CIVICXI *NOVICE* Track Thread!

[J_D]

Fun fact: SRF is rated as a Dot 3/4, so you can just leave it in for winter after the season is over. Assuming you didn't boil it over

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[MooMoo]

According to castrol SRF is good for 18 months

 

[drpleiades]

Sounds exactly like my progression. Funny enough I moved from motorbikes to cars to be more safe, and ended up getting more injured in the car lol

It translates really well, 4 contact patches is nice BUT cars can't touch a the feeling of a motorcycle. The high doesn't last as long

I went from a GTI to a B9 S4 for a few months and was like this isn't it (too big and heavy) and then got a Golf R. And then eventually a few 11th Gens

Darn! Yeah my idea the same I even have a race bike sitting in my garage that if I put back together I can take but I've been like.. dude you are in your 40's now... haha On the bike I only crashed twice and both were low sides. I never really really pushed that hard I was more a mid front of pack intermediate group guy.

In the car is it that you tend to push a little more with the mindset of "oh Im in a car it's safer" vs on the bike it's just open.
I can totally get the feeling of it and not having that feedback of sliding or that hard braking and the tail wiggling before dipping in.

Im sure fun none the less though, we shall see!

 

[J_D]

Question for you guys:
I’m about to swap front pads to EBC RPX
Rear pads to OE FK8.
My rear rotor is at 10mm thickness. Should I keep the same rotors and send it, or replace?

 

[MooMoo]

Question for you guys:
I’m about to swap front pads to EBC RPX
Rear pads to OE FK8.
My rear rotor is at 10mm thickness. Should I keep the same rotors and send it, or replace?

Min is 9mm so you are good

 

[Rhorn]

Nice finished my first Autocross event and wow, I SUCKED. I honestly didn't know that the cones were supposed to tell you where to go. I rode with an instructor but wow my goal was to just stay on track lol. My last 2 runs I got better and was able to piece everything together but was nowhere good enough to practice braking or anything like that. Last run was my only clean run with no penalties or going off the track. I was just trying to stay on the track lo

You get like 5 runs which goes by super fast.

There was a huge crowd I think there was like 100 participants which Im not sure is normal. At my track days there's usually like 15 or 7 people lol. So not at all used to the big crowd

It was so crazy to see people adjusting PSI and tires in between runs. I actually messed up the grid order because whenever I finished I went back in line and again instead of waiting lol. Im like wow I didnt bring anything. Way different experience than going to the track. I saw so many people tinkering with their cars and brought jack stands and everything. I was just like wow this is a serious crowd.

Its nice to do because I dont have to do a 4 hour drive like I do the track, so I can still have an afternoon once its over. Its also nice not having to shell like ~$800 which is one reason why I signed up and wanted to try it out. I was hoping to get some practice in, and do some hard breaking bit honestly I didn't really do any of that because I was too focused on trying to learn the track. There's no parade lap, and it takes hours in between the track walk so learning where to go was my biggest challenge lol.

 

[TW00Si]

Autox is a different beast. I’m surprised they didn’t explain in the morning what pointer cones are. I think I’ve heard the walkthrough of pointer cones to box to optional slaloms to how a cone flies up and lands at every AutoX I’ve been to. I used to have a sprayer to spray water on the tires. Serious crowd indeed.

 

[Rexpelagi]

Nice finished my first Autocross event and wow, I SUCKED. I honestly didn't know that the cones were supposed to tell you where to go. I rode with an instructor but wow my goal was to just stay on track lol. My last 2 runs I got better and was able to piece everything together but was nowhere good enough to practice braking or anything like that. Last run was my only clean run with no penalties or going off the track. I was just trying to stay on the track lo

You get like 5 runs which goes by super fast.

There was a huge crowd I think there was like 100 participants which Im not sure is normal. At my track days there's usually like 15 or 7 people lol. So not at all used to the big crowd

It was so crazy to see people adjusting PSI and tires in between runs. I actually messed up the grid order because whenever I finished I went back in line and again instead of waiting lol. Im like wow I didnt bring anything. Way different experience than going to the track. I saw so many people tinkering with their cars and brought jack stands and everything. I was just like wow this is a serious crowd.

Its nice to do because I dont have to do a 4 hour drive like I do the track, so I can still have an afternoon once its over. Its also nice not having to shell like ~$800 which is one reason why I signed up and wanted to try it out. I was hoping to get some practice in, and do some hard breaking bit honestly I didn't really do any of that because I was too focused on trying to learn the track. There's no parade lap, and it takes hours in between the track walk so learning where to go was my biggest challenge lol.

The attendance size is a bit on the larger side but not atypical. Locals usually are 80-100+, national tour events are 200-300, and the national championships in Lincoln are 1200-1400.

Autocross is definitely a different experience - it's far more methodical and technical than track stuff - things come at you in far more rapid succession, and you need to get it right on the first run without ever having driven it before - just a few course walks.

There are some very good track people who started out in autocross (ie, Randy Pobst), and often the transition from autocross -> track can happen relatively easily (I may be biased because I started at autocross myself, although I fairly quickly started doing a bit of both), but people who do lots of track stuff aren't always able to transition to autocross without some work. It's a great way to get very very good at precision and car control though.

 

[Vtec87pr1]

One thing I thought of that you may want to add to this (since we talked about it in the other thread ):

During a session, you may experience a yellow "Brake System" warning light on the dash - this is most-likely related to brake system temperature, and as long as your pads and fluid are upgraded you should be ok, just monitor pedal feel. This is very common a few laps into a session after you get more comfortable with the Type R. This light is not to be confused with the red "Brake" warning light, which could be an indication of low fluid or another issue, or the yellow "BRAKE" warning, which means the car in front of you is too slow.

So this its normal? or what's the reasson for it. I had the light came on multiple times on my first and second day on track.

 

[PointByPatrol]

So this its normal? or what's the reasson for it. I had the light came on multiple times on my first and second day on track.

It's normal

 

[svvitch]

So this its normal? or what's the reasson for it. I had the light came on multiple times on my first and second day on track.

It's just to warn of system temp. Since I assume you have upgraded pads and fluid you can ignore as long as pedal feels correct

 

[Vtec87pr1]

Ok thanks

 

[J_D]

IIRC there isn't a temp sensor either. It does some math based on deceleration and how hard you've pressed pedal in the session. With higher temp fluid no reason to worry.

 

[Rhorn]

The attendance size is a bit on the larger side but not atypical. Locals usually are 80-100+, national tour events are 200-300, and the national championships in Lincoln are 1200-1400.

Autocross is definitely a different experience - it's far more methodical and technical than track stuff - things come at you in far more rapid succession, and you need to get it right on the first run without ever having driven it before - just a few course walks.

There are some very good track people who started out in autocross (ie, Randy Pobst), and often the transition from autocross -> track can happen relatively easily (I may be biased because I started at autocross myself, although I fairly quickly started doing a bit of both), but people who do lots of track stuff aren't always able to transition to autocross without some work. It's a great way to get very very good at precision and car control though.

Thanks for the insight.

I went in blind so I really had no idea what I was getting into, way more packed than tje track days I've been too. The event organizer was SCCA.

I think what will really help me next time is bringing a notepad and making an outline of the track while doing the walk so I have some sort of reference. Because I didn't go until group 3 and I pretty much forgot the whole layout. Just seeing people do the track wasn't helpful at all without a reference.

The next date is June 8th for a different club so I'll be a bit more prepared for that one. Hopefully I can at least do my 5 runs and not go off track

 

[Rexpelagi]

Thanks for the insight.

I went in blind so I really had no idea what I was getting into, way more packed than tje track days I've been too. The event organizer was SCCA.

I think what will really help me next time is bringing a notepad and making an outline of the track while doing the walk so I have some sort of reference. Because I didn't go until group 3 and I pretty much forgot the whole layout. Just seeing people do the track wasn't helpful at all without a reference.

The next date is June 8th for a different club so I'll be a bit more prepared for that one. Hopefully I can at least do my 5 runs and not go off track

When I first started I would write down the course in a small notepad and highlight a few key cones (critical apex cones, slaloms, etc) - there's usually only 10-15 cones of consequence on the course, the rest you just drive through/around. Once I did several events I really didn't need the notepad anymore - 2-3 course walks and I could run the course in my mind as many times as I needed (which is a common prep strategy for many national level drivers). It just comes with experience, as there's only so many unique elements and once you have seen them a few times you can string them together in your head.

If you can't run the course in your mind after your walks, do another walk.

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