Tips and tricks for surviving the HPDE experience

[Gairloch]

Here are just a few things off the top of my head I think it's valuable for people new to HPDEs to know. Please chime in and let's make a more comprehensive document!

Track newbies; please let us know what you learned when you do finally burst your track cherry and we'll make that available to others also.

Just soes ya`all know I have been running HPDEs with NASA Midwest since 2006 and other smaller clubs in the upper midwest since 2003.

• Make sure you get plenty to drink, especially if it's a hot day. If you get dehydrated it will impact your ability to focus and gaps in attentiveness are what lead to most track incidents.

• Be very aware of how you're feeling. Track driving is a lot more tiring than most people realize and towards the end of the day when you're getting a little punchy and feeling comfortable on the track is when bad things happen.

• Tech your car out yourself before the event. Put it up on stands and inspect the brakes, suspension, tires etc. Do this a few days before the event and don't try to do anything major to the car the day before the event.

• Your first lap on the track take it easy and do some reconnaissance. Find all the corner workers and give them a thumbs up. Make a habit of looking for them every lap and you'll stay out of trouble with race control. KNOW WHAT THE FLAGS MEAN!!

I'll add more as I think of it.

[baktasht]

Very good post.

[Sylvan]

Make sure you hit the bathroom before you go out on the track. Especially if you've been drinking a lot of coffee to keep you awake for the long drive to the track in the morning. Having to take a leak when you're driving hard is not good.

Also, make sure your car looks halfway decent or you'll face the wrath of the management. I was told not to come back until I got a paint job!

[mopwer]

Originally Posted by Sylvan

Make sure you hit the bathroom before you go out on the track. Especially if you've been drinking a lot of coffee to keep you awake for the long drive to the track in the morning. Having to take a leak when you're driving hard is not good.

One word for you, Depends.

Greg

[adrian_irwin]

Good brake fluid and if you're on stock pads, a spare set. The fluid is key though, as once enough heat has been put into the system to cause significant fade, it takes a long time for everything to cool back down.

On that note, you may want to try and park the car for a while when the trackday is *done*, just to let your brakes (and everything else) come back down in temp.

*Edit* A few more things:

A big golf umbrella to hide under when you're not driving. I think there's a law somewhere that says the amount of shade available at a track is inversely proportional to the power of the sun that day.

Duct tape, especially for the turbo guys. It sucks to head home early due to a blown hose. Going around a rad hose or a intake house that's starting to fail with about 10 layers of tape can generally get you through anything...

Gloves. Both a nitrile/latex inner layer and a leather outer layer. If you're poking at things, they tend to be either hot, covered in fluids, or both.

A container to bleed your brakes into. Glass with a lid that seals, or a bleeder bag from speedbleeder.com.

[mopwer]

Great info, guys! Keep it coming!

Greg

[kbrew8991]

eyes up and "two feet in"

[adrian_irwin]

Don't bring your 'nice' tools, get the cheap sets from Canadian Tire/Wal-Mart or wherever else. They may still wander off, but this way you aren't going to miss them.

[Sylvan]

Originally Posted by adrian_irwin

Duct tape, especially for the turbo guys. It sucks to head home early due to a blown hose. Going around a rad hose or a intake house that's starting to fail with about 10 layers of tape can generally get you through anything...

That's the truth... one of my radiator hoses burst in the engine bay the last time I was on the track
The rip was about 5 inches long, so I pulled the hose off and wrapped that sucker with half a roll of duct tape, and made it to a Kragen about 10 miles away to buy a replacement hose

[Gairloch]

A trick that I picked up at the track last season. If you have an intercooler hose that keeps popping off you can make it stay in place by spraying hairspray in where it contacts the metal.

[PETC]

Originally Posted by Gairloch

A trick that I picked up at the track last season. If you have an intercooler hose that keeps popping off you can make it stay in place by spraying hairspray in where it contacts the metal.

Interesting...

[pothiawala786]

Now this is just what I've heard, but I've heard after a quick lap of heavily using your brakes, you shouldnt use your e-brake when you park the car, since it can cause warpage. Is this true?

[kbrew8991]

Originally Posted by pothiawala786

Now this is just what I've heard, but I've heard after a quick lap of heavily using your brakes, you shouldnt use your e-brake when you park the car, since it can cause warpage. Is this true?

absolutley

warp rotors, crack them, or "weld/bond" the pads to the rotors could potentially happen

[mopwer]

Question, I'm getting ready to run at a DE and will be on street tires, Falken RT615 with about 500 miles on them (215/45r16 / 235/40r17 F/R), I have adjustable front camber plates, should I leave them at the street setting or should I go ahead and set them in? Street setting is about -1.5 deg. camber and with them set in, its at least -3 deg. camber.

Of course, I would get better straight line braking on the street setting but better cornering with the track setting. Thanks.

Greg

[kbrew8991]

run them as is and see how the handling is, your first event you'll be working up to speed

I'd probably aim for neutral or understeer, its safer

[Gairloch]

Originally Posted by mopwer

Question, I'm getting ready to run at a DE and will be on street tires, Falken RT615 with about 500 miles on them (215/45r16 / 235/40r17 F/R), I have adjustable front camber plates, should I leave them at the street setting or should I go ahead and set them in? Street setting is about -1.5 deg. camber and with them set in, its at least -3 deg. camber.

Of course, I would get better straight line braking on the street setting but better cornering with the track setting. Thanks.

Greg

Just so you know, neg3* camber is a lot and might be enough to cause the car to be prone to oversteer, depending on how you have the rest of the alignment set up of course.

I can appreciate how you want to be smart about how you go about things when you are getting started but really start with the car in it's streetable configuration and go from there. This way you won't have any surprises in how the car behaves, you won't run into problems because you're changing stuff just before you stress the hell out of the car and if you treat it as a baseline you can adjust things from there intelligently.

Which club are you running with? Have fun and please let us know how it goes!

[mopwer]

That's what I needed to know. Thanks a lot, guys!

Greg

[mopwer]

Originally Posted by Gairloch