Quick and dirty guide to track prepping your car
 

First time going to the track? Here's how to get started! Please keep in mind that this guide is written for safety and reliability; performance modifications are secondary for the purpose of this guide. As always, YMMV.

1. Car Prep

2. Driver Prep

3. At the Track

Please don't hesitate to add to this; I'll update the posts as I think of stuff.

Car Prep

First few times at the track:

Absolutely necessary
- Check your oil level
- Make sure tires have at least 4/32" of tread left (put a quarter in the tread, and if the tread touches George's head, you're good)

Recommended
- Fresh engine oil (if you haven't changed within the last few thousand miles)

Nice to have
- Upgraded brake pads
- Upgraded brake fluid
- GoPro Camera (watching yourself is an EXCELLENT way to learn)


3rd-5th times at the track:

Absolutely necessary
- Check your oil level
- Make sure tires have at least 4/32" of tread left (put a quarter in the tread, and if the tread touches George's head, you're good)

Recommended
- Fresh engine oil (if you haven't changed within the last few thousand miles)
- Upgraded brake pads
- Upgraded brake fluid
- Fresh transmission fluid
- Fresh differential fluid (see a trend here? proactive maintenance is key to a long life!)

Nice to have
- "performance" tires (Hankook RS3, Dunlop Z1/Z2 Star Spec, Bridgestone RE-11, Yokohama AD08, Toyo R1R, Federal 595 RS-R)
- GoPro Camera (watching yourself is an EXCELLENT way to learn)


6rd-10th times at the track:

Absolutely necessary
- Check your oil level
- Make sure tires have at least 4/32" of tread left (put a quarter in the tread, and if the tread touches George's head, you're good)
- Upgraded brake pads
- Upgraded brake fluid

Recommended
- Fresh engine oil (if you haven't changed within the last few thousand miles)
- "performance" tires (Hankook RS3, Dunlop Z1/Z2 Star Spec, Bridgestone RE-11, Yokohama AD08, Toyo R1R, Federal 595 RS-R)
- GoPro Camera (watching yourself is an EXCELLENT way to learn)
- Fresh transmission fluid
- Fresh differential fluid
- GoPro Cameras, or some sort of video device (smartphones with cases work great!)

Nice to have
- Adjustable coil-over suspension
- Aftermarket Rims
- Data acquisition (Aim SOLO is a great option, as is Harry's Lap Timer for the iPhone and Trackmate for Android)


Maintenace

These are merely suggestions; adjust intervals as needed. The best way to determine is to use used oil analysis from a company like Blackstone Labs or Dyson.

Engine - normal oil change interval, as long as your oil cooler is suffient and keeping your temps under 250F (stock oil temp is read post-cooler, so oil temp peak is higher)

Brake fluid - Whenever the feel degrades, or your reservoir is dark

Clutch fluid - once a year (use leftover brake fluid from a bleed)

Trans/Diff - Every 5 days, or 15k miles, whichever comes first.

First few track days:
- Get yourself an instructor or mentor! Try to find someone who drives a similar car. An experienced FR-S or BRZ owner is best. Alternatives include S2000, RX-8, RX-7, and Miata owners. The goal here is to find yourself someone who is familiar with RWD momentum cars. You want to avoid Mustang/Corvette instructors as they tend to teach a different style of driving.
- Pay attention in the driver's meeting. Knowing all the safety regulations is critical.
- Be open to what everyone has to say to you. You may not necessarily agree with everything that is suggested to you, but at least give it a shot, and then decide if it works for you or not.
- Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!
- Brake in a straight line. Take advantage of your ABS; press the brake down to the floor when braking in a straight line. Your car stops a lot faster than you think!
- Don't use your brakes on the cooldown lap. When coming into the pits, roll around for a few minutes to give the brakes time to cool down. Don't use your hand brake when you park; leave the car in gear. It won't roll away.
- Watch your traction control lights. When is it blinking? (in-car video is awesome for this). If its blinking, it probably means you're asking the car to do something that it can't do. Try not to do it.
- Don't fixate on the car in front of you! Your mind automatically wants to send you to where you're looking. Instead, look at the apex of the corner ahead of you.
- Check your tire pressure when you come off of the track. Generally, you want to be sitting between 35-39 psi (hot), right when you get off the track. You'll probably need to let some air out.
- Remember to fill your tires back up to 32-34psi (cold) before you leave!

3rd-5th track days:
- By now, you should be comfortable with using the ABS on your car. Unfortunately, that REALLY heats up the brakes, and you may have felt some brake fade! Now, we're going to focus on learning to not use it. When you feel ABS kickign in, back off on the brake pedal ever so slightly. It'll take a while to learn to do consistently, but it'll result in less heat in the brakes, and quicker stops.
- Stay hydrated!
- Try to use ALL of the track width. It's OKAY to drop 2 wheels at times.
- If you are comfortable with it, drive with Traction control and Stability control off. Be careful; if you had the lights blinking before, the systems were probably saving you from a spin! However, ultimately, you'll need to drive with the systems off to extract the maximum potential out of the car.
- Ask for specific feedback from instructors/mentors. Focus on one or two aspects of your driving at a time.
- Focus on on-track awareness. Where are the other drivers around you? What's going on further down the track?
- Start to focus on the next few corners ahead of you, instead of just the one in front of you.
- Don't focus on your lap times. Instead, focus on technique and smoothness. Lap times will come naturally.

6th-10th track days:
- Are you stil driving with Stability and Traction control on? Try it off! Be careful though!
- Are you using all the the width of the track? Try to go closer to the edges (where applicable) without going off. Are you using berms as recommended by instructors?
- How is your awareness? Try to spot incidents before flags go up.
- Seek feedback on aspects of driving you feel you're struggling with, or parts of the track where you feel you can go faster, but are unable to.

Driver Prep:

Seat adjustment:
- First, put your butt all the way back in your seat, so that there is no gap between your lower back and seat.
- Depress the clutch and gas pedal. Are you able to push both all the way down without any strain at all? If not, adjust the seat position (forward and backward only) as needed
- Next, "straighten" the back of the seat, so that you're sitting fairly straight, and the side bolsters on the back of the seat are supporting your torso; the FRS/BRZ seats are spectacular in this aspect. Now both your lower back and your upper back should be touching the seat. Adjust or flip the headrest around if its getting in the way.
- Adjusted properly, you'll probably never change this seating position for seat driving, because you don't get any fatigue!


Rest
- Get plenty of rest the night before, especially if you are driving to the track the day of!
- Take caffeinated beverages of choice as necessary (I'm a caffeine fiend).


Things to take:

This all fits into a $10 toolbag from Sears/Craftsman about 10x8x8 (very compact!) that stays in the car full time:
- Cordless Impact
- Extra battery for cordless impact
- Mallet
- All sockets that I need to work on the car (ONLY the sockets needed)
- 14, 17, 19, 21 impact sockets
- 1/2" drive swivel socket
- Work gloves
- Wheel lock keys
- Hex key ratchet all-in-one tool
- tire gauge

Glove compartment (all of this also is in the car full time):
- Small spray bottle of quick detailer
- high quality Flashlight (Surefire, LED, Li battery, 30+ hour run time on low setting)

Trunk:
- can of engine oil (300V only for me)
- disposable gloves, stored in the styrofoam donut on the spare (costco)
- Torque wrench
- bag of microfiber towels (Costco)


Situational, track-day specific stuff:
- Extra brake pads (usually keep a set of street or race pads in the trunk anyways, I swap on a whim)
- Bottle of brake fluid (can bleed the OEM system with 1 bottle if you're not excessively wasting fluid)
- Extra rotors (won't need to on the BRZ, but my s2k EATS rotors....)
- Floor jack (Harbor freight makes some very affordable ones)
- Jackstands
- sunblock
- Foldable cooler
- Water
- Ice (purchase at closest gas station to the track, dump before leaving)
- Coffee/Energy drinks (I'm a caffeine fiend)
- Multitool of some sort (leatherman, swiss army knife, etc.)
- Paper towels (or napkins from fast food joint of your choosing...)
- Helmet
- Driving shoes
- Extra socks
- Foldable chairs
- painter's tape

reserved

reserved for future use

Great write up. I'd suggest a section about checking tire pressure to avoid under/overinflating since that will be extremely detrimental on a track, safety and speedwise

Won't believe how many first timers get the drag racer mentality and want to run 22 PSI thinking lower means grippier...

Great guide. You didn't mention anything about tranny or diff fluid. I'm guessing a more constant diff fluid change is needed then the recommended service interval Toyota says to follow correct? I'm not sure what you recommend but i've heard changing the diff fluid every other time you change motor oil is good for cars that see hard use.

A couple instructors have mentioned being around the recommended PSI is good for a first timer. Maybe 1-3 PSI less in the rears for a RWD car is good as well.

Good write up.

In our cars the traction control light flashes before you are doing anything stupid and sometimes when you are doing stuff right (trail braking for me, any braking near bumps, etc).

I push people to turn it off as early as possible otherwise they rely on it. I met an instructor recently who made the comment that his DSP (or whatever BMW calls it) light flashing made him realize he was pushing too hard... yeah.. an instructor.... I've noticed with my BRZ that the traction control system in sport mode kicks in all the time at sebring, with it off, the car doesn't doing anything bad and since it's not activating much faster and *SMOOTHER* driving is possible.

Yeah.. I heard that all the time with my S2000. Otherwise "they snap oversteer". I ran 2-3psi more in the rear. :shrug: With the BRZ I've been running equal pressures so far.

Very helpful write up. A couple of comments:

Please be aware that many organized clubs forbid having any loose articles in your glove compartments, or even such objects as floor mats.

In case of hard impact and/or roll, glove compartments open and and loose objects can hit you in the face , etc. floor mats can bunch up under the pedals and interfere when quick reaction is a matter of ...

It is "recommended" that you remove all heavy loose objects from your trunk, especially if the trunk compartment is accessible from the interior.

Even cd's or cassette tapes should be removed from the stero systems in the car.

Bring a sheet of tarp, and remove and lay everything on it, then you can put them back in the car at the end of the day.

One other pointer when adjusting the seat and your reach; with your back against the backrest and your shoulder fully touching the backrest, put your arms out straight. Your hands should go "past" the steering wheel such that your wrists rest on the wheel. If not, move seat forward and try again, holding your shoulder tight against the backrest.

Awesome list. Slowly getting things together in hopes of trying some events this season.

Driver prep: all the usual stuff but 8-10 hours of sleep. Length and quality of sleep has been the definitive deciding factors in a few races of mine between winning and not.

I had one where I ran out of "mental tenacity" with about 4 laps left and the gap just grew and grew. Looked at all the data, checked the shocks, tires, brakes etc and when I studied the lap times and the video it was.... "reduction in mental acuity".

This reduction in mental acuity not only happens faster and more severe with a lack of sleep but also will onset earlier and harder if your body is out of shape.