Woohoo, just bought my helmet!
Discussion
If you are driving your car, change the brake fluid to Castrol response or similar, check your brake pads have plenty of wear left in them or better still repace them with a harder compound pad.
Don't worry about gloves for the minute. You may feel a hero wearing them but you will look a tit if you are wandering around the pits waiting for you brake fluid to stop boiling.
Steve R
Don't worry about gloves for the minute. You may feel a hero wearing them but you will look a tit if you are wandering around the pits waiting for you brake fluid to stop boiling.
Steve R
To be honest I would be surprised if a reasonably sporty Spec BMW was not up to novice track day standards (no offence intended).
Obviously check all fluid levels, tyre pressures etc before and during the day. I would also be wary of running around Donington with engine oil near the end of its useful life, just to be on the safe side.
With respect to upgrading the car before your first track day though, I'm not sure it is really worth it. There is only really one big stop around the national circuit coming into the chicane, so the brakes have a whole lap to cool down, with Redgate and the Old Hairpin being pretty quick corners, and Coppice being quick with an uphill braking zone.
GetCarter has (or at least had and I guess it is still there) a pretty good guide for precautionary checks which is an excellent starting point. Follow the link to his website from member profile.
Welcome to the dark side - enjoy
.
Rich
Edit -> Gloves also keep your fingers warm if driving sans top
.
>> Edited by daydreamer on Monday 11th April 12:51
Obviously check all fluid levels, tyre pressures etc before and during the day. I would also be wary of running around Donington with engine oil near the end of its useful life, just to be on the safe side.
With respect to upgrading the car before your first track day though, I'm not sure it is really worth it. There is only really one big stop around the national circuit coming into the chicane, so the brakes have a whole lap to cool down, with Redgate and the Old Hairpin being pretty quick corners, and Coppice being quick with an uphill braking zone.
GetCarter has (or at least had and I guess it is still there) a pretty good guide for precautionary checks which is an excellent starting point. Follow the link to his website from member profile.
Welcome to the dark side - enjoy
. Rich
Edit -> Gloves also keep your fingers warm if driving sans top
. >> Edited by daydreamer on Monday 11th April 12:51
brendonj said:
Iguana, do you increase or decrease your tyre pressure?
Typically tyre pressure needs to be reduced. This is because once the tyres get seriously hot the air in them expands - except it can't because the rubber is holding it back. This increases pressure in the tyre. If the pressure increases too far above optimum the tyre will distort (its overinflated) and will provide less grip.
To be honest - on your first track day - I'd be amazed if you got the tyres hot enough for this to be a problem.
brendonj said:
Steve Rance, boiling brake fluid, how do I know if that is happening?
The first indication is the brake pedal feels "spongy". The second indication is "brake fade" - you don't get the the braking you expect when you press the pedal. This, as you might expect, is bad - especially when tanking it towards the hairpin, desperate to slow down.
Key things to avoiding this are:
1) Get your brake fluid changed every two years - and use DOT5 standard fluid. Brake fluid is hygroscopic (sp?) - has an affinity for water. Water in the brake fluid lowers its boiling point. So change it regularly.
2) The most dangerous time for the brakes is standing still in the pits after a session. The discs will be red-hot. Do NOT sit with your foot on the brake - this will keep the pads in contact with the hot discs and transfer heat to the brake fluid. Similarly do not engage the handbrake. Put the car in gear and switch it off.
3) You want to *cool* the brakes BEFORE you get back to the pits. So for the whole of your last lap before going back in DO NOT USE THE BRAKES. Try to keep your speed up reasonably though - to get lots of cool air over the top of the discs.
I got some instruction in 3 from John Bussel. Not only do you drive round slower - you also turn in early and in stages using the steering to scrub off speed. Using this technique I can now usually go the whole way round a circuit avoiding touching the brakes...
Don said:
Similarly do not engage the handbrake. Put the car in gear and switch it off.
3) You want to *cool* the brakes BEFORE you get back to the pits. So for the whole of your last lap before going back in DO NOT USE THE BRAKES. Try to keep your speed up reasonably though - to get lots of cool air over the top of the discs.
Excellent advice as ever from Don, the above is gospel, I ALWAYS do a nice cool down lap at a reasonable speed but high gear & low revs, gives engine, gearbox, brakes etc etc a good few miles of high speed cooling air flowing over them. On proper track cars this is much less of an issue but on road cars use don track its essental.
Trouble with BMW brakes tho is they are $hite when you push hard on track, fine on road in 3 series but on track even M3s are renowned for having bugger all brakes left after 3 hard laps, so go easy on them.
brendonj said:
Iguana, do you increase or decrease your tyre pressure?
Take a tyre pressure guage with you, I dont know what works best on you car but often a good rough guide is many folks lower the hot pressures (measured at end of session) to be the same as the recomended cold pressures.
Don said:DOT 5 is Silicone based and is not
brendonj said:
Key things to avoiding this are:
1) Get your brake fluid changed every two years - and use DOT5 standard fluid. Brake fluid is hygroscopic (sp?) - has an affinity for water. Water in the brake fluid lowers its boiling point. So change it regularly.
hygroscopic - any water in the system just sits
at the lowest points.
AFAIK it can't simply be flushed out if you want to go back to a Glycol based fluid such as the confusingly named DOT 5.1. (which is hygroscopic).
brendonj said:Tyre pressures .... there seems SO much contradictory
Iguana, do you increase or decrease your tyre pressure?
Many thanks
advice about this.
Most (racers) I've spoken to say as a starting point, increase - But do NOT over-inflate.
The maximum pressure for each tyre is on the
sidewall and even increasing your normal cold
running pressure by say 10% and letting
it get to whatever it gets to on a track day, shouldn't get you into over-inflation and hence distortion territory.
The disadvantages of under-inflation to start with
is a risk of the sidewall rolling off the rim briefly under extreme cornering loads before the tyre is really hot.
Also the pressure affects the spring rate of the tyre,
the recommended pressures for the road would not give
a spring rate that might be optimum for the track.
That also depends on the nature of your sidewall.
Most novice drivers brake too early and too long. As a result they actually ask more of thier braking systems than an experienced or professional driver. Your brakes get hot, they don't get enough time in the lap to cool off and the fluid will boil. Don't think that because it's your first track day your brakes won't suffer. They will.
Steve R
Steve R
Gassing Station | Track Days | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff