The low down on track days at a full road course track
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Member
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 221
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From: San Diego, CA
2005 C55 black on black aka DVS C55, 2007 C230 sport silver on black for the boss
The low down on Summit Point Main FATT track day
This was about my first track day at Summit Point Friday At The Track in November 2013. Before I went I really couldn't find out how to get on a road track or even how a track day worked so here is what I experienced....lets get more C55s and AMGs racing!
You meet lots of great people who don't just talk about their nice/fast/expensive/has "every part available on it" garage queen... you meet people you are there to race their cars. Guys and girls. 80s RX7s, late 90s Supras and modded Minis to brand-new Vettes, GTRs, Ferraris and Aston Martins. And of course Porches. Not many AMGs though guys...my C55 and a C63. 8am-5pm all day, rain or shine. They have a food bar with burgers/bratwursts/fries/salads/drinks and more so no worries there. Lots of racers with self installed mods, home built parts, self written ECU mapping, etc., just all around cool people who love performance driving! Arrive before 8am, go to tech just to make sure stuff wont leak or fall off of your car, a short meeting then hang out until they call your class to meet up with an instructor. Your instructor (a normal person who is there to race, too) will take you out in your car to tell you when and where to brake, where the racing line is, where you can and cannot pass, where the safety towers are (manned by volunteers, thank you!), etc. for a lap or two. Then you take over for 15-20 minutes, stop for ~1.25hrs and then repeat 4 times over. Its not a race, its high speed driving with other cars in front of and behind you and there are rules to the road. However, you can drive your car as you want the entire time. Flat out shifting at the redline, medium speed or nice an easy. Whatever. You don't go to a track day to drive nice an easy. I topped 120+ on the straights on some occasions. Not sure how fast I went over 120mph as the 90 degree turn at the end of the straight mattered more. As the day goes on they remove apex and passing zone cones to increase the level of difficulty. Your instructor may even take you out in their car. This may or may not be the norm on track days. I got lucky because my 3 out of 4 sessions instructor had a modded mid-2000's Vette with, exhaust, tune and R (race) compound tires. I would have paid the fee for that 20 minute, very intense, ride. He said his regular race car was a Dodge Viper with 650hp @ the wheels! My 4 of 4 session instructor raced a Civic on race days. His line and braking instructions were no good for my C55 because his car is so different but it was invaluable to learn what the slow line around the track was for my RWD car. With the info learned from both instructors my driving is much, much smoother than it used to be. You must do a track day at least once for the smoother spirited driving factor alone. Your car is way more capable than you think it is and once you learn the higher limits it makes you a better, safer, faster driver.
At the end of the day I was exhausted! Like up all day, out all night and then the sun came up exhausted. I asked around and they said it was the roller coaster ride of adrenaline, acceleration, deceleration, high G forces and just trying to stay in the damn seat! Seriously, I had sore spots on my knees, elbows and shoulders from trying to brace myself against the interior. My instructors said race seats and tires were the upgrades my C55 needed. Not power, not brakes, not suspension. Am I going to do more track days? Definitely! ASAP!
More detail on the classes from the nice people at Summit Point:
FATT is an introduction to performance driving. As for the breakdown of levels: 1A is mostly people new to track days, and 1B generally are those with more days under their belt, but that is just a guidline and doesn't mean that because you are in 1A you don't have any experience. Sometimes the number of participants requires a little shuffling around of participants. As for SOLO It is group 2i and 2, both out on track at the same time. You go from group 1 to 2i after scoring all 5s in the categories of braking, awareness, hands and control and safety and then to 2 solo after two instructors on the same day "sign you off". Very few people advance to group 2 after just a few events, and even fewer to solo status without many days on track. You status with FATT will not neccesarily translate to the same status with another organization, and vice versa. However being solo qualified at FATT will allow you to participate in our Seat Time events where there are no instructors, and less structured run groups. You can also at any time go to the SCCA and/or NASA for your license without ever doing a track day. They are separate organizations and have their own rules.
My instructor told me once you get the license you can also take a class to be an instructor. The value of this is that just like my instructor you can teach to get credits but still race in Solo groups for free. Those credits go toward track time so that you can race on other days for free without teaching. Also, with a license you can even buy/rent/build a race car and into door-to-door racing!
If anyone has any questions or input feel free to add it.
Video filmed with a Galaxy S3 in a modded case clipped into a Garmin GPS holder. (Had the $ for racing, not go a GoPro
) The shaking at full throttle adds to the effect. Video gets good around 8:00.
You meet lots of great people who don't just talk about their nice/fast/expensive/has "every part available on it" garage queen... you meet people you are there to race their cars. Guys and girls. 80s RX7s, late 90s Supras and modded Minis to brand-new Vettes, GTRs, Ferraris and Aston Martins. And of course Porches. Not many AMGs though guys...my C55 and a C63. 8am-5pm all day, rain or shine. They have a food bar with burgers/bratwursts/fries/salads/drinks and more so no worries there. Lots of racers with self installed mods, home built parts, self written ECU mapping, etc., just all around cool people who love performance driving! Arrive before 8am, go to tech just to make sure stuff wont leak or fall off of your car, a short meeting then hang out until they call your class to meet up with an instructor. Your instructor (a normal person who is there to race, too) will take you out in your car to tell you when and where to brake, where the racing line is, where you can and cannot pass, where the safety towers are (manned by volunteers, thank you!), etc. for a lap or two. Then you take over for 15-20 minutes, stop for ~1.25hrs and then repeat 4 times over. Its not a race, its high speed driving with other cars in front of and behind you and there are rules to the road. However, you can drive your car as you want the entire time. Flat out shifting at the redline, medium speed or nice an easy. Whatever. You don't go to a track day to drive nice an easy. I topped 120+ on the straights on some occasions. Not sure how fast I went over 120mph as the 90 degree turn at the end of the straight mattered more. As the day goes on they remove apex and passing zone cones to increase the level of difficulty. Your instructor may even take you out in their car. This may or may not be the norm on track days. I got lucky because my 3 out of 4 sessions instructor had a modded mid-2000's Vette with, exhaust, tune and R (race) compound tires. I would have paid the fee for that 20 minute, very intense, ride. He said his regular race car was a Dodge Viper with 650hp @ the wheels! My 4 of 4 session instructor raced a Civic on race days. His line and braking instructions were no good for my C55 because his car is so different but it was invaluable to learn what the slow line around the track was for my RWD car. With the info learned from both instructors my driving is much, much smoother than it used to be. You must do a track day at least once for the smoother spirited driving factor alone. Your car is way more capable than you think it is and once you learn the higher limits it makes you a better, safer, faster driver.
At the end of the day I was exhausted! Like up all day, out all night and then the sun came up exhausted. I asked around and they said it was the roller coaster ride of adrenaline, acceleration, deceleration, high G forces and just trying to stay in the damn seat! Seriously, I had sore spots on my knees, elbows and shoulders from trying to brace myself against the interior. My instructors said race seats and tires were the upgrades my C55 needed. Not power, not brakes, not suspension. Am I going to do more track days? Definitely! ASAP!
More detail on the classes from the nice people at Summit Point:
FATT is an introduction to performance driving. As for the breakdown of levels: 1A is mostly people new to track days, and 1B generally are those with more days under their belt, but that is just a guidline and doesn't mean that because you are in 1A you don't have any experience. Sometimes the number of participants requires a little shuffling around of participants. As for SOLO It is group 2i and 2, both out on track at the same time. You go from group 1 to 2i after scoring all 5s in the categories of braking, awareness, hands and control and safety and then to 2 solo after two instructors on the same day "sign you off". Very few people advance to group 2 after just a few events, and even fewer to solo status without many days on track. You status with FATT will not neccesarily translate to the same status with another organization, and vice versa. However being solo qualified at FATT will allow you to participate in our Seat Time events where there are no instructors, and less structured run groups. You can also at any time go to the SCCA and/or NASA for your license without ever doing a track day. They are separate organizations and have their own rules.
My instructor told me once you get the license you can also take a class to be an instructor. The value of this is that just like my instructor you can teach to get credits but still race in Solo groups for free. Those credits go toward track time so that you can race on other days for free without teaching. Also, with a license you can even buy/rent/build a race car and into door-to-door racing!
If anyone has any questions or input feel free to add it.
Video filmed with a Galaxy S3 in a modded case clipped into a Garmin GPS holder. (Had the $ for racing, not go a GoPro
) The shaking at full throttle adds to the effect. Video gets good around 8:00.Last edited by EDgineered; Jan 31, 2014 at 03:59 PM. Reason: New info from Summit Point Raceway
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From: Houston - Clear Lake
C63 coupe, Z3M Roadster garage queen
Great video - thanks for posting!
The car was awesome, the Samsung did a terrific job, and even your coach was really good. That must have been an absolute ball!
The car was awesome, the Samsung did a terrific job, and even your coach was really good. That must have been an absolute ball!
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Nothing against SCCA, which apparently put on the event you attended, but you may find other car clubs doing HPDEs that will allow to run as well; BMW, Audi, Porsche to name a few.
If you decide to continue doing this on a regular basis I would highly suggest that you get an alignment, different brake pads and high temp brake fluid at a minimum. The alignment will help you with the outside edges of your tires under those conditions. New racing style brake pads will last longer than OEMs. High temp fluid will keep you from boiling as fast.
Be careful, this can get addictive and will lighten your pocket book.
If you decide to continue doing this on a regular basis I would highly suggest that you get an alignment, different brake pads and high temp brake fluid at a minimum. The alignment will help you with the outside edges of your tires under those conditions. New racing style brake pads will last longer than OEMs. High temp fluid will keep you from boiling as fast.
Be careful, this can get addictive and will lighten your pocket book.
Thread Starter
Member
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 221
Likes: 4
From: San Diego, CA
2005 C55 black on black aka DVS C55, 2007 C230 sport silver on black for the boss
Nothing against SCCA, which apparently put on the event you attended, but you may find other car clubs doing HPDEs that will allow to run as well; BMW, Audi, Porsche to name a few.
If you decide to continue doing this on a regular basis I would highly suggest that you get an alignment, different brake pads and high temp brake fluid at a minimum. The alignment will help you with the outside edges of your tires under those conditions. New racing style brake pads will last longer than OEMs. High temp fluid will keep you from boiling as fast.
Be careful, this can get addictive and will lighten your pocket book.
If you decide to continue doing this on a regular basis I would highly suggest that you get an alignment, different brake pads and high temp brake fluid at a minimum. The alignment will help you with the outside edges of your tires under those conditions. New racing style brake pads will last longer than OEMs. High temp fluid will keep you from boiling as fast.
Be careful, this can get addictive and will lighten your pocket book.
Thanks for the input on the other clubs, I will look into their events as well.
Yes, one thing I should have wrote about was the wear and tear on the car. Only issue I had was as the day went on I got a light shudder in the brakes. Was told it was from the low heat range of my brake pads and fluid. I have purchased EBC Yellows and high temp fluids already. My brakes did lose the shudder on the way home but the feel didn't come back for a few days as the "glaze" wore off of the pads. My pads were 1 month old when I went and lost at least a 3rd of the pad over the 40-60 laps I made. (4 sessions, 10-15 laps per session but I wasn't counting!)
Please detail the alignment part. I did get an alignment in October. Is there a special way I should be getting the alignment?
I bought this car to be my drag racing and track car, but as time goes on it will be dedicated to making turns.
Thread Starter
Member
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 221
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From: San Diego, CA
2005 C55 black on black aka DVS C55, 2007 C230 sport silver on black for the boss
zcct04 It was great. Hope to see YOUR racing videos, too!
Last edited by EDgineered; Jan 31, 2014 at 01:28 PM.
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From: www.Traben-Trarbach.de
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You might also reduce your toe-in to a neutral or very slight toe-out. This will help you with turning
Both of these are related.
Having a track alignment will not be the best for street driving. High camber will now wear the inside of the tires on the street. Neutral or toe-out will make the car squirly on the street following the tram lines.
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Some aftermarket chassis goodies, 205/50/15 RE11-As and 133 horsepower don’t necessarily a slow car make. Still miss that pure AMG thrust at times though!
*off topic*
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Indeed. I’ve surprised several ‘faster’ high-end cars (even German marques) through the twisty bits during HPDEs.
Some aftermarket chassis goodies, 205/50/15 RE11-As and 133 horsepower don’t necessarily a slow car make. Still miss that pure AMG thrust at times though!
*off topic*
Some aftermarket chassis goodies, 205/50/15 RE11-As and 133 horsepower don’t necessarily a slow car make. Still miss that pure AMG thrust at times though!
*off topic*
