Track Day Preparation

[RecursiveLoop]

I'm going for my first timed track day in the ISF this Sunday at Holden Performance Driving centre in Norwell Park near the Gold Coast.

Just found out I'm in the same group as a Ferrari 360 Spider, 2 x BMW M3s and a Porsche 996 Turbo. Oh boy.

I'm fully prepared to come last as I'm just a rookie, but does anyone have any tips for me? Also, anything I should do to prepare the car apart from oil change and checking tyre pressure?

[Epicurean]

Drive to your own level.

You have nothing to prove.

The Ferrari, Porsche and BMW drivers are likely wan...s anyway with all pose and little driving ability.

You have a great car, track tyres (slicks) could take several seconds off your lap time, if your going sideways your not going fast.

Learn the corners, brake points and be consistent.

Steer hard to get into the right place for corner entry and most of all maximise your corner exit speed.

Attached photo, my Golf GTI

I would love to have a go myself, I am waiting to get back to Wakefield near Goulburn to get the feel of the car driven hard.

[RecursiveLoop]

Great advice, thanks for that! Yeah I'm going to do my best and try to learn from it. There will be some professional racing drivers there so hopefully will get some coaching.

Do you recommend driving in sport mode or with stability control completely off?

[Epicurean]

Sport mode should get the car to operate in the higher performance mode.

I would suspect the stability control would take away from the control by the driver, so you will have to try on the day but I think stability control off.

[marvin]

I had a track day at the same venue last year in one of their Lotus'. Just as long as you listen to the instructors and drive at your own (as Epicurean suggested) level you should be fine! You'll have plenty of fun.

[RecursiveLoop]

Car has 13,000kms on the clock. Should I do an oil change?

[johnm]

Drive to your own level.

You have nothing to prove.

The Ferrari, Porsche and BMW drivers are likely wan...s anyway with all pose and little driving ability.

You have a great car, track tyres (slicks) could take several seconds off your lap time, if your going sideways your not going fast.

Learn the corners, brake points and be consistent.

Steer hard to get into the right place for corner entry and most of all maximise your corner exit speed.

Attached photo, my Golf GTI

I would love to have a go myself, I am waiting to get back to Wakefield near Goulburn to get the feel of the car driven hard.

hi, if you do head down to goulburn et me know love to spend a day out there,as i live just north of goulbourn

thanks john

[Ezo]

Car has 13,000kms on the clock. Should I do an oil change?

How did you go? I'm envious of all the sweet driving you've been doing - great videos of it too.

[RecursiveLoop]

It went well, I had an absolute blast. A pity that it was bucketing down, so couldn't push the car as hard as I wanted to (you know how tail-happy our cars are in the wet). I had one close call where I oversteered off the track into a big puddle of water, which scared the hell out of me but the water was not high enough to damage anything.

I had so much fun on the skid pan as it was the only safe place to really drive the car hard without fear of damaging anything.

I'm signed up for the next track day on 21 April at the same venue (Holden Driving Centre at Norwell). There are still spots available if anyone wants to come and drive their ISF like it was designed to be driven! Here's the link: http://forum.downshiftaus.com/showthread.php?902-BRIS-GC-Downshift-Track-Battle-21-April-2013

I'm currently doing about one track day a month, so tyre wear is quite heavy and it means my servicing intervals are very short. I'm not one of those drivers who buys an ISF to drive it like a IS250, but at the same time I do treat the car well and make sure I service it very regularly. I'm probably up for new brake pads and tyres after only 15,000kms. I drove the car hard from 9.30am in the morning to 4.30pm the afternoon, and it held up very well - no brake fade, no engine overheating, it just ran lap after lap after lap. A testament to the gruelling tests that our cars are put through on the track when they were designing it.

I had a lot of good comments from other drivers, especially on the sound that the car makes when downshifting in sport/manual mode (WOMPH! WOMPH!)

[RecursiveLoop]

Fun on the skid pan:

Laps (dunking at 2:22!)

Photos:

[RecursiveLoop]

WHEEEEE

[Ezo]

Bloody great videos and pictures! Awesome. Looks like so much fun.

[Blacky]

Looks like fun, except for the dunking. I bet you wish you had the window up LOL

Also not sure about the gator / golf cart just off the track at around the 4:00 mark, not so safe in those conditions I think.