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Old 06-10-2005, 06:12 PM   #1
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Talking First track day

Did my first track day today, driver's ed, at Carolina Motorsports Park. Some random thoughts:
1. Wow. Double wow.
2. Grip. The box has lots, and lots, of grip. Much grip. The rear end takes a whole lot to break loose, and doesn't stay loose long.
3. The car is well balanced and linear. Fun to drive fast.
4. Gas milage is not so good on the track. I almost ran out. Started with 3/4 tank, never occurred to me that wouldn't be enough for the day. Check the gage before going out.
5. Dodged a turtle on the track (unscheduled). Turtle survived.
6. Only spun once. Maybe the back end will come out. Went in the grass - no damage. Did the both feet in. How do I get all that dust out of the interior?
7. Ran one set after a heavy rain. Wet track. New ball game, but still a lot of fun. Sumitomos did great on a wet track. Audi S4 was in heaven.
8. Got passed by the Audi S4. Neat car, and had an enjoyable talk with the owner afterwards. Tweaked engine - all wheel drive and an estimated 350 HP. No wonder he'd catch me on the straights. I could gain a little in the corners but lost more on the straights. 350>220. He enjoyed the rain. He also was on Sumitomos.
9. Similar with a Mustang GT - I could gain a little in the corners but lose it on the straight. V8 torque.
10. The carpet protective plastic seems to work. I plastered it over the front end. It came off ok - didn't see any damage to the paint but will wash it tomorrow and check it in daylight. At $10 for a 50' roll, it's not bad.
11. Great day, great comraderie. Lots of present and former Biritsh car owners.
12. What a car. Wow. Did I mention wow?

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Old 06-10-2005, 08:22 PM   #2
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WOW sounds like you had a great time!!!!!

WHat were the costs if you don't mind me asking??


Any additional insurance....

and more importantly...ANY PICTURES???
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Old 06-10-2005, 11:40 PM   #3
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It's best to race the car on a full tank of gas. Bring a container with you and top off after each run group.

I say that without knowing much about how the Boxster fuel tank is laid out. On my Eclipse, the fuel pickup is in the front-right corner of the tank and with suspension modifications it was easy to starve the pickup on high-g turns. Not a good thing!

And yeah, going off-roading sucks--all that dirt! It's like someone picks up a shovel-full and says "here ya go!"

Glad to hear you enjoyed it!
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Old 06-11-2005, 06:43 AM   #4
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Talking

If you are tracking, I would swap out the Mobil One 0W-40 for 15W-50 and change oil change intervals accordingly. The more you race, the more you change.

Might want to look at synthetic fluid in your trans also.

Lastly, might want to add water wetter to coolant, which must be fresh for racing.

But you knew all that, right!


Have fun and be safe out there!

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Old 06-11-2005, 06:49 AM   #5
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Cost was $200 for the day, all inclusive. That covered 5 outings at 20 minutes each, AND the instructor. Good deal. Solo is even less. Also had hour and a half of classroom before going out.

The folks at CMP run a good operation. Thanks to them and to my instructor Lynn Wike, who greatly improved my driving.

Does anybody know where to get the Tyco tape (looks like duct tape but ISN'T.) People used it to make numbers, also to proect edges of fender wells from stonechips. Easier to apply than the carpet protector. (Imagine holing a piece to sticky plastic 2 feet by 1 foot that likes to stick to itself. You can trap yourself when your hands get wrapped up in it - and I hated to ask my wife to unstick me.)

The plastic carpet protector worked. Pulled it off - was clean underneath. The one small area at the top of the wheel arches had some stonechips - shoulda gone all around the opening. But other than that and some tar, it washed up pretty good. Now the interior.... different story. Still trying to figure how to get the dust/sand out of the carpet. Vacuumed twice & some is still there. Might run down to the local car wash - their vac is more powerful.

Sorry no photos. I tavelled light since you have to take everything out of the trunks when on the track, & no where to store stuff. Although I found that all the folks with trailers were more than happy to share seats, shade tents, tools - very good crowd.

Wife did give me a little static about sleeping in the helmet the night before.
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Old 06-11-2005, 08:37 AM   #6
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You might want to look into getting some magnetic car numbers. Do a search on google and you'll find a lot of different guys selling them in many different styles.

It's a lot cleaner-looking than creating duct tape or shoe polish numbers!
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Old 06-11-2005, 05:31 PM   #7
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Here's my car at NHIS a couple of weeks ago, sporting my home made magnetic numbers. Bought the roll material at a local sign supply place - $12 for 3 ft (2 ft wide). Was able to get 3 ea (front and 2 sides) 3-digit numbers with still plenty left over. They were larger than those on most cars there.
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Old 06-11-2005, 05:58 PM   #8
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Brucelee - thanks for the tips, I was not aware. Summers here are VERY hot, and I noticed how hot everything was when I came off the track, even in June. I started with tires at 36 psi - after the first run they were 42-47 psi. I will probably skip July/August for that very reason - too hot for car and driver.

donv and eslai - I had bought 2 pieces of magnetic sign stock, but forgot & left them at the house. Also, the school assigns numbers randomly, PCA or SCCA events will have different numbers, so I was going to put the tape on the 1 foot square white blanks. For anyone, how do you get a permanent number assigned, with all the different clubs and cars out there?

Just finished an all day detail job. The protecitive plastic or tape is great - I had no damage to any of the areas I covered, only to the areas I didn't. Wonder what Porsche charge for touch-up paint. Does PPG or somebody have cheaper alternatives?

Finally got the sand out of the carpet. Quit using my shop vac and got the wife's good vac with all the right attachments. Took a while, but the sand is gone.
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Old 06-11-2005, 06:02 PM   #9
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Make Your Own Car Numbers for the Track

Here's a close-up of the numbers, off the car. If case anyone's interested in making your own, here's what I did:

Found a font I liked. Funny how many fonts have great looking letters and crappy numbers! Created a file on my computer with one number per page, printed them and then taped them together. Cut out the outline, but left a 1" wide strip to hold them together at the top and bottom edges. Cut out the interior openings between the numbers and the connecting strips.

Using the paper pattern, traced the inside/outside edges onto the magnetic material with a ball point pen. Cut on the lines with a regular pair of good scissors, being sure to leave the connecting strips.

Using a Sharpie (permanent fine point marker), colored in the "negative" of the numbers where the connecting strips were left and any places where it was too small to cut out the material.

Also created a few other numbers to add at the start or end of the 427 in case I'm not as consistently lucky in having the same number be open for each event. Ones use little material and a 6 can be flipped for a 9...
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Last edited by donv; 06-11-2005 at 06:04 PM.
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Old 06-12-2005, 10:15 PM   #10
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Very nice, although my preference is for numbers in a box like this:

http://protapesigns.com/images/71BSP.jpg

Follows along with a lot of club regulations.

Limoncello--a lot of groups that run HPDE days don't care what number you use as long as no one else has it that day. All of the ones I've ever ran with just let me register whatever number I wanted. It helps if you don't choose a common number of course.
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Old 03-27-2006, 08:04 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by limoncello
5. Dodged a turtle on the track (unscheduled). Turtle survived.
I love you man.....
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Old 03-28-2006, 04:15 AM   #12
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another easy method for numbers:

Michael's (art supply store) sells rolls of magnetic sticky sheet that are about 9" wide and 24" long. cut in half it makes two sheets, each about the size of a sheet of paper. print your numbers from your PC, peel the backing on the magnets, stick your numbers on and you're done.
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Old 03-28-2006, 06:54 AM   #13
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numbers

I broke down and bought numbers from a sign shop - magnetic ones. It was maybe $25 for the whole deal? I put yellow duct tape to keep them from peeling off. See photo.

Use only 200 mph rated duct tape!!!

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