First track day: Mk4 Jetta 1.8T

"yitznewton" (yitznewton) 08/31/2015 at 18:05 • Filed to: track day, volkswagen

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I’ve been a low-grade driving enthusiast basically my whole life. I can trace it back to my grandmother bringing me back the state driving handbook from the DMV when I was 6, and avidly devouring it time after time. Pretty sure I could have passed the written test before I knew long division. I’ve been doing spirited driving on backroads and improving my skills through practice and reading, but only this week did I finally make it out to the track.

It was something of a fluke, really. I had written off HPDEs for the time being because of the expense, and because the closest track is an hour away, too far for my family to come spectate. When you have kids and your spouse gets stuck with them while you blaze away on track, this becomes an issue. I had signed up for autocross instead, but my local group uses a football stadium’s parking lot, and twice they forced a postponement for a practice. Rather than risk the whole summer going by with no driving events, I decided to take the plunge and register for the novice school at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

About !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . VWs are a family affair for me; the family car when I was born was a 1980 Rabbit. We got a Mk2 Jetta which was totaled after a few years, and moved on to other makes. When I was in college, I wanted to get back into it, and spent way too much money for a Mk1 GLI. Right now I’m in a bone-stock Mk4 Jetta 1.8T with Yokohama Advan Sport all-season tires.

The days approaching the event were the most fraught for me. The track requires you to get your own tech inspection done beforehand, so I brought it to my mechanic, resulting in a new accessory belt. I got a flat the week before the event due to road debris, the fourth puncture this year, so I was really nervous about mishaps as the weekend approached. Everything turned out fine.

With a full tank of 93, I made the pilgrimage down the Garden State Parkway. Traffic was light, which was especially good because some nut stopped in the right lane in a blind rise on the parkway, causing the rest of us to swerve around. It probably would have become a nasty pileup in traffic. The air was beautiful, with a touch of humidity as the temperature made its way to a high in the low 90s. There was a big Harley event as well as some motocross at the same facility, so there was quite a diverse influx.

I arrived at 8:30, the beginning of registration, so I had some time to look around and admire the cars that were showing up. Between the morning school and the later open track groups, I saw a bunch of NA Miatas, one NB, several S2000s, a Boxster, many Caymans and 911s, One four-eyed Fox body, some late-model Camaros and Challengers, a Mk7 GTI or two, one flawless NSX, an E36 M3, Z4, and a couple other BMWs, some Audis, a herd of Subarus, a Lancer, a 240SX, an Integra, and a posse of beehivey Civics that came in from PA as a group. I’m sure I’m missing some, but you get the idea - standard track-day fare. Oh, there was one Mercedes R-Class (yep), specially modified for its partially-disabled driver.

I must say the Lancer and 240SX were obvious track cars; they were beat to hell but they were killing it when it came to rotation in the corners. The 240SX did actually need to get towed off at one point, but returned later in the day. I adore the aesthetic of the S2000, visual and auditory; the scream as they come down the short straightaway by the bleachers is intoxicating.

Anyway. To begin the instruction, there was a short (half hour?) lecture on basic cornering and track etiquette, after which the group of 22 students split in half to start doing laps. Each of us had one of our laps with a rotating instructor. The feedback I got from mine was on point and helpful; it was a weird tradeoff because trying to listen and drive at the same time was a compromise of concentration. I got a lot out of going back with video and listening to his feedback again.

In terms of prior experience, I try to get out once a week for an hour or so in the North Jersey backroads. I’ve made a whole sub-sport of seeking out and tweaking those routes. I also have a nearby highway cloverleaf which I refer to as “The Track” because it’s great for practicing: on off-traffic hours, you can do lap after lap safely at speed, including a decreasing-radius turn as well as an off-camber corner. I also got my hands on some YouTube videos of the track at Raceway Park, and started studying. I was able to get a very good picture of the track in every sense except elevation changes. For the first few laps, I felt like it was a very faithful extension of what I’d been doing in my street practice.

As I started to get better over the course of the day, and especially with instructor input, the game started to change a bit. I felt very comfortable with the high-speed corners, but every time I hit one of the slow turns after a major braking zone, it felt different from the time before. I suspect it was a combination of my speed increasing due to familiarity and skill, and the brakes fading. Each lap felt like it was on a different track. I lacked confidence and the experience of repeated practice to get much better, which was exacerbated by some seemingly impatient company on my tail. Going back afterwards with video, I realized the extent that fatigue combined with higher speeds were interfering with my driving later in the day; I was simply overdriving the tires and chassis a lot of the time.

The Jetta’s stock suspension and open-diff front-wheel drive meant that the inside wheel was skipping around a lot in fast turns as the body roll maxed out, which was both distracting and limiting. The whole time, I felt a twinge of nerves about beating on the tires. I originally intended to go easy on them, but once I started doing more laps, I decided I may as well bang on them hard, since I probably wouldn’t get the chance again any time soon.

After lunch, we learned passing etiquette, and started passing. On paper I’m pretty sure my Jetta was the slowest car there power-to-weight, although a guy in a V6 Camaro said I was giving him a run for his money, and a Civic Si pointed me by at one point. I think I would feel a little awkward coming to the full-open sessions, where most of the cars are far faster than mine, to say nothing of driver experience. To console me is one dude in the open sessions running a CR-Z, which is actually less powerful by the numbers than my Mk4, if I’m not mistaken.

I did a couple more sessions, then called it quits around 3:30. I could feel fatigue setting in, and it would have been diminishing returns as to how much fun I would have vs. risk of error or frustration. I was really pleased how the day turned out. I’ve been able to feel throttle steering in limited doses on the street, but I really put it to full use today. The stock Mk4 chassis is not good at rotating, but I’ve been learning to make the most of what it can do. (Incidentally, I find it much more satisfying to drive in the wet, because the limits are clearer and grip decreases in a more fun, but still controlled, way.)

A note about transmissions. I’m a die-hard manual fan; I wouldn’t have it any other way on the street. On track, however, I would totally prefer to have a DCT, at least as a novice. On the street, the demands of shifting and operating the clutch are a satisfying increase in driver engagement, but during the track event, I didn’t need any more engagement. All you want to have to worry about is braking and cornering; downshifting was a distraction coming at exactly the wrong time. It meant I could either focus on the shift and risk hitting the wall in the worst case, or ignore the shift and make up for it in the exit. Most of the time, I did the latter, although I did heel-toe a few times, which went surprisingly well.

Over the last several months, I’ve been obsessing about getting something with a chassis more conducive to spirited driving. I could upgrade the Jetta with a rear sway bar and possibly better suspension (and certainly tires), but I feel like my money and energy would be better spent in something more suited to this style of driving.

This track day was a success. I got to feel what it’s like to nail a double-apex and pick up distance on the car in front of me, and also what it’s like to blow a corner and have the effect cascade through the next several. You hear about it all the time, but it really clicks home once you experience it. I highly recommend a track session to any enthusiast at least once every couple of years, if you can manage the expense.

Instructor session

Final session

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > yitznewton 08/31/2015 at 18:36

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Track day is awesome. Beyond oval track and drags, there’s not much in my area at all. It kinda sucks.

yitznewton > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee 08/31/2015 at 18:45

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Yeah, it took me a while to even discover this place. Track isn’t in the greatest shape, but it’s close-ish and cheap-ish.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > yitznewton 08/31/2015 at 18:54

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Well it's just under 200 miles for me to the nearest city with a six-digit population... so... I don't think my chances are great. Hell, it's 60 miles to the nearest that breaks five digits...

wbizarre - OEM fetishist > yitznewton 08/31/2015 at 21:21

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That’s super great! I’ve been on the verge of doing the Englishtown school, but never made the commitment. Sounds like it was worth it!

valsidalv, reminding you that infiniti is an option > yitznewton 09/01/2015 at 02:37

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This looks pretty awesome. I need to find something like this in my area and commit to a day. How much did it cost? And what condition were your tires+brakes in at the end of the session?

yitznewton > valsidalv, reminding you that infiniti is an option 09/01/2015 at 06:34

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School was something like $225, open track for the future is $120 for the day, which is pretty low. My A/S tires got pretty chewed up in front; there was a guy with a big Lexus whose were bad. Not sure how much brake wear. They started to fade once I got into them harder as the day wore on, but I’m not sure how much was my changing perception with experience and fatigue.

yitznewton > valsidalv, reminding you that infiniti is an option 09/01/2015 at 07:40

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valsidalv, reminding you that infiniti is an option > yitznewton 09/01/2015 at 09:32

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Cool, thanks for the info.

BTW really nice write-up. A lot of people probably missed this... you should have more views and comments!