FBody's Weakpoints in RoadRacing
 

So my bud has a stockish 01 cobra and he takes it to a Texas World Speedway road racing event every year, It looks like alot of fun and I'm seriously considering doing my first event in june with him. My biggest concern is how my car will hold up, what kind of stresses I'll be applying to it, and where.

I believe the event will last upwards of 5hrs or so.

My mods are in my sig, I'll be ripping out the rear seats, spare, and jack as well. is there anything else I should do suspension/brake/maintenance wise to make sure nothing goes wrong? I'm a bit paranoid seeing as how these cars weren't built for this sort of thing.

Flush the Brake fluid and change over to Super Blue, get new pads (I run Hawk HP+) make sure your rotors are good, take spare ones if have them. Change the PS fluid over Red Line, and install a cooler if you don't have one. PS on these cars is usually the first thing to break when you start doing the twisty stuff, Get a Turn One pump when yours fails.

I have drilled and slotted rotors, which I've heard are terrible for road racing. are those pads ceramic? From what I understand running ceramic pads on normal rotors will destroy them. Being that my car is a WS6 doesn't it already have a Power steering cooler?

Everything beach cruiser said + watch those NT555Rs, they are a soft-sidewall drag tire. Expect heavy understeer and possibly snap oversteer.
Easy quick way to combat that is run the stock wheels if you still have them with some sticky (non-drag) tires.

Drilled rotors (especially cheap ones) can/do crack even with normal street driving. This is not something I'd risk...
Hawk HP+ are not a ceramic pad, from everything I've gathered you don't want a ceramic pad for performance.
The power steering cooler that comes on these cars is a bit of a joke. Often the fluid boils and pops the cap off the reservoir and you get a nice stinky mess.

I don't plan on using the NT555s, I'm gonna try to pick up a pair of kumho ecsta's or NT05s for the event. I wanna get the Turn One pump, but I'll wait and see how my stock one behaves before I dump $300.

get nto1 or nto5. 1 better than the 05.

I sent my power steering pump off to PSC. They're a company based out of Texas. They will rebuild your pump to the same specs that Turn One builds for around $100. I sent my pump to them and had it back in a week and its been on my race car for a year with no problems.

I've got a used set of Hawk HT-10s with a little meat left on them if you'd like to buy them from me for cheap.

Also, keep an eye on Hub wear. Make sure to check them every now and then when you have the car jacked up.... this is a major wear item on cars that are often tracked.

If you don't have an oil cooler I would suggest that you run a thicker viscosity oil and fill it 1 qt over full. Before I installed an oil cooler on my car I'd reach around 290 to 300 degrees (on a stock motor with headers) in around 10-12 minutes on track. I run comp cams 15w-50 in my race car.

I did a track day the other day with my 2001 TA and half way through my first session i blew my power steering pump cap off and burnt up my pump along with a terrible mess. Put another pump on before the next session and the same thing happened again.
So i suggest a good oil cooler.

Don't forget to take care of the number one component, you. Drink plenty of fluids and don't try to do too many things at once. Being a newby is mentally draining.

When you get a chance, read this thread. A good bit of it is specific to C5 Corvettes, but there is a lot of general knowledge in there too.

This list is useful too.

Better brake pads on stock blank rotors will do the trick. I prefer the Hawks DTC-30 on the front and the HP + on the rear. This was San Strano's recommendation and that combo has worked very well for me multiple times. Go with a quality hi-temp brake fluid (ATE Super Blue - DOT 4).

Fresh oil change and add an extra 1/2 - 1 quart. I go with an extra quart.

Replace the power steering fluid with Red Line and get a scruchy that will stretch around the PS fluid cap (will help absorb some of the fluid that comes out -- if that happens). It might not hurt to spend $5 on a spare cap for the track.

Tires make a big difference. The two different Nitto models mentioned above are great on dry pavement. If it's wet you're in for a long day -- however there isn't much you can do to remedy that issue (short of having two sets of wheels/tires).

Relax. Have fun. Be Safe. If it's a HPDE you're attending, don't think of it as a race. Think of it as a chance to learn how to become a better driver.

Thanks, I appreciate all the pointers. Exactly what I needed to know. I'll try to do all the maintenance mentioned. And I'll post up an in car vid once the event is through.

if you read over my sig.......i have done 5 nasa races at Road Atlanta with no problems. 140mph hard on brakes before turn 11.

most of all: make sure you enjoy yourself - and bring a SA2010 helmet.

Visa/Mastercard, go ahead and get one LMAO.

Haha, yeh, i'm having to shell out about $350 just to participate in the event. My friend and I will have the only domestics in the whole event. It's a Porsche Club event, so we'll be two poor folk, surrounded by a whole lot of 1%'ers lol.

If I can get through the day without spinning out, running off the track, or breaking something, I'll be thoroughly pleased with myself......and if I can pass a Porsche or two.....ehhh I'm getting ahead of myself lol. The car most definitely has the power to do so in the straights, but I will be by far the least experienced there.

Don't worry---you'll pass a number of cars. For every super-serious guy there, three or four more are out to have a good time without wrecking their $80,000-100,000 car. They don't push too hard and will wave you by if you're pressing them. There will also be a number of guys driving older machines that just don't have much power. My '69 911 had all of 140 hp.

I was at the National Corvette Museum HPDE at VIR last year in my Nissan (Corvette was in the shop) and I got several point-bys from Z06s and Grand Sports because their owners either didn't know how to drive or were unwilling to test their limits.

When you get out of the green group, look out. It gets serious then. :nod:

This is interesting. I need to look into it because one of these days, I'm sure my PS system will fail.

Prep for thew worst and hope for the best.

When you overheat the PS fluid you prematurely kill your rack and pinion and the pump, My rack died after my second event because I was told ..."oh you dont need this and you dont need that". By so many on here.

Get it revalved and put a cooler on it. Its a hell of a lot cheaper than putting a $250 rack on, a $150 pump after its revalved and an alignment.

Revalve the pump is about $130 with shipping and a cooler is about $75 installed(parts).

I'm glad you mentioned alignment. A street alignment will work on the track, but won't be optimum. Take it to a shop and tell them to pull the lower a arms all the way out for max camber (-1.8 is about all) and set caster and toe from there.

Are you also recommending the PSC company as specified above? I should look into it. My car whines a bit even just doing some autox, which is pretty mild for racing.