Service $ After Tracking CS

thats because dealers are high

 

yes I do; depends on what you mean by service. all fluids? engine oil only? bleeding the brakes? I don't know what you mean by service. after a track event only thing you *may* need to do is brake fluids, depending on how much you push the car. parade lap -- no. qualifying -- yes.

 

I think someone is feeding you some misinformation. I've run plenty of FCA events and nobody has ever checked that I have new air filters or fresh transmission fluid. 30 or even 50 laps on the track is not running the car 'hard' unless its overheating or something is wrong with it. I'd stick with the regular maintenance schedule that comes with your car. you may need tires or brakes but you know that. aside from brake fluids nothing else is necessary. a tech safety inspection is all that is required. If your ferrari dealer is insisting you must have a full service after every track day then i would go somewhere else

 

John, I know that the Tech Inspection requirements for the Annual Meets in all the Regions I've ever seen (last one in Florida that I went to was 1993 at PB, but been to many since) do NOT require a "complete service." They DO require a "complete inspection," with the most common areas of attention being a brake fluid flush, careful inspection and replacement (if required) of the brake friction material and rotors, as well as a decent "nut and bolt" regimen that allows a double check of all fastener tightness.

When I started taking care of several dozen F-cars doing regular track events in the Southeast in the Eighties, perhaps I went overboard in recommending my customers change engine and transaxle oil between track events in addition to brake fluid, but it helped me keep an eye on what was going on inside these cars.

Honestly, other than elevated oil temps and some brake pad/rotor wear (and hopefully some tire tread loss <grin>), track events are not and should not be terribly detrimental to the operating status of items regularly attended to on the "big" (major, including valve adjustment, cam seals and belt replacement) services done by most owners at intervals that average between three and five years.

Perhaps a call to Tim Stanford is in order. I always recommend his professional advice to Floridian F-car owners. He'll steer you right!

 

I have co chaired the tech portion of many FCA track events including National Meets. We have never required full services. The National rules require fire extinguishers and we require fresh brake fluid, good brakes and tires. At the 04 National we also required no antifreeze but that was to eliminate long down times for clean up if a car blew its cookies but that is as invasive as we get. Somebody is yanking on one of your body parts.

It isn't a bad idea to get a fluid change when it is all over because some of it gets awfully hot.

Sounds to me like your dealer needs another income stream in the lean times many are experiencing right now.

 

Brian, I've heard its possible to actually 'over-service' your car. Not sure what that means actually, do you have any idea? Lets say a full fluids change every 1k miles/year. Or does it just waste money.

 

There is no such thing!!!

Just make sure you do it here.



Actually I really believe in changing fluids every year and for that I think you can go quite a few miles.
It is a good idea to change after track use if you got the oil or brake fluid really hot and by that I mean oil over 300-320 and if you ever started losing brakes.

I don't think it benefits the car to do it more than that but we are talking about pretty modern cars. Vintage cars can be another deal.

 

Brian

Have you any experience with Zero PSI Evans Cooling Fluid? We've been using it in P 4/5 and the car runs much cooler on the track.

Cheers!

 

Yes. It must also be "securely mounted within easy reach of the driver". [No velcro mounts! ] In fact, I believe the mounting bracket must be metal, not plastic, but could be wrong on that detail.

and, $250 for a tech inspection! WTF! They must have seen you coming!

Cheers,
Ian

 

Are they not requiring you to have a fire extinguisher in FCA events? If that is the case let me know and let me know which region.

 

No experience but I have heard of it. Does P4/5 get hot on the track with water?

 

We've only run it with the factory coolant and Evans. It seems to run about 10 degrees cooler with Evans both on the track and on the street. In Bahrain it was very hot 105F+ and after many laps on the F1 Track the temp. crept up. We cooled her down and she never entered red zone. When we got home we cleaned a lot of sand out of her intakes and filters and she ran cool again. At some point we're going to redo her front chassis sub frame in carbon fiber and redo her oil and water radiators mostly to take weight out and add a bit more oil cooling.

Best

 

I'll attempt a more helpful reply

IMO to run a CS on track, you simply need a tech inspection. My local dealer typically does these in <1hr, fluid top up, tire check etc.

I personally would change oil and brake fluid after a track "weekend" or 2 or 3 days - that should be somewhere in the 500USD region.

Then its just a question of how "hard" you run. Pads are 2K all round. I managed 20K miles and 15+ track days on my car before I had to change them, but I know others that had 4 sets in a similar time period because they spend proportionally more time on track. I go through pads on my challenge car in about 2 days on track (although the pads are a little cheaper).

I never had to change rotors on my CS, but in a season of Challenge racing was on my 3rd set of front rotors and 2nd set of rear rotors. Rotors on a challenge car are 8K for the 2 front and 6K for the rear. The CS is more like 20-25K unless you can shop around for the rotors.

Tires if you track for say 5-8 days a year, you'll do well to get more than a few K for a set of tires. I did 5 sets of tires in 20K miles.

 

As a data point I would be interested to see it run just H2o and WaterWetter. My money says it would get close to the Evans numbers.

 

Interesting question. Would the non boiling zero PSI fluid pump around better? Less cavitation of the water pump? You do have to watch the gauges as Evans doesn't boil until 400F.

 

I think only the viscosity and possibly weight really matters there. I do not think pressure enters into the equation.