (Sonoma or Laguna Seca, I figure). But I don’t want to break the thing, just want to  get my ya yas out in a non freeway environment.   Bad idea, right?

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > PyramidHat 03/27/2020 at 02:03

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Fresh brakes, oil, and topped off coolant will keep it in good condition. But definitely spring for high strength pads and rotors. I once got cheap pads and rotors for my Fiesta ST and by cheap I mean “Really damn good ‘normal’ pads” and they cooked within two laps on the track and I had a shitty time that day. Get a pad and rotor that is rated for ocasional track use and there’s 75% of your wear and tear done. If you don’t try to slide through every turn and you try and focus on flowing from turn to turn on a good line, you can drive at 7/10ths, have a blast, and not wreck your suspension and engine. My FoST has a redline above 6k. If I shift before 5k, the coolant doesn’t even get hot. Granted, I have to give a lot of point-bys on the straight, but it helps manage the car for multiple sessions. I then do a few full-bore laps at the end of the day with max power and trying to hit aggressive braking points.

It’s fully doable and many people bring daily drivers to track days, you just need to keep your head about you.

whatisthatsound > PyramidHat 03/27/2020 at 02:05

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I would see if they rent a track car with an instructor you can try out first. You learn the track, it isn’t your car, and you learn where your limits are. Then you can take your Z3 out with a touch less risk.  I think it’s a great idea as long as it's paid off.

glemon > PyramidHat 03/27/2020 at 02:12

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I did it once with my old, slightly modified, but very street oriented 1968 Triumph TR250. I believe some (many) tracks won’t let you do a track day in a convertible without rollover protection. Not sure if a Z3 has built in (ok googled it looks like they were factory optional), but if I we’re going to track it often I would put in a proper roll bar. Other than that if your car is in good shape (especially tires/suspension/brakes) I would say go for it.

You might also try autocross if you haven’t, I prefer it to track days (admittedly only tried it once) , but there are a lot of differing opinions.

WRXforScience > PyramidHat 03/27/2020 at 02:16

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I’ve got one car, my BRZ is my track, autox, and street car. You need track pads and high temp brake fluid for the track (rotors are rotors, if your pads are good you won’t eat up rotors). You also want to make sure that you’re up to date on all your maintenance, the track will expose whatever is the weak link otherwise. Make sure you do a track day with instruction, or spring for private instruction (expensive but worth it).

Drive within your limits and keep an eye on oil levels, coolant temps, and brake pad wear and you should be fine. Novices typically aren’t fast enough to do much other than overheat street pads and/or boil dot 3 fluid. I’ve found Ferodo Ds 1.11 or DSUNO are a great trackday pad. Hawk DTC 30/50/60/70 are great budget pads (higher number is higher temp, more or less). Check out the BMW forum for people tracking your specific car to get some platform specific tips.

Don’t worry about being fast, if you’re new you’re slow. Just have fun and learn as much as possible. Keep your eyes up, vision is the first key to track driving, followed by threshold braking, and then weight transfer. This shelter in place stuff already cost me 2 weekends at the track but I’ve got 7 days this year, which isn’t terrible.

Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen > PyramidHat 03/27/2020 at 02:25

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No, not at all, provided it’s a reasonably solid car. J ust make sure you have fresh and fully topped-off brake fluid and oil, tires that still have some life in them (ie half tread and less than 3 years old ),  stick some uprated brake pads on the front and make sure the tears are no more than half worn, keep a close eye on your temperature gauge and idiot lights, and be prepared to call it a day if it starts to sound or smell funny or you run out of rubber or cook the brakes.

A Z3’s not a super high performance machine: you’re fairly unlikely to be able to wring it’s neck hard enough to kill it.

SmugAardvark > PyramidHat 03/27/2020 at 03:09

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I’ve done it plenty, and it really isn’t a huge deal. There are a couple things worth being aware of.

Typical “wear items” will wear out a lot faster doing track days. Tires, brake pads, fluids, etc. When I was using an S2000 for HPDE, Autocross, and daily driving, six to eight months out of a set of tires was considered pretty darn good. Now, if you are only doing this once or twice to see how you like it, there’s obviously less concern.

Accidents can happen. Thankfully, this isn’t your only vehicle. But you may want to check your insurance policy just in the off chance something does happen while on course. I’m fortunate(-ish) that I’ve only ever crashed race cars at race tracks, but I know a few people that have done some serious damage to their road-going cars at events. It can leave you with essentially two options: pay for repairs out of pocket, or lie to your insurance company and hope they don’t chase you down for committing fraud.

If running laps is new to you, maybe try a few Autocross events first? The San Francisco Region SCCA hosts events in the Bay Area, Sacramento, and Fresno. Going by the two tracks you mentioned, I’m guessing you live in northern California. Might be worth checking them out. It’ll let you get a better “low speed” feel for the car before you really wind it out at the bigger tracks.

Everything else, is pretty common sense. Drive within your own means, don’t go out there to prove you’re the best and fastest, don’t be a jerk, and so on. A lot of other people can probably give you better advice on those aspects, or at least won’t prattle on quite as much as me.

Most of all, have fun with it! Hopefully I see you out at some events in the coming months/years!

Wagon Guy drives a Boostang > PyramidHat 03/27/2020 at 03:34

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I’ve absolutely done it.

As mentioned by others, all wear items are subject to faster wear, and it will bring out the shortfalls in your current setup. Fully up to date maintenance is required, and better than stock parts on brakes, tires, and fluids is necessary. I’ve seen guys boil old brake fluid, spring oil leaks, and shred tires.

Check out Hagerty.com for track day insurance, since 99% of street insurance policies won’t cover anything on track.

Arrivederci > PyramidHat 03/27/2020 at 08:34

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I’ll echo everyone else’s advice here, but add one thing to make sure you keep in consideration: since you have a convertible, some HPDEs are a little funny about allowing them on track without a proper rollbar (not the rollhoops Z3s, Miata’s, etc come with).

Before you prep or pay, just make sure they’ll let you run.

dumpsterfire! > PyramidHat 03/27/2020 at 09:30

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all good advice listed previously. HPDE day might be a slightly better first choice.

Stef Schrader > SmugAardvark 03/27/2020 at 11:20

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I started off tracking my street car, which was originally my only car. Haha. I still beat on it from time to time, but I also work from home and, well...worst-case scenario, I do have the 944 Lemons car street-registered now.

SmugAardvark, themanwithsauce and WRXforScience already came in with the good advice. A Z3 should be a riot. As you get faster or if the pedal goes squisssshhhh after your first attempt, you’ll probably want to invest in some DOT 4 fluid and brake pads with a more aggressive compound. For now, make sure all of your fluids are fresh and topped off, your brake pads and rotors look meaty and your tires have ample life left in them. It’s a good time to sneak a brake bleed in, too. Some organizations (I think NASA and PCA do it here) have a pre-track day check list, or even make you get the car inspected beforehand. Maybe Google that kind of list, just in case?

I say do it, and enjoy it!