I am planning on venturing out to some track days this summer, but I am a noob. I am a strong confident street driver, but we all know this has little to do with racing on a track. I would like your input as to which tracks/events in the GTA are good for noobs. Which tracks have runoff areas, and minimal things to crash into if I happen to go off track.

I have a 2004 Roadster, non-brembo, and I have read the base brakes are severely insufficient. I am thinking about purchasing a BBK (wilwood factory - their purchase/maintenance costs to performance ratio seems attractive,) to minimize any surprises when braking. Do you think this is unecessary? Or should I just use the stock brakes for the first few times out? I know I will have to upgrade my fluid, pads and rotors if I go with the stock brakes, so I figure might as well just put that money towards the BBK.

Thanks in advance for the advise!

 

whats up timmywhatsup.

For tracks, I would recommend TMP. You can get out on a wednesday or friday night for $60, or all day on a weekend for about $100 (a few hours is more than enough though). Plenty of run off, really only one turn to get into trouble on.

For brakes, to be very honest, change your fluid and go out. Take it easy, let the brakes cool, and you will be fine. When you get more serious, throw more serious pads on. I used to track with stock-stock-stock and yes they would fade after a few laps, but its not a sudden drop and its just the fluid boiling.


Don't get hung up on modifying for the track until you are addicted. You will find out what the car needs just fine. If you are just doing a few laps at a time (5 or less) and are not driving the **** out of the car, stock brakes do just fine.

 

Thanks GT-Rob!! Actually, before I hit the track, I need to come see you to have my alignment done. Do you install rear camber kits, or should I get it installed before I come? I already have the kit, but am just waiting to put my car back on the road as soon as I'm confident winter is REALLY over!

 

I don't install things, only REMOVE things haha

Take it to scott at Can-Alignment, he will install and align it for you. Just tell him what you want to do with the car and he will set it up right!

http://www.canalignment.com/

 

Oh sh*#!! Sorry. Lol that's who I thought you were. You must have posted in that thread? Thanks for the info anyways! I will be making an appointment with Scott in the near future.

 

GT is right, use stock setup first. If you dump all this money into your car with mods then go out you will have no base line to go by. Its best to start with stock and slowely upgrade with what the weak things are in your opinion. To bad you got no brembo, i personally would do that before suspension. :-) its scary when you push an extra 3 laps and by then your fluid is boiling and brakes are smoking

 

I've already installed h&r coilovers a few years back, when I wanted to improve the looks and have a little tighter setup around town. I've always had an itch to check out some track days, and now that she isn't pristine anymore, I'm going to give it a go. I guess I'll start out on my stock brakes (upgraded fluid) and take it from there. Thanks slot guys for the help.

 

http://www.torontomotorsportspark.com/raceway/adt.html

Gerry has some great instructors and I believe they'll consider a roadster - not all instructors will go out in a roadster. I encourage having an instructor to get you going right from the beginning.

 

This is excatly what I did and it was well worth the money to have a coach, great experience.

 

Cool looks good. It's quite a bit cheaper than I had anticipated. Theres really no reason not to do it at that price.