Anyone here track their C5?

Anyone here track their C5?

Author
Discussion

woof

8,456 posts

283 months

Monday 26th March 2007
quotequote all
there is a golden rule - that any racer will tell you - never track your own road car
however there are plenty that do

Totally cains most cars
Normally we could destroy a normal road car within 200 miles, whenever we did a track test with one

Brakes are first to go - clutch, gearbox, hubs
General rules
So never do more than 3 hot laps in a row - when you do a few cool down laps, make sure you keep moving around the track, don't touch the brakes, low revs etc

5 hard track miles = 500 normal road miles.






Edited by woof on Monday 26th March 22:23

Tekwiz

283 posts

241 months

Monday 26th March 2007
quotequote all
Agreed,

Track day if driven hard=
new brake pads,
possible discs,
full tank petrol,
adds couple thousand miles of wear to tyres and normally one side more than other,

Brakes will probally fade before they wear out so be carefull and give car time to cool down between hot laps.

But its smile all the way,

vetteheadracer

8,271 posts

259 months

Tuesday 27th March 2007
quotequote all
My modified one has done 20 minutes around Silverstone with no ill effects

Agree that brakes are the most important thing to look after on any car, for example I destroyed the brakes on my C4 the first time I took it around Castle Coombe, upgraded the brakes to Brembos and never had an issue with the brakes after that.

A decent set of tyres is also important and the correct tyre pressures are important too.

Never put your handbrake on after a track session for example!

I replaced the brakes and need a nw clutch not long after a session around Donnington in my Evo so it is not just 'vettes that need upgrades.

te51cle

2,342 posts

254 months

Wednesday 28th March 2007
quotequote all
I've done track days in my C5 at Snetterton, Brands Hatch, Donnington Park, Oulton Park, Bruntingthorpe and Goodwood, plus the TOTB 2 day at Elvington. I'm not particularly heavy on brakes so didn't have a problem even on the standard pads and discs. The only time I did have a problem was after the Elvington and Bruntingthorpe days which involved repeated heavy braking from speeds in excess of 150mph.

Allow a good half an hour after your last session for the brakes to cool before driving off. I only waited 15 minutes after Elvington, held the car on the footbrake at a junction half a mile outside the track and promptly warped the discs. I did another track day on the warped discs and managed to put a radial fracture in one ! I knew the brakes were tired at Bruntingthorpe and after 20 laps there managed to wear the rear pads down to less than 1mm. Ian Goss can vouch for the fact that I got full value out of that set of pads ! That session proved that EBC Green Stuff is not worth fitting to the Corvette, stick to Red Stuff which survives better.

Your topic gives me an excuse to post this link again

Soop Dogg

411 posts

241 months

Wednesday 4th April 2007
quotequote all
Try to go to 'open pitlane' trackdays if you can. That way you can take as many 'cool-down' laps as you want. I always try and to 2 or 3 cool-down laps where I consciously try not to touch the brakes at all. This is also a great learning excercise in cornering speed/gear selection/ideal line finding. I've heard some of the race schools make you do this as one of their standard excercises.

Plus it helps to get all the adrenaline out of your system because you have to be more relaxed to be as smooth as possible when not using the brakes.

woof

8,456 posts

283 months

Wednesday 4th April 2007
quotequote all

Despite me saying that you should never track your own car ...

Years ago, when Rockingham was first opened, i was due to race their on the first British GT weekend. We'd been testing at Donington, but on the way back found out there was a track day at Rockingham, so swung by.

The race car was at Donington still, so i figured I'd take out my old road going 930 turbo for a few sighting laps

Going around the banking at 120 was pretty cool - but also out on the track was the TVR speed 12 - I came in after he overtook me on the banking at 170mph - that was a bit scary !!