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Any Track Rats Still Active?

SteveInLA

Ready to race!
I did my first track event last December. It was Buttonwillow Raceway's Performance Driving Clinic. I had my a$$ handed to me by several Porsches and came away feeling like I had no idea what to do on a track. Instead of giving up, I did the clinic again yesterday and had a very different experience. No change to the car other than replacing the valet setting with one for 100 octane on the APR tune and using 101 octane gas. The class was smaller and the course was CCW instead of CW. I had a blast! I don't know that I have the stones to do a competitive event, but I definitely want more. Buttonwillow is a great track too.
 

madbikes

Ready to race!
Being on a hiatus from reaching the limit on stock brakes a few years ago, I saved up for some mods that will do the job. Out of Thunderhill, Laguna Seca and Sonoma, I enjoy Laguna Seca the most so far. Sonoma is interesting but too crowded for the group I went with. At least I had an awesome instructor that day and try out the big brake kit for the first time. Laguna Seca is the most fun because of its interesting blend of turns, but more importantly I found out the difference between stock and some bolt on suspension mods with different tires is more significant than initially expected. Haven't went back to Thunderhill yet, but I feel like I need more power to make it a more fun drive as it has lots of straights. Probably won't head home with a soft pedal if I do go there again.
 

who128

Ready to race!
Being on a hiatus from reaching the limit on stock brakes a few years ago, I saved up for some mods that will do the job. Out of Thunderhill, Laguna Seca and Sonoma, I enjoy Laguna Seca the most so far. Sonoma is interesting but too crowded for the group I went with. At least I had an awesome instructor that day and try out the big brake kit for the first time. Laguna Seca is the most fun because of its interesting blend of turns, but more importantly I found out the difference between stock and some bolt on suspension mods with different tires is more significant than initially expected. Haven't went back to Thunderhill yet, but I feel like I need more power to make it a more fun drive as it has lots of straights. Probably won't head home with a soft pedal if I do go there again.


You don't need power to be fast. All you need is drivers mod and good handling parts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK04i605t1A
 

GreyGti1990

Ready to race!
I'm just starting to get involved in the autox/track day scene.

Really loving autox right now. My local club does 3-4 track days a season but I don't think i'll run my car on the track this season. I feel like I should do a full season of autox first. I am going to try to volunteer as race control for some of the track days this season though. Hopefully get a ride along with someone and just learn all about the track.

Think next year I'll look to get my car on the track. Hoping to be K04 by then too.

Think the tracks they are looking to do are Thompson Speedway, Poncono Raceway, and Palmer Motorsport Park this year.
 

jay745

What Would Glenn Danzig Do
I'm just starting to get involved in the autox/track day scene.

Really loving autox right now. My local club does 3-4 track days a season but I don't think i'll run my car on the track this season. I feel like I should do a full season of autox first. I am going to try to volunteer as race control for some of the track days this season though. Hopefully get a ride along with someone and just learn all about the track.

Think next year I'll look to get my car on the track. Hoping to be K04 by then too.

Think the tracks they are looking to do are Thompson Speedway, Poncono Raceway, and Palmer Motorsport Park this year.


Awesome! Autox is a great way to get started. You can really learn how the car handles and push it to the limits on autox whereas on a track you want to dial it back if youre new. I did two seasons of autox before starting to track and think that's a great path.

Being at the track and talking to corner workers is also a great way to get a leg up advantage being new. Learn subtle tips from them. I was fortunate enough to have a driving instructor the first few times I went on the track. Learning things right away that a rookie might overlook such as "Look at the tire marks on the track, if the tire marks are going into a wall you might want to give that corner a bit more respect than others" There's so much to take in it's very easy to overlook stuff like that until someone points it out to you.
 

GreyGti1990

Ready to race!
Lol good point with the tire marks.... definitely don't follow them if its leading to a wall. But you have to react so fast at a track that can be overlooked.

But yeah, this is my daily driver so thats exactly what I'm afraid of. I don't want to wreck it. I want to get involved with autox and track days with my daily because I want this experience. I want to race. And I plan to get a track car in the future (something rear wheel drive and probably v8) but I want to gain this experience now so I am ready.
 

Injen1us

Drag Race Newbie
I'm just starting to get involved in the autox/track day scene.

Really loving autox right now. My local club does 3-4 track days a season but I don't think i'll run my car on the track this season. I feel like I should do a full season of autox first. I am going to try to volunteer as race control for some of the track days this season though. Hopefully get a ride along with someone and just learn all about the track.

Think next year I'll look to get my car on the track. Hoping to be K04 by then too.

Think the tracks they are looking to do are Thompson Speedway, Poncono Raceway, and Palmer Motorsport Park this year.

As a big fan of K04 and track days i would be remiss if i did not mention that the K04 is not the best use of 2500 bucks if building a track application.

Ive been absolutely skull drug at buttonwillow raceway by a forum member here who has one hell of a drivers mod and better brakes and tires than i was running at the time.

Once you gain the extra power of the k04 youre going to need even MOAR tire and MOAR brakes to make it useful. This is still a problem i have now running 595RSRR tires and stoptech st-41s. Though admittedly at this point the bigger issue is lateral G's creating oil starvation.


Awesome! Autox is a great way to get started. You can really learn how the car handles and push it to the limits on autox whereas on a track you want to dial it back if youre new. I did two seasons of autox before starting to track and think that's a great path.

Being at the track and talking to corner workers is also a great way to get a leg up advantage being new. Learn subtle tips from them. I was fortunate enough to have a driving instructor the first few times I went on the track. Learning things right away that a rookie might overlook such as "Look at the tire marks on the track, if the tire marks are going into a wall you might want to give that corner a bit more respect than others" There's so much to take in it's very easy to overlook stuff like that until someone points it out to you.

Track days are loads of fun and super humbling when youre a rookie like most of us. There will be guys out there slugging a big saloons around corners faster than you thought they could go... and little 1.8 NA motors running circles around you. Youll never see a better example of what a "drivers mod" can do until you go to a track day.

But when all else fails:

im-just-gonna-send-it.jpg
 

Roadrunner_GTI

Drag Racing Champion
I'm just starting to get involved in the autox/track day scene.

Really loving autox right now. My local club does 3-4 track days a season but I don't think i'll run my car on the track this season. I feel like I should do a full season of autox first. I am going to try to volunteer as race control for some of the track days this season though. Hopefully get a ride along with someone and just learn all about the track.

Think next year I'll look to get my car on the track. Hoping to be K04 by then too.

Think the tracks they are looking to do are Thompson Speedway, Poncono Raceway, and Palmer Motorsport Park this year.

I definitely would hold off on the k04 until you at least try out a few hpde track days. There's a misconception you need more power to get on track, and I'd argue that power is the last thing a novice track enthusiast needs. Invest the money in seat time, an LSD, and some sticky tires instead, because power without traction coming out of a turn is so frustrating. :laugh:
 

Injen1us

Drag Race Newbie
I definitely would hold off on the k04 until you at least try out a few hpde track days. There's a misconception you need more power to get on track, and I'd argue that power is the last thing a novice track enthusiast needs. Invest the money in seat time, an LSD, and some sticky tires instead, because power without traction coming out of a turn is so frustrating. :laugh:

agree
 

GreyGti1990

Ready to race!
The goal of this car isn’t to be a track monster or to be the fastest out there for autox. It’s simply just to have some fun in and tide me over until I can get another car that I will turn into a track car.

Definitely some food for thought here though. LSD, big brake kit, baffled deeper oil pan are all solid takeaways. I’ll have to really think things over when it comes time. I won’t be doing any of these big mods this season but next season is when I’ll have to make that decision. To go k04 or to go big brake kit + lsd.

Going k04 has always been a long term goal for me and I really want to get that done before moving on to my track car.

I want to also visit the good ol drag strip and break into the 12’s, that’s a personal goal of mine.

Maybe priorities will change as I get more seat time. I’m not sure if I see myself doing k04 and lsd and big brakes with this car. Already got a lot into it and almost at 100k miles. I should get a carbon cleaning done and in the next year or so get the timing chain done so that’s a lot of cash right there lol.

I don’t see myself selling this car and will eventually retire it from daily driving duty and then turn it into a full fledged track car. I may just have 2 track cars... fwd and rwd lol but now we are talking like 5 years down the line, I digress...
 

DASVDUB

Drag Racing Champion
The goal of this car isn’t to be a track monster or to be the fastest out there for autox. It’s simply just to have some fun in and tide me over until I can get another car that I will turn into a track car.

Definitely some food for thought here though. LSD, big brake kit, baffled deeper oil pan are all solid takeaways. I’ll have to really think things over when it comes time. I won’t be doing any of these big mods this season but next season is when I’ll have to make that decision. To go k04 or to go big brake kit + lsd.

Going k04 has always been a long term goal for me and I really want to get that done before moving on to my track car.

I want to also visit the good ol drag strip and break into the 12’s, that’s a personal goal of mine.

Maybe priorities will change as I get more seat time. I’m not sure if I see myself doing k04 and lsd and big brakes with this car. Already got a lot into it and almost at 100k miles. I should get a carbon cleaning done and in the next year or so get the timing chain done so that’s a lot of cash right there lol.

I don’t see myself selling this car and will eventually retire it from daily driving duty and then turn it into a full fledged track car. I may just have 2 track cars... fwd and rwd lol but now we are talking like 5 years down the line, I digress...

BBK and LSD is my vote. You can do plenty of damage with the stock turbo. Seat time, seat time, and seat time is your best and will always be the best mod you can do. Half the people you pass on the track are the people who bought expensive cars and don't know what the fuck they're doing. IMO drag strip is pointless in FWD hatch, but that's just me.
 

GreyGti1990

Ready to race!
Blah, there's too much useful knowledge going around in this thread. Why can't you guys just tell me to go K04???

Joking.... Maybe i'll look to do LSD next instead... then a BBK... then K04
 
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