"Track Days" For Street Legal Automobiles

I've run with the SCCA Track Night in America and MVP Track Time. MVP also runs at Road Atlanta

Here's a pic from Mid Ohio earlier this year.

 

IF your in the SE ATL area look at Jzilla. They do very good events and usually have a few at AMP, Charlotte, maybe Road ATL etc.

Same as others have said...you get an instructor to ride with you for a few sessions, or more if needed, adn passing is only on straights with point by. If you have nicer car or car payments you may be able to get track insurance. The place i used only insures for certain trackday providers to make sure they do a good job. COst for a day with insurance for ~20,000 was about $400 or so.

Its a blast to really push a sporty car on a tight track like AMP.

 

Go big. Join a place like Indy motorsport ranch in wilcox az. Private track. Run your car whenever you want. Or bike. Or jet dragster. Whatev's.

 

Hookedondriving.com and chintrackdays.com are two good organizations to check out too. They are all over the US

 

Jzilla’s a good dude

 

Scorpio cossy????

 

We never got the good ones

 

It's a tweaked XR4Ti, got tired of the turbo lag and getting beat across intersections by soccer moms so dropped in a built 302 with other mods to handle the power.

 

turbo still?? lol

 

Naw, no turbo, it's stupid enough NA.

 

OP I came from car stuff into bike stuff. Depending on where you live there could be TONS of options.

I'm from Kalmazoo MI. So, I am actually extremely fortunate in the summer months to be within 1 hour of Gingerman and Grattan..

I am also within 4-5 hours of Waterford Hills, M1 Concourse, Blackhawk Farms, AutoBahn CC, Putnam Park, Nelson Ledges, Mid-Ohio, and PIRC. (prolly some more that I missed) These are all super awesome tracks.

I started out thinking that the only thing available for me to do because I didn't have a cage, or a "race license" was AutoX.. I hated it.. nothing like spending $50 to stand in a parking lot for 8 hours and get maybe 3 minutes of track time..

Luckily I made some friends that more or less showed me the steps needed to get on track.

There are a lot of orgs to choose from and they all have their pro's and cons. NASA, and SCCA will more than likely be your most "involved" groups. They will usually be the most thorough with their tech and driver requirements, but they also have some of the best coaches that are more than willing to get you through the ranks. Depending on what you want to do. If you just want to be able to show up, run laps all day without having to worry about much they'll prolly get you into that group and leave you alone.

It's when you decide you either want to start running time trials or Wheel to Wheel racing, that they really start to tighten down on whats required. Be prepared to do a weekend or two in the novice groups where its kind of slow and offers little to no passing without point by and only on straights. Good news is a lot of these beginner groups are more or less based on track etiquette and the basics of how to drive a car on a track.. If you're familiar with racing bikes, you'll pick up the racing line, reference points, etc.. stuff really quick and they'll move you along. A lot of that stuff transfers back and forth.

Most orgs that offer a "novice" group would be a safe bet to get on track with though.

As far as requirements for your car; these are pretty simple.. cant be leaking any fluids or anything. Cant have parts dragging or tires rubbing enough to smoke, must generally be in "good" condition. If you run a fixed back bucket seat, get a roll bar, not a harness bar.

You wont need any sort of cage or rollbar starting out with HPDE days.

Biggest things I recommend for people starting out is the following:

Get a set of 200TW tires see Hankook RS4, Bridestone Potenza RE-71, Dunlop Direzza Star Spec, Nitto NT-05 etc.. IMO these will make everything a lot more fun. once they get up to temp they are a blast, have really good feedback, and are relatively cheap depending on size. For example i runn 255/40R17 all the way arounnd on my FRS and my last set of RS4's cost me about $620 a few years ago (I run Toyo R888R now)

Upgrade brake fluid. IMO THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT. I cant even count how many times in the last 10+ years that I've seen cars get written off because they boiled their brake fluid.. You can (and should) upgrade your pads rotors and all that jazz, but if you're running fluid that's not up to the task, you will regret it. Also change it often. I do it at the beginning of every season, then again after 5 track days. It's cheap and the re-assurance is nice. Most cars i've seen bite the dust were newer Camaro and Mustangs.. these are big heavy cars with lots of grunt.. their brake fluid heats up quick and if the owners are running what came stock in the cars they are asking for trouble.

Upgrade pads and rotors. no need to go crazy here. a nice Hawk HP+ and brembo/centric blank rotor will do fine just starting out. As your skills increase get more aggressive pads. HP+ heat up quick and I've only faded a set once. I now run Hawk DTC-70 but they are useless until 3/4's lap 1. (this is pretty much a race pad) I run slotted front rotors from DBA, shop that sponsored my Time Attack program assisted me with getting them a log with a big brake upgrade. DO NOT RUN CROSS DRILLED ROTORS. They will crack. 100%

Run good fluids.. Engine oil as well as gear and diff fluids.

If you don't suck too bad on a bike, you'll prolly do really well in a car.. A lot of the fundamentals transfer over.

Not sure if you needed all this information, but my ADHD meds just kicked in, so.. there you go. lol

 

Thanks Trainwreck … I appreciate it very much.

 

Is this the only requirement that makes a bike helmet into car helmet? If so, how can you tell if it is a fire rated one or not? It would be great if I can re-purpose my bike helmets into car stuff.

 

You can't re-purpose a bike helmet into a car helmet.

 

Why is that?

 

They are made of different materials.

A bike helmet doesn't have to be flame retardant while a car helmet does.

A car helmet will have whiteish straps while a bike helmet has the black straps.

Granted some organizations will allow you to use a bike helmet like SCCA Track Night.

 

Scca track night is probably the org with the least rules as far as getting on track. They had a few issues at CMP from lake of experience this year

 

Chuck, everytime I see yours I want to build one of these...

 

In general car helmets have smaller and thicker visors along with fire retardant materials.
Most car track days organizations around here don't require it and bike helmet is fine. When stepping up to race organizations full gear is required.

 

Related question … how about access to events/facilities that allow you to do high speed runs in a straight line? The only one I'm aware of is in NC at an old airport, but I heard years ago that an MX track was smoother relative to the runway surface.