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my first track day with my 05 lgt limited wagon


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Gonna look great on your blue leggy!

 

oh yes! i am building my dream daily driving car (with a budget)! perfect to grab groceries, hit the track, take the wife out. the best platform for defensive driving to protect the new coming baby...

 

i know you guys want me to take baby steps... but will you have a cow if i told you this a stepping stone to my next brake setup? hahaha... i could possibly have another set also painted and rebuilt with mine? here is a teaser!

IMAG0105.thumb.jpg.8b677c4b41f1010fc82778d0fcc054cb.jpg

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oh yes! i am building my dream daily driving car (with a budget)! perfect to grab groceries, hit the track, take the wife out. the best platform for defensive driving to protect the new coming baby...

 

i know you guys want me to take baby steps... but will you have a cow if i told you this a stepping stone to my next brake setup? hahaha... i could possibly have another set also painted and rebuilt with mine? here is a teaser!

 

Shameless plug for my budget dream build for under $4k. Stg 3 spec.b with maxed out suspension and drivetrain, labor included. It is possible to build your dream car and not blow the bank.

 

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/my-2008-spec-b-dd-and-track-build-budget-149616.html?t=149616

 

Those 6 pot brembos look amazing =)

 

I was able to watch some of your videos last night, nice driving. I like the view from the rear passenger window, the height on the window was perfect and allowed you to see the burm on the right side. The only feedback i'd give is 2 hands on the wheel except for the half second your shifting, keep on using all of the road to track out on turns.

 

That reminds me, your steps are slightly off (just in case someone tries to replicate it on track)

 

how to get good lap times follow these steps:

 

1. shift into gear for turn

2. brake

3. turn

4. accelerate

5. repeat

 

don't mix steps. do only 1 at a time.

 

1 should be brake, 2 should be shift. Can't downshift if you're at the top of a gear. You might blow a gear.

 

1 step at a time is highly recommended for learning to track. Eventually, you will need to learn how to mix them all to get faster. 1-3 will be mixed via heel toe (brake, downshift, start turn, then slight trail brake to help with the turn). You can take advantage of your later sessions to learn how to heel toe . If you don't have strong brakes that allow you to go deeper into turns, and you're spending time braking early to allow time to shift, that's .5 second per turn saved just from shifting, plus the additional speed/distance you gain from braking deeper. The next step to learn is how to pitch the car a lil more on entry so you can accelerate sooner on your exit line. I wouldn't try this until your line at the track is muscle memory.

 

It's debatable how much slide affects speed. The opposite sides are "Drifting is slow" and "if you're not sliding, you're not pushing it". trying to get an exact angle of optimal pitch is something beyond any of us without a racing license. One way it kind of applies is if your tires aren't showing any wear near your "wear line", you can push it a lil more. There's an arrow on your tire that marks the "top" of the side wall and the tread begins. If you don't see tire wear anywhere near that line, you're slow in your turns somewhere. If it's below the line, you're either off with tire pressures, or over driving.

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Just to build on the 2 hands on the wheel thing, one of the things the instructor is had really pressed on me was to move closer to the wheel. He told me that the heal of your hand should be touching the wheel and your shoulder blades should still be on the seat back. Sitting like that really gives you great control over the wheel and you won't have to shuffle your hands on the wheel.

2003 Baja 5MT

2016 Outback 2.5i Premium w/Eyesight

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That reminds me, your steps are slightly off (just in case someone tries to replicate it on track)

 

no i think you are right!!! i messed that up. sorry... again, take all my info as i am beginner!

 

Just to build on the 2 hands on the wheel thing

 

yes, i was told no leaning forward and elbows make a 45 degree angle. you are able to turn almost a full turn with 1 hand and no shuffling.

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hot, hot - what was your pressure again?

 

40 and thats mostly from me trying to put down full boost on the skidpad and the bowl.

 

nice, looks like time for some new rubber

 

I'd say I can swap the fronts and rears and get one more weekend/2 days out of them. What to get next, what to get...

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Tires as requested...

 

okay, those don't look bad at all! alittle weirdness... but nothing really bad. looks like they will be my next choice for sure!

 

oh, i forgot to say... baby wipes from costco! they are a life saver! pretty much can clean off my hands before entering my tan interior with out any dirty hands....

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  • 1 month later...

OP: great job running a wagon on the track. I'm wholeheartedly in favor of that, especially when you pass something like that Mustang.

 

Tires: Skip the KDW2 step, been there, done that, have the shredded shoulders to prove it. The Super Sports are a much better tire (not $88 tho) and will grip very well..at the limit, you'll get a warning squeal then they start to lose grip.

 

Tire size: a 235/45/17 KDW or BFG R1 fits nicely on a 17x8 wheel without rubbing, even when lowered. 225/40/18 Michelin super sports fit well on a 18x8, too.

 

Tire pressures: Until you move into a race tire (BFG R1), your front hot pressures are going to be in the mid to high 40's. On the outsiside front tire (CCW=right, CW=left), you going to have the highest pressure. When I ran KDW, the outside front tire was 50 psi heading out for a session. Depending on how much roll you get (check the wear lines vs the small triangles on the side wall - the wear line should just the point of the triangle), you'll want to add a PSI at a time. YOu'll likely end up with a different number for each tire. As tire pressures can have a dramatic effect on handling, bring a notebook/computer to the track. Record the weather & track conditions, starting pressures, and ending pressures of every session. After a couple of times, you'll start to get a feel for it. I used to use white tire chalk and write it on the fenders above the wheel as soon as I got off the track, then log it back in the pits.

 

Tools: You have a good list going.

- Add a roll of racer tape (like duct tape, but removes without much/any residue and holds at 100mph).

- a micro fiber hand towel (I keep one in the center console to clean my visor one last time).

- a higher grade tire pressure gauge will give you more consistent reading. That said the $2 gauge from Harbor Freight was consistent for me. Consistently 4 psi less than the professional $250 Long acre gauge, but still consistent.

- a 12volt cigarrette lighter powered air compressor. You dont need an expensive one nor a quick one, as you are only adding a pound or two.

 

Go Pro mounting: Depending on what you are trying to learn will change your mounting point. If you have a cell phone with video/logging, you use both and get better data. Mount the cell phone to the right of the rear view mirror on the same level. Mount the Go Pro on the right side rear passenger window pointing over your shoulder and out the left of the car. Set it to wide angle & 720P, 30 frames. Granted this works much better on a CCW track, than a CW track. However, the cell phone mounted forward will pick up those details. If you wear contrasting clothing (black & white) especially with whitish gloves, you'll be able to see more details about you are doing. I have put white tape patches on my knees & toes to pick up more detail on video (this is extreme and done more to highlight a specific issue).

 

Camber settings: Your settings seem backwards to me. Having high negative in the rear will produce more twitchy feel in the rear. Setting the front as a negative as you can get (as close to -3 as you can get) will help with your turn in. Setting the rears back to -1 or -1.5 will reduce the tendency for the tail to get loose. Adding a soft bar in the back will help, too (soft being double the stiffness of stock).

 

Brakes: brembos are not the answer. But you bought them already. The answer to brake fade is cooling the brakes. The solutions vary from dryer hose to special aeronautical hoses. However, the end result is the same. If you can get cold air from the front of the car to the discs and the hub you'lll get much more life out of your brakes than any other change. Without cooling, I was averaging 1400 degrees on the front rotors with DBA4000 rotors and Hawk DCT 70 pads. With cooling, it was down around 800 (barely above the minimum for the pads). I also was able to get more than one weekend out of a set of hubs.

 

Brake Pads: I'm a fan of Hawk pads, so take this as you want. HPS is a good street pad (although after driving race pads on the street for 8 months they seem soft to me). HP+ is probably a good range to be in with street tires on the track, especially if you have brake cooling. If you have made the step up to race tires, get race pads.

 

Driving Instruction: If you are in the novice class and dont have an instructor in the car, you're with the wrong group. Novice learn to be "not-Novice" by getting instruction. Ask for an instructor every time you can. If you dont click with the one you have, pull in and get another one. Sometimes you'll have a personality conflict. Dealing with conflicts by sucking it up is one thing standing around, quite another when you're going 120 into a 90 mph corner.

 

Even when you "get out" of Novice, get an instructor at least one session every time you go out. You'll always learn something new. There is always somebody faster. The more you ride with them and they ride with you, the more you learn.

 

My driver coach's favorite saying is "perfect practice makes perfect". When you are starting out, you dont know perfect from not. Any lap that is not perfect and not corrected, gets logged into muscle memory as good enough. Enough "good enough" laps and you'll always be slow. A "good enough" driver in a fast car vs a "perfect" driver in a slow car will always lose.

 

Watching the videos with the data logging you get from your phone, especially with a gps map overlay will tell you alot about how you are driving. RaceRender2 will pull in all your data & video and output a single video with the data overlayed. Watch until you know everything you did right and those things you could do better. Show to other drivers or instructors and ask their opinions (like you did here). Next time on track, work on fixing the issues you identified. If you get an instructor, tell them what the issue is and ask them to help you work on it.

 

Lastly, be careful of making changes to your car just because somebody else is faster than you and they have that part. Learning to drive your current car very fast takes work. If you skip the "work" step, you'll end up with a "fast" car that you'll have trouble driving at its limit. If you think you are going as fast as you possibly can, get an instructor to ride with you. If they get out and tell you are pushing the car as hard as it will go (pretty much a steady squeal from the tires from being at perfect slip angle), then its time to upgrade.

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There is a limit to what you can learn from comments on a forum. The best bang for your buck is repeated participation in instructional track events on real road courses under the supervision of qualified instructors. There is a string in the Motorsports section of this Web site that lists clubs that offer good training. Since I'm here though...

 

  • Heel and toe can be learned on the street. Make heel and toe (and left foot braking when no need to downshift) your normal driving technique.

Here are may favorite words of wisdom about racing...

 

  • Novice drivers enter slow turns too fast and fast turns too slow.
  • A car is not an instrument that a driver uses to demonstrate his skill. Rather, the driver is a tool that enables a car to reach it's potential.

Sorry for the pontification.

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It's not the Mustang driver's fault. He doesn't know any better. His car is 10 times harder to drive than the LGT and it shows. This is the type of shit that happens when novices go out on the track without instructors.

 

And I would drive circles around pretty much any LGT with my brother's Brembo Package 2012 Mustang GT. That whole Mustangs are only fast in a straight line mentality don't apply to the new 5.0s...and there are a lot out there.

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