Watkins Glen Track day
04-17-2009, 11:21 AM
#3
4th Gear Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: NY
Posts: 1,061
are you currently running any mod's ? what size are you tires ? are you an auto or manual ? where abouts in NY are you located.
first thing would be a CAI and tune if not already done. a short throw helps out if youre a standard. For traction, check into LCA and possible and pan hard bar ?
Im in syracuse , feel free to PM if you're close
first thing would be a CAI and tune if not already done. a short throw helps out if youre a standard. For traction, check into LCA and possible and pan hard bar ?
Im in syracuse , feel free to PM if you're close
04-18-2009, 09:58 AM
#4
2nd Gear Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Farmington Hills, MI
Posts: 182
Hey 14901490,
You should post questions like this in the “S197 Handling Section”. There are lots of road course junkies who hang out over there. You said you are mainly stock so I’m assuming you’ve done nothing to your brakes and suspension.
At a minimum, you need to change/upgrade your brake fluid to something with higher wet and dry boiling points. I use ATE Super Blue / TYP 200 (same fluid but one is colored blue and the other amber to make it easier to tell when the old fluid is gone). Others like Motul and others have said Motorcraft Heavy Duty works well but I’d stick with either ATE or Motul.
Next I would upgrade your brake pads to either Hawk HPS or HP+. I ran the HPS pads for my first year and a half of track days and really liked them on both the street and track. Good bite on the street and reasonable amounts of dust. The HP+ are a little more dusty and can make a bit more noise in street use.
I get my ATE fluid and purchased Hawk Pads from here: http://www.raceshopper.com/
Both of these can be done the weekend before your day at Watkins and will give you a feel for the track and allow you to have a blast with your mostly stock car.
If you think you’ll be doing this more than once, (it’s highly addictive) you may want to consider changing to braided stainless steel brake lines at this time.
Longer term I’d suggest (in order):
1. If you didn’t do it yet, SS brake lines
2. Lowering springs, adjustable shocks (Tokiko D-Spec or Koni) and Steeda HD strut mount.
3. Lightweight rims and sticky tires
4. Adjustable panhard bar and support (may be needed with lowering springs).
5. Brake ducts (I have the Quantum kit)
6. Adjustable lower control arms and new upper control arm (spherical/poly combination)
7. Change over your soft suspension bushings to polyurethane
8. Racing brake pads (need to change at the track however)
If you haven’t done so, I’d also suggest at some point a cold air intake and premium fuel tune as well as Steeda underdrive pulleys.
I’m sure others will have differing opinions, but if I had it to do over, this would be my path.
Good luck and have fun at Watikins Glen.
You should post questions like this in the “S197 Handling Section”. There are lots of road course junkies who hang out over there. You said you are mainly stock so I’m assuming you’ve done nothing to your brakes and suspension.
At a minimum, you need to change/upgrade your brake fluid to something with higher wet and dry boiling points. I use ATE Super Blue / TYP 200 (same fluid but one is colored blue and the other amber to make it easier to tell when the old fluid is gone). Others like Motul and others have said Motorcraft Heavy Duty works well but I’d stick with either ATE or Motul.
Next I would upgrade your brake pads to either Hawk HPS or HP+. I ran the HPS pads for my first year and a half of track days and really liked them on both the street and track. Good bite on the street and reasonable amounts of dust. The HP+ are a little more dusty and can make a bit more noise in street use.
I get my ATE fluid and purchased Hawk Pads from here: http://www.raceshopper.com/
Both of these can be done the weekend before your day at Watkins and will give you a feel for the track and allow you to have a blast with your mostly stock car.
If you think you’ll be doing this more than once, (it’s highly addictive) you may want to consider changing to braided stainless steel brake lines at this time.
Longer term I’d suggest (in order):
1. If you didn’t do it yet, SS brake lines
2. Lowering springs, adjustable shocks (Tokiko D-Spec or Koni) and Steeda HD strut mount.
3. Lightweight rims and sticky tires
4. Adjustable panhard bar and support (may be needed with lowering springs).
5. Brake ducts (I have the Quantum kit)
6. Adjustable lower control arms and new upper control arm (spherical/poly combination)
7. Change over your soft suspension bushings to polyurethane
8. Racing brake pads (need to change at the track however)
If you haven’t done so, I’d also suggest at some point a cold air intake and premium fuel tune as well as Steeda underdrive pulleys.
I’m sure others will have differing opinions, but if I had it to do over, this would be my path.
Good luck and have fun at Watikins Glen.
Last edited by Red06; 04-18-2009 at 10:00 AM.
04-18-2009, 02:26 PM
#6
2nd Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: webster, ny
Posts: 349
are you currently running any mod's ? what size are you tires ? are you an auto or manual ? where abouts in NY are you located.
first thing would be a CAI and tune if not already done. a short throw helps out if youre a standard. For traction, check into LCA and possible and pan hard bar ?
Im in syracuse , feel free to PM if you're close
first thing would be a CAI and tune if not already done. a short throw helps out if youre a standard. For traction, check into LCA and possible and pan hard bar ?
Im in syracuse , feel free to PM if you're close
MGW`short shifter
Throttle body spacer
stock tires
Webster, NY
What is LCA?
04-18-2009, 03:58 PM
#7
4th Gear Member
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location:
Posts: 1,599
LCA is lower control arm. He thought you were talking about drag racing and not road racing. You should have ordered your intake/tune from brenspeed instead of american muscle, because they provide much better tunes, but it is still a worthwhile purchase. Read a little more on the forums before you go ordering a bunch of stuff you dont need. Brake pads and fluid are a good idea, but HPS pads are sometimes not enough for some people and they need HP+. Post in the handling section and you will get better help.
04-19-2009, 12:12 AM
#9
4th Gear Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: NY
Posts: 1,061
you can buy a tune from brenspeed anytime. You just have to get the number off of your esm or pcm ??? Make sure you tell him in the email every mod that you currently have and he will make you custom tunes based on the mods you currently have on the vehicle
04-19-2009, 07:52 AM
#10
6th Gear Member
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: state of confusion
Posts: 7,635
Safety before power & performance here. Especially brakes. One thought with respect to HP+ pads - they are mostly streetable, but they may not have a lot of "bite" when they're really cold (think temperatures below 40°F), that according to some changes to abrupt bite when hot.
For your tune, you might want to mention that you're taking the car out on the road course instead of going to the drag strip, as that should affect the details of the tune itself. Drag strip is mostly WOT for less than 15 seconds at a time and part throttle doesn't matter. Road course has much more part throttle operation. Reason I mention this is because most of the common powertrain mods are still drag-race oriented.
Norm
For your tune, you might want to mention that you're taking the car out on the road course instead of going to the drag strip, as that should affect the details of the tune itself. Drag strip is mostly WOT for less than 15 seconds at a time and part throttle doesn't matter. Road course has much more part throttle operation. Reason I mention this is because most of the common powertrain mods are still drag-race oriented.
Norm
Last edited by Norm Peterson; 04-19-2009 at 08:16 AM.
