A day at the track

[shotgunslade]

Did a track day at Pocono yesterday. The SCCA event that TomsSVX brought to my attention. Great event. Well managed, good seat time, track not too crowded for us noobies. This is my fourth event, and I think I'm just about ready to graduate to the second level. No instructor, additional passing opportunities. I got a total of about 1 1/2 hours of seat time.

My instructor, Michael Torricelli, from Staten Island, drives a 94 Legacy GT turbo. Only mods are wheels, tires, brakes and coil-overs. He was able to hold his own with a number of faster cars, they'd pass him on the straightway, and he'd be in their trunk all around the infield road. He also used to have an SVX, took it to the track, and used to post on the network. He knows Porter.

Had a great day. Making a lot of improvement, beginning to explore just how much braking room I need for the corners, (which is a lot less than either your or I would think. It stops fast). See the track map below, I was hitting about 105 or so on the back straight at FS 7 (Flag Station 7) On the main straight, because I had the entire banked oval after the chicane to accelerate, I was hitting over 120 mph. Then bury the brake pedal to haul it down to about 60 to enter the infield road. Through the twisty bits, then nail the accelerator just after turn in to the hairpin (before FS 5) leading back onto the speedway. The chicane is also a hairy braking situation, because you have to get down to about 40 mph at the first apex (the map track below is incorrect the chicane is much deeper; its like someone grafted a hair pin turn perpendicularly onto the straight) Then nail the accelerator ( well before FS 8) and hit the exit apex back onto the speedway. On both entrys onto the speedway (from the infield road and from the chicane) I was well aware of acceleration understeer. Cranking in steering angle to keep from drifting into the speedway wall. In the hairpin, I'm doing about 35-40 mph, when I turn in and nail the accelerator. In the chicane, probably 40-45 mph. This understeer really slows down your acceleration, because the slip angle means that you're spending a lot of power pulling the front wheels sideways, rather than along your velocity vector.



Came in after my third session, and the rear brakes were smoking, then the car, which I had left idling, as recommended, overheated and blew a bunch of steam and coolant out of the expansions tank. Lost maybe a quart that I had to mop up off the garage floor. After my fourth session, I watched the temperature very carefully. It was OK until the session was over, and I slowed way down to pull into the pits. The needle then began to rise, so instead of parking it, I drove around the pits and even off the track campus at about 15-20 mph in 4th. Just keeping some air movement through the grille seemd to keep it from overheating, then after 10 minutes, I shut it down with no problem. So, for all you other racers, who have coolant blow back. After you do your hot laps, don't shut it down. Drive around 15-20 mph for 5 to 10 minutes to keep the coolant circulating and air moving through the grille. Mike suggested that I remove the grille before going on the track, which he said he used to do. Also recommended "Water Wetter" from Redline.

Was very pleased with how the old girl performed. Was dicing well with a couple of WRX's, an Infiniti G35 and a Volva 850R. On one bad lap, I had a slow exit off the chicane, and the black WRX pulled up to my bumper indicating he wanted to pass. So, I pointed him right, and, he drifted right, but couldn't pull up to me. My instructor suggested I back off to let him get around. So, I did, but stayed in his back seat for the rest of the session. Passed the g35 a couple of times, (don't think the driver was pushing it enough, or maybe he was just not very good) Since we can only pass on the straights, I had to outbrake him at the end of the main straight after he gave me a point around, because I didn't have the oomph to pass him at speed. I didn't have the oomph to get around the 850R, either, so I just followed him around for a number of laps. See photo's below.

[NikFu S.]

Need more "oomph", apparently.


I wish we had a track like that up here. ):

[Chiketkd]

Great write-up Dan!

It may be time to invest in a PWR aluminum radiator with its 25+% larger heat sink.

[mbtoloczko]

Remove the front license plate too.

[curly2k3]

nice... btw I love the rotas

[Chiketkd]

Originally Posted by mbtoloczko

Remove the front license plate too.

Agreed. That'll increase airflow to the rad!

[intelisevil]

Close the windows for better aerodynamics and open the sunroof to the first position for better downforce . . .

Sounds like a FUN day!

Dan

[SSSVX]

Dan, it looks very interesting!!! Glad to see you had good times.

How do I find out where is the nearest track to my location(26505) on the website? If there's any chance, I would love to go. I aint sure if I want to use my own SVX, maybe I need to do some upgrades first. Can we rent a sport car like mustang or powerful car to do AutoXing or to the track day? I figure it would be cheaper to rent a car than to break my car and need repairs haha.

Dan, do you think your car slows down faster that's partially because you have manual gearbox? I feel my yellow one (4.44) slows down alot of quicker than my teal one because of the gearings. I never take my yellow one to the track, of course, I think I'm kind of fast on the highways ...a few times, when there's the highway jams(accidents). I did notice that with my AC on(with AC off it performed better), when I slowed down, my Temp needle would rise up. It would really get close like 1/4 to H. What I did was I shifted to "N" and pumped my gas at 3000rpm for few minutes. Amazingly, the engine temp would go down to Normal(below half) in few minutes! I noticed this problem too when I drove up hills on the highways. A normal car shouldn't be like that, I think of changing my thermostat and cap and doing a good flush. (My coolant blew back to the reservoir too) ... I hope that will solve my problem. Do you think if you do a radiator flush that will help you?? Maybe there's also because your cooling system did not flow properly and you're running on the track!

Also, what kind of insurance coverage you need to have if you take your car to the track? Any requirements? If there's something happened either your fault or not, would you insurance companies cover this?

Thanks

[shotgunslade]

SSSVX:
There are a couple of good tracks fairly near you. Summit point is in northern WV near the MD border. Beaver Run is south and east of Pittsburgh. Virginia International Raceway is in south central VA. All of these tracks have track days run by various organizations. See the following website for a schedule:

http://vista.pca.org/jsr/jsrpca/dales.htm#jun03

Most of these track days cost between $180 and $250 for the day, to get you about 1 1/2 hours of track time. If you were to rent a car, I would say it would add between $250 to $1000 additional depending on the kind of car you rent.

No offense, but if you haven't been on a track, you really can't make use of a high horsepower car. I have eavesdropped on instructors joking about noobies who come out to the track with their new Vette. The noobies can't even come close to putting the power on the ground. They say, "Why don't these guys take it to the drag strip. That's all they're really interested in." It is just as much fun to go out with a "momentum" car and maximize your fun through precision braking and cornering. I was so impressed with what my instructor could do in his 94 Legacy. Riding with him was definitely a "pants-wetting" experience.

The stock SVX would be limited on the track by 2 things, the soft springs and the brakes. I have Kevlar ceramics on my fronts and semi-metallics on the back with Ben's drilled and slotted rotors. I also run Wilwood 570 brake fluid. When I came in after my third session, my rear pads were smoking. The automatic is not that much of a problem. When I still had the 4EAT, I just put it in 2 and it stayed in 2 until I hit 6400 rpm, no matter what position the accelerator pedal was in. That actually works out very well for the track. The 4EAT definitely suffers in acceleration compared with the 5MT, but there is a lot less to think about. Thank the stars for the 7200 rpm rev limiter on the ECU, I definitely hit it a couple of times when I was distracted by cornerning or passing or something, and forgot to shiftr.

Probably your insurance doesn't cover you for track days. If you break it, you buy it. But, I don't think there are any liability issues either. Unless you make a monumental and possible purposely screw-up, you would only pay for your damage and not that of anyone else involved. But, on the other hand, if they run into you...

intelisevil:

Must keep the windows open per track regulations. If it rolls, they don't want to have to break windows to get you out. Sunroofs must be closed also by regs. Don't think more downforce would help. I am most challenged for traction at lower speeds when I'm trying to put down power exiting a tight turn and I've got high slip angles because of understeer.

Chike and Mychailo:

Thanks for the advice on removing the license. Do you know of a source for a PWR radiator? I thought they were a custom buy a few years ago. Will try the Water Wetter, and the grille and license plate removal first.

Curly2K3:

Thanks, so do I. think I'm going to buy another set of Rotas, so I can have dedicated track tires and street tires, all of which will fit over SVXfiles big brake kit.

[Chiketkd]

Originally Posted by shotgunslade

Chike and Mychailo:

Thanks for the advice on removing the license. Do you know of a source for a PWR radiator? I thought they were a custom buy a few years ago. Will try the Water Wetter, and the grille and license plate removal first.

Sounds like a good plan Dan. Water wetter should definitely help as well as the grill and license plate remover.

In regards to the PWR radiator:

To order, call PWR directly at 877-656-9256 and ask to speak with Georgetta. Tell her you are ordering the SVX Aluminum radiator and that you're a member of the SVX Network which has done two group buys with PWR to date. They're running a special for members of $500 shipped (to anywhere in the main 48 states).

www.pwr-performance.com/

-Chike

[solarsvx]

great stuff !!! and great pics, looks like a blast ,

[shotgunslade]

Chike:

Thanks for the radiator source. By the way, I'm sure you got a chuckle from hearing that I had to lift to allow that black WRX to get around. Talked to the driver after the run, and he was saying "Didn't think at first that I could get around you." Then I told him that my instructor had suggested I back off to let him around. I think he was a little bit put off, because when I passed him earlier in the day, he didn't back off. We had a high speed drag race down most of the length of the main straight. Pretty exciting at 120 mph. Didn't really get around him until pretty close to the braking point. So my SVX is now in WRX performance territory. Thanks to you and young Tom for the cams. I'm sure they make a lot of difference.

[Chiketkd]

Originally Posted by shotgunslade

Chike:

Thanks for the radiator source. By the way, I'm sure you got a chuckle from hearing that I had to lift to allow that black WRX to get around. Talked to the driver after the run, and he was saying "Didn't think at first that I could get around you." Then I told him that my instructor had suggested I back off to let him around. I think he was a little bit put off, because when I passed him earlier in the day, he didn't back off. We had a high speed drag race down most of the length of the main straight. Pretty exciting at 120 mph. Didn't really get around him until pretty close to the braking point. So my SVX is now in WRX performance territory. Thanks to you and young Tom for the cams. I'm sure they make a lot of difference.

No problem. Hope everything works out for you.

Yeah, I got a chuckle out of that exchange with the WRX at the track. Was it the black WRX wagon in your pics or another car? Also was it a 5spd or 4EAT? If he was close to stock/ lightly modded, I'm not at all surprised as 5MT SVXs with your mods (cams & stage 2v5) are probably putting down between 190-200whp.

Nice going!

[shotgunslade]

Chike:

It was the black wagon. He was a stock 5MT. I think maybe 2003 or 2004. He didn't mention any mods.

[mikecg]

Crap, I need to goto one of these events. I'd be bouncing off the redline in 6th with the gearing I've got and the Stage III.