Hard track use upgrades
 

I believe ceramics on AMG are much better than steel for track cars and I’m assuming that you’ll be buying a car used and turning it into a track beast.

There will be a lot more posts on this as weather warms and laps accrue

Been on the track and 1:34 is a hell of a time. Not a track rat not can't help you with your requests but I have talked with the guys that ran GT4 and GT3 and they ran their 2 hour race with no issues for the GT3 AMG. May be they use different brakes so I would recommend talking to AMG and ask what brakes they put on their race cars.

My experience thus far...
 

Rich, we're on the same page :y
This may be a great thread to consolidate track mods, setup and consumables.


I don't think the MPSC2 are bad on the street, even when cording them on the outside edge, due to soft rubber only being on the outside, allows you to drive home in the rain with the deep grooves left on the inside 2/3rds of the tires.
After 18 sets of experimenting with $2200+++ MPSC2's I got 19" forgelines with 295F and 345 Hoosiers form the track. The 21" are just a PITA.
Another good track tire is Bridgestone Potenza RE-71R used often by Porsche Cayman GT4 track rats, but not available in 991RS sizes, they only go 305 on 19" and 295 on 20" so that may work for the GTR
https://tiresize.com/tires/Bridgesto...nza-RE-71R.htm

For CCB rotor replacement, we can look into the rotors I run on the 991RS: https://surfacetransforms.com/
They can be refurbished up to 5 times as opposed to the Brembo's and we can run the endurance Pagis pads http://www.pagidracing.com/en/produc...sl/rsl-29.html as I am now. So just a matter of getting the right sizes hats made and get the right side rotors.
My rotors now on the RS are 420mm front and with special Forgelines there is only 1mm between caliper and rim and the top of the calipers are getting hammered with rubber and little stones off the track. The AMG GT R has 15.4-inch front discs with composite rotors (390mm) and ventilated 14.2-inch rear discs. Are the rears steel? Should be fine, I think the PCCB on the rear are overkill.

The dealers certainly wont know anything, but what dealer does? Porsche dealers aren't very informative, and with the RS there isn't even a recommended track setup available in the manual.. I had tons of rubbing, setup and tires cording problems..
Track alignment we can figure out in a day depending on tires with a day of testing and a Pyro gauge.
On the other hand Mercedes is very good about warranty, I don't think they will be going all Sherlock Holmes on track use like Porsche Dealers do to deny a warranty claim, because track use with MB has been pretty rare..

To summarize info we should pool together for track users:
-Brakes; rotors, pads and cooling
-Tires.
-Camber and sway bar settings with tires.
-Corner balance and rake.
-Harness / Harness bar
-Disable auto brake feature
-Does the engine / gearbox stay cool enough in 95F days? I haven't heard of too much power reduction due to heat.

Thanks to all of you who have a GTR already and track the car for reporting in :-)

I think you may have trouble "disabling" the auto-brake. I remember at the AMG Driving School people complained about it and the the instructor said that they are not able to turn it off. They also said it never bothers them (no, not just because they are leading) but they said that when they are out on the track with another instructor they are basically staying about the same distance from each other. It is only when you are closing quickly on a car (in a braking zone) that it can engage. But the smoother you are the less it happens - unless someone is VERY slow in and out of a corner. It reminded me of when I used to race S2000 in SCCA. We could go lap after lap on each other's tail but there was never any abrupt closing speed (unless we were out with the FA's and then those guys would close very fast). Anyway, good luck with it all. In thinking of brake fluid, the open secret at the time was that most of the open wheelers ran Ford brake fluid. Cheap, available at any Ford parts shop and had a really high temp. As high as the "trick" fluids that people special ordered and spent a fortune on. Of course open wheelers aren't having to slow down much weight. The "door slammers" had heavy cars and went through pads and rotors. We hardly used our brakes, by comparison...but then my spec was only 1,320 lbs with the driver.

Here is my experience with the GTS.

The collision prevention sensor is a pain. But how much depends on you. If you are seeing it a lot, the car in front of you is braking harder than you! If you are braking harder than it, you won't be bothered. Confirmed this with the AMG Academy lead instructor. They don't have a problem when they go out as a group, as they are all standing on the pedal at maximum force. I've had to learn apply more brake pressure! (Still, remember to "disable" it before each session)

The OEM rotors warped after two days at COTA. Mercedes wouldn't warranty them. Couldn't blame them.

I just went through a set of RacingBrake iron discs. They lasted five track days before heat cycling out. Could have used more aggressive pads as they've barely worn at all.

I'm waiting to hear back from RacingBrake about CCM rotors. I want to give them a try. My guess is they'd need to make it about 19 track days to break even with iron, cost wise. Probably more due to the expense of the pads.

The GT4 has a huge caliper with pads twice the size of ours (saw one last track day). I'd love to retofit those calipers on, but I'd guess that is a massive project. Like redoing the whole front suspension.

This thread seems right on track. The GT3 - GT3 RS guys just pound their cars on the track, while we don't have the standard solutions for braking that they have, at least in Austin.

I'm going for an alignment before my next track day. I've worked up enough pace and car control that I need to remove some understeer now.

Even when you're following similar pace cars you can still have it activate it in very tight hairpins. Ie a car that's at 90deg to you will be seen as stopped because its direction of travel is perpendicular to yours.

Ultimately most trackdays here are mixed use, even on highend ones you're very likely to encounter some slow movers.

No corner workers to throw a passing flag at them?

Hairpins may be a bit more of an issue. COTA doesn't really have one. T11 is the closest.

However slow movers are not exactly the problem. Only people braking harder and faster than you are the real issue, make sense?

When I was a lot slower myself, I ran into more weird cases where I was actually turning faster times than some people, but they did brake harder than me. Think of a Miata being on track with you. A race spec Miata. You should still be turning faster laps, but he can brake a hell of a lot faster than your 3,600lb car, even if you are standing all the way on the pedal, upgraded your fluid, rotors and pads. In those situations I've found it is best to brake off line. You should do that for safety anyhow. If you brake off line, the sensor won't go off. You might even brake offline, moving back onto the racing line under braking just as the other car turns in. With some of those tricks, a few brake upgrades and honest standing on the brakes, the sensor thing went from super annoying to maybe once ever other session activating it a little.

They may not be entirely the same, but for reference, CC rotors on S63/65 are $2400 each. :nix:

https://www.mbpartsfactory.com/auto-...nt-brakes-scat