I was instructing with Edge Addicts. There are several groups that run out there, including Chin Motorsports, MVP, BMWCCA, Porsche Club of America, a few Ferrari Clubs, a Lambo clubs, and a couple others. Edge Addicts seems to be about as cheap as it gets at $499 a day.

I've seen more than a few roadsters out there but I've not been told the rules. For most HPDE's, roadsters are allowed if they have some kind of factory or aftermarket rollover protection (roll bar, Honda S2000 roll hoops, Mercedes SL pop up bar, etc).

 

I have done AMP, and my right front wheel bearing started making noise also. The only other issue was the stock exhaust was over the sound limit, so I had to wire the valves shut in the paddock.

 

I didn't get a chance to do AMP but a few of my friends have. I got black flagged at Road Atlanta for being too loud during church hours. But I knew where the sound meter was on the back straight, so I'd just let off the throttle and coast by the meter then get back on it

 

Some observations from last weekend:

I did a day and a half on the newly extended Jefferson Circuit at Summit Point. It's a very tight course compared to the main circuit, and very slow in comparison to Road Atlanta. Somewhat comparable to NCCAR but with more elevation changes and way, way bumpier. I hung out in 3rd gear almost the entire time on track. I lost time on the straights (didn't get passed because of it, though) but I didn't care because I wasn't going for time and going fast in a straight line is easy. The turns are the hard part on any course and Jefferson has a few really tricky ones, so I focused on those and used the straights to relax and collect my thoughts.

I've been running Hankook Ventus V12 Evo tires for the last few years and recently switched to Michelin Pilot Supersports. The Hankooks didn't have nearly as much grip as the Michelins. The good thing about that was I could easily rotate the car's rear end around tight corners with some throttle steering. It took me an entire day on track with the Michelins to realize that I can no longer do that. I tried the same technique on the new tires and kept plowing through turns because they've got so much grip in the rear that they'd push me through when I applied throttle. I had to completely adjust my driving style and the change all my lines for the new tires. If anything, the new tires forced me to take better lines and refine my driving - all good stuff.

I also had VelocityAP's 2-piece rotors installed and they felt great. No braking issues at all. Since it was my first time on Jefferson, as well as having had both the rotors and tires done at the same time, it's hard to pinpoint how much of an impact they had. That said, the car felt fantastic and carried its weight very well. I felt very comfortable holding my lines - especially on the second day when I changed my driving style - and had no issues wiggling the car through the tighter sections of the track. I was confident in my brakes going into corners and the car picked up speed quickly on exit. My instructor gave me numerous compliments on my braking, both in hard straight lines and modulating trail braking.

My fuel gauge stopped working a couple weeks ago and I haven't had time to get it fixed. I'm leaning toward a bad ground and hoping that's it because it's a quick easy fix. If that's not it, I probably need my sending unit replaced and that's neither quick nor easy. To be on the safe side, I filled up before hitting the track... which caused my car to stutter in my first track session due to fuel being sucked into the vent line (that's a well-documented issue with the V8V, especially early ones). After a couple small stutters at the beginning of the second session, it went away and was fine the rest of the weekend.

I started blowing power steering fluid out of my reservoir cap. I haven't pulled the cap off to look at the seal yet, but it's something to check. I'm guessing that it happened on the skidpad because that put a ton of strain on the steering system.

Speaking of the skidpad... holy crap. Traction control off + super wet skidpad = back end chaos. A thought on this: The throttle response in the V8V is very, very awkward. The first ~inch of pedal travel doesn't do much, then the engine revs up pretty quickly. So throttle on isn't linear at all. At lower engine speeds, this creates a burst of power - I've noticed this in a variety of situations. When you're on a soaking wet skidpad with the traction control off, that burst of power can kick the back end out rather violently. I've done plenty of driving with the traction control off in the rain and hadn't experienced anything like this, so I think it had to do with low-speed throttle response in conjunction with steering input (wheel turned, since we were purposefully causing over- and understeer). During normal driving in the rain, your car doesn't experience the awkward throttle response because it's happening while the car has momentum that keeps it from being effected. (Of course, I could be completely wrong about all that - Damn it, Jim, I'm a doctor, not an engineer!) I've got some toys and tires to get for my 4Runner before the snow hits, but after that's all sorted I'll be getting my car tuned - hopefully that will give me linear throttle response.

 

Great thread. Have you noticed any difference with the VelocityAP rotors on the street compared to stock? Do you feel the upgrade has been worth it?

Also, which pads are you using with them?

 

I doubt anyone would feel the difference in normal driving, but you can feel a little improvement when tossing the car around. The car does feel more responsive on track, which is where it really needs it.

I still had plenty of life left in my OEM rotors, but I snagged a set of VAP rotors during a sale because they were on my short list of things to do. I'm focusing on dropping weight from the car, so the rotors are ideal for that. But for most people (usually myself included), I'd consider the rotors a "maintenance upgrade" - when it's time to replace the OEM units, upgrade while you're at it. Worthwhile upgrade when your OEM rotors are still fine? Maybe - I'm happy with them but it's subjective based on budget. Worthwhile upgrade when you're replacing your OEM rotors? Definitely.

I'm about to switch out my pads for the Porterfield RS4 ones - I bought them with the rotors but never installed them as I wanted to burn off the remainder of the ones already on the car (they're still going strong now, even with a few more track days on them). For some reason I just can't remember what kind they are... food-coma-induced brain fart hahaha

 

Updated the first post, fixed the broken image links, and added a little extra info on wear and tear.

 

A few things to note from yesterday's track day!

There's a lot of discussion about the Porterfield R4S brake pads. Keep in mind, these are a street pad. I had them on my car at the track yesterday to see how they'd do. First off, the stopping power isn't nearly as great as a set of track-rated pads. There were only two spots on Summit Point that this mattered. The first was at the end of the front straight, going into turn 1. I could do 130 mph on this straight, but due to the limitations of the pads, I didn't go above 115. When I tried pushing beyond this, the brakes went soft. The second spot is diving into turn 5, which is a very sharp turn at the end of a downhill stretch that lets you carry a ton of speed. These were the only two places the pads limited me. Again - these are not track pads, they are street pads. With that, there was very little dust at the end of the day!

The extra few hundred RPM you get from a tune is fantastic to have. It's surprising how much of a difference those few extra revs make. Improved throttle response also helps, as you can better control what your engine is doing. As you guys know, my car is fairly well modified. It really showed on the track. I had no problem at all keeping up with a V8VS on the main straight, which is where that car should have been able to get away from my 4.3L car. I was also able to pass everything out there except a brand new Viper TA and 650S (obviously lol). A lot of it was due to lines and experience, but without the setup I have on my car, I wouldn't have been able to take the lines I was taking or push the speeds that I was.

I found a new spot to file away under wear and tear. The vent port for the plastic tube that goes from the left-hand valve cover to the top of the oil sump is seeping oil.





The oil is coming from between the valve cover and the flat plastic piece, not from the tube or quick-fit connector. It should be an easy fix, and oil loss is minimal without a noticeable effect on oil level.

Last thing... Safety is the primary concern at a track day. Last thing you want to do is put your car into a wall. Even so, things happen. And cars can go into the wall. Case in point...


I missed the tire wall by less than a foot. It was driver error - I took turn 9 too tight, the car got unsettled on a bounce when I went over the inside of the turn, and I slid out. Miraculously, the car came out entirely unscathed! Me, the instructor, and my car are all fine. After pitting out and checking over the car, we went back out on track and finished up strong but with a slightly more relaxed pace

It's worth noting that the last session is always the most dangerous - drivers want to get in their best times. I've never timed myself on a track (except for NCCAR, which was run in a time-attack format), so I wasn't trying to beat a record or anything. But I did take that turn too aggressively and this was the outcome.

 

Other than the one over aggressive turn there was some nice driving. Love to see these cars get out and spread their wings. We tend to baby them so much! Thanks for sharing your video!

 

Thanks! I'm proud to say that the video wasn't my best driving. I didn't mentally recover 100% after the spin, so I was a bit more conservative all around. The two sessions prior were phenomenal - definitely was in my zone for those

 

Oh boy, don't say your brakes went soft or that you passed other cars, people on this forum will jump on you and call you unsafe, just look at my track day thread and the crap I got for driving my car hard.

I have not had the same pad experience with you. I was running Portland International Raceway which is not hard on brakes and I went through probably 40-50% of my pad in one track day. Started the day with new pads and rotors and couldn't get more than 3 laps before needing to cool the brakes off. My home track has a 125 to 45 MPH front straight braking zone, then a tap of the brakes to go from 70-50 then a 70-30 and then on the back straight a 130-70 zone, not nearly as hard as a few of the others tracks i drive since its all flat as well.
I have the factory powerpack on my car but have not tuned it yet and have a set of 200 cell cats sitting in my garage so im excited to hear it make a big difference. I am hopefully taking my new Lambo out to the track on the 25th(weather dependant) so the AM has not been my focus recently.

 

Yes yes, I remember An instructor had recently been killed in an accident at a driving event, and I'm sure the other forum member was venting based on that. I was extremely lucky that my incident was without damage.

Before we started our first session, I told him that I was running street pads so I could test their limits (for you fine folks!). I made it clear that I'd be taking it easy on the front straight so I didn't have to worry about dropping ~80 mph from my speed. I expected that in turn 1, but found out from pushing the car in the technical section that the run into turn 5 had to be eased up as well.

To cap it off, I let him drive my car for a session so he could understand its particular characteristics - it's a porker and the brakes were the soft spot. We had excellent communication so we were both on the same page. Even when I went off, we both knew exactly what happened. The whole day was a team effort between my driving and his instructing, and we did great together.

I haven't checked the brakes since getting done at the track. I drove home, put it in the garage, went out to dinner, and didn't get home until this morning, at which point I showered and went to work. Running on 4 hours of sleep, so I won't do it tonight, but tomorrow evening I'm going to pull the CEL codes and go over the brakes to see how they held up. It'll be interesting to see if I burned through much of them because I was pushing them to the limits of my comfort zone.

 

Looks like a high speed track! After the spin, I think it's around 1:33 (give or take a couple of seconds) per lap. Smooth driving!

Over a week ago I was at Road America for a 2 day event. I used up the front R4 pads by mid 2nd day (total 2.5 days - 1 Autobahn and 1.5 Road America). Switched the front pads back to 90% R4-S. I was down to 35% after 3 20-minute sessions.

telum01 - which race pads did you use and how long did they last?

 

Yeehaa! Hope you brought some spare undies to that one... Seriously, looks like fun and I'm glad to hear everything/one is OK.

 

Looks like a fun track! Just the right amount of distance between track and barriers