First Track Day

"uofime-2" (uofime-2)
08/08/2016 at 14:15 • Filed to: None

Did my first track day ever this past Sunday and it was a blast!

I had been wanting to run one for a really long time, realistically I’d been planning to do one since I got my new car a little over a year ago. A WRX may not seem like the most obvious choice for a track car but with only a couple additions it is more than capable of delivering an excellent day of fun.

From doing research on forums and talking with members of the local car club I was able to form a plan for what was needed to safely track my car. The biggest area that must be addressed is the brakes, specifically the pads. The stock pads are great on the street however they have very little ability to cope with high heat, so they quickly become about as useful as a lead balloon during track use. After more scouring forums I settled on some replacements, Freodo DS2500s, they were said to be a good compromise of wear, noise on the street, and ability to work well at high temperatures. Since I had moved to a higher temperature pad it made sense to replace the brake fluid to a higher performing one that could keep up with the pads. On the recommendation of a local speed shop I chose Motul RBF600 because once again it was a good balance of cost and performance.

With the help of some friends I was able to flush my stock fluid and swap my pads in a couple hours the week before my track day. The whole job is pretty straight forward, the most difficult part was that because the clutch master cylinder shares a reservoir with the brake master cylinder it was necessary to pull my intercooler and bleed my clutch slave as well.

The only other comceen I had was being able to monitor my coolant temperature ( going over 220f is generally considered dangerous for your headgaskets) unfortunately like most cars the stock gauge on the dash is essentially an idiot light that floats in the center for anything from 160-217+ so that is not good enough. I could have bought a gauge but because it’s a WRX and I wouldn’t mind being able to monitor some other engine health readings ( namely those related to knock) I finally caved and bought a Cobb Accessport. I really waited till the last minute to install that as I hemmed and halled about my warranty so that got installed at the very last minute while the first advanced group run was happening.

With all that done there was no real excuse left for not doing a track day. One of the local car shops was hosting an invitational track day. It was close to me at Autobahn county club, it was on their north course which is very beginner friendly because of few elevation changes and lost of run off areas. The event was also full of other Subarus to help me learn how to prep and drive my car and relatively inexpensive especially considering the amount of time it included.

(end of part one)

DISCUSSION (13)

BeaterGT > uofime-2
08/08/2016 at 14:30

Good on you for getting out there! I’m too afraid to take my daily even if it is a Turbaru

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > BeaterGT
08/08/2016 at 14:47

Same for me, I will autocross 1-2 times a month but since my car is my only car, I cant justify doing a track day. I just feel like I would much prefer a dedicated track car for the peace of mind.

uofime-2 > BeaterGT
08/08/2016 at 14:48

This is a bit of a spoiler for part two, but I can tell you with this tiny list of mods the car will happily take all the abuse you can give it!

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > uofime-2
08/08/2016 at 14:49

What sort of tires are you running? Once I get another daily, I would definitely like to put a roll bar on my Miata and track it quite frequently.

BeaterGT > uofime-2
08/08/2016 at 14:49

Perhaps! What year is your WRX? I just rolled over 100k with my LGT...still stock baby!

uofime-2 > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
08/08/2016 at 14:56

I am running the stock tires that came on this car, Dunlop sportmaxx rt.

A lot of Subaru people like to change them, but I have no idea why. They had plenty of predictable grip and wore very evenly and seem to have decent life with street use.

uofime-2 > BeaterGT
08/08/2016 at 14:57

Mine is a 2015, so I guess this doesn't apply perfectly for you

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > uofime-2
08/08/2016 at 15:14

Oh wow, even just quickly looking at tire rack reviews, people seem to get a lot of miles out of those. I guess people are just looking for more grip.

uofime-2 > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
08/08/2016 at 15:29

I’d love to get some z2 star specs but they’re pricy and short lived.

I can tell you not to get BFG sportcomp 2s, my friend had some and they scalloped pretty bad during this track day. He’s prolly in the hook for a new set and they had lots of wear left.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > uofime-2
08/08/2016 at 16:04

I had a set of those BFGs that I was using for autocross. My fenders promptly destroyed them though since I was rubbing too much with zero offset wheels. Glad to know they would have been non-trackworthy. I really like the slicks that I use for autocross but I feel like that would get REALLY expensive with track use. Plus I have heard that starting out with something treaded is a lot easier to learn on rather than just ending up eating a wall.

uofime-2 > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
08/08/2016 at 17:11

I would think that if you'd autoXd on slicks you'd have a decent handle on what to expect from them, but from my one experience driving a formula SAE car on slicks I know they are funky

WRXerFish - WRX-Wing pilot > uofime-2
08/08/2016 at 18:47

Not sure how they would be on the track but the Re-71s are great on the WRX in Autocross.

uofime-2 > WRXerFish - WRX-Wing pilot
08/08/2016 at 22:43

From my readings they’re super sticky but can be overheated with sustained lapping.

They also have a very limited number of heat cycles before getting hard.

A guy in my club has them on his STI and he's quite fast with them.