My track day experience

And a driving suit, carbon helmet, HANS, right side net, 355 challenge cage, fire bottle, delrin bushings, DOT-R tires, more wheels for those tires, brake ducts, trackside tools, cool suit, and...and....and.... Let me know when you are ready!

 

Nice lines Pete, real nice! Best to run off straight as you did when you were coming up too fast for the turn.

What a blast - thanks for sharing!

BTW: what RPM were you hitting? Hard to tell from the sound

 

I am so jealous, looked like an absolute blast.

There is a track within 50 miles of me but they only have open days once a month for the summer months and then you only get around 6 laps depending on how many cars show up. Plus they put up cones on the track to keep speeds down. I haven't done it yet but plan to this year.

 

Pete,

You know the shortcomings of your F355, as it exists now, for use on the track. That was a nice repair of the supports and it's good that you're thinking about Challenge modifications.

Your driving skill level necessitates better brakes and secure seating. And I'm sure you have some good ideas.

Nice lines you took all the way around and a good quick decision on running off.

Barry

 

As you get upwards of 400 laps on the car, you will learn that you don't need to brake as hard as you think early in your career, taking more speed into the corner and letting the natural slip angles on the tires continue the deceleration towards apex. Smooth onto the gas as apex nears will open up the trajectory down the next straight.

You will also learn how to reduce steering input by using throttle (sometime more and sometimes less.) Let off the gas in a smooth maner (rather than abruptly, and squeeze on the brake pedal no faster than the suspension compresses under braking leaads to shorter stops and more control during the whole manouver.

Both of these techniques will smooth out the car and allow you to drive it closer to the edge of traction. Tire temps will moderate, and a little diddling with tire pressures wil finish dialing in the car (a probe tipped pyrometer helps).

ETA: I ended up using Ferrodo DS2500 pads for both street and track. I get 5-8 track days on the pads and 30-odd track days on a set of rotors.

 

Nice vids ! Good driving too !

 

Well done Pete, looks like a great track

 

Pete looks like a blast, really looking forward to getting my car on a track one day. I've not really got an excuse - I've got 2 decent tracks just down the road (although one is Cadwell Park which is apparently not the easiest circuit in the world).

I've got a question for you. You seem pretty handy round the track but don't seem to have that much real life experience. I read a post by you the other day re iracing and signed up a couple of days ago, just for a bit of fun. My question is, useful or not prior to going on a track for the first time?

Clearly this isn't typical but I was reading about a guy over here in Europe who had only ever previously raced a sim. He was picked up by Nissan (it was through the Sony GT Academy) and in his first race was stood on the podium - this was driving a full GT car and 12 weeks after first stepping into a race car. It was also a 24 hour race so obviously included drivng at night. In his first season he put his car on pole at the Nurgergring (and came 3rd over all) won at Brands Hatch and was on the podium 4 times. He came second in the GT Championship because his car broke down in the final race. He's now in Formula 3 (1 year after getting into a real car) and came 11th in his first weekend in an open wheeler. He's set to be driving an LMP2 car at Le Mans this year.

Other 'gamers' have had this kind of success. Although they have no real life experience the guys picked up by Nissan in the GT Academy have just been banned from competing in the British GT Championship as, although they are basically 'recruited' based on their ability to drive a computer game, the organisers have said they are too 'talented' to be racing as amateurs. It's worth noting that the 'pro' drivers Nissan were using only had 2 years experience on a real track since driving a 'game' whereas the 'amateurs' they were fielding were only 12 weeks in the 'real world'.

So, long question, but worth giving it a go prior to going on a track? And if so is iRacing a good bet?

 

Thanks for that. As I say I've got zero track experience (indoor go kart once 15 years ago is about it but don't think that counts), and I've never been much of a gamer so a driving sim is a pretty new experience for me. Just had a quick bash and although they don't have my local tracks they do have Silverston (where our Ferrari Owners' Club have track days) as well as Brands Hatch and Oulton Part - I've downloaded these as I could go to them so may as well start there.

I've heard that the latest sims are quite realistic, and that iRacing is possibly the most realistic for a standard PC with regular Force Feedback wheel, which is why I thought I'd give it a rumble. Got to be honest, it feels a lot more like driving than I thought it would! I also pretty much suck so I guess it's spot on I've got no idea what sort of times I should be aiming for as a novice (in game and in reality!) but I've just had a bash in the Mazda MX5 (my sister used to have one, but just a standard road going one) on Brands Hatch - GP circuit and Summit Point Raceway. I'm a good 8 seconds off the 'world record' at Brands Hatch in that car, I have no clue how you can get the car through the corners that quick, but at Summit Point there's 2000 people slower than me so that's reasurring! Definitely need some work though

Anyway, thanks for your post previously about iRacing, as well as this one about the real thing.

 

glad you got the chance to get out and enjoy it!

sorry to hear about the mishaps.

have you experience he misfires before?

how much did the track day cost?

I use to race motorcycles but never tracked my car.

Amazing how tight track is and how much evaluation changes they have.

 

Misfires are either spark or fuel. They very from seat of the pants imperceptible to even my grandma knows something is not right. Based on your report I'm not convinced you have fixed it. I would research this issue more. An interesting anecdote is that there are many 355s of all years which needed valve guides cats etc. Despite low miles. Then there are still some 95s with original equipment needing nothing. While we know the valve guides are inferior for the application if the theory that proper combustion is a primary componant of early cars especially not needing all this attention then it sure sounds like curing your misfire for good is a worthy effort.

 

I have a 95 for 13 years and it is very easy to foul plugs. The 95's run really rich at idle. If you start your car for a few seconds and shut if off-- you'll foul plugs. My car is a really early car and someone in town had one 2 serial #'s from mine and was constantly fouling plugs because he would start it, back out of his garage and shut it off. I did it several times until I figured out what the problem was. I had my car dyno tuned and had a piggyback computer and the tuner took large amounts of fuel out at idle. Do you let your car run for awhile while it is cold or do you quickly shut it down?

 

Well...you detected it on two occasions in a year and a half...there are still nearly undetectable misfires which can cause damage. Proper diagnostic tools and thoughtful maintanance may make a longevity difference. For example, cleaning/balancing injectors is not part of a major service. The oldest car in the fleet is 18 y/o. There is a lot of potential fueling problems right there. If you take apart a 355 fuel injector harness you may be shocked at its quality construction. That also is not part of any major service.

 

Great videos, thanks for sharing. I was impressed with the lack of camera shake. What camera did you use? Does it have built-in image stabilization, was it mounted in a suspension holder, or was the track just that smooth? Now next time, if you got a camera with an external mic jack, and put the mic in the engine compartment...... hmmmm...