New Owner Seeking Track Advice!

[jmimac351]

1) Castrol SRF or Torque RT700 brake fluid. I use the Castrol product.

2) Brake Pads - Ferodo DS2500 pads. Those will work well with the stock tires. With stock tires, you're probably fine with just doing front pads.

3) Keep the stock tires on the car for now. The stock tires can actually be a lot of fun to drive on, and can help you feel the car move around a little. Besides, the stock tires aren't what needs improvement right now.

4) The car does need an oil cooler. Do It... Do It........ Do It.

5) INSTRUCTION... sparingly mentioned above but essential... if you aren't getting good driving Instruction you're cheating yourself.

6) Put your list away for the rest of the year and get out of your mind that you need to mod your car. Mod the driver first. If you get good instruction and get the bug you may find you want a spare set of wheels with dedicated tires, or not. You don't know the answer to that yet about this car.

[Azzudien]

Originally Posted by jmimac351

1) Castrol SRF or Torque RT700 brake fluid. I use the Castrol product.

2) Brake Pads - Ferodo DS2500 pads. Those will work well with the stock tires. With stock tires, you're probably fine with just doing front pads.

3) Keep the stock tires on the car for now. The stock tires can actually be a lot of fun to drive on, and can help you feel the car move around a little. Besides, the stock tires aren't what needs improvement right now.

4) The car does need an oil cooler. Do It... Do It........ Do It.

5) INSTRUCTION... sparingly mentioned above but essential... if you aren't getting good driving Instruction you're cheating yourself.

6) Put your list away for the rest of the year and get out of your mind that you need to mod your car. Mod the driver first. If you get good instruction and get the bug you may find you want a spare set of wheels with dedicated tires, or not. You don't know the answer to that yet about this car.

This is almost the exact advice I got from my instructor when I went to my first HPDE driving event.
Brake Fluid
Brake Pads
Driving instruction
I was extremely lucky and hooked up with a great instructor my first event and he has been in my car 4 of my 5 track days.

[Silver Supra]

Originally Posted by Azzudien

..
I was extremely lucky and hooked up with a great instructor my first event and he has been in my car 4 of my 5 track days.

That's good, but do get some different instructors when you can. They can all teach you something different.

[zdr93523]

Originally Posted by CSG Mike

Since this was brought up, I'd like to point out the sheer number FI cars that come out to 86CUP, that run without issue.

It really comes down to proper preparation for the conditions you subject your car to. Just now an oil cooler is mandatory to track a NA car, proper cooling is mandatory to track a FI car.

I'll add to this. I have spent 3 years developing the cooling system for our car and now run ~200 coolant and ~230 or under oil temps even during a sprint race in July at 4000 ft elevation and 100+ degree weather. Our air has near zero cooliing capacity up here and the track temps exceed 145 degrees in the summer.

We have a big announcement coming soon as we are going to be the first (to my knowledge) FI 86 to run a 6 hour Endurance race... Again at 4000ft elevation and 100+ degree weather. That will be the ultimate test for this platform.

[JazzleSAURUS]

I think the best thing you can do with this car is:

1) Brake Fluid (Pads are a great thing to do here too, but it's good to learn what fade feels like imo, so you can run stock pads and learn, just learn to back off when you feel them getting soft.)
2) a) Oil Cooler
b) 5w-30 if you can't get an oil cooler in time for a track day, (this is a backup!)
3) Camber bolts up front with a decent alignment

After that, I think it's best to just go and start wearing stuff out. Go find the limit of the hardware you've got, and upgrade just a few things at a time as needed.

The stock tires are fun and you'll learn a lot about the car with these things and some track time.

[Shark_Bait88]

A bunch of the Chicago area FR-S/BRZ track guys are doing the GPS Track Time event in September at Autobahn Country Club. Are you signed up? If not, you should be!

There are some great groups and tracks in the area. I'd highly recommend Windy City BMW for top notch instructors, and lots of track time for your money. There's a great group of Toyobaru track guys in the area, lots of fun and always happy to help/lend advice. Hope to see you in September!

In terms of the modifications, I'd have to echo the same statements everyone has made so far in terms of keeping things pretty much stock.

That being said, if you are looking for more camber than just bolts will get you, I do have an essentially brand new pair of Raceseng front camber plates for the OE configuration (90mm spring perches) available locally. Message me if you're interested, I'll give you a solid deal.

Not sure where you're located in the area, but if you're looking for a good alignment shop Thalmann's in Northbrook is awesome.

[JazzleSAURUS]

Originally Posted by Shark_Bait88

That being said, if you are looking for more camber than just bolts will get you, I do have an essentially brand new pair of Raceseng front camber plates for the OE configuration (90mm spring perches) available locally. Message me if you're interested, I'll give you a solid deal.

The Raceseng cascam plates are super nice. You can run them with RCE Yellows/Swift R's and Bilstein B6's/Koni's later on, any combo of those items would be a very nice package imo.

[Shark_Bait88]

Originally Posted by JazzleSAURUS

The Raceseng cascam plates are super nice. You can run them with RCE Yellows/Swift R's and Bilstein B6's/Koni's later on, any combo of those items would be a very nice package imo.

That's the exact setup one of my buddies here has on his BRZ (Raceseng plates, Konis, and Yellows) and he puts down some seriously fast times.

I already have Konis, so when I start focusing on tracking again that's likely the setup I'll go with to start.

[JazzleSAURUS]

Originally Posted by Shark_Bait88

That's the exact setup one of my buddies here has on his BRZ (Raceseng plates, Konis, and Yellows) and he puts down some seriously fast times.

I already have Konis, so when I start focusing on tracking again that's likely the setup I'll go with to start.

I did an install with raceseng front plates, koni's, and swifts and was really impressed.

I haven't done a set of the Velox plates yet but would like to, very nice parts. Most of the locals end up wanting entry level coils over struts and springs which I think is often a mistake.

(Says the guy with ST's...)

[Jamestl]

Originally Posted by Shark_Bait88

A bunch of the Chicago area FR-S/BRZ track guys are doing the GPS Track Time event in September at Autobahn Country Club. Are you signed up? If not, you should be!

There are some great groups and tracks in the area. I'd highly recommend Windy City BMW for top notch instructors, and lots of track time for your money. There's a great group of Toyobaru track guys in the area, lots of fun and always happy to help/lend advice. Hope to see you in September!

In terms of the modifications, I'd have to echo the same statements everyone has made so far in terms of keeping things pretty much stock.

That being said, if you are looking for more camber than just bolts will get you, I do have an essentially brand new pair of Raceseng front camber plates for the OE configuration (90mm spring perches) available locally. Message me if you're interested, I'll give you a solid deal.

Not sure where you're located in the area, but if you're looking for a good alignment shop Thalmann's in Northbrook is awesome.

Hi there! Actually I just signed up for the event in Sept. Was on the same track with NASA this weekend and had a blast. Actually heard about the GPS event from aonther BRZerat the event (who was much faster and pretty much stock) so I'm excited to join. Are there other events that the toyobaru community go to in mass?

Appreciate the thoughts on the camber plates. I will try to see if two SPC bolts might give me a bit more camber, but tire wear was actually pretty event this weekend with just 1.3 (surprisingly) so I'll see how it goes.

[Jamestl]

Appreciate the advice, everyone. I ended up getting an oil cooler, XP10s, camber bolts, LCA, and headers/OFT with RPF1/star specs. Had a blast this weekend and no issue with anything. Looking fwd to be back on track soon!

[Shark_Bait88]

Originally Posted by Jamestl

Hi there! Actually I just signed up for the event in Sept. Was on the same track with NASA this weekend and had a blast. Actually heard about the GPS event from aonther BRZerat the event (who was much faster and pretty much stock) so I'm excited to join. Are there other events that the toyobaru community go to in mass?

Appreciate the thoughts on the camber plates. I will try to see if two SPC bolts might give me a bit more camber, but tire wear was actually pretty event this weekend with just 1.3 (surprisingly) so I'll see how it goes.

Sweet! Looking forward to tracking with ya.

Was the guy who told you about the GPS event in a black BRZ on Volk CE28Ns?

[Jamestl]

Originally Posted by Shark_Bait88

Sweet! Looking forward to tracking with ya.

Was the guy who told you about the GPS event in a black BRZ on Volk CE28Ns?

Likewise! And no, was red BRZ with stock wheels. Just happen to be a much better driver than me