Proximity to 3 world class tracks was one of the top reasons I wanted to live in the Bay Area. I’m headed back to Laguna at the end of August with Hooked On Driving. I’ll get to try out my Recaro seat and harnesses.
On Saturday one of my buddies dropped his passenger rear tire off the track resulting in a blown tire and bent rim, (there was a bit of a ledge where he dropped it off). Sadly he went to great lengths on Saturday to secure a new tire only to find out Sunday morning that his rim was bent and he was done for the weekend (he only got 2 sessions on Saturday, bummer). He had to have his car towed out.
This really has me thinking about purchasing a 5th wheel/tire to take with me as a spare. I was also at a track 4 hours from home for this particular event which emphasized the possible need for a backup.
Haha ok let’s all stack em up. I think we have pretty awesome track options where I am.
World Class (eg technical with interesting undulating terrain, some high speed sections and ideally fantastic facilities)
- Grattan 2 hours (technical gem known amongst mid-western enthusiasts - but shit facilities)
- Mid-Ohio 3 hours
- Mosport 5 hours
- Road America 8 hours
- Watkins Glenn 8 hours
- VIR 9 hours
Maybe World Class
- Putnam Park 5 hours - heard this place is pretty great but I don’t know much about it, don’t see major race series going here
- Corvette Museum 8 hours - new track that I’ve heard is really cool
Good Enough
- Gingerman 2 hours
- MIS 1 hour (never been here, but heard they do a cool infield section for chump cars)
- Autobahn Country Club 4 hours (will probably never go here, but lots of DE’s there)
Shit
- Waterford Hills 40 minutes (might be fun in a miata or something you wouldn’t mind balling up).
I argued with Boro about this…he thinks it’s not worth the extra hassle/costs. Plus every time you need buy a new tire set the cost goes up.
I don’t get how you guys drive your daily driver to a track that far away, then rape it over the course of 1 or 2 days, and then drive it back. Seems a recipe for disaster and I’d be paranoid about getting stranded/stuck like your buddy. Riding across half a state with a tow truck driver isn’t my idea of a sunday. If I got into that scene, I’d end up owning an avant with a full suite of parts in the back when I went. Or a little trailer. Or more realistically, a track car.
2:30 to Laguna Seca. 2:30 to Thunderhill. 45 minutes to Sonoma Raceway (Infineon / Sears Point). 4 hours to Buttonwillow, which is barely worth it unless you are very bored of the other 3.
Ya’ll need to stop making me jealous, those are some seriously amazing tracks right at your doorsteps! Okay, putting my list together …
COTA - 2 hour drive ;D <— Can’t wait to drive this track!
The rest are quite fun but not world class by any means:
MSR Houston (to be re-engineered and upgraded soon)
Motorsport Ranch Cresson
Texas World Speedway (sadly this track is closing down in 6 months or so)
Harris Hill (small private track)
Trust me, every-time I was approaching the spot where my buddy went off I was thinking about that in the back of my mind. Luckily he lived 30 minutes from the track and his fiance came to pick him up. I also had a full suite of tools on me, jacks, jack stands, brake pads, etc, but no tires, and realized my priorities were mis-placed. Tools can be borrowed while tires/pads/rotors can be hard to find on the weekend. I also thought about a little trailer to hold wheels/tires/parts/tools on. Going to look into that a little more.
I always bring one of my street wheels in case something happens like above. The wear/tear is mostly on the brake system and tires, hence why most of us have dropped relatively significant coin on BBK’s. You can fit quite a lot of tools with the seats folded down. Not to mention lots of guys there will help wrench or supply tools.
But yea, a tow back is definitely within the realm of possibility. A friend of mine with a WRX oil starved his engine in turn 3 at grattan and needed a 2 hour tow home. Then after rebuilding his engine, he fuel starved the car on the same track while running very high boost, caused significant engine damage and he limped home with his engine in 2 cyl mode. Had to rebuild the engine again. But he loves it and we went to mid-ohio together not too long ago.
Tracking the DD is a gateway drug. Incredible how well these cars perform, feels great getting point byes from guys in all sorts of fast cars. A track car is ideal, but then the costs explode as you add a tow vehicle, a trailer, the space to store this shit, and now you have a car that never gets driven and presumably has problems because it’s an older car. I will eventually go this route (probably an e36 or e46 m3), but in the meantime, will enjoy learning and getting better at something that takes a tremendous amount of skill and knowledge.
And I can drive the GTI to work if real problems arise 8)
I hear you, tough call. I am also wondering if you want to mix a new tire in with some well worn tires and what effect that might have. Another (more expensive) option would be to buy two extra wheels/tires and throw them into your rotation. You are locking yourself into the same tires for longer when you do this though, but it could work and then your spares will have similar wear on them. YMMV.
I actually think it’s a good idea (having one extra, not two lol). You could just rotate this tire in with the others. The directionality should only matter in the wet. Would make rotations a little more confusing if you are trying to spread the wear relatively evenly.
Most guys I see run slicks/r-comps on the track, but drive there on their regular wheel setup. They change back to regular wheels if it starts raining. You won’t be stranded in this case, and you could just switch back to the street setup if something really bad happens to your track setup.
I was keeping a 5th tire in the trunk in case I had an issue. I found a nail in my tire the morning of a track day and had one of the garages mount my spare for $20. Saved the day. I don’t like patching track day tires, though they insist it is safe.
I spend a little extra modding than some and I’ve had a flawless record on finishing my track weekends without incident. Closest I came was driving home on 3 OEM brakes from Laguna at 55 MPH. No one wants to pay for a $600 tow truck ride.
This is the thinking most go through, I agree with this. I’d trailer my car if I was any further than TMP or Mosport, say to Grattan or the Glen or Tremblant or Calabogie. For west and those in the Bay area, having all those wonderful tracks 2 hours away is a cheap tow home when things go shit.
If I didn’t have the NSX I doubt I’d be doing this very often.
I spend so much time at TMP because there’s no commitment on my part - show up unannounced any Wed or Fri after work, have some fun, then go home by dusk. And it’s 40 min away from home or work. But it’s a shit track, for sure.
The final sentence was funny.
Your NSX seems like the evolution of this for people who are legit serious about it. It’s basically a track toy. A nice one. Seems some of the RS4 guys have moved on from their RS4s and recognize the physics isn’t with them for track days, so they’re buying E36 cars for the track. Or going the spec miata route and getting serious.
If I were a betting man, westwest has only been at it for a couple of years and will graduate to a track car before too long. Or will demote the S4 to full track duty and will run it with no bumpers.
I had to buy a car hauler trailer and I am currently looking for a good replacement truck to tow the trailer plus the S4.
The general rule that I use for how long it takes to be towed home from a track is two to three times the amount of time that it takes you to drive there so a trailer is almost required after a certain point. I will give you some examples from when I have been towed.
Time that it takes me to drive there/Time that it usually takes to be towed home:
MIR: 1.5 hours / 3 hours
Capitol Raceway: 1 hour / 2.5 hours
Atco Raceway: 3 hours / 7 hours
VIR: 4 hours / 7-8 hours
I’d like a Cayman GT4 with: lightweight battery, PCCB, bucket seats, radio delete, A/C add. $100,200 USD MSRP. As cool as that would be, the Boxster 2.7 with upgraded brakes and a Recaro seat would be just as fast for me and less than half of the cost. You have to be pretty fearless to drive a Porsche fast - there’s seemingly no limit to driving them flat out other than your personal preservation instinct. I’m not there yet.
I think I can do the 2016, 2017 and 2018 winter seasons in the Audi before I drive it into the ground. It’s going to be like an cheap pair of sunglasses that you never lose.
You don’t really believe that you won’t reach the limit in a Boxster 2.7, come on. Even the GT4. It’s a street car when it comes down to it, with street tires and thus a very definable and reachable limit. When I was at TMP on Friday, an ex-race driver Peter Lockhart was at Cayuga in a spanky new Cayman S, exploring the limits, and frankly he was running a similar lap and lines as me.
Reaching the limits on a cup car or something along those lines, where you’d have to be mindful of keeping the car, tires, brakes up to temp at a specified minimum, I’d understand.
No, I don’t think I could drive a Boxster 2.7 around Laguna Seca as fast as Randy Pobst (1:42:xx). Until then a GT4 would be a waste of money. The lap times amongst various trims of the 981 platform are less than a second apart.
OK!
I finally took the car out after all the work I’ve done to it this past season.
Not sure if many are familiar, but the video below is of Shannonville (long config).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwdzLzzgcvE&t=441
Fastest lap record in the video is 2:02.9 with passenger, and I’m chatting with him the entire time. The car sans passenger will be mid 2:02’s. Looking at the latest Ontario Time Attack results (a serious sanctioned body running time attacks regionally in Canada), I would have placed 1st in my class–beating out the next guy by something to the tune of 2 seconds.
All this with a full weight 4000lb sedan carrying a passenger…on very street biased coilovers (kw street comfort for goodness sakes) and street brake pads (TRD ones haha).
The car is a HANDFUL. I am fighting it the entire time. It’s really on edge, and it will snap from understeer into oversteer, back into understeer again multiple times in a corner. I wish I recorded my hands and feet because I’m really man handling the thing. But all that said, that is insane. Did not expect to do 2:02’s with this thing. For context, a TT RS on Hoosier A6s did 2:04 during the time attack. I am on street tires…245’s at that.
The car is great! I have a feeling I’m hitting the bumpstops though…