Contemporary track prep for a Daytona?

Give Mike Sheehan a call, ask him if he has 10 minutes.

 

I think it depends on how good a driver you are. You need to be good enough to not do stupid things and ask the car to do things it can't do. You need to be good enough to work the brakes and heat up the engine and drive train for that matter. In general modern pads are amazing relative to what we had in the 70's and cooling brakes helps an undergunned brake do its job. Then again what are you willing to modify to get a good sized duct of cool air to the brakes? Also, picking the ambient temp you track at means alot too. Running Oct-Mar. makes a huge difference vs. May-sept.. You could use some tempilaq from pagasus autoracing supply.com and find out the hot temps you run the brakes at the track and that will tell you scientifically if ducting cool air will help you or if it is a waste of time for the conditions at hand.

http://www.pegasusautoracing.com/productselection.asp?Product=3161

 

Also depends a lot on what tires you are using. More modern tires have faster cornering speeds and but more load on the brakes. Probably also need to lose the wire wheels (if so equipped) and this is particularly true if you are using modern (ie sticky) tires.

 

+1 on the wire wheels. Also watch out for oversteer; Daytonas turn in with a light to moderate push and go to loose real fast.

Also lightly apply the brakes on the straight after a few laps to make sure they are still working.

The main problem with the brakes is fluid boiling, so the Ducting advice above is good

 

i have one current customer who runs his Daytona regularly on track. He brought the car 1 year old and has had it since, he is getting up in age but drives it relatively hard.

Other than the usual 'fluids and safety' twice a year, I rebuilt the shocks all around. The wheels are wires, fitted with a later Dunlop street tire. The brakes run a slight upgrade on the pads with a higher temp fluid.

If it were to get more /harder useage, I would increase the ducting as well as a different pad material. This car runs a racing 20W50 oil in the engine, water wetter additive and Royal Purple gearlube with good temps when run in FL.

HTH, Brian

 

For upgradded brake pads i would take a look at Carbotech performance brakes. They do alot of vintage race cars. http://www.ctbrakes.com/

 

What shocks does he run on his Daytona Brian?

 

Nick, car is all stock, the Koni shocks were rebuilt in CA by ProShocks I seem to remember. I also replaced all the bushings and spring rubbers, then a good alignment.

 

Brian:

For alignment, did you go with the stock settings F&R?

 

Tspringer had a nicely set up Daytona, he took me for a Track ride in it.....

 

I took my Daytona to five track events. Bob Grossman and Harley Cluxton drove their Daytona to 12th overall at Sebring with the windows up the A/C on and the tape deck playing Beethoven.
All of the advice above is good, just don't overdrive your brakes. Get used to modern cars wanting to get by. Breaking the transaxle was always my biggest fear. Honestly, all I ever did was check the fluids and fill it up with gas.

 

I had my daytona on the full F1 track at Shanghai. I have AP Racing front calipers - aside from that stock. I have my positraction shims set relatively tight - car grinds around slow speed corners but comes onto its' own on high speed sweepers. I had no issues. Brakes were fine for 20 minute session.