paulrom

I have a brand new Z06 with about 150 miles. I am scheduled for my first track day at BeaveRun near Pittsburgh. From your experience, is there any special prep that I should complete on the car before taking it onto the track? Thanks for the advice.

jmorgan07z06

Have you ever been to the track before?

sammyv

I've done many track events in the past, but this spring will be the first time I've tracked my new Z(09). I just had the brake fluid changed to motul 600. If your fluid boils you are toast! I will bring another set of front brake pads in case I go through the stock one's. Other than that, I'm going to see how it performs stock.

PeterM

I'd personally be a little nervous with low miles on the rear. I'd feel comfortable with at least 600 careful miles on the gears (no hard shifts or braking with the tranny). But I guess I'm paranoid because my last car (08 Z51) developed a hum at 1500 miles. It was all down hill from there; three sets of gears later, I finally decided to trade it in for a ZO6.

I will say that the salesman did give me fair warning about breaking in the car easy to prevent the rear gears from developing a hum, but what does a salesman know, right...

Just my two cents.

Black_Mamba

I would not track it if not fully broken in either.

If you are a beginner just change the fluid. I would switch to Goodridge lines right away if you will continue to track it. If you have experience or consider yourself fast I would go Carbotech XP8 or Cobalts and save your stock padlets.

Don't forget the tape. Just drive and have fun. The runflats will tend to fade with not much use IMO.

jmorgan07z06

I took mine to the track at 1500 miles. Mask off you car with blue painters tape or get an invisible mask if you care about rock chips.

Joe_Planet

Dont worry about the miles. You dont have to "break in" modern engines. There's enough crap in oil to lubricate everything and the piston rings inside the cylinders are compressible, so what's that engine gonna do at 500 miles that it aint gonna do at 5?

Get a good helmet, I'd recommend the lightest possible CAR helmet, not a bike one because it offers fire protection... or something lol. Besides that you really dont need anything. Keep your eye on oil level between runs. Leave all the nannies on for your first track day. I've had 10+ hpdes and I still leave the nannies on just to be safe

Have fun

Ps. I'm assuming you're taking about road course. Drag racing would pretty much be the same thing...

vette ruminator

I took mine to the track with 510 miles, all stock. They car ran well but the brakes became mushy using DOT 3 so DOT 4 is a good idea. I agree with the use of track pads mostly for the durability and ability to withstand the abuse but if you do use up the stock pads after the weekend you can start using dedicated track pads (high dust/noise but very durable and great stopping power) and dedicated street pads (centic posiquiet, etc for low dust/noise). I wish I had known that early on. The tape the others refer to is heat shield tape to protect the rubber on the joints close to the brakes which can get hot. Again, I ran stock and all was fine, but it is safer and your OEM pieces will last longer if you take the others' advice.

I do think break-in to 500 miles is a good idea not just for the engine but mainly for the gears and trans to work themselves together. This was advice from the factory.

Have fun!

Bill Dearborn

Put some more miles on the car before you go. It doesn't take very long to get another hundred on the car. Engine isn't the problem. Breaking in the diff and tranny are the issue. You should be good to go once you get over 250 miles on them.

Before you go remove the brake pad pins and re-install them using some anti-seize on the threads. If you wait till after the event you will not be able to remove the pins.

Bill

68sixspeed

x2 - also for the cost I'd dump the oil, change the filter, not that the oils bad by then, but the filter can get loaded with any assy lubes, dust, debris, stuff from in the lines, machining chips etc. It's scary what's inside the first oil filter on a new motor sometimes.

Ol'55

I'd add about 4-5 pounds of air to the tires (I shoot for a 36 pounds hot while tracking), remove everything that moves in the interior (that could be a missile hazard), and NEVER use the emergency brake while at the track as with the heat generated in the rotors you could weld the emergency brake shoes to the rotor (I use reverse gear and chocks between sessions). Like others stated, watch your oil level, and ditch the DOT3 brake fluid that the General uses in the brake side in favor of DOT4 (the clutch side is already DOT4 ) best of a good time with your car

AFVETTE

Also suggest not parking in one spot right after coming back from a session. You'll want to move the hot caliper/pads off the same spot on the hot rotor. I usually move my car so the rotor is about 180 degrees from when I stopped.

Even a cool down lap isn't sufficient to cool your brakes and NEVER EVER apply the e-brake to HOT rotors.

And I'd also recommend rolling up some more miles before hitting the track.

Good luck, have fun and don't play hero.

Tom

paulrom

Great info, thanks for all of the advice. I will definitly incorporate many of these suggestions before I hit the track, especially the brake fluid switch, putting more miles on the car and installing the clear bra. My day is scheduled for April 24, so I have some time. Thanks again.

curvesman

Congrats and have fun!

Blurr

paulrom,

just went through my first HPDE event 5 months ago with 712 miles on a new Z06. Here's what I did before I went out the first time:

> changed brake fluid Dot 4 Motul
> fill the oil to the top mark level on the dip stick (see manual)
> remove everything out of the car, so nothing fly's around
> remove the center caps, if you leave them on the heat from the brakes will melt or expand the plastic retainers, next thing you know they're "clicking" as you drive down the street from being loose.
> tape the entire front of the car up to mid of the hood, then the rear panels from right behind the doors from the rocker panel to just above the rear wheel wells. Don't cover the brake ducts Lots of rocks come flying off and hit the area around rear brake ducts.
> absorb everything you can from the instructors, if you can get a couple different instructors
> highly addictive, start budgeting...gets expensive..brakes, tires, etc.

longdaddy

if you've done this before and going to be running the car hard, I would put another 100mi on the car and change the fluids (enigne/trans/diff) to make sure any material left after initial break-in is flushed out.

if this is your first DE, you're good to go, but you should still swap all the fluids at some point if you will continue doing this.