All the guys / glas in HPDE Groups 1 2 and 3 with slicks, can easily be passed by and experienced driver with good street tires usually.
Its all about learning. Slicks make a beginner learn SLOWER.

 

this+3904720347

 

I laugh when people come out to their first ever HPDE on slicks.

 

GT3RS with Hoosiers, 1 track day exp. Or beginner group. VERY common.

 

My best advice: Shut up, listen, and drive.

 

Great advice. Many organizations offer instructors as an option, always take it!! Even the pros have ride along coaches.

 

I thought I'd post back let folks know how i got on, and was rather eventful and informative.

Lots of info so bear with me, hear goes:

1) I had trouble with camera set up. Firstly my B camera, a 1080p compact was attached to the rear windscreen on the inside looking fwd, except it fell off, presumably because where I had attached the suction cup, the heating element wires were crossing the windscreen and so affected adhesion. The camera lens got stuck and I was rather miffed with myself. So I thought F**k it, concentrate on the driving in the morning, and if you’ve got time in the afternoon to film, then fine. I’ve since read that a camera should be cable tied to a mounting point in the car, in case suction mount fails.

Also setting up camera mounts takes an age!! Do it the day before, they are fiddly and you always need to improvise a little. Also test them out. What I thought was my best mount (a cullman), resulted in a very shaky image when attached to the rear windscreen, when I reviewed the footage the following day, and there was an annoying rattle with it.

2) Towards the end of the morning session I felt the clutch pedal drop a little. I came in and let things cool. Then in the afternoon, 1st session out, with instructor, was giving it some beans, I felt the clutch again drop a little, he heard the clutch slipping and we let the car cool for a lap and then come into the pits. where i went from 1st to reverse gear and the clutch dropped completely!! I switched off the engine, engaged reverse then started her up and was able to park it up, and again let the Z cool for a good 45 minutes, after which the clutch was ok again. I managed 2 more (gentler) stints, and on the very last 2 laps of the last stint the clutch dropped a little again, not too the floor this time. Came in packed up, and drove back to London and clutch was fine.

I've been googling. And sounds like it could be a clutch master or slave cylinder issue, combined with the clutch fluid getting hot. HOWEVER I have noted I think I ride the clutch a little on track. Part of this is because I have to sit closer to have adequate control over the steering wheel, as no steerig rake adjustment, but this means as (I’m 6 foot tall) that my legs are more bent than I would like, and hampering my clutch and throttle timing, resulting in too much overlap, "i think". Now I know many of you regular trackers are probably 6 foot plus, and I agree that the underlying problem lies with myself, “I” have an issue, where I apply the throttle too early as I've changed up a gear, but I think its made a little worse by the seating.

4) The stock Brembo brakes on are NOT up to a full day at Bedford GT, which is 4.1 miles. The fronts were new OEM pagid pads, however they perhaps could have been better bedded in by me, in the week before. In the morning session as I started pushing on (max of 4 hot laps), I started to feel the brake pedal soften a little, no worries I came in. Front disc temps in the morning were about 210, in the afternoon about 280 deg C. But on my very last session of the afternoon, in fact I think it was the last lap, the peddle went pretty soft, and I could hear the brakes groaning, the pads had hit the metal wear tab & groaned all the way home! The following day I checked the inner pad and there is virtually no pad material left at all, and the inner disc surface has as a nice rusty lip.










At first I was disappointed by the brake performance of the Z, especially in comparison to the E46 330ci. But in fact it’s not a fair comparison. Firstly the 330ci has up rated brake bits: Goodridge braided hoses, Black diamond grooved front discs and EBC redstuffs and performed very well. Secondly it has only seen action at knockhill which is a short circuit at 1.3 miles, and then never a full day. Knockhill has only 2 hard braking zones from high speed, Bedford GT has 5-6! Lastly the 330ci is slower, hence will be approaching any corner at a slower speed so, the brakes have less work to do.

5) HURRAY, the 1st good point! Even though the brakes didn’t stand up well from a fade point of view, the bite, power, progressive feel and the not overly aggressive ABS system are all very good IMO.

6) Car turned in very well into a corner, doesn’t feel the same weight as the 330ci, I guess it must have a much lower COG, and double wishbones upfront help. If I pushed too hard into a corner or too early on the power midcorner the RE050’s let me know immediately they weren’t happy by understeering just a little.

After the instructor told me which fast corners i could go faster, I could feel the rear tyres “jittering” or “dancing” a little, without the TC cutting in, very nice. Towards the end I did a few laps without the TC and got the back end out on the hairpins, no major drifts just on the exit phase

Agreed with those that mentioned it, if an instructor is there, use him! I noticed a step up after my 2nd stint as i was learning the track, and then a BIIIG step up with the instructor, I was easily knocking time out of Merc SLK AMG through the medium & fast corners.

7) The rear tyre tread only went from about 3 mm, to just above the 1.6mm mark. I took my Michelin Supersports with me in case they needed fitting, but I’ve left it for now.

All 4 tyres went from 35 psi, up to 40, so i dropped the pressure, but strangely the following day all 5 were more or less 33-35psi????? some sort of thermal/chemical changes had taken place in the rubber?





As a result of dealing with brake & clutch issues, I wasn’t too enthusiastic about doing much filming, I didn’t even bother with the footwell camera, which in hindsight would actually have helped me identify “my” gear change issue. I have got some footage, so will see what I can put together in the next week.

But at the moment my priorities are the remedying the clutch and brake issues. So Plan of action which need done, within the next 4 weeks before my next event:
New discs - ordered DBA T3 4000 (PF overkill & overly expensive, and Tarox weren't that much cheaper)
New Pads - ordered Ferodo DS2500 (>Pagid RS29's 3 times more expensive!)
Braided hoses - ordered Goodridge hoses (supposedly better fit than HEL)

Brake fluid: RBF600, Castroil RF1000, or Super ATE blue
Diagnose clutch issue - for now i'm going to have the clutch fluid changed,if it happens despite this, slave/master cylinders will be next.


Laslty a photo of DIY shadow front alloys post track day!:

 

Brembo Are more then enough with proper pad/fluid

Your clutch problem is the slave cyl, very common on HR Zs.

 

+1, I'd have just changed pads, fluids and lines, but one of the discs is badly scored

On HR Zs, thats a gearbox out job isn't it? Its the DE engines that have the slave cylinder outside the box??

 

Yeah the slave in HR Zs are inside the trans

 

Clutch fluid change to the ones you mentioned should alleviate the clutch problem (if the slave isn't wrecked). Had the very same issue on my first event with an HR and OEM fluid. ATE Blue and I was golden for the next 7 events. I'd try that first before looking into replacing the slave.

 

Heat and high speed cornering will kill tires. Thats just the way that it is. I assume that these are W-rated tires?

Tire pressure is checked when the tires are cold. Set it and forget it. You can “paint” the sidewalls to see if the tires are rolling. Adjust pressure as necessary.

 

Ja, I too hope that uprated cluth fluid should solve my problem especially as clutch fluid reservoir has remained at max


I'd heard of looking for scrubbing on the side walls, but a dab of paint on the side walls is a sweet trick, Thanks

Yep, W rated RE050's. I think that cruddy stuff is just rubber picked up on my cool down lap as i finished up for the day, so i was driving off line to let other people by, as it looks like rubber sat on top of the actual tyre rubber.

 

my RS3's after A LOT of track days, around 20k street miles and couple drag burnouts

I believe that bad alignment led to this, as I haven't aligned it in a long while so my predicction is that it "lost" some negative camber forcing the tires to run on the outer strip. They always wore evenly except for the last event, the inside of the tire actually have plenty of thread left.

 

Forgive my newbie Q's, but am I right in thinking that isn't a tyre pressure issue because the sidewalls look in good condition?

 

I believe they were around 38-42 hot... I only checked them one though. I got a bit careless on those details on that last event. and the day was HOT AS F**K!