First track day! Advice?
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Make sure you park your car in an McLaren approved spot so you don't get stranded again. If you have a bit of track experience then everything else is the same. Have you tech inspected your car? Do you have an up to date helmet? What color group are you running with?
1. Start with a full tank of gas, or at least more than you think you need. On the way to the track, my car gets 25 mpg. On the track, i get 3.1. So half a tank just doesn't cut it.
2. Don't even think of leaving it in the auto mode
3. Track mode handling is very safe- the terminal understeer is mild, and easy to deal with
4. Practice left foot braking. It will take a while to figure out braking points due to absence of pedal "feel", and excellent stopping power.
5. Here i will seek input. I did not find that the car responds to simultaneous throttle and brake, so it is one or the other. (at Autobahn, there is one painfully slow right/left sequence. The left is second gear, and it leads onto a long straight, so I tried to keep some throttle on at the end of braking, and it seemed to confuse the computer. All insight welcome)
6. Be prepared for a very nice power burst in the upper rev ranges, accompanied by a beautiful engine sound
7. Have fun!
2. Don't even think of leaving it in the auto mode
3. Track mode handling is very safe- the terminal understeer is mild, and easy to deal with
4. Practice left foot braking. It will take a while to figure out braking points due to absence of pedal "feel", and excellent stopping power.
5. Here i will seek input. I did not find that the car responds to simultaneous throttle and brake, so it is one or the other. (at Autobahn, there is one painfully slow right/left sequence. The left is second gear, and it leads onto a long straight, so I tried to keep some throttle on at the end of braking, and it seemed to confuse the computer. All insight welcome)
6. Be prepared for a very nice power burst in the upper rev ranges, accompanied by a beautiful engine sound
7. Have fun!
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107 Posts
Tires to 23 psi (f) and 25 psi (r) cold (actually cold, before driving) will give you a good hot psi. If you start with 29(f)/32(r), you will quickly reach ~36(f)/~39(r), which will destroy you tires and provide no grip. If already warm, just take about 6psi out of the front tires and 7psi out of the rear tires. Watch temps as you do your first laps.
Put the tire temps or pressures in the left screen while on the track (disengage home screen timeout so it stays there). You'll have water and oil temp on the right. Glance down at both of these periodically looking for yellow or red. Do a cool off lap if any of these get too high (yellow or red).
If it is a nice cool day, you'll have no trouble with water/oil temps. If over 100 degrees F / 38 degrees C, you'll have to watch these temps closer.
The car can brake fast enough at the end of a straight to rip my face off. You'll have to push yourself to get some of the turns near the limits of the car. Put power in track mode and handling in sport mode for a few laps until you feel confident, then go track/track.
Good luck! Have a great time.
Put the tire temps or pressures in the left screen while on the track (disengage home screen timeout so it stays there). You'll have water and oil temp on the right. Glance down at both of these periodically looking for yellow or red. Do a cool off lap if any of these get too high (yellow or red).
If it is a nice cool day, you'll have no trouble with water/oil temps. If over 100 degrees F / 38 degrees C, you'll have to watch these temps closer.
The car can brake fast enough at the end of a straight to rip my face off. You'll have to push yourself to get some of the turns near the limits of the car. Put power in track mode and handling in sport mode for a few laps until you feel confident, then go track/track.
Good luck! Have a great time.
Where you headed to jerome?
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http://youtu.be/rvxc3S1Agkk
https://www.facebook.com/NYSafetyTrack
http://nysafetytrack.com/
2.5 hour drive from nyc, if you want to come I can ask.
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1,194 Posts
Watch your tire pressures. IMHO - They are the biggest issue in the car. Drop them down but don't drop them too much. The factory tech. told me it you drop them too low then it sets of all kinds of error codes. Other than that - ENJOY!!!. I started with Sport suspension and Track transmission.
Also - be careful riding curbing etc. It will wear out the fender liner in the real wheel arches.
Also - be careful riding curbing etc. It will wear out the fender liner in the real wheel arches.
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156 Posts
My homescreen locked on the tire pressure! I had to take out about 5 PSI our of each. On the track the backs where nearing 40 and the fronts 35.
The car handled amazingly. I got the road car record for the track in a 1.35.7. Racing bike record is 1.31.5. There is still some room for improvement.
The biggest problem about the car were the tires. I'm running the P-Zeros. They just warm up to much and the car becomes slippery. With some toyo R888 or a semi-slick, the time would go down maybe 3 seconds.
The ceramic brakes by the way were superb. There is no fade at all. When the tires, where getting too hot, the tires would slide at braking.
Is anyone running non- OEM tires?
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156 Posts
Are you a member at Monitcello? Its a beautiful facility, I had the opportunity to track there.
Yea, I just joined up per 6th's and some others' recommendations. It's a great place, I really like it. Track has a ton of elevation changes too, which is great. I really like the people. Really good drivers (at least when I was there). Let me know if you ever want to head up.
And let us know how your track day went!
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560 Posts
im using Michelin pilot super sports and they are excellent! but I have steel brakes.
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