First 3 track days... What's next?

[Egparson202]

Perfect. Want to add, a race seat as in fixed. No adjustment

https://competitionmotorsport.com/racetech-rt4100-racing-seat

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[Bridgie]

It’s only money.. go for it.
Safety and seat time are the 2 biggest and best add-ons.

Over time you will learn to brake harder, turn faster and harder, want to accelerate quicker and have a better balanced and handling car..
Then you’ll find some weaknesses in the car, so you’ll upgrade…

Welcome to the Merry-go-round..

 

[Egparson202]

It’s only money.. go for it.
Safety and seat time are the 2 biggest and best add-ons.

Over time you will learn to brake harder, turn faster and harder, want to accelerate quicker and have a better balanced and handling car..
Then you’ll find some weaknesses in the car, so you’ll upgrade…

Welcome to the Merry-go-round..

Loving this!

 

[webspoke]

After the maintenance items...

Seat - stock recaros, cms roll bar, schroth 4pt - fits me well and holds great.

Camber - you can get a useful amount by slotting the front strut/knuckle hole - that got my car around 2.3-2.5 degrees which is a good compromise for street and track. I use that because dumb scca rules about camber plates.

Square setup (305s) really balances the car nicely. Try it on the stock wheels first, the fronts handle it just fine. If you decide to get more serious you can get a set of 19x11 or 11.5's square (like apex wheels site shows), and maybe longer front studs to fully rotate the setup.

Tires - I ran goodyear SC3s square for over a season. Good street tire, hard to wear out, and plenty fast.

Suspension - I've added adjustable swaybars, and bmr springs. These were inexpensive, and took the car from very nice handling, to on-rails. Swaybars ended up in the middle setting, but its nice to be able to fine tune. The reduced roll is also helping with my limited camber and reduces tire wear. No changes needed for the mag ride calibration

I've had lots of heavily modified cars, with double adj. shocks and coilovers, hoosiers, gutted etc. The gt350 with simple mods is so fun, balanced, and nice to drive out of the box, I'm not sucked into really heavy mods. Enjoy your ride!

 

[ChipG]

Tires - I ran goodyear SC3s square for over a season. Good street tire, hard to wear out, and plenty fast.

What tire pressures do you find work best for the SC3s? For SC2s I found that they liked 32-34 hot best on track.

 

[honeybadger]

For the next year, I'd only suggest a couple changes:

1. Safety (4pts work, but 5/6 pts are a lot more comfortable and do a much better job holding you in which allows you to focus more on the driving). I'd also suggest swapping in a proper race seat. I used the OMP Champ R for 2 years before full track conversion.

2. Stiffen up the chassis a bit to get more communication from it - bushings, spherical bearings, and BMR springs. All will help the car feel more communicative, which makes it easier to understand what it's doing beneath you

3. Go to Ford's GT350R alignment recommendations. You'll need more eventually, but this is a good start.

Spend all the rest on track days. I did something like 40 track days before anything performance oriented and it really helped expedite my learning curve. The next best thing I did for my driving was get a lot of time in a Miata

 

[brokenblinker]

Thanks Everyone! A few follow-on questions.

Race seat + harnesses:
I don't really have any prior experience with this. Is it completely miserable for normal street driving? Or is it still pretty quick to get in and out? I'm willing to tolerate a little bit, but still will continue joy riding the mountains I think (even if it hits a lot less hard than it did pre-track experience).

Also, how difficult a job are these things? With a goal of being a little bit lower and not miserable getting in and out (I have had the occasional back pain flare ups unrelated to car activities), should I be able to find a relatively easy to install solution?


Springs/Suspension:
I've debated this, but I already just barely scrape my driveway. I don't mind the suspension being a bit more rigid, etc. , but am concerned with making a change that makes it harder to get in and out of my garage.

I think I'll be going to the 350R recommendations as people have pointed out. I'm hoping that if I avoid going to a crazy sticky tire, I can avoid needing to push it further.

 

[honeybadger]

Thanks Everyone! A few follow-on questions.

Race seat + harnesses:
I don't really have any prior experience with this. Is it completely miserable for normal street driving? Or is it still pretty quick to get in and out? I'm willing to tolerate a little bit, but still will continue joy riding the mountains I think (even if it hits a lot less hard than it did pre-track experience).

Also, how difficult a job are these things? With a goal of being a little bit lower and not miserable getting in and out (I have had the occasional back pain flare ups unrelated to car activities), should I be able to find a relatively easy to install solution?


Springs/Suspension:
I've debated this, but I already just barely scrape my driveway. I don't mind the suspension being a bit more rigid, etc. , but am concerned with making a change that makes it harder to get in and out of my garage.

I think I'll be going to the 350R recommendations as people have pointed out. I'm hoping that if I avoid going to a crazy sticky tire, I can avoid needing to push it further.

Don't replace the seat. Track seats and belts are a dangerous on the street, IMHO. The airbags were designed for 3pt and you'll want in the event of a street crash. Swap a seat in for track days. Takes 20 mins once you get the hang of it. Safer and more comfortable for everyone. Passenger seat can stay OEM.

The front splitter is meant to be rubbed. It takes 10x the impact on track than it ever will slowing going in and out of your driveway. The BMR springs will cause some additional scraping, but that's literally what the bottom of your splitter is designed for. It can take it.

 

[Egparson202]

What tire pressures do you find work best for the SC3s? For SC2s I found that they liked 32-34 hot best on track.

@webspoke is right about the SC3’s. Mine have 7 weekends and same number of transit miles on them. Still going strong. I’m running -3 degrees up front and targeting 32 hot pressures.

 

[brokenblinker]

Don't replace the seat. Track seats and belts are a dangerous on the street, IMHO. The airbags were designed for 3pt and you'll want in the event of a street crash. Swap a seat in for track days. Takes 20 mins once you get the hang of it. Safer and more comfortable for everyone. Passenger seat can stay OEM.

The front splitter is meant to be rubbed. It takes 10x the impact on track than it ever will slowing going in and out of your driveway. The BMR springs will cause some additional scraping, but that's literally what the bottom of your splitter is designed for. It can take it.

Gotcha. Should I expect that all seats I would be looking at will easily swap quickly? Or are there particular categories / keywords that I should be looking for?

Thank you for the patience and answers, I'm quite ignorant in the topic.

 

[ChipG]

@webspoke is right about the SC3’s. Mine have 7 weekends and same number of transit miles on them. Still going strong. I’m running -3 degrees up front and targeting 32 hot pressures.

I ran -3⁰ front and -1.7⁰ rear with zero toe both ends and the tires were great. Ran around 32 psi hot as you suggested, and grip and wear were fantastic. Very impressed with the first outing on them. Showed over 1.4 Gs in some turns on Track Addict.

 

[Egparson202]

I ran -3⁰ front and -1.7⁰ rear with zero toe both ends and the tires were great. Ran around 32 psi hot as you suggested, and grip and wear were fantastic. Very impressed with the first outing on them. Showed over 1.4 Gs in some turns on Track Addict.

I’m happy to hear that, Chip. It mirrors my experience closely. The SC3’s wear like iron and perform well over the course of a session, but even more impressively, over a lot of heat cycles.

Just out of curiosity, I’m still on stock GT350 springs, ARB’s and MR shocks. Are you?

 

[theruleslawyer]

If you are to the point of getting wheels for the track, might as well get some r compound tires. Or at least look into it. Youll have two sets and be buying new tires anyways.

 

[Egparson202]

If you are to the point of getting wheels for the track, might as well get some r compound tires. Or at least look into it. Youll have two sets and be buying new tires anyways.

Maybe. On the other hand there is a lot to be learned about car control, threshold braking, mastering the line and becoming consistent that is more easily learned with the grip afforded by street tires. R Comps are certainly going to permit higher speeds but could interfere with the learning required to become a faster driver, not a driver of a faster car, right? More grip can cover mistakes for a time, but after just a handful of track days I’d recommend high quality summer tires for the track for a while longer.

 

[ChipG]

I’m happy to hear that, Chip. It mirrors my experience closely. The SC3’s wear like iron and perform well over the course of a session, but even more impressively, over a lot of heat cycles.

Just out of curiosity, I’m still on stock GT350 springs, ARB’s and MR shocks. Are you?

I'm on BMR springs with OEM MR shocks and OEM ARBs at the moment. I have the IRS locked down with bushings and braces and have alignment parts.

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