Awesome, thanks for the info.

Thanks for the advice.

The diff already has the LS oil, since the shop just put it in when they looked up the car had an LSD. Either way I'm sure it will be fine for the season.

I'll run coolant instead of water to see how the temps hold up. If they are still a little high then I will swap over to water and Mocool.

I'm going to run XP8's front and rear to start off.

For those with a BBK why did you upgrade over stock?

Upgrade to BBK happens for two main reasons: 1) to get extra heat capacity before fading when one does long sessions on track, 2) for looks (yes, because of this reason too :) - "OH NOES, still small brakes with not red painted non brand 8-pot calipers in my new shiny 20" wheels?!!"). Twins stock brakes are rather good, they held on track for upto 10min just fine, so for mostly daily driving with slight track usage one should be fine with just brake pads and fluid change. With steel lines & airducts - even better.
There are other reasons two, but imho of less importance in purchase decision. Eg. most aftermarket BBKs of NOT insane rotor size are lighter then stock, for some BBKs consumables, such as pads & rotors, are cheaper then stock.

The BBK will have slightly better economics when looking at consumables for track heavy users

i don't recall if i had any fade or not oem, i'm not the greatest at modulating them i think either. in any case,

1. got the stoptech kit for a steal
2. buddy made carbon ceramic rotors for mountain bikes, wanting to see if he could for car, this kit had 2-piece rotors to try (never did though)

and really, probably the biggest,

3. i can glance down and see how much pad is left. even taking off the wheel with the oem calipers, this is a bitch.

Reduced unsprung weight, reduced rotational inertial, reduced long term cost for heavy users.

Is it a common upgrade path with this chassis to get brake ducts and then a BBK when you've reach the limit of whatever pad you running or did most people just get a BBK without ducts?

The reason for all the questions is I want to leave the car as stock as possible while making it as safe and reliable as possible. I really like the dynamic of the chassis and don't want to screw it up with an improperly setup aftermarket suspension.

Can anyone give me an estimate on how much time on track you get to a tank of fuel or half or quarter tank. I know each track and driver will be different. I want to have an a real estimate of how much fuel to bring and not have to leave to get fuel. Fuel retails for about 3x the cost in the paddock vs a gas station up here.

@TRAKRAVN last SPDA lapping day at DDT I had to cut my 5th session early as I was almost gonna run out of fumes. I filled up in North York though, so count that into my usage. If I were you I'd bring another 20L with you and that should be good

I budget a full tank for the day, 10+ gallons for 100 minutes of on track running. Makes sense, some very rough math follows: locally average speeds for non-premium cars are around 60-70mph (~1mile/minute), average fuel economy is around 10mpg, so you pretty much end up at a bit more than 1 gallon/10 minutes. A conservative estimate would be 1.5 gallons/10 minutes, so I'd be bringing 15 gallons to the track, ~13 in the tank and 2 on hand or however it shakes out, 10/5, 7/8, whatever.

If I arrive at the track with a full tank (or as near as possible from the nearest gas pump, usually <25 miles, puts me at 12 gallons in the tank) I'm solid but will need to fill up before heading home (usually same station on the way out). Someone more aggressive than me may be cutting it a bit closer if not outright needing to top off a gallon or two to finish the last session and get to a station.

Thanks guys, I just went to get four 10L (2.6 gal) cans since my two 25L cans I usually take didn't fit the trunk well. I was going to bring five cans but I was worried it would take up to much room in the trunk with my suit bag, tire pump and socket set.

From Brampton, DDT and TMP use up about 1/4 tank in travel to the track from my rough estimates. Mind you I have only driven the car less than 500km so far so ts hard to estimate fuel usage.

If they weather and work schedule hold out I will be at TMP all day Friday.

i went to bbk and have no ducts. i bought the gt3 plastic guys but i think i lost them... so not installed. just bought rotor paint and caliper heat sticker guys to take some measurements next time i'm out. i only had one dry session, at a new track, on monday - didn't take the wheel off to check the rotor temps, caliper looked good though ie. no additional cooling needed, although i wonder if still beneficial? more interested in my results once i get to a track i'm more confident at (27th/28th of this month) - i'll have more data to go on then.

Can someone advise which cans to get for extra fuel to take to track? I mean volume/dimensions wise that well fit in our car cabin or trunk (probably already rather full with extra wheels set and misc other stuff)?

I put a 20L jerrycan in the passenger footwell.

Hi, everyone:

So I'm increasing the number of HPDEs I'm doing (open lap days) mostly, and it strikes me there are suspension bolts and what not I really should be checking before I head out. (I'm pretty good about the more basic stuff -- rotor, brake pads, caliper bolts, wheel lug nuts, fluids, tight caps, etc.).

What specific bolts related to track use should I be checking before track days? Pictures and torque specs appreciated, but of course I can get those by digging a bit.

Much appreciated.

helmet question. Does a SA2010 still qualifies for this years track events or do I need to get the SA2015 for this year? I read an info that they change the required helmet every 5 years? thanks!

Most groups will take the two most recent certifications so 2010 & 2015 right now. A 2010 helmet should be acceptable until 2020 certified helmets are available.

Although individual track groups may have more or less restrictive requirements. If it's not mentioned on the group website, email the event organizers to confirm, they want to make sure their customers are happy.

Alignment needed on first day of track? Camber bolts for front. Car is stock in suspension and wheels/tires.

Needed? No. Nice to have? Yes.

technically second track day. First on this car. Okay. I'll hold off until I get the feel of the car and just add those mods accordingly. Thank you!

Without an alignment you will wear the shoulders pretty badly, you might save more in tire wear than the alignment's price.

1.5-2 degrees of negative camber are needed just to keep from destroying the outer edge of your tires at the track (camber bolts can get this, but for even wear you'll want camber plates).

Great thread!

Re the whole driver aids thing. I teach my novices that ABS and TC are your daily trainers. If you are routinely engaging ABS or TC, then you want to work on your control input smoothness (onset/release of throttle, braking onsets, etc) until you are coming up to those barriers consistently and in a controlled manner. Then go about turning them off stage by stage and keep working up to where you are controlling the car in and out of each successive stage under harder and harder conditions.

Seriously - ABS is the best brake trainer there is. It enforces progressive and degressive braking beautifully when you consciously use it as a feedback tool. After a while, you are rewarded with lovely threshold braking burned into your muscle memory.

track prep/maintenance questions...
 

I'm re-starting my second HPDE season, and checking and double checking the car beforehand. I'd love feedback on a couple of issues:

1) I just swapped out the brake pads to Carbotech XP10's I used previously, bedded them, and after the swap, it feels like my rotors are warped. Didn't feel like that with stock pads. Are the rotors actually warped, or is it pad deposits, uneven brake pad contact from swapping pad positions, other issues?

2) While under there, I saw a small amount of grease leaking from the small side of both inner CV boots. Enough to fling and get some on the frame parallel with that axis of rotation, but no holes in the boots, clamps seem tight, doesn't seem like the amount of grease I've seen thrown from torn boots, no clicking noise when turning or otherwise. Replace boots, or wait for other symptoms, or? Car is lowered ~1.5" all around.

3) Last time at track (March?) on second day I had vibration, seemed like from the rear, above 100mph. I checked everything I could, thought it might have been unbalanced tire from a lost wheel weight. Once home, I changed wheels and it went away. Had track wheels rebalanced, didn't re-emerge in brief venture to 100mph. Wheel balance seem like the likely cause, and not CV joints, given they aren't making noise?

Thanks all....

Slowmow,
First you need to change barke fluid as well, just in case i make the comments.

To your first question, base on my experience you have uneven brake pad material deposit on the rotor. very well descripted problem in many blogs.
Solution in my case, I change pads and rotors at the same time (OEM rotors are cheap), if not you can sand them before the bedding process.

Here you have more info on that topic.
Can not help on 2) and 3)

https://www.apcautotech.com/getmedia...c-8-2018_1.pdf

Awesome, thanks for the response, and apologies for the basic questions. I googled it first but couldn't figure out how the track pad switch was related to the appearance of the symptom. That article from Centric is really helpful. And yep, I flushed the brake fluid using Motul 660. Thanks!

using Motul 660 as well, do no like the 600.

@slowmow if you used used rotors, then likely you have mixed pad compounds giving you that vibration on brake application

2. clean and continue observing. small amounts of flung grease is normal. large amount is not

3. likely balance, uneven wear, and OPR.

@CSG_Mike Thanks for the responses.

1) I definitely mixed compounds, switching back and forth from track pads to street pads several times. Do people switch pads and rotors at the same time, and keep "sets" together?
2) Awesome, thanks. I was worried having never seen that before. (never looked)
3) Good. OPR? I had to look that up, popped up on urban dictionary. Hilarious.

Appreciate the advice. Cheers.

1. that's more ideal, but more work.

3. other people's rubber hehe

1) I am using track setting on DD. Not ideal, less work.

I had this issue with XP10's, I can confirm it is caused by pad deposit. I ran them all the time, the only pads that ever touched the friction rings they where matched too. They just don't take heat well. Bedding them in the night before a track day helped but it would always start to come back during the day. I resorted to breaking a little earlier with more initial pressure. Spending less time on the pedal helps them a lot.

Thanks all for the help. The Essex /AP brake website has some great videos on bed-in and particularly swapping street to track pads. They used the track pads to clean the rotors of the street pad material (several hard stops while rotors are cold, two separate times) BEFORE bedding in the track pads. Cheers all.

Got a 2020 BRZ and there's the newer screen in the car with temp readings.
https://i.imgur.com/qSkc1xl.jpg

OP Suggests keeping oil temps under 250F; seems reasonable for 0-20w oil.
Perhaps a poor design choice, but I would have hoped the in-car meter would be more helpful in informing the driver of when oil temps are actually too hot...the meter would suggest 270F is totally acceptable and there's not even a red-zone marking for 340F.

Yeah I’ve been a bit confused by the scale they picked for it as well. I always use my OFT to monitor oil temp front and center while I’m on track.

Good luck keeping it under 250, I was over 255 after hot laps on my very first track day. Oil cooler becomes necessary on these cars if you don’t want to spend half your track time running cooldown laps.

Haha I have a knack of driving cars that get too hot on a track...appreciate your feedback though. :bonk:

No prob! I wouldn’t let it scare you away as long as you keep an eye on it haha. It’s probably a good idea to run at least 0/5w30 to track though. I believe the Japanese manuals list all the way up to 0w40 as recommended weights for more intensive use.

Any suggestions for specific suspension (or other) components to give a "once over" before/after a track day? I'm going to have my car up on a lift in a few days and want to cover my bases.

If you have the time, you can check that all the suspension fasteners are torqued correctly. I have had a few come loose: swaybar links, ball joint nut, MacStrut bolts.

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Thanks 100000% for this! Getting my BRZ ready for it's debut on the track and this thread was tremendously helpful.

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