Fatbob

Signed up for a high performance driving intro and I am asking for a little advice as to what I should know before I go. I will be driving my 2001 Z51 manual coupe, completely stock.

ErnieN85

pads at least 50%. maybe bring a spare set.
make sure your brake fluid is very fresh or preferably flush and replace.
by some one who knows how to do it right.
take lots of water along.
check your ego at the gate!
There are lots of great people there and we are there to help & make it fun for you

BEZ06

EXCELLENT!!

I saw that the NCM was going to do a couple of these 1-day introductory HPDI track events this year.

Since you have already signed up for the event I know you seen this info from the NCM about the HPDI, but here's a link to info for others that may not be familiar with the HPDI vs. an HPDE:

http://motorsportspark.org/hpdi/


Considering that in there it says

and

I think that you probably don't need to do anything to your car!!

Like Ernie said, at least 50% remaining on your pads is a good idea, but with sedans, trucks, and mini-vans participating in lead-follow track sessions I don't think your track sessions are going to involve any seriously aggressive driving. I think the track sessions will probably mostly be to orient you on getting on/off the track, "the line", location of flag stations, track protocol, etc.

It does say they have helmet rentals, but if you are going to buy your own helmet make sure it has a Snell SA 2010, or better yet a SA2015 certification so that it will be good for any future HPDE track events.

For any HPDE track days I would absolutely recommend good thick pads with a track compound, DOT 4 brake fluid, and tires with a lot of life remaining. However, for this HPDI I think any car that is good to go for street driving should be good for this event.

Have fun, but be aware that this could well lead the next level - numerous HPDE's throughout the year!!!! Then you'll be doing some REAL track-prep with your car!!!

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Fatbob

Thanks for the info. I was planning to change my brake fluid anyway. The day after, me and my son are touring the museum then the factory the day after that. We are really looking forward to the trip. We are driving from North Dakota.

ErnieN85

Your going to love it, great father son road trip

SouthernSon

What make tires and how old?

Fatbob

I put a set of BF Goodrich Comp 2 A/S on and got rid of the 10 year old runflats. They only have about 6K miles on them. The hard run flats were horrible, they were hard as a rock and the road noise started at 5 mph. They would easily spin without making a noise.

SouthernSon

Ernie is correct; fresh brake fluid (clutch, too), fresh tires and plenty of brake pad. Sounds like you have it covered well. Be sure to remove the plastic center cap on wheels if you have them. They can and do melt. Also, remove EVERYTHING not nailed down in the interior (guns, garage door openers, floor mats - at least driver's side) and stuff stuck in the sun visor. The NCM track is technical. It is not intuitive, blind turns - tricky lay of the pavement - false vision of runout, which means it gets really fun when you learn the track. Forget speed the first 2 or 3 sessions. Once you know what is coming over and around the blind turns you will be driving like you have never driven before! It will become one of if not the best track you will drive.

Tips: T6 - slow it up big time, it drops off a hill and is greater than 90 degrees. T8 - turn in with car about mid track and accelerate toward mid apex climbing up blind rise (anticipate track out). T10 - MUST turn head to look up at track out BEFORE turning wheel - it is TIGHT (never feels good). T12 "Deception" - It would appear there is plenty of runout but over the blind rise you will encounter curbing in the middle of the track (sort of). T14 - MUST straighten wheel while going over "table top", the car can be at an angle but wheel has to be straight. T19 - entry to sinkhole requires entering from right side of track. Otherwise the vehicle will incur lateral load and follow those other ugly tire marks off toward the right hand wall. Don't push hard climbing out of sinkhole. You will only heat up and over work your tires. Follow these tips and you will have a fun, safe day.

Remember learn the track first - more so than any track I have ever been on.

Fatbob

I have been watching laps on you tube. There are videos of the HPDI with 4 sessions starting slow, but by the fourth session they seem to be moving at a pretty good pace. By the time May 13th comes around I should be relatively familiar with the track. It looks like a great time!

BEZ06

I assume you did the HPDI at the NCM Motorsports Park March 26th - is that right??

If so, it's been a couple weeks now - how did it go??

I hope you had a great time!!

I'm curious how exactly the HPDI differs from an HPDE. The NCM info on it says it's a "lead-follow" format - is that what you experienced?

Did you also get any open-track running where you didn't need to run in a lead-follow group?

How did your car do?

I hope it was a fun event and father/son experience, and that maybe you'll enjoy doing some more HPDE type track events in the future!!

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Fatbob

I'm signed up for the May 13th session so I haven't gone yet. Up here in the frozen North, I have only had the car out a couple times. Looking forward to the trip.

BEZ06

Have fun - keep us filled in on how it goes!!

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BaconWrappedSushi

I'm bumping this thread, because I am interested in the 2018 HPDI session at NCM and do not want to create a new one to keep all the chat about it aggregated for future searches.

Anyways, I would like to attend this on 3/10. I have had track experience on the Nurburgring (tourist day), autoX schools, and just did PECATL (Porsche Experience Center - ATL). So I'm not totally unfamiliar, but if you've notice I have never done any sort of legit track day.

In your opinion:

1. Do I need to swap to 15W-50 for this event? Will the car be ran that hard? With them allowing trucks, vans, and convertibles (with no cage), I wouldn't think this would put a lot of stress on the car and the internals.

2. It says DOT4 fluid is recommended. I was curious what some other C7 Z51 folks were running in their car.

3. Stock pads OK if I just fluid swap for this event?

Thanks. Would love to hear about your experience if you did it.

ErnieN85

I would do it then leave in till next oil change (summer)

I'm using Castrol SRF but any Good DOT 4 is fine

Should work fine if your too hard on the brakes you may need to replace after

sperkins

I always recommend at least an entry level track pad that has a higher than OEM temperature capacity. Something like a Carbotech XP8 or XP10 would be perfect. As much as I can't stand Carbotech as a company, their products have served me well for nearly a decade.
The XP8's and 10's are very easy on rotors and don't dust nearly as bad as HAWK pads.
My reasoning behind recommending upgrading pads to novice drivers is simple. Would you rather have too much brakes or none at all once the stock ones fade?

http://www.ctbrakes.com/brake-compounds2.asp

BaconWrappedSushi

Thanks for the responses. Yeah good point. Better safe than sorry!

Larry Myers

You need to know this activity is highly addictive. And will be cause of total depletion of your disposable income.

Fatbob

In May the temps shouldn't be too bad so I don't think you need to use heavier oil. We really didn't run hard enough to hurt anything on a corvette. It was a blast. The first couple sessions there were some slow vehicles in the bunch and we caught up a few times and had to hang back a little bit. The last time out we got to get on it pretty good. They let my son ride with our instructor so he had a blast too. After we got done, the instructors took us out for some impressive hot laps. All in all it was a great time. It's probably a good thing that there are no tracks within 500 miles of home

dfettero

Ernie was my instructor last year at VIR. Listen to him. Great instructor.

I use RBF 600 brake fluid. Mobil1 15W50 (although Mobil1 0W40 is on the way as 2019 factory fill and doesn't need to be swapped)

BaconWrappedSushi

Thanks for the replies. So it sounds like brake fluid is an absolute must. I'll double check my pad life to ensure we are good to go on that front. Oil can wait until a full blow HPDE event. However, my life is at 45% or so, so by then I may be changing the oil anyways before the event, but I'll keep it at the stock oil type.

I actually found my car's previous owner PDR video of the 2016 HPDI and it looks like while there is some hard acceleration at parts there is very little time spent at 100% throttle.