After doing a track day and absolutely loving it, I’m wondering what I can do to get more laps out of my car.

I was advised to do 1 warm up lap, 3 hot laps and then 1 cool down lap, then give the car 20mins.

The brakes were getting a little warm towards the end.

Are there any mods I can do to let me have longer on track?

Car is a 05 STI Widetrack, on RE070s, apparently with uprate discs & pads but I don’t rate them, full exhaust & panel filter and mapped to approx 330bhp. Still on TMIC. Would FMIC be worth doing?
Am I right in thinking it would be beneficial to do FMIC, new dot 5.1 brake fluid, better discs & pads and then see whats what? I cant see me needing an oil cooler or uprated radiator… Or would I?

 

tyres, brake pads, brake fluid & an oil cooler are always a really good starting point with track cars. A way to tell if you need an oil cooler is by fitting a temperature gauge and monitoring the temperatures, it may not be needed on your car but it's best to find out.

After that it can get a little expensive when you start looking into baffled sumps, fuel systems because you've spent so much money making it grip so well in the bends.

 

DOT 4 racing fluid is probably better for tracks and often has a much higher dry boiling point.

cheap end ATE SuperBlue from EuroCarParts
or one of the best out there:
Performance Friction RH665
http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/perfor...ng-brake-fluid

Long stints on track require cool oil, and brakes & tyres that can take it.

 

Your radiator should be ok if it's clean.
As said you need to check your oil temp and at least consider a cooler if you're getting over 100C.
It's all very well upgrading your brakes to better quality pads and discs, but they will still heat up the same, or even more, in the 3 or 4 laps you currently do. If you want to spend more time on track you need to increase your brakes' ability to shed heat by adding some cold air ducting or fitting bigger discs. I suppose you could drive 3 laps and then have a slow one to cool off a little and then go again, but I wouldn't recommend it. Look at changing your brake fluid to a better product as well.

 

Fantastic info guys cheers! Ill try and sort some ducting for a start and an oil temp gauge!
Ive got a bluetooth diagnostic transmitter than sends info to a tablet - Reckon I'd be able to get oil temp from there?
Any links as to how to route brake ducting?

 

Fantastic info guys cheers! Ill try and sort some ducting for a start and an oil temp gauge!
Ive got a bluetooth diagnostic transmitter than sends info to a tablet - Reckon I'd be able to get oil temp from there?
Any links as to how to route brake ducting?

 

My oil temp goes to 110 then sits there. That's right on the threshold for a cooler from what I read so I'll be adding one over winter.

I've got RC5+ pads and Godspeed disks which never fade, but I totally cooked a caliper on my last track day so I need to sort cooling and monitor the brakes better to avoid sticky pistons/pads.

R888 tyres seem to last well for me, at least 5-6 full days which is a year of track days probably.

I get serious heat soak when doing my first lap out of the pits with a TMIC, but once up to speed the issue vanishes. Still going FMIC over winter.

I get fuel surge under half a tank, but I've got a Spec C anti surge box which hopefully will fix that.

Personally after 5 laps of most circuits I'm ready for a break, regardless of the car!

 

I was taking it easy but after three or four laps I was just getting into a rhythm. Bear in mind I'm a complete beginner

 

You could actually just take it a bit easier and concentrate on lines and braking points, then put in one hot lap and two steady ones concentrating on where you got it wrong on the hot lap and maybe trying slightly different lines. I usually go for a 20min stint at a time and back to the pits after a couple of steady laps to let everything cool down as it will cool better whilst moving than it will stood in the pits.

 

Good advice, and cheaper than all the upgrades as well

 

Yeah that sounds good! To be honest I wasn't thrashing thrashing it, I was concentrating on racing line and braking points. Mainly racing line. So brake ducting and maybe gauges?

 

Gauges are always a good investment. You should really have oil temp and pressure, and preferably a reliable coolant temp gauge as well (rather than the OEM dash gauge).
Don't forget it's not just your engine that's getting its bell rung. You might want to give some thought to putting decent oils in your g/box and diffs as well if you're going to be spending more time on track.

 

Contentious, but are water wetters a good option for the track?

 

Even with the added load of significantly increased power output and having a front mount pumping loads of centigrades out in front of the radiator, I have never found the cooling system to be a problem if it's in good nick.
In short my answer would be no.

 

Cheers that's go advice! All stuff that makes perfect sense but things I would never have thought of (esp gearbox and diff oil). Any recommendations?

 

There is a lot of information on correct oil selection here https://www.scoobynet.com/general-te...ions-here.html