What's Needed to Track Safely - NON-PP

[5.0hopeful]

I guess my first question is... Can this be done? Can I track this car without having the PP upgrades? And if so, what else would I need to upgrade or change to do it in a regular GT premium car?

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[AnelBHF]

I would suggest a brake upgrade as a must. Also wider tires if I am not mistaken the non PP cars have 235 front and rear all season tires which I wouldn't recommend for track. To answer you question if you can track it without doing any changes, yes. I have seen Buick regal's running in novice groups. Just remember that you have a very powerful car. Be safe and have fun.

 

[Impulsed7]

Nothing, if you are new to the track.

If you are experienced and fast-ish at the track, brake pads and good fluid and you're good.

 

[5.0hopeful]

I would suggest a brake upgrade as a must. Also wider tires if I am not mistaken the non PP cars have 235 front and rear all season tires which I wouldn't recommend for track. To answer you question if you can track it without doing any changes, yes. I have seen Buick regal's running in novice groups. Just remember that you have a very powerful car. Be safe and have fun.

Yea, the wheels and tires are going to upgraded on this car anyway. I don't really like the 17" look anyways and I'll get wider tires when I do that.

Nothing, if you are new to the track.

If you are experienced and fast-ish at the track, brake pads and good fluid and you're good.

I guess my bigger question is can it be done safely without any upgrades? The car won't heat up or anything like that on me?

 

[grue]

i tracked a non-track pack completely factory stock '13 GT. the instructor that road with me helped a lot. said it was very "safe" to track my car. i kept top speed no more than 120 and coasted a bit before going into high-speed to low speed corners, braked early. he did tell me to keep any eye on how the brakes felt. said they would probably get mushy after the first few turns. he was right - the first three turns OK the fourth turn, the pedal pushed down about 1/2 way, the fifth turn was really soft and then i ended up going down about 3/4's of the way to the floor. he said my fluid and pads were getting very warm. he wasn't too worried though. i ended up doing three session with about 4 laps each. i didn't accelerate as fast as i could have, i didn't go over 120... coasted a bit etc... and was very attentive to the brakes.

after that and a couple more "learning" track days i had upgraded brake rotors calipers and pads and fluid, huge difference. my final track day in that car was with "track" pads, fresh fluid again, and cooling ducts. every corner i did was like the brakes were fresh. my instructor told me i should have done the "track" pads and fluid on day one. the cooling he said was a really good idea given the track, but on slower shorter tracks it might not be as critical.

learn the line, learn to be smooth and take your time. you don't have to be the fastest person on track. it's FUN! and believe me, i've had more frickin fun even being slow compared to everyone else. my only worry was that i was too slow and "didn't belong out there" but the instructors all said no problems and there was always a few cars slower than me too.

so bottom line: pads and fluid. pads that you can't drive on the street or shouldn't.

 

[Impulsed7]

If you really need to, upgrade brake fluid. Other than that, your track driving, with a good instructor shouldn't hurt the car much at all.

1 big thing to remember, slow is smooth, and smooth is fast!

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