Taking your car to the Track/Dragstrip - Does it hurt?

[GoranRC]

Hey Mustang6G Forum!

3 Weeks Ago-ish, I bought a 2018 Premium Ecoboost 10 Speed with about 20k miles on it. Track Apps, Digital Cluster and all the awesome extras! Amazing condition, from the dealership, and perfect in every way.

Having bought it with my own money, I've been enjoying the hell out of it. - I don't own the car to be a street racer, so it is STOCK as hell. - I'm adding lots of exterior mods to it, but I'm keeping it's power nice and chill. - (Possibly adding an intercooler or maybe an intake later later later later on, not sure).

Anyways, I was at work the other day, when this guy pulled up in a real-nice, old and beautiful Mustang. I asked him what he did that day, (nature of my job) so he told me he got back from a drag strip. - I said Woah, and pointed to my new, and just-polished car on the lot and he liked it. He pulled out a small little brochure to a Drag Strip place around my area, and said it would be fun for me to take it out there one day. He said they have a place to "do donuts", and apparently a track to take it around. A Big place, he said, and it only costs around 20 to get in, and test/have fun with your car safely.

I'm not interested in the donuts part. - Drag-Strip might be fun, (especially with all the TrackApps) and the Track intrigued me. I mentioned to him that I'm stock, and he said "That's alright, lots of guys go there to get a feel of their car while it's performing at it's best".

So that raised me the question. - Say I do take it to a track/drag-strip. - I'm sure It will be a great experience, but the car will be in Track Mode, and will be getting floored and pushed a great amount, I'm sure. - How.. bad is that for my car? - I know it's meant to be driven nicely, and the engine is nice, but truly, honestly, how much will it affect the car?

Please fill me in on all the awesome info you could - I'm still learning all of this, and I'm glad to be a part of the family!

Thank you guys,
Goran

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[ETAGuy]

Drive it like you stole it young man, honestly Ford wouldn't put all this technology such as track apps if they didn't think it was safe for the car. Besides it good to stretch her legs out every now and than. I've been going racing at tracks since 1994, its very rare to see anything bone stock have any issues with reliability.

 

[FruityJudy]

It only hurts if you lose...

 

[BmacIL]

I've only been to the drag strip twice for test and tune nights. It is fun, even though my car is heavily biased towards road course handling than launching. As others have said, drive it and have fun with the car. It's not a collectable Ferrari despite how much we each love ours. Cars are meant to be driven. Drag racing is hard on the rear tires, rear axles, subframe and other suspension components. The auto is easier on this stuff, so you've got that going for you. With a stock car, you're not likely to damage anything, but don't go unless you could afford to replace stuff if it did break.

 

[Hack]

Yes, using your car's maximum power is hard on it. Components will wear out more quickly. Especially brakes and fluids get hot and need to be changed more frequently when the car is used on a track or road course. Your owner's manual has information about maintenance in it. My opinion is that the cost of more frequent maintenance is worth it, because I think time at the road course is a blast. I've never done 1/4 mile stuff, but I have heard that can be fun too.

Donuts seem like pure abuse to me, so I get where you are coming from in not doing them. I've done that kind of thing on ice, but on bare asphalt or concrete that sort of treatment is pretty hard on a car.

If you do decide to go to a road course, be careful and take it easy especially at first. Track insurance is available and probably is a good idea if you can't afford to lose your car due to an accident at the track.

 

[The_Phantom]

 

[Hack]

Track insurance...for a 17 year old...with a Mustang...

You are probably right.

However, going to the track with a newer Mustang as a 17 year old - if you can't afford the insurance, maybe they are telling you something. I've gone to the track without it, but I wouldn't recommend that to someone else.

 

[Sigma6]

You are probably right.

However, going to the track with a newer Mustang as a 17 year old - if you can't afford the insurance, maybe they are telling you something. I've gone to the track without it, but I wouldn't recommend that to someone else.

agreed. Cost to Fun ratio has to make sense to you. There’s some great advice here. While I believe seat time makes your a better, hopefully Safer driver, it does comes with risks. If you have the ability to either fix your car yourself or have the money to pay someone else, just realize the costs of each.

 

[kz]

Hey Mustang6G Forum!

3 Weeks Ago-ish, I bought a 2018 Premium Ecoboost 10 Speed with about 20k miles on it. Track Apps, Digital Cluster and all the awesome extras! Amazing condition, from the dealership, and perfect in every way.

Having bought it with my own money, I've been enjoying the hell out of it. - I don't own the car to be a street racer, so it is STOCK as hell. - I'm adding lots of exterior mods to it, but I'm keeping it's power nice and chill. - (Possibly adding an intercooler or maybe an intake later later later later on, not sure).

Anyways, I was at work the other day, when this guy pulled up in a real-nice, old and beautiful Mustang. I asked him what he did that day, (nature of my job) so he told me he got back from a drag strip. - I said Woah, and pointed to my new, and just-polished car on the lot and he liked it. He pulled out a small little brochure to a Drag Strip place around my area, and said it would be fun for me to take it out there one day. He said they have a place to "do donuts", and apparently a track to take it around. A Big place, he said, and it only costs around 20 to get in, and test/have fun with your car safely.

I'm not interested in the donuts part. - Drag-Strip might be fun, (especially with all the TrackApps) and the Track intrigued me. I mentioned to him that I'm stock, and he said "That's alright, lots of guys go there to get a feel of their car while it's performing at it's best".

So that raised me the question. - Say I do take it to a track/drag-strip. - I'm sure It will be a great experience, but the car will be in Track Mode, and will be getting floored and pushed a great amount, I'm sure. - How.. bad is that for my car? - I know it's meant to be driven nicely, and the engine is nice, but truly, honestly, how much will it affect the car?

Please fill me in on all the awesome info you could - I'm still learning all of this, and I'm glad to be a part of the family!

Thank you guys,
Goran

If you end up in the wall in the strip, you will hurt it. Same thing on the track, if you end up going off it. So realize there is a risk that insurance will not cover. There will be some wear on the car but not nearly anything to be worried about - these are built for that and given you're interested in actually doing that, there is some hope for you (although given your "exterior mods" and your other threads - not much of a hope. If you go to track, be ready for being laughed at for those - seriously).

Track mode itself won't do anything to the car. Lots of people use it 100% (or close to) time.

 

[Stephen@lethal]

Once you take it to the track, you'll be hooked. Just make sure you be careful on the stock tires, they don't tend to do very well at drag strips. Also let me know if you have any questions about parts or if you are ever interested in getting that intercooler, we have plenty of options over at Lethalperformance.com

 

[Vlad Soare]

One thing to keep in mind is that the Ecoboost is a turbocharged engine. The turbocharger gets very hot during periods of heavy use and uses engine oil to cool down. You must never turn the engine off immediately after a sporty episode. Always leave it idling for a couple of minutes before shutting it down.

 

[RIBS]

I run my stock Mustang at the track on occasion-here's my input-
Don't run it in track mode right away, that's a recipe for disaster-leave the nannies on.
Learn how to race first, then experiment with different drive modes.
I know you have an Ecoboost which is down on power compared to a GT but it still can probably break loose on you unexpectedly.

In terms of hurting the car-driver error can send you into the wall. Regular Insurance isn't going to cover that.
I have heard of snapped axle shafts due to wheel hop, but not any other damage on stock cars. I look at it this way-My opinion-Ford Engineers tested, they know what the car components can handle, there are speed limiters and rev limiters for a reason, to keep the engine/drivetrain in a safe operating envelope. If you are on the street and floor it at a red light and go Zero to 55(speed limit), you are holding pedal on floor for maybe 5-7 seconds. In the quarter mile, you are doing the same thing, but for 13-15 seconds, the equivalent of a couple of red light launches....

My GT actually has its best times with all nannies controlling wheel spin, I know with a Driver Mod I could probably cut my time a bit, but increase the hazard level too.

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