For anyone in the area, www.racewaypark.com has dates for their Road Course.

I am going this Saturday, and probably every track date after that, if money and time allows.

For all you road course veterans, a question. This is my second track day at this course. I'm going to, of course, enlist the help of the instructors there, but I'm wondering what advice you have for a newbie such as myself. My first day really doesn't even count since it was just me driving around in a Honda sedan. I'm pretty sure I beat up the transmission (since it's... a commuter transmission), but my Kumho ASX tires held up pretty well.

I'm mounting the Continentals and storing the Kumho Ecsta ASX tires (All Season Tires). I have a "pit crew" who will have the floor jack so I can rotate tires as they wear, I will be purchasing some tire chalk to see if I'm rolling over onto the sidewall, and will be setting my tire pressures accordingly. Oh, and I let my sister borrow my air compressor for a long distance trip, so I guess I'll be bringing the bike pump (poor man's pit crew for the win).

From what I've read, the bottleneck for performance in these cars is the tires. It should be about 50 degrees at most, so hopefully that aids in the tires not heating up too quickly.

Also, I'm looking to get HPDE insurance, even though I'm told the event is listed as a "Car Control Program" so regular insurance should cover damages. I don't want to think about crashing, but I'm trying to be realistic here. Anyone have any bad experiences with insurance claims, or does anyone know of a good HPDE insurance company for one-time insurance? I can't afford some of these $1500 for a year of coverage right now (which is a good deal, but right now don't have $1500 just sitting in my account).

Any tips from anyone is appreciated. And if anyone else decides to join, I'll see you there!

 

Learn as much as you can and have fun doing it the right and safe way, ON THE TRACK.

 

Thank you for the words of wisdom. I got a good chuckle about the bike pump remark... haha.

 

I have been meaning to do this one day in the near future since I live right next door to E-Town. Let me know how it goes.

 

Other than having to pump +2 psi in about five minutes... it was a fun day overall. Of course, here are some photos, since most of us would rather look at pretty shiny colors:








Photos by John R. Coughlin

The Kumho Ecsta ASXs held up well, and I ended up with a crazy tire pressure of about 45psi/41psi after heated up. I did not have a pyrometer, but I'm pretty sure I was approaching temperatures of near 130+. They were hot to the touch, like a nice toasty valve cover at operating temperature. Next time, I'm going to bring out the OEM Continentals from the shed.

At the end of the day, roughly 90 miles of road course time, roughly 67 laps, I never thought I would see 8.2mpg on my DIC. Yes... that's EIGHT miles per gallon, folks. Needless to say, my DIC gave a fuel range of 102 miles after my next fillup after.

I did not concentrate on my racing line as much as I would have liked to. This was my second day at this track, but my first day with the newer track configuration. I asked an instructor to ride along shotgun toward the end of the day, but he sort of chuckled and said "It's a little late for that now, eh?" Anyway, I was happy to be passing an RX8, a Saturn Sky, and a Mini. I'll admit though, the little track-ready SCCA Miatas outhandled the crap out of me.

The Mini was stinking up the track with its burning brakes, and struggled to attack corners with its OEM runflat tires. I was kind of hoping the only other FWD car would do better.

The RX8 and the Saturn Sky (also the LNF), while RWD, did not do as well as I thought they would. I was running with the Novice class, so I imagine these drivers also had car-preservation in mind, more so than improving their lap times or racing lines. They were probably driving under the limit as well. I was happy to at least pass some cars though.

Everyone had a good time, and the people that were running were all very friendly. For the novice class, just going out there, not crashing, and moving reasonably fast made the day worth it. After two sessions (roughly 12 laps), the Cobalt started attracting some attention. The driver of the Sky noted how the seats are remarkably bolstered, and others didn't realize there was a newer Cobalt with a turbocharged engine.

At the end of one of the sessions, Kenny in the LNF Sky pulled into the waiting area in front of the pack, and I pulled in toward the middle. With both direct-injected Ecotec engines ticking away as we allowed our engines to slowly cool, standing between the two cars sounded like a terrible amateur duo of valve tap or diesel idling. Somewhat embarrassed, I closed my hood so it wasn't TOO obnoxious.

The track itself is almost five to six years old. It's not the smoothest track. Almost all turns can be negotiated in second gear, and the two passing zones, consist of a long straight and a slightly banked right-hander. On the main straight, the LNF can touch 90+mph. On the banked right-hander, after 80mph, the front tires start moaning "understeer", lifting-off allows a better turn in, and braking causes the back end to come loose, ever so slightly, but not enough for the Competition Mode ESC to kick in though. Here I was thankful for the obnoxious park bench high-rise spoiler. Did I turn off the ESC? No... not ready for that yet.

The transmission held up very well to upshifts and downshifts. At the end of the day, I had zero grinds and two missed upshifts to third. While this transmission has been known to be precise and short-shifting, it has been noted to be clunkier, compared to the "superior" Honda six-speed. However, the F35 is engineered to handle a larger amount of torque while retaining its long-term reliability. If I borrowed your Cobalt, took it to an identical track day 67 laps later, and returned your car to you, there would be no significant change in shift quality or feel. You would notice some beat up tires though... heh.

The first few hints of burning brake smell made me nervous and if you watched me after my second session, I spent a minute or two sniffing my brakes. My nose led me to the Mini, and I was relieved. I will note however that if you were to look for a Cobalt that has had some track time, you can actually see the vented edges of the front rotors and the actual front pads now have a slightly orange / red tint. This doesn't worry me. I just wasn't expecting it, and I actually think it's kind of cool. The Cobalt SS shows its true orange-tinted brake colors in its rightful place driven hard on the track. When you drive it here, you know the car personified is saying, "This is my home."

Again, kudos to GM for 2008 / 2009 Cobalt SS.

 

Very nice report. Next time you go down let me know. I am eager to take my car out for some laps.

I live right next door to E-town but have never gotten around to hitting up the road course.

 

Nice man love the pic of your car below the Porsche. sub'd maybe I can get down there for a run over the summer.

 

You can get some Porterfield R4S pads and some higher temp break fluid if you are concerned about your brakes. Its not super expensive and will help a lot. If you get real hard core you can get some dedicated track pads that work at real high temps. I
Also its not uncommon for tires to get up to ~200 degrees F at the track, your temps should be fine. You can make the car turn better by adding pressure in the rear tires. This has a double effect of stiffening the rear slightly (meaning the front has less weight transfer and more grip) while taking away some rear grip. Just go in small steps of like ~2 psi at a time to get it to feel how you want. Nice write up, these cars really are amazing.