I'm taking my 308 to a track day next month. She had a major service about a year ago, so theoretically all squared away... Any of you who track your 308 or similar car have any "must" modifications to suggest? I have heard horror stories about brake lines breaking in other marques, etc. Obviously, good rubber, seat belt and helmet.... I am talking about the car. thanks... by the way.... this is purely for fun, and I plan on doing it a couple of times a year. The car is primarily for pleasure, not racing.
Off the top of my head... proper brake fluid that can withstand higher temps and not boil and also install something to catch the anti-freeze as it probably WILL be spouting out the hose on the rear left of the car.
You can see FCA's tech inspection sheet at http://www.tradetutor.com/tgpr/tech.htm and it gives a good guideline of what should be checked out on a street car you're planning to take on the track. There's always more you can do, of course. The biggest thing would be make sure your brake pads are up to it (I use R4-S pads from www.porterfield-brakes.com and make sure you've got fresh, very high temp boiling point brake fluid to lessen the chance of "fade".
Mike Feel free to call me at home this weekend/stop round and we can look at it. Have you had LFSC/Continental/Autosprint look it over? Assuming the basics are in order (all is tight, wheel bearings are good, coolant not overfilled, tires good etc), I think your main focus ought to be brakes (choice of pads, fluid). The stock brakes can go away from you if you use them sub-optimally. Philip P.S., I am hoping to get my car back from Continental tomorrow
If you still have time, try to get SS brake lines installed at the same time you do you brake fluid swap. You won't regret it.
I did the the Lake Forest track event last year at blackhawk in Rockford. I did nothing special in prep. My 308 did fine all day without any problems with brakes, trany or temps. May have burned a little oil, but nothing bad. The important thing is after the track you need to have all fluids changed. Hope to see you at Gingerman.
a lot depends on what tires you use & how hard you plan on pushing the car. The rear stub axles on 308s have a tendancy to snap leaving you w a 3 wheeled Ferrari under high stress loads w new sticky tires. So I would highly suggest that if you want to keep tracking it & be safe that you upgrade the rear wheel stub axles. The originals have a design defect which causes them to snap under high G loads thats why you will need a redesigned pair with more radius at the T section Now depending on how crazy you want to go. A nice pair of kinesis wheels is about 40% lighter than stock, Slicks would be great, Brembo has a new front big brake upgrade, & how about an intercooled supercharger for 400+ hp? Have fun
two man bleed your brakes. change fluid if over 1 year old. best to have tires not too old. i.e. no 10 year old pirellis with only 5000mi on them. check to make sure cooling system is topped and bled. start at factory air pressure in tires. take everything out of your car you do not need like floor mats, cell phone charger cna cd's. take things you don't need out of front bonnet and rear bonnet like tool kits and spare tire make sure your cooling fans come on by letting your car idle and then checking that they come on when the car heats up. add 1 qt extra oil for better oiling on right hand sweeper turns change oil if it is old. I change to fresh oil of every track weekend. check your intake filter for cleanliness check your battery is mounted tightly
EXCELLENT suggestions!!! Also, if i may add, consider chaging stock brake pads for something more "dual purpose" like EBC Green Stuff Kevlar composite. And yes, SS brake lines never hurt either
Yes, the Porterfield R4-S are also carbon-kevlar. Low dust (or at least light colored) too. SS brake lines (probably Goodridge) do help to firm up the pedal.
Thanks all! Very helpful! Richard... I am taking her to Blackhawk on 5/17 with a Lotus club I belong to (Lotus Corps). Unfortunately, I work strange hours, and am working the weekend of Gingerman. I will be there next year without a doubt!
William, is the sub axle problem realted to torque and hard corners or would you see the defect causing problems in straight line applications with just a lot of torque to the wheels. What I really want to know is can I continue to drive my stock 78 GTS like a muscle car. Dumping the clutch at hi r's etc. I figured I would just bust a cv joint. Yes I am kinda hard on things but baby it in everyother way ( heated garage, very clean, and OEM. My opinion is you should drive em the way you like and deal with the fallout.
Damm, Ferraris dont like being used as drag racers, I'm surprised you havent destroyed the trans yet. I dont think the stub axle is stressed by acceleration if your 308 is stock bcus theres too much weight & not enuf hp to really stress the stub axle. Though the 308 needs more hp she handles well. I sued to scream mine around Lime Rock with sticky tires & hard corners this becomes a real problem
I'd like to comment on two of fatbillybob's suggestions: 1) There are two reasons to get all and I mean all of the loose stuff out of the interior and trunk. First you don't need the weight and secondly, you don"t need to have the jack (or anything else) crashing back and forth in the trunk or in the cabin. This can obviously beat things up, but more importantly, you don"t need one or two of the cans of bud you were going to drink after the event sliding around the cabin, possibly getting caught under the brake pedal, I mean, just imagine having your foot slip around on the can(s) of beel, blowing the turn and winding up out in the weeds; and if you are really cursed, the can(s) of beer could blow up in the cab - jeez, not a pretty picture. 2) I have spent about 20 years auto-xing and put a few miles on sears point and "usually", most guys find that the hard cornering warrants more tire pressure, especially with old style (205/70/14) tires. You might try keeping the f/r pressure differential the same but bumping the "high" tire up to the max rated on the sidewall. Come on in after a few laps to make sure that the tire is not laying over and running on the sidewall. This should be pretty obvious. I forgot, did someone mention carryng a fire extinguisher. I have been involved in a few car fires and if you catch it before it really gets going you can really really really save yourself a lot of grief. Part of the rationalle is that driving hard, you or someone else might crash, but a more likely fire source could be just getting things really hot and stressed - which track driving can do. On a lighter note: I once had a guy tell me that driving on the track was more fun than he had had with young girls, or with your cloths on or whatever. Be carefull, put the pedal down and have fun. Best chris
Before I got my 512TR I used to twirl my 308QV around Lime Rock like Fred & Ginger. It was awesome, I could balance that car on a knife edge through Big Bend get the rotation perfect & scream out of the corner. I OWNED Big Bend in my 308QV The 512TR is a beast in comparison. LOTS of HP but lots of weight, No dancing around the corner just go through & wait till you can let the 460hp out to play I can imagine a 308 with 460hp would be just outstanding & would probably mop the floor with a 512TR
Mike If I can find it I can let you have my "old" fire extinguisher mount and show you the kind of bottle I used. At a pinch you can use the bottle too (halon). I put a dump system in my car. Philip
Sebring last year the transmission EXPLODED on my 512TR & the oil then caught fire. Godd thing I had my extingusiher. Ive seen a few fires on tracks, Luckily Ive always had my extinguisher handy. Its like a radar detector, dont leave home without it. I have 1 in every car I own
There's a guy on ebay who's been making extinguisher brackets for Ferraris. He's putting together a bracket and 2.5 lb. halon extinguisher from Griot's setup for me that bolts to the seat rails for my 308. He's really attentive and great to work with. If you want to check these out, you can reach him at: ERIK SALTRONES [[email protected]]
William, outside the brakes, and weight, I thought the weak point in trying to track a Testarossa/TR was the transmission. Your experience seems to confirm this. Philip
Basically, the car can go from a $30-$90,000 prized auto with one or two thousand dollars of fire repair to a complete total in about 3 or 5 minutes - saw it happen. chris
Yes, thats why I built my 512TR race car, dropped the wieght doen to around 2800 # thats almost 1000# less than road car & added F50 brakes & almost 500 hp. She is scarey now The thing is SO Fast its violent LOL I come out bruised & trembling every time I drive it, sort of like Love LOL I will be rebuilding the trans to race spec with titanium parts & hewland gears & I'm trying to talk my mechanic into covering them all w teflon like the NASCAR guys do, Supposed to cut down on wear & tear & make it last longer
I do that to mine too. I can tell you that at 360 hp, 15k miles and probably 200-300 autocross/redlight starts it was fine, no broken anything....we'll see happens if the same is true at 600 hp....
The interior is Heavy, all that leather, sound deadening foam, glass, all gone. The windshield is now plexi, the doors alone were Very heavy, they are just shells now, very light. The front hood is CF, the stock front bumper was probably 50#, now its FGlass & the Kinesis wheels are also lighter than stock. Published weight for the 512TR varies from 3400 to 3800 # SO I was using 3800# as my guide