please help a road course noob!
please help a road course noob! So i have been trying to decide which way to go with my car for a while and ive finally decided i want to do some road racing. A local track (MAM) has "fast fridays" which consists of a 2.23 mile circuit and costs $100 to run as much as you want from 9am to 6pm. My current work schedule would allow me to participate every other week. So.... having said that my car is a "street" car that i do like to drive for pleasure on nice days ( not my daily) so i dont want just a track rat. What would you guys recommend for a suspention/wheel/tire setup for a weekend warrior driven to and from the track??? My car is mostly stock with bolt ons for now (lid,ported tb,headers,y pipe,etc..) all the suspention is stock for now. I was thinking about some WS6 rims but maybe they are too heavy?? I was also going to contact strano about springs... i have no clue about shocks so i was thinking either Koni or bilstein???
Last edited by RSAXON1979; Jul 19, 2014 at 09:06 PM.
Truthfully, I'd run it as is and worry about the adjusting and go fast stuff later. I track both cars in my footer and have a ball in both. The TA is by far the faster car, but I learn the most in the GP.
Well my tires are crap and wouldnt pass tech and my suspention is 14 years old and has 140k miles on it so it definately needs replacement before i do any track driving.... i dont really plan to mod the drivetrain too much for now as far as speed goes but i figure since i need tires and suspension anyway i might as well buy the right stuff the first time.
The first thing to address is tires. Nothing impacts the performance of the car more than tires. Your absolute best option is to get another set of light weight wheels and install some Hoosier R6 or Khumo V710 tires.
You can't drive on the street with track tires. Well, you can, but only for very short distances. A lot of people buy a small trailer to tow tires, tools, etc.
Second item is your 14yo stock suspension. Plan on replacing all your rubber bits. Some people like poly; it's relatively inexpensive and works well. But that requires a lot of maintenance to keep it from binding. You'll need to grease it at least twice a year for best performance.
Delrin has similar compliance, and does not need the maintenance that poly does. But it's expensive and hard to find.
Spherical bearings are the best. But now we're talking about serious money and some fabrication.
For my new race car, I'm using a high performance rubber bushing set. Much stiffer than stock rubber, and zero maintenance. Cheaper than Poly, too.
After that, you'll want to look at your brakes. Stock brakes just won't last very long. You'll burn them up in no time. I'm pretty happy with Wilwood.
You can't drive on the street with track tires. Well, you can, but only for very short distances. A lot of people buy a small trailer to tow tires, tools, etc.
Second item is your 14yo stock suspension. Plan on replacing all your rubber bits. Some people like poly; it's relatively inexpensive and works well. But that requires a lot of maintenance to keep it from binding. You'll need to grease it at least twice a year for best performance.
Delrin has similar compliance, and does not need the maintenance that poly does. But it's expensive and hard to find.
Spherical bearings are the best. But now we're talking about serious money and some fabrication.
For my new race car, I'm using a high performance rubber bushing set. Much stiffer than stock rubber, and zero maintenance. Cheaper than Poly, too.
After that, you'll want to look at your brakes. Stock brakes just won't last very long. You'll burn them up in no time. I'm pretty happy with Wilwood.
Regarding tires, you might have luck with craigslist. I scored a set of C6 z06 wheels with tires from a guy in Papillion last fall and he had lots of stuff he was selling off. He was active in local scca events and mentioned that lots of other track addicts are constantly selling and trading up on go fast parts. You might also want to join scca.
I second what bob says on the brakes. I upgraded to C6 Z51 brakes in front (13.5 rotors barely fit inside 17" SS wheels with wilwood 6 pot calipers, 12.7" base corvette rotors will clear easily). Cost of running them isn't much different than your original camaro brakes--the big rotors were 50 each at rock auto last I looked.
I second what bob says on the brakes. I upgraded to C6 Z51 brakes in front (13.5 rotors barely fit inside 17" SS wheels with wilwood 6 pot calipers, 12.7" base corvette rotors will clear easily). Cost of running them isn't much different than your original camaro brakes--the big rotors were 50 each at rock auto last I looked.
Last edited by 1981TA; Jul 20, 2014 at 03:57 PM.
I might just get a set of WS6 or ZR1 rims and throw on some Toyo proxes R888. They seem to be a decent mix of a street and track tire. As i said its more of a street car that i want to be able to track once or twice a month for fun.
I second (or third) what the others said.
You want to have a direction in mind before you start upgrades. You don't want to get parts that don't compliment each other. Also you don't want to make mods that would force you into a class that you don't want to be in.
Brakes are extremely important.
Contacting Strano would be a good idea for advise on suspension.
You might want to check out www.frrax.com
Bunch of good info and good guys on there.
SCCA is good you might also check out NASA.
Good luck.
You want to have a direction in mind before you start upgrades. You don't want to get parts that don't compliment each other. Also you don't want to make mods that would force you into a class that you don't want to be in.
Brakes are extremely important.
Contacting Strano would be a good idea for advise on suspension.
You might want to check out www.frrax.com
Bunch of good info and good guys on there.
SCCA is good you might also check out NASA.
Good luck.
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With those sticky tires you'll find an immediate need for suspension. Get some tires/wheels, brakes, bigger sway bars, new bushings (delrin is fairly cheap from mcmaster if you know a machinist who can turn some parts for you) and flush all your fluids and replace it with whatever high performance stuff you prefer.
please do not go out as a Noob on race rubber, get yourself some good High performance summer tires such as Kuhmo XS, or BFG rivals ect... something in the 180 TW or higher. Sticky tires will make you faster but won't teach you any car control. Then before you hit the track attention to the brakes is a must! Make sure you have good pads such as Hawk HPS or equivelent. Suspension will show it's weaknesses, but do the things to keep you safe first, then upgrade. A sloppy car will teach you way more in the end than you will ever learn jumping in a fully prepped track car. Trust me, I'm a NASA instructor.
I plan to upgrade the front brakes with some from a C5 for now. I dont plan to have it set up as a fully prepped track car... its a street car first and foremost and i plan to run it once or twice a month at most i just need to replace the suspension tires and brakes over winter so i figured i would get stuff geared towards that rather than drag racing which is what i was going to do with it before but i changed my mind after i found out the local drag strip was only 1/8 mile and the road course had these all day events on fridays. I have driven a couple of track days before in other peoples cars (porche's) and I've done the richard petty driving experience a couple of times so I have an idea of car control I've just never driven an F body on a course.
The brembo 4 pot V brakes will cost less than the C5 brakes, and theyre bigger rotors. Use the 5th gen camaro rotors. Re conditioned calipers go for $50ea, bolt on with a re drill of the upright, turn the center of the rotor to fit the 4th gen hub, bolt em it all on.
Ugh. Horrible track tire. They get greasy fast, and don't last long. Consider a Nitto tire instead.
Nitto NT01 are popular for r-comps, the NT05 has less grip but can take tremendous abuse. I've got a few sessions on my Hankook RS3's and I am absolutely in love with them. Tremendous grip for a street tire, didnt get greasy on a 90 degree day in a 3350 pound car.