Track Days

[BZG Wagon]

1) How hard are they on your car?

2) Can you get track insurance from somewhere (I presume my regular policy won't cover it)?

And while we're on this subject; how strong would a manual ST215 Caldina GTT's be? Is it likely to withstand a few laps at high RPM with the turbo spinning flat out - or not worth the risk?

Should I do something like an oil change before & after.

[Barark]

Just change all your fluids and take it easy, its not a race. Your tyres and brakes take alot of punishment, so you might want to make sure your tyres are good and you have a good set of semi metalic brake pads all round.

I used a cheap set of tyres and went from near new to unwarentable, with chunking and melting in a day. However i now use Toyo Proxies T1R's and only use about 1mm in a day.

Brake pads can be gone in a whole day, but i tend to use 1/2 to 3/4 of a set. i dont used anything special, partmasters home brand semi-metalics ($112 for 4 pads)

As far as insurance goes, an AA membership will get your car home

[Leon]

1) as hard as you drive it

2) no

General: it's a lottery. You might have a car that could trundle around happily for ten years road use, and you might kill hell out of it by finding a weak point that you'd never have found in normal running.

If you can't afford to fix it, or walk away from wreckage, don't race it.

[touge_ae101]

if it is you're baby you probably won't get the most out of a trackday anyway as half the fun i find at the track is pushing the limits and finding what your car can actually do. as long as you have the concentration/skill to push it that far.

in saying that the track is a fairly safe place (well trackdays anyway) with no real competitive stuff and plenty of room for error if you end up a little sideways or understeering.

depends on how fragile your engine is. 4ages can withstand thrashings all their life so are great for trackdays.

[Barark]

make sure your 4age has enough oil (full on dipstick or slightly above full) and thrash it real good, get those cobwebbs out

[tsoob]

id recommend you change your brake fluid if you have no idea of the history of it.


There is no insurance at the racetrack

[Jdawg]

Check your drive belts too, pretty much everything that rotates will get stressed.

[metal_sean_head]

Oh just talking about this maked me wanna do a track day lol.

I hate being poor.

[Leon]

You're in Wellington, come out to a sealed Autocross in September

[metal_sean_head]

You're in Wellington, come out to a sealed Autocross in September

You make it sound so easy.
Im at uni, so my car in in dad's garage in foxton.
But with a bit of organisation i could sort it.

[B1NZ]

You're in Wellington, come out to a sealed Autocross in September

Yes $30 for a day of fun on tarmac, Where a standard corolla can be competitive and you wont get blitzed by supras all day long

[BZG Wagon]

I have a 3sgte, not a 4age.

My GTT gets treated very sedately when compared to my past few cars, but now I'm in a position where it's not the end of the world if something happened to it.

But... if I can't get track insurance it's not worth the risk.

Sounds like an expensive day - brakes $160, oil $40, filter $20 etc. on top of the actual cost. Maybe when I get a bigger garage I'll buy a sh*tter .

[Nuty|Mike]

when I get a bigger garage I'll buy a sh*tter .

Exactly why i got the ae82 .....love my wagon too much to accidentlly scrape an armco

[BZG Wagon]

You're in Wellington, come out to a sealed Autocross in September

Yes $30 for a day of fun on tarmac, Where a standard corolla can be competitive and you wont get blitzed by supras all day long

Use to organise gymkhana paddock races with under $500 bombs. Great fun, but don't know anyone with farm to tear up anymore .

A GTT would be an autocross nightmare. I struggle to do u-turns in anything narrower than 4 lanes.

[Boosted_162]

You're in Wellington, come out to a sealed Autocross in September

Yes $30 for a day of fun on tarmac, Where a standard corolla can be competitive and you wont get blitzed by supras all day long

Use to organise gymkhana paddock races with under $500 bombs. Great fun, but don't know anyone with farm to tear up anymore .

A GTT would be an autocross nightmare. I struggle to do u-turns in anything narrower than 4 lanes.

My old GT4 was the same on grass, had to take the turns super wide.

Super fun tho, even if i placed right at the bottom

[RomanV]

A GTT would be an autocross nightmare. I struggle to do u-turns in anything narrower than 4 lanes.

I'm going to take my Isuzu Bighorn to the salt lakes, I think it's the only place on earth where there's possibly enough space for a U turn.

[2jayzgte]

If your going to do a full blown track-day I would check brake pads brake fluids in fact go to a higher temp brake pad and higher temp fluids.Do all your engine oils and make sure your cooling system is working at peak effeciency.Tyres make sure they are in pretty good condition and keep an eye on tyre pressures throughout the day so if you do a run say and start at 28-30 psi with the point of getting them to work when under load at say 34 psi and they blow out to 40 plus psi normalise them back to that 32-34 psi area make sure you do that after evey run this will make a huge difference in how the car handles.

But outside of that have a great time and I'll pretty much guarantee you'll love it,good luck.

[pc]

If you can't afford to fix it, or walk away from wreckage, don't race it.

+1

Bad stuff can happen at any time on any track day, and there won't be any insurance to cover it.

But it's great fun, so if you can afford it, do it.

[Leon]

buy a cheap car that you don't mind killing

[rx7guy]

My mate just came to a track day in a bog standard 3sfe corona just with a brake fluid flush and had a mint day! But there is always a chance something can go wrong