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Gti Jake’s first track day

D

DarkArrow

Drag Racing Champion
Location
OC
Car(s)
'18 R
Sounds like a great day. Always love reading about these and seeing what these cars can do.

I won't be joining in on giving you flack, since it sounds like you didn't annoy/piss off anyone on track. For most people, it's probably a bad idea just because it's unsafe and can ruin a track day in many different ways, however it seems you were knowledgeable enough to avoid that.

Just noticed you listed Indy 500s as your tires. Is that really what you ran on track? If your coolant and oil temps were high, did these tires hold up?

randomhobo130 said:
Awesome write up! Actually just looked up the closest track to me today as I've been really wanting to do this (over 2 hours away) but reading how much fun you had doing this has made me want to try even more. I have PP brakes and was going to just switch out pads and rotors this summer but now you have me considering just biting the bullet for a BBK to handle something like this.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
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PP brakes with better pads and fluid are sufficient for novice drivers.
 
GTI Jake

GTI Jake

Autocross Champion
Location
Charlotte, NC
DarkArrow said:
Sounds like a great day. Always love reading about these and seeing what these cars can do.

I won't be joining in on giving you flack, since it sounds like you didn't annoy/piss off anyone on track. For most people, it's probably a bad idea just because it's unsafe and can ruin a track day in many different ways, however it seems you were knowledgeable enough to avoid that.

Just noticed you listed Indy 500s as your tires. Is that really what you ran on track? If your coolant and oil temps were high, did these tires hold up?
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Im sure prior race experience played a large role in that, I wasn’t just a weekend warrior. For the better part of a decade I held several championship titles and raced basically at least once or twice per weekend March-December. Proper track awareness comes with experience and crossing over from a different form of Motorsports you carry that with you.

After speaking with SCCA track officials and the other drivers in my group everyone agreed I’d made the proper selection. If I hadn’t we would’ve adjusted accordingly.


As for the tires I should’ve taken a picture of the tread there to get opinions on how they held up.

From the drivers seat the Indy 500s seemed to be consistent and didn’t do anything out of the ordinary given the circumstances. They definitely got hot, as there’s some chunks missing and lots of heat distortion




Just took these crappy cell phone pictures in the dark as I just got to work, but this is after 300+ regular road miles smoothing them back out.

Roughly 3-4K miles on them total
 
M

Mini7

Autocross Champion
Location
Charlotte, NC
Car(s)
2017 GTi Sport PP
CMP is notorious for eating up tires with its abrasive surface.
 
Cliff

Cliff

Drag Racing Champion
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
Car(s)
2015 Cayman GTS
Gti jake said:
Finally with all my unknowns on the car what about me? I’d watched several in car videos of CMP to learn the course, but what class should I run? I have tons of racing experience, over 150 races between AMA motocross, GNCC, AWRC, and CRA as well as some Auto X and a few hundred passes down the 1/4 mile, but no actual track time in a car. Karting has been a recent hobby, but reading all of the track guy threads here that all seemed inferior compared to the all mighty HPDE.
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Seems like reasonable prep to me and it all worked out. Fwiw, a friend's son races shifter karts and he is extremely fast when driving his dad's C5 Z06 out on track. Karting is definitely not inferior experience (but at 63 years old, I don't really want to deal with the physical wear and tear - so you go ahead and have fun with it).

Doing an instructed HPDE would still be a benefit to you. I coached Dark Arrow at his first event with the Audi club out here on the west coast, and the key word is "coach". Any driver benefits from getting insights and advice from a pair of experienced eyeballs in their right seat.
 
Sparky589

Sparky589

Drag Racing Champion
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
Exciting stuff to read about! Kinda in a similar boat, I've been putting off the track (have a good friend from back in high school who has been hounding me to take the Golf with him up to Thunder Hill) out of fear of overwhelming the stock TSI brakes. Now that they are decidedly not stock any more, and considering everything I've done to the car I think it's high time I really saw what it's truly capable of.
 
GTI Jake

GTI Jake

Autocross Champion
Location
Charlotte, NC
Cliff said:
Seems like reasonable prep to me and it all worked out. Fwiw, a friend's son races shifter karts and he is extremely fast when driving his dad's C5 Z06 out on track. Karting is definitely not inferior experience (but at 63 years old, I don't really want to deal with the physical wear and tear - so you go ahead and have fun with it).

Doing an instructed HPDE would still be a benefit to you. I coached Dark Arrow at his first event with the Audi club out here on the west coast, and the key word is "coach". Any driver benefits from getting insights and advice from a pair of experienced eyeballs in their right seat.
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Definitely! Even while Karting I’m always looking for insight from the faster drivers and try to learn as much from watching their lines as possible.

I’m definitely looking forward to a formal HPDE!


Sparky589 said:
Exciting stuff to read about! Kinda in a similar boat, I've been putting off the track (have a good friend from back in high school who has been hounding me to take the Golf with him up to Thunder Hill) out of fear of overwhelming the stock TSI brakes. Now that they are decidedly not stock any more, and considering everything I've done to the car I think it's high time I really saw what it's truly capable of.
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The Stoptechs will definitely be up to the task, now it’s time to pick a date and sign up!
 
M

mayhem_j30

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
Louisville, KY
Mini7 said:
CMP is notorious for eating up tires with its abrasive surface.
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Yup. And it doesn't help that you have to park your hot R compounds in that beach they call a paddock. I always hated the first couple laps after the first session because it's like driving on a skeeball table.

I'm curious how the Indy's do with heat cycles. Anybody have experience with that? I only tracked Toyo's and Hamkooks back in the day and the Toyo's were fantastically resilient.
 
Swoope

Swoope

Ready to race!
Location
orlando
Gti jake said:
Better pictures now that it’s light out. Definitely need more camber up front
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about damn time you did it!

did you bother to measure hot tire pressures during your sessions.

would be curious to know.

beers
 
R

R Golf

Go Kart Champion
Location
Lenox, MA
Sparky589 said:
Exciting stuff to read about! Kinda in a similar boat, I've been putting off the track (have a good friend from back in high school who has been hounding me to take the Golf with him up to Thunder Hill) out of fear of overwhelming the stock TSI brakes. Now that they are decidedly not stock any more, and considering everything I've done to the car I think it's high time I really saw what it's truly capable of.
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Sounds great....now make sure you do it! I think you'll love it.

Your last line about realizing the car's capabilities is going to be eye opening. If you like your car now you're going to LOVE it after your first track day. You will also be amazed at how much your driving will improve over time.

Good luck!
 
Sparky589

Sparky589

Drag Racing Champion
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
R Golf said:
Sounds great....now make sure you do it! I think you'll love it.

Your last line about realizing the car's capabilities is going to be eye opening. If you like your car now you're going to LOVE it after your first track day. You will also be amazed at how much your driving will improve over time.

Good luck!
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Well it's official now, just finished registering for my first event up at Thunder Hill on June 1! Now all that's left is to finally buy myself a helmet.
 
GTI Jake

GTI Jake

Autocross Champion
Location
Charlotte, NC
swoope said:
about damn time you did it!

did you bother to measure hot tire pressures during your sessions.

would be curious to know.

beers
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No I didn’t, next time I will for science

Sparky589 said:
Well it's official now, just finished registering for my first event up at Thunder Hill on June 1! Now all that's left is to finally buy myself a helmet.
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Nice! Get the newest Snell rating available (SA2015) as they do expire
 
DAS_STIG

DAS_STIG

Banned
Location
Chicago
What pads did you run in the back? You still have the non-PP solid disks right?
 
Z

ZuMBLe

Autocross Champion
Location
NY
Car(s)
Alltrack 6MT
Great write up! APR Stage 2 tune didn't blow your car up! Do you have any logs from your car during the runs?
 
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