Many members who have been tracking their cars for years, be it in Autocross, HPDE on road course, W2W racing, Time attack and Dragstrip have copious experience to share and no doubt would be happy and thrilled to see new C4 track drivers from CF sharing the track with them in person, as well as answering questions and helping out those who are really out there trying something new.

Many new and old members wanting to try tracking for the first time.

Lets start an official c4 track everything thread. Ask anything. We will monitor this thread together and we can reserve post number 2 for the list of what tracks are frequented by C4 members with their usernames on here so they can be contacted by first-time C4 Track members for a helping hand or a Track meetup. I know I would love the opportunity to meetup with fellow C4 members at a track for an HPDE day together. Yes, I know there is a autocross and racing section. There is almost zero C4 content in there though. Id think most people would start in the c4 section first. If this gets to be a comprehensive and active thread, we can ask the mods to move us over. Think of this thread as a hopeful way to build C4 connections and comradery at Tracks across North America (maybe the world!)

Discuss!

 

Reserved.

@yakmastermax “Southwest, my local track Sandia Motor Speedway in Albuquerque NM”


@pedricd “northwest Ohio”

@VikingTrad3r “Calgary Ab Canada, my local track is Rocky Mountain Motorsports, also frequent Strawberry Creek Raceway, and RadTorque Raceway at Edmonton Ab”

@Tom400CFI “Utah. Utah Motorsports Campus.
And any auto-x's that go on in the UT region...usually at Legacy Events Center in Farmington.”

@Aardwolf ”I've lived by Road America for years and go there to drive as often as time and budget allow. I don't do much spectating especially at the large events. GT Racing tires is near there if any locals need tires. I have occasionally gone to Black Hawk Farms and have wanted to get to Autobahn but haven't as of yet”

@Daniel_Mc “now looking to pull the old track focused C4 (1989 model) out of storage for a refresh and some HPDE and Time Attack. Typically ran Motorsports Ranch Cressen TX, Eagles Canyon, Motorsport Ranch Houston, and NOLA. “

@Mixednuts “Hudson, WI. I haven't been on a track yet but am close to Dakota County Tech College”

@85Trackday It's been a number of years since I've been active with the SCCA. I have tentative plans to campaign an 85 C4 with SCDA & EMRA in the Northeast, Lime Rock Park is my home track.

@MatthewMiller World Wide Technology Raceway (formerly Gateway) is my home track. It's a very interesting oval (NASCAR and IndyCar are running there these days) and a very simple road course. Also Autobahn Country Club and ran their South course, and I went to Gingerman in the fall. I liked both those tracks and would probably do them again. I want to try NCM Motorsports Park in Bowling Green, KY; maybe Mid-Ohio or Road America too. We have a new track in the Ozarks in MO.

@coreseller I am in the SouthWest (Cincinnati) Ohio area. The common tracks near me are:
- Mid-Ohio https://midohio.com/
- Putnam Park https://putnampark.com/
SCCA Link: https://cincyscca.com/road-racing/track-events/
Few hours away but very popular:
- Gingerman https://www.gingermanraceway.com/

@1Eyed Willie I'm in southern Michigan near Jackson off I-94. Pounds Grattan.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hAFjmNrLTes

@ACMX92 I live about 30 min away from Putnam Park. I have been meaning to go ever since I moved out here but I have never done a track day before.


@Hunteralexander North East area here. Im looking at doing SCCA with my 87. My local track that starts this weekend Lake Erie Speedway I-86 and Station Rd. North East Pa. Local group is Misery Bay SCCA

@bls72bmw Brainered Raceway, BIR- and Road America, HPDE Track Day Driver, #36 with Porsche Club Events, 1994 Green C4 mostly stock with 6spd ZF, new to Corvettes, would like tips for on road race track use.

@Wogden COMSCC at Palmer Motorsports Park in MA. 94 ZO7. battling brake fade!

@aelazenby portland building lucky dog racecar

@EnduranceC4 very modified “84” racecar. Champcar series racecar. Unknown location

@Bad Karma “I'm close by to Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, IL
Have the most laps on Blackhawk Farm Raceway in South Beloit, IL”. sweet c4r!

@FAUEE “I'm in the Space Coast of Florida. No real home track, I guess Sebring and Daytona are my closest. I know, poor me having to deal with only 2 pro level tracks near me!”


@MarkGM “live outside St. Louis in Wildwood. was introduced to this thread by Matthew Miller who advised me on tires for my 95 coupe. World Wide Technology Raceway is the closest track. I began attending HPDE days in early 2023 when I did a CHIN day at OIR as a Beginner. Afterward the instructor told me it was probably not the best track for a first-timer. Now you tell me, I said.“!!

 

Reserved for future potential planned multi-member meetup days. If you have a day u want posted here let us know.

Spokane Track day - looking like June 2023.

 

Great idea VT on having this thread in the C4 section specifically!
I think overall the forum would benefit from keeping more of the topic sections generation specific. The Audio section for example...

Anyway!

For those in the Southwest, my local track Sandia Motor Speedway in Albuquerque NM just had a huge change of ownership!

Previously it was owned by some sort of LLC that had a large board of directors/investors, almost 30 people from what I heard, few of which were actually racers or automotive enthusiasts.

The new owners are a private group of 3 individuals, two of which are direct well known members of the racing community, who compete, participate, and actually organize events and have been doing so at the track for over a decade!

This is huge news for us here as it bodes well for the future of the track, which is a leisurely 20 minute drive outside of Albuquerque!

Our local time attack race series as of the 2023 summer season is $120 per event, which can net you anywhere from 15-25 laps depending, on our rather technical, pleasantly low speed (good for those on a budget) roughly 3km, 21 turn course. There is roughly one event per month for the duration of the season, around 7-8 events depending on schedule.

If you're in the Soutbwest it might be worth a trip!

 

I’m in northwest Ohio and I know @1Eyed Willie goes to regional events in Southern MI but also mid-Ohio… just saw another member mention wanting to get into this, also in striking distance of mid-Ohio. I also would love to at least dip my toe, enough that I could at least do track days on my own.

I know that track is like jumping in the deep end but my hope is with proper instructor ride alongs and the right attitude/expectations it would be fun. I’m in for a meet up there or perhaps somewhere else regionally…. Subbed and looking forward to see where this goes.

 

that is cheap and i bet u meet a tonne of kindred spirits

 

@MatthewMiller

Matt, i hate to do this to you but im hoping this thread becomes a sort of official faq for C4 owners that are wanting to get to the track.

I believe there was a guy in an 86 corvette (yellow?) who had a pike of records that were not beat by the later cars. He was a racer. Cant recall his name.

I know this has been discussed but can we do it again in this thread?

If a person was to build a track car, or even buy a street car with the intent of tracking and streeting it but the goal was getting the best high level track car…so advanced drivers or at least people who want to become advanced drivers….

The changes between the early and late geometries can you and others school us one more time on this?

Like if all else is equal, is the inherent geometry the early and late cars better for track?

 

Utah. Utah Motorsports Campus.

And any auto-x's that go on in the UT region...usually at Legacy Events Center in Farmington.

 

I've lived by Road America for years and go there to drive as often as time and budget allow. I don't do much spectating especially at the large events. GT Racing tires is near there if any locals need tires. I have occasionally gone to Black Hawk Farms and have wanted to get to Autobahn but haven't as of yet. Advanced search on my handle here in C4 or the race section will turn up a lot of content from the past. Building a C4 can be very time consuming. There are so many brackets and fasteners it's not modular like later years. I do some drag racing at WIR and am not that into autox. My fav is open track with traffic, usually NASA time trials or similar. I have some videos at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA-...1IuPxtnTE_MPZQ

 

Just for discussion and interest, I am wondering what yall think about these two different "track build" routes, in a very general sense.

A 1984 Z51 4+3 with power mods, not LS swapped but maybe aftermarket ECU and whole new top end, or just a very well build crossfire setup with aftermarket heads.

Vs.

1992-1995 LT1 ZF6 car with only mild power mods, exhaust, cam, etc, but whole suspension rework, coilovers and sway bars etc

 

I had been doing this for years up until 09 and now looking to pull the old track focused C4 (1989 model) out of storage for a refresh and some HPDE and Time Attack. Typically ran Motorsports Ranch Cressen TX, Eagles Canyon, Motorsport Ranch Houston, and NOLA. I know @myles930 is experienced in a few Southeastern tracks and tracks in the PNW.

I really hope to see some more C4 guys out!

@yakmastermax I would do the 92-95 option over the 84 purely for the ZF - just my .02

-Daniel

 

I live near Hudson, WI. I haven't been on a track yet but am close to Dakota County Tech College and I believe they host Track Night in America during the summer. I've also been asked to go to Brainerd International Raceway but that's a bit of a drive for me so that one will come once I have more experience. I was hoping to get to the track night at DCTC last summer but never found the time (and found a few issues with the car I wanted to correct before getting on a track.) This summer I am making a point to get there. I really want to see what the 85 can do on a proper track.
Rock Falls is also close to me and I'm planning on at least making it there to see what the car pulls in the 1/4 mile.
It would be great if some other members near me wanted to go to either track. I believe that would be the push to get me past "I intend to go this summer" and getting out there and doing it.

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c5KlEJs8tdo

 

I am in the SouthWest (Cincinnati) Ohio area. The common tracks near me are:

- Mid-Ohio https://midohio.com/
- Putnam Park https://putnampark.com/

SCCA Link: https://cincyscca.com/road-racing/track-events/

Few hours away but very popular:

- Gingerman https://www.gingermanraceway.com/

 

Sorry guys, just saw this last night and was sidetracked by life. VT, I don't have a C4 anymore but I autocross a lot and do a few track days a year in my 2020 Camaro SS 1LE. I'll use this as a placeholder to come back soon and we can start discussing the topics you brought up and maybe Yak's question as well.

 

Okay, so first things first: like I said, I haven't had a C4 in almost three years. I autocrossed the hell out of it while I had it, but I didn't track it. I would have if I had kept it. But it's still getting autocrossed and it got tracked last year. I currently autocross, track, and daily-drive my 2020 Camaro SS 1LE in stock-class condition. World Wide Technology Raceway (formerly Gateway) is my home track. It's a very interesting oval (NASCAR and IndyCar are running there these days) and a very simple road course (although it looks like they've added some stuff for this year to make it more interesting). I've tracked there a few times. Last year I also went to Autobahn Country Club and ran their South course, and I went to Gingerman in the fall. I liked both those tracks and would probably do them again. I want to try NCM Motorsports Park in Bowling Green, KY; maybe Mid-Ohio or Road America too. We have a new track in the Ozarks in MO. It's certainly close enough, but the layout with all the blind corners and elevation changes scares the hell out of me. A friend of mine went there already and promptly crashed. I'm not sure how/if I'm going to tackle that track. It would be a good place to take a cheap C4 that I could afford to wreck!

I think a mostly stock C4 can be fine for this stuff. If you are running any kind of competition, then the rules for your class will dictate a lot of what you can/can't modify. That said, the following are some thoughts off the top of my head:

• The obvious thing is to get a Z51 if you can: the stiffer springs in particular will help a lot, especially for the later cars. Decent, adjustable shocks are important: I would recommend the Ridetech HQs as a good starting point, but these days you can spend $4k on a set of JRi shocks...and unfortunately they are worth it. With no good aftermarket monoleaf options on the market anymore (hello, Van Steel, are going to use the VBP molds you bought or just use them for decoration?), coilovers are the only good way to get wheel rates much higher than stock. Ridetech has a very good kit based on their HQ or TQ shocks, and After Dark Speed sells Viking and JRi sets.
• I think you can find a good sway bar setup by mixing and matching the huge assortment of stock bars that came on these cars over the years. I had three or four front bars and five rear bars.
• Brakes are important, of course. I would say J55s can do fairly well for track days if you have good track-focused pads (which will suck on the street, so you need to swap them out before/after track days), good fluid (Motul RB600 at a minimum, but Castrol SRF is a lot better for wet boiling point), and probably braided brake lines. If you can get the cryo-treated Centric front rotors they will resist warping better (they may be sold under another name, but the part # with start with CRY-). A really good easy-button big brake kit is the Wilwood 6-piston setup. That's pretty much what I had on mine for track work. It was great. They make a rear kit (4-piston, I think), but I'm not sure it's necessary. J55s or even base brakes are good enough for autocross use. You could use Power Stop z26 pads for that, or a lot of companies offer pads that are good for street and autocross use.
• You need negative camber. Got some? Good. You need more. All the cambers! -3.0 in front and -2.0 is not too much. Trust me. Offset lower control arm bushings work well up front: I could get -3 or more on mine by using them. I think Van Steel makes those these days. You should max out your caster after you have set camber where you want it. There's no reason to not run all the caster you can. Basically, that means you'll have no alignment shims on the rear bolts of the upper A-arms. You want zero toe in front and maybe 1/16" (a teeny bit, IOW) in back. For rear camber, you are seriously limited by the stock eccentric adjuster, and it has a bad habit of slipping. Replacing the stock camber rod with an aftermarket rod-ended version with eccentric eliminator will allow you any rear camber setting you can sanely consider. This is an important mod!
• In front, you may decide you want poly bushings for the A-arms. That's fine. Delrin is even better. Global West Del-A-Lum are probably the best. You don't want hard poly bushings in the rear suspension! I've written about this before: the control arms back there have to move in multiple plans, so the movement is not purely axial and it will bind. The only acceptable options are stock rubber (no longer available), the soft poly SuperPro bushings, or spherical rod ends. Urethane or whatever is find for swaybar bushings, and urethane is probably a good idea for the batwing.
• Wheels are tires are interesting. No width is too wide, but more than 26" tire diameter is generally too tall. I used 11" wheels and 315 tires front and rear on my C4, and that's what I would recommend to anyone where rules and costs are not a problem. Although there are still Hoosier A7 and R7 in 315/35/17, I would recommend getting 18x11 wheels and running 315/30/18 tires front and rear. There are tons of choices in that size (including Hoosiers). If you want to stay with stock wheels, then the 17x9.5 gets you some good tire choices in 275/40/17. The 16x8.5 and 16x9.5 early C4 wheels make street tire selections tough, but Toyo and I think Hoosier offer some options in 255/50/16 for track and autocross use. Rules and other car uses matter a lot in tire selections, so maybe it's better to reply to questions of people's specific use cases? If I wanted a fairly fast tire that I could safely drive on to/from the track and that would last a lot of laps, the Continental ExtremeContact Force would probably be the one. Anything faster will either wear out quicker and/or will get greasy from overheating after a few laps.
• For track days, I would probably install an oil cooler ahead of the radiator if rules allow. Mine had one and made a lot of power and never got the oil hot. I don't know if stock L98 and LT1/4 oil pans prevent oil starvation in long corners. My car had a Kevko road race pan: 7qts, kickouts at the bottom, and meaningful baffles. It worked great. Canton pans suck ***: aside from not controlling the oil as well, the baffles have an annoying habit of breaking or getting stuck.
• A big Dewitts or similar radiator is really nice. My 396 with over 400rwhp never went above 195F coolant temps, even for *****-out 20-minute lapping sessions in 100F Texas heat. Stock engines may be fine with a stock radiator. I'm really not sure. I do know you need to keep your full air dam on under the nose, or else it won't send enough air up into the bottom-breathing opening.
• I feel like engine/power mods are a big can of worms to open up here, so I won't.
• Oil: run a good synthetic. They didn't have Mobil 1 0w-40 when the C4 was around, but I see no reason not to use it now. You'll get better cold-start oil flow (even on a warm day) plus better high-temp/high-shear viscosity. 15w-50 would protect even better, but you will sacrifice a lot of wear on cold starts.
• Run good power steering fluid. I was running the Joe Gibbs stuff because that's what the previous owner ran.
• I never worried about chassis stiffness. Except for this: always run with your roof one! The car is awful without it. Or one of those t-top simulating truss brace things would certainly work well if you want the wind in your hair. Don't fall for the silly Vet-2-vet things.

The front geometry in 88 changed to the zero scrub design, with more offset and a lot more steering axis inclination (SAI). The latter is problematic for autocross use because at high steering angles the tires lose a lot of negative camber, right when you want it most. You can't dial in enough caster in any practical way to make up for it. Also, the later front end added ridiculous amounts of anti-dive to the upper control arms, which is not desirable. That was to make up for the ever-softening spring rates, I'm sure. You could modify that without swapping entire front ends, if you got crafty. Still, it seems that the early front end was better. I thought about grafting one onto my car - probably would have if I'd kept it. I'm honestly not sure in the rear. I think the roll center geometry is more stable on the later ones. I see that as less important the differences up front because if you make the spring rates stiffer, the car won't move as much and the roll center differences don't matter as much. I don't think the front end differences matter as much for track use because the steering angles are rarely that high on a track.

PS - VT, you should try to get 93Rubie (Shawn Bauman) in here. He is a hell of a good autocross driver in a C4!

 

It's been a number of years since I've been active with the SCCA. I have tentative plans to campaign an 85 C4 with SCDA & EMRA in the Northeast, Lime Rock Park is my home track.

 

So excited for this thread!

Was our intent to merely meet up at an event or actually plan our own?

Most weekends are already booked for this year so coordinating our own would be relegated to weekdays.

What's the current interested party list and where are we all located?

I'm in southern Michigan near Jackson off I-94.

 

Personally, I don't like more than 300hp because on straightaways you will exceed 130mph and unless you build a roll cage you're asking to die. But I'm a chicken.

 

Don't hate me for this, but from a starting standpoint a C5 will make a better track car. It's more balanced.

But if you're poor like me, then a C4 is perfect cause you can modify one and have less than 10k in it.