First of all, I was on the forum about 3-4 months ago relative to buying a C5 and you folks were super helpful. For that, thank you very much. Well, I am taking delivery of my Black, 10k mile 98 Vette on Thursday, just in time for my next scheduled track day (Saturday). In the past my wife and I have extensively tracked our '01 Miata and '94 RX-7 and can't get enough track time. Unfortunately, the costs to keep the RX-7 running given what track time can do to a car became just too much. Hence, the Vette.

I of course have no illusions of cost-free track time, but I am curious about any specific, or unique Vette issues to address or watch out for while preparing or running on the track. The Vette is the base coupe and was meticulously maintained by my Dad.

All of the obvious track prep stuff will, of course, be done. Brakes, fluids, blah, blah, blah. Just trying to learn about the eccentricities of this car from folks who have done this before me.

Thanks again,
Jim

 

I had mine out to the track last month. It was a blast, 115 mph in the rain ( the weather sucked).
You'll be impressed by what this car can do.
One tip, leave the active handling on and watch it work. Between the HUD and the active handling blinking on the DIC, it was like driving a pinball machine. But a heck of alot of fun.

 

if your car is stock then you have to get rid of these items

Runflats
Base suspension, or at least get Z06 sway bars
shocks, Z06 shocks or Bilstiens
better brake pads
buy a set of Napa raw rotors, in case you crack one at the track
check you rear diff and tranny make sure there is enuff fluid (earlier models leaked)
and most of all, bring a cooler with some water for yourself

and 1 of the most important things,
add 1 extra quart of oil to your engine, or it will starve

 

IMO you'll want to install a Z51 PS cooler if you track the car on a regular basis. Without one the PS fluid will boil on a C5 pretty easily with hard track use. If you plan to run the car in consecutive track sessions (say one driver in advanced, one driver in intermediate) you may also think about a trans. cooler; you can't monitor trans./diff temps with stock gauges and I know of one couple who regularly ran their car in consecutive sessions and blew the tranny because it overheated and they didn't realize it.

Since you are an experienced trackday participant you will eventually (or sooner) want to upgrade tires, brakes, suspension over the base equipment. The choices are many. Checkout the autocross/roadracing section of the CF for a lot of good track info and answers to questions.

One quirk of the C5 involves the fuel system. There are 2 gas tanks on the C5, one on the left and one on the right just ahead of the rear wheels. The fuel system is designed to empty the right tank first. When your fuel gauge reads 1/2 full the right tank is essentially empty. This means that the right side of the car is now approx. 50 lbs. lighter than the left. If you are running the car at the limit you will sense this "unbalance" in left hand corners as you get the power on; the car will feel "looser" than in right hand turns.

Good Luck and have fun at the track!

 

Consumables in order of cost for a vette....

Track Consumables

Brake Fluid - Bleed every 2 events. ($10/qt decent fluid)
Oil - The extra quart + 1/2 vaporized/burned per day
GAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rotors - Replacement @ 4 corners every 4 events at least ~$100 total
Pads - Mine have lasted 4 events(8 days) @ $250 for the car
Tires - I run Kumho MX's(~600) 4 events and are pretty much toast

Now this is for me, I have about $1000 in Consumables every 4 events, so that works out to $250/event.....


Upfront Upgrades
Z06 Suspension which was <$500 with parts from the forum.

Thats it for me and I have a blast!!!!!!!

 

It's been a couple of days since the track day and I am still giddy about the whole thing. Thanks to all of you who responded to my earlier posts about stuff to look out for with the Vette at the track. Replacing the runflats with the Kumho's was a brilliant idea. They have a lot more grip than I expected. The only thing was, because we brought our Miata as well (which runs on Falken Azenis), I couldn't help but compare the turn-in and limit handling performance of the two cars. Obviously I did not expect them to be anywhere near the same, but it was still and interesting comparison in contrasts.

The Miata, while certainly no horsepower king, has prodigous amounts of grip and dances around very lightly on its' feet. Big surprise! It is light, has a lot of tire on the ground given its' size, and when the suspension and tire upgrades are taken into account, it is a little go-kart. The Vette, admittedly still stock except the Kumho's, comes out of the corners very hard and generally has to be pushed a little to get the performance out of it. It will be interesting to see how the Z06 sways and shocks that were recommended change that.

Bottom line? It was wonderful to be able to track the car all day long and not have to worry about anything breaking like I always had to with the RX-7.

Thanks again,
Jim