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Do you want to take your vehicle for a track day? There are many ways to get results and it shouldn’t break the bank, there are a wide range of price points your can enter at to fit any budget or price point in mind, and you might enjoy the process and get a deeper understanding of your vehicle.
In this blog we will review steps you can take to prepare your car for the best possible track day you can have.
Each step we will go from a basic overview of improvements, to modifications that don’t hold back and make no compromise.
Below is each step broken down from the most simple and cost efficient in an order we think should be followed.
You don’t have to spend a ridiculous amount of money on modifications to drive you car around a track, most cars people have that they consider racing have enough power and quality from manufacturer for a track day without any modification or hassle, but considerations do need to be made. The car will be exceeding its normal daily use, working the engine up to its maximum, a few checks will make sure that you go home with your car in one piece.
•Service & oil
The first task and piece of preparation work is a thorough service and check of your gearbox, brakes, differential and cooling systems, swapping your current road oils & fluids for tougher, hardier conditions.
Considering the individual car, it may be beneficial to only put a low amount of racing oil into the car for the event in case of oil spilling over into the inlet manifold at high revs, which given the conditions of a race is much more likely than everyday car use, so its best to air on the side of caution.
Check your oil levels after each run you make, racing conditions will use up the oil much faster than road conditions and use.
•Inspection
All important and critical parts should be inspected prior to racing, modern cars are still susceptible to bolts and clips loosening, older cars especially need checking because as they get older and are driven more in their life time they more likely some bolts and clips have shaken loose. Another check is the tightness of the brake caliper bolts, engine mounting points, gearbox mounting points, exhaust fitting, subframe, steering rack and suspension.
Even if the car is brand new or you have bought a car pre owned in pristine condition, you may find parts have been fixed incorrectly, bolts have been mis-thread and fixings broken. If you find such a botch job on your vehicle it is best to completely remove the “fix” and start a fresh.
•Tyres
Obviously checking the condition and wear of your tyres is a very important step, if your track day is a one off then it is possible that you can get away with a race or two, but it is still vital to have some tread at the end of the day.
Tyre pressure is vital to the handling of a car, fine tuning the pressure, adjustments can be make to compliment your racing form, changing the amount of under or oversteer by adjusting the relative traction between the back and front tyres.
Slight changes can completely change the cars on track performance, for £500-£1000 there is a huge range of tinkering that can be done to really improve your experience without emptying your wallet.
•New Tyres
The first and easiest change that can be made to improve track performance, swapping to a set of tyres suited for racing, but don’t use tyres older than 3 years old as rubber hardens with age you wont get the performance and might end up causing an accident in the event of a failure.
At this stage in the check and modification list there isn't much point tuning and upgrading the engine.
•Weight
Simplifying, removing unnecessary weight to you vehicle is a great next step, in one procedure you can improve performance, reduce the consumption of consumables and ease up the suspension.
Common things to remove are the back seats, spare wheels, carpets and sound deadening material.
•Reliability
there are a range of things that can be done to improve your vehicles reliability such as fan modification and cooling system adjustment s.it is possible for engine powered fans to become unreliable at high engine speeds, replacing it with an electric will increase the overall reliability.
Heat can build up in an engine bay causing problems if the heat cannot escape, creating a few extra vents in the bonnet will ensure that the heat has somewhere to escape.
•Brakes
Brakes are really tested in track conditions, and the heat they generate is their biggest problem, the easiest modification to increase performance is fitting race spec brake pads, and choosing the right brake fluid for you system.
Freeing airflow to the brake discs is also very helpful in preventing overheating, removing and stone guards and any other obstructions to direct air to the brakes, if overheating is of particular concern then venting some air directly from the front of the car via tubing is a great modification.
•Seating
Racing seats, and a good harness to hold you securely to the car is a very simple option to improve your racing and of course safety.
•Suspension
Lowering the car will effect the handling of you vehicle, finding a good ride height for your vehicle through finding specialist information online specific to your car, through other peoples experience and the knowledge they have gained experimenting with different ride heights and stiffness of the suspension.
•Suspension
the next stage for suspension is to accommodate more adjustments, wheel camber changes the way the tyre presses to the ground and when cornering. Pushing harder into corners requires stiffer, more rigid springs and dampers. More compliance out can be taken out by replacing the soft rubber bushes with metal or polyurethane joints, controlling the wheels more accurately, increasing the surface area of wheel in contact with the track.
•Tyres
Full race compound tyres have a great deal more grip than sports tyres for road use, although they wear much faster.
Slick tyres can also be considered, due to their incredible grip the rest of the vehicle has to be up to scratch and be able to handle the increased transfer of force from the suspension.
•Engine
Tuning or replacing you engine is a huge upgrade to make, transplanting a much larger engine in to your car will drastically increase performance but the rest of the car needs to be able to handle the increase in power, turbo engines can be easily remapped with little else required to increase performance.
Checking the engine performance before racing on a rolling road machine is critical to safeguard and optimise the new engines performance.
•Transmission
The faster your car accelerates the faster the speed of gear changes, a tougher and faster gearbox becomes required along with a more durable racing clutch.
With more power at your disposal and less weight from weight reduction tyre spinning may become a problem, but this can be fixed with a limited slip differential.
•Weight
The final stage of reducing weight is the most drastic, removing door innards, boot flooring, glass can be replaced by lightweight polycarbonate sheets, dashboards can be removed completely and replaced by simple race clocks and gauges.
Every thing can be considered for removal or reduction, cabling and wiring can be stripped and the bare essentials left to strip an extra few kilos.
Up to a third of the cars total weight could possibly be removed.
Roll cages & safety
although rare collisions can happen, and adding a roll cage to your car comes with its own considerations and dangers, banging your head on hard steel in the event of a crash will not be something you want to happen, making sure you are strapped in very securely to your harness will make sure this doesn’t happen.
Roll cages need to be of the highest quality, cheap cages fabricated from aluminium, in the even of a crash will bend and twist into sharp objects causing further possible harm, FIA steel roll cages are your best option.
Which ever modification you choose to make, the work and quality should be to the highest standard, when the drivers life is at stake in the event of an accident no amount of money or cost is worth serious harm or worse, make sure what you make you car into makes you happy, racing is all about fun.
