Hi All,

Thought I would share my experiences with my first ever track day. The way it came to be was pretty interesting. My friend was encouraging me to sign up for this track day on 18 Sep, but I kept blowing it off =P Anyway, a week away from the track day, my friend tells me that he signed up but couldn't go because his car was still in the shop (took longer than expected to paint his car). So, I was like what the heck, I'll go. I'm glad events worked out the way they did.

Info about my car: 2006 MT - All stock, 5w20 Castrol coventional oil, Hankook Ventus S1 Evo tires. Didn't put any premix in the car.

We head up to the streets of Willow. Every group got to run a total of 6 sessions, 3 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. The morning sessions were nice because the temperature was relatively low. However, by the third morning session, the temperature was a little over 100 degrees Farenheit. After about 3-4 laps around the track, the temperature needle would start to dance around (slowly creeping up in certain sections and creeping back down to normal in other sections). I kept a good eye on the temp gauge and made sure it never got too high (no more than 2 or 3 pegs past the middle).

Everything with the car held up great! I was really impressed with the Hankooks. They held up well for picking them up at $100 a tire. The entire morning session they did great. During the afternoon session, after 3-4 laps, they got greasy from the intense heat and I noticed that it induced understeer. The brakes held up great. I knew my pads were fairly low before the track event so I made sure to abuse them because I was planning on replacing them afterwards anyway. I ended up replacing them at the dealer ($190 for front OEM pads and remachining of the front rotors). My thought process was, if I do more track days, the lifetime free pads would pay off. The OEM pads also felt great the entire time, never felt any fade. On the track there were two straights where I would reach speeds of 90+ MPH and slow down to either ~40 MPH or 60 MPH.

Half the time I ran without traction control and half the time I did run with traction control. The Rx-8's traction control if very un-obtrusive. It only saved me from mistakes that would've sent my car spinning. While running without it, the car was very compliant. It was easy to tell when I was reaching the limits and correcting myself was as easy as applying a little bit of counter-steer and decreasing throttle input.

Overall, the track experience was amazing. It has given me a great appreciation for the 8 and all the engineering that has gone into this amazing car. Also, the rotary engine was great. In those few sections where you have to choose between shifting up or staying in gear (sacrificing acceleration) because a corner is coming real soon, you could just stay in gear and bring the RPM's up to 10k =)

Looking forward to going again. This time I'm considering getting an extra set of wheels to put a dedicated set of track tires. Also, something nice I noted were the fastest people on the track had cars that looked stock. Most their modifications were, Tires, Suspension, and a half had wings. Also, after the track day, I've lost all desire to drive aggressively on public roads - a good thing!

 

It's good to read about your experience. I'd like to do a track day sometime, as I haven't really pushed my car to the limits, and don't know what it is fully capable of. Excuse my ignorance, but how did they handle a group of cars in a limited amount of time? Do they let one guy start and wait a while before the next guy goes? Or does everyone have it to themselves for a little bit?

Also, what group did you join to do it? I think I've looked at Willow Spring's website before and remember seeing some days where you could join a group after paying a certain fee.

 

^ usually the whole group goes at once.

op, glad you enjoyed your first experience. be careful now; it's addicting..

 

Depends on how fast you want to go, it can get expensive real fast.

The only thing I recommend is run thicker oil and flush your brake lines. The RX-8 is pretty slow, so it doesn't use up much brake pads. I would just flush your brake fluid to make sure there are no air in the lines

 

They split all the drivers into 4 different groups. Beginner, Intermediate Slow, Intermediate Fast, and Advanced. The whole group goes at once. In Beginner-Intermediate Fast, passing is only allowed on the straights while in advanced passing is allowed anywhere.

I think the sponsoring organization was HPDE? I'll have to find out from my friend again. I think he came to the know about it via the S2ki forums.


Also, thanks for the tips - I plan on replacing the brake fluids on the 8 very soon!

 

Thanks! Yes... I can tell that it is very addicting... I'm only planning on wheels and tires for upgrades

 

What!

You don't want a ticket like our other So. Calf member for 408 bucks doing 80 in a 65 zone? ?

I am ashamed of you..............

 

lulz razz :P

 

lol

 

If you can swing it (and expect to do more tracking in the future) I would suggest you get a separate set of dedicated track wheels, race pads and rotors (short of a BBK).

This makes a world of difference when you eventually push your car to the limit.