5 things to know when taking your Corvette to track day

Video Transcript:

Hello everybody welcome back to C&S corvettes in sunny Sarasota Florida my name is Lyle and here we are at my Friday podcast I'm going to talk to you today about track days now many of you who own c5s c6s c7s even people with just getting their c8s want to go exercise their car in a way that they can't really do on the road and track days run by professional organizations with actual coaches at actual race tracks is the way to do that what I'm going to go over today are five things that you need to be thinking about having your possession or be preparing for when you go to your first track day so well before you go to the track most organizations are going to require you to fill out or have your mechanic fill out your tech sheet what the tech sheet does is basically tell the race organization that's putting this on that the vehicle you're going to be piloting is safe it is not leaking it has tires with tread all those basic things but one of the things i'd recommend you do above and beyond just completing the tech sheet is before your track day make sure you start out with fresh breaks make sure that your tires have at least 50 percent of their tread if not more and if you have a stick shift car make sure that your clutch is going to be up to a task of two days of hard driving at eight or nine tenths of the car's ability leaks will be taken care of just because they won't let you on track without fixing those but that's the prep that's the ahead of time thing you're going to do make sure that all those things are ready to go parts you're going to want to bring with you to the track now on a normal track day or days you shouldn't have to do a whole bunch of wrenching okay this isn't like a 14-hour endurance race where you know you're going to be changing brakes you know you're going to be dealing with stuff for an extended period of time you want to have things just in case things you want to have have an extra set of brake pads number one because especially with corvettes your brakes are going to disappear very fast when you start driving that car hard for a long period of time case in point this is a full new brake pad see all that beautiful pad material there by contrast these two brake pads came off of my corvette after two hard days at Sebring you will see very little brake pad on this and absolutely zero brake pad on this so do not be surprised when your corvette starts to lose brakes after the beginning session of the second day plan on having a set of pads with you so you don't run into just the metal backing plate and start scoring up your rotors you want to bring an extra set of belts now your tech will have gone through and made sure that the belts that are currently on the car are safe and tight and not cracked and not aged and blah blah blah but when you're going into turn seven and you miss that downshift and you over rev the engine ls engines lt engines will sling a belt now odds are that belt will be reusable re-attachable and be just fine once you get back to your place in the pits if it's not it sure would be nice to have belts on hand so that you lose out on your 500 or thousand dollar weekend that you just spent money on uh make sure you bring tire gauge and air pump with you because before you go out on track you're actually going to lower the air pressure in all four of your tires by anywhere from three to six pounds depending on temperature of the day your recommendation of your instructor track recommendations it changes depending on the environment but you're always going to lower your tire pressure because the amount of heat your tires are going to be generating during your next two days of driving is going to ramp it back up five six seven pounds of pressure i would also bring a portable fan especially if you have one of those shop fans that kind of has the big wide mouth at the bottom that blows from the bottom up because when you come into the pits or come into your parking space after your driving session one of the habits you're going to form is opening the hood and putting that fan in front of your car to help the car cool off while it's sitting there while we're talking about habits let's talk about on track habits first thing you need to learn no matter what track you're at and you should learn this before you come to the track where are the flag stations around the track so you and your mind know to keep an eye every time you pass a flag station you can see that single yellow that double yellow whatever flag they may have out for you especially the checkered flag you don't want to miss that one and be the only one going around the track after the session has ended i know somebody who's done that i won't say who but make sure you know where the flag stations are so you can see them and every time you go by them check them there's going to be rules on passing especially when you're a student with your instructor in the car it's usually going to be a point by system they'll explain that when you get to the track but in your mind no you're not going out to be Mario Andretti on day one session one you're going to start slow you're going to keep it an orderly line around the track and gradually all of you will get faster as you learn the proper line one little thing i'd want to share with you if for any reason they stop you on track you know the race is red flag because somebody wrecked or somebody spilled oil all over the track and they bring you into the pits take your car out of gear and take your foot off the brake pedal because what's happening is your brakes are going to be way hotter than they normally are in your daily driving so you don't want to sit with your pads pressed against that hot rotor because it's going to cook off your pads and you're going to lose pad life really quickly it's also going to warp the rotor if it's hot enough so get in the habit of whenever you're stopped on track during a session take it out of gear foot off the brake habits for when you get off the track your session has now ended you've learned a lot you scared yourself a little maybe peed a bit who knows things you want to look at as soon as you come off the track check your tire pressures all the way around physically check your tires as well to make sure you aren't losing chunks you aren't seeing cord any of the things that could happen you hit debris on the track and don't know it and you slice a tire things you want to know before you go back out on the track plus you may have to add or remove additional air to get the tire pressure where you want it after they're nice and hot you want to check all your fluids look at your brake fluid look at your clutch fluid check your oil level obviously don't check your coolant because you burn yourself you don't want to do that but you'll know if you're overheating the other habit is as soon as you pull off while you're doing these checks open the hood of your car and if you brought that fan and you have a place to plug it in start directing the fan at the front of the car especially on a corvette you want to direct it low because they're bottom breathers and that'll help that car cool off quicker and you won't have an overheating problem later on finally before leaving the track you're going to check your tire pressure again and if the tire pressure is low for track you're going to bring it back up so that you can drive safely home you're also going to do a full visual inspection of the car tires open the hood look at the belts make sure that you have fuel in the car and that's something you should do every time a session ends because you're going to be blowing through fuel like you've never blown through fuel before and even though you may have driven that car hard on a back country road and think you know how fast that car is going to drink fuel you don't until you go on a track and really push it other than that guys your first track day should be a great time to learn a great time to have fun experiences you're going to remember for a lifetime and teach you more about what your car can really do if you have questions about this if you are going to be setting up your c5 your c6 or c7 for the track and you need advice or parts by all means email me at Lyle at corvettepartscenter.com and don't forget to like and subscribe so that we can continue to keep bringing you videos that mean something to you improve your automotive experience and most of all lead to safe fun thank you for watching I'll see you next week