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My first track day
#1198649
08/04/2011 12:49
08/04/2011 12:49
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coopsnoop
Unregistered
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coopsnoop
Unregistered
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Last week had the coop serviced, new whiteline rear arb, Nigel front brace, New grooved discs all round, pagid yellows on the front, yellowstuff on the rear. Coupled with Eibachs and suspension refresh a couple of months earlier I thought time to venture onto the track.
So yesterday attended an MSV track session at Brands and after the noise test (no problems) and the briefing out onto the track for a couple of laps behind the instructor, all good and have a rough idea of the lines now.
Instuctor peels off and the pace starts to increase, coop feels good plenty of grip, brakes excellent. Good speed along the straight brake at the "BRAKE NOW" marker board and end up far too slow for the corner, so lap after lap I increase the distance until I find a good spot to brake and get a good corner speed.
This is starting to feel good and the car feels fantastic. I could now do with getting past the 944 in front and the Elise in front of him.
Put on a little pressure and they yield after a couple of blue flags and up my pace even more, this is great! time to start reeling in the TVR griffith, half a lap and the job is done time to start catching the pack 200m in front, car and brakes feel great going into clearways and accelerate along the straight touching over 120mph and leave the braking late into paddock, touch the brakes NOTHING!! foot straight to the floor pump again NOTHING!!
O.K now do I try to turn in and potetially understeer into the kerbs and barrel roll through the gravel or drive into the gravel and smash headlong into the tyres???
I think I chose a combination of the 2 and managed to get through the gravel (partly driving and partly flying) and return shaken (and stirred) to the track and take the slow drive of shame brakeless and spreading gravel back to the pit lane.
30 minutes later and the pedal had returned enabling me to drive sheepishly home.
And the moral of the story is DECENT BRAKE FLUID!!!
However has it put me off?? Has it hell! I'm totally hooked and the coop (apart from the minor indescretion) was terrific to drive.
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Re: My first track day
[Re: ]
#1198654
08/04/2011 12:56
08/04/2011 12:56
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Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 6,192 Bristol, UK
Hovedan
Forum is my life
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Forum is my life
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 6,192
Bristol, UK
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Castrol SRF - better than Motul RBF600/660 of which I've used all on track. Bit more expensive, but it doesn't fade at all, even after 20 minutes when the Motul does... And get yourself to Donington on the 26th April, will be a couple of us there
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Re: My first track day
[Re: Hovedan]
#1198658
08/04/2011 13:03
08/04/2011 13:03
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proccy
Unregistered
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proccy
Unregistered
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a top brand dot5.1 is the standard needed, i believe good write up, look forwards to many more
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Re: My first track day
[Re: ]
#1198663
08/04/2011 13:12
08/04/2011 13:12
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johnnybravoturbo
Unregistered
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johnnybravoturbo
Unregistered
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However has it put me off?? Has it hell! I'm totally hooked and the coop Theres no feeling on earth quite like it,thumbs up mate now its in your blood. As for brake fluid get the castrol stuff.You will melt the caliper before you boil that. I had to do Donington with next to no brakes running over 400bhp.Not ideal.
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Re: My first track day
[Re: ]
#1198800
08/04/2011 15:39
08/04/2011 15:39
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coopsnoop
Unregistered
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coopsnoop
Unregistered
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Is that normal though?
"Brakes OK, brakes warm now brakes great, brakes great, no #$**ing brakes!!"
I'd expected to have at least seen some form of deterioration ie. a long pedal or some fade??
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Re: My first track day
[Re: ]
#1198814
08/04/2011 15:52
08/04/2011 15:52
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Truffle
Unregistered
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Truffle
Unregistered
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Is that normal though?
"Brakes OK, brakes warm now brakes great, brakes great, no #$**ing brakes!!"
I'd expected to have at least seen some form of deterioration ie. a long pedal or some fade?? I had brakes go on the road on my old 16vt. It wasnt particularly hard to get the fluid to boil, and when it does go, you know nothing about it. You just put your foot on the brake and nothing happens. (you then start pumping the brakes furiously, downshifting, and initiating a rapid removal of excretion from your bowels)
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Re: My first track day
[Re: ]
#1198829
08/04/2011 16:09
08/04/2011 16:09
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Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 6,192 Bristol, UK
Hovedan
Forum is my life
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Forum is my life
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 6,192
Bristol, UK
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You need to use more than mineral oil for your brake fluid Truff! Cheapskate!! Castrol SRF is pricier, but boy, does it work, and continue to do so. Although if anyone can boil a caliper on track. it'd be JBT You won't know when it's boiled, as it will boil when under heavy load, then just won't do anything next time you touch the pedal. Been there on track, no brakes, a few seconds to decide where to crash the car, say your hail marys, downshift and hold on for dear life. If you react quick enough, otherwise the gravel/grass/tyres/wall(!) will greet you
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Re: My first track day
[Re: ]
#1198843
08/04/2011 16:24
08/04/2011 16:24
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tim42
Unregistered
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tim42
Unregistered
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if anyone can boil a caliper on track. it'd be JBT this i doubt if donington is anything to go by - he had no brakes to use ....because his GOOD ones were on my Scottie . Flea's wheels were seriously smoking though !! .... once the gravel was removed ....
Last edited by tim42; 08/04/2011 16:26. Reason: Added detail!
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Re: My first track day
[Re: ]
#1199038
08/04/2011 22:01
08/04/2011 22:01
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johnnybravoturbo
Unregistered
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johnnybravoturbo
Unregistered
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Lets just say your brakes are substantially better than mine Tim.
As for above,no theres no warning,and the pedal usually drops straight to the floor as if you had pressed the clutch pedal. Sods law states this has to happen when your behind the most expensive motor on the track. I nearly took out an M3 Csl and Skyline GTR at Snetterton and then recently i nearly took out Jonny at Donington when my brakes failed.
Despite this,these are so addictive,and the more friends you know that get involved the better the experience.
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Re: My first track day
[Re: ]
#1199120
09/04/2011 00:20
09/04/2011 00:20
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Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 2,821 Bath
Fishy_Dave
I need some sleep
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I need some sleep
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 2,821
Bath
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Is that normal though?
"Brakes OK, brakes warm now brakes great, brakes great, no #$**ing brakes!!"
I'd expected to have at least seen some form of deterioration ie. a long pedal or some fade?? Quite normal with old fluid, it happened to my Coupe the very first time out on track (not with me driving), only lasted a couple of laps before the old fluid boiled!
Corvette C6 (manual of course)
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Re: My first track day
[Re: ]
#1200740
12/04/2011 14:20
12/04/2011 14:20
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Neal
Unregistered
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Neal
Unregistered
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Sounds a bit worrying, glad you got away with it. Be interesting to know how long your session was before you got sudden brake fade.
I'm presuming from your story ("lap after lap" etc) that you did 20+ minutes of hard laps - if so, isn't the moral of the story at least partly "do shorter stints on trackdays to avoid brake fade"? It comes without much warning, and pretty much any set-up will suffer fade (especially on a car as hard on brakes as a coupe is) if you use them hard enough for long enough. Not to mention you should give your front tyres a break too.
My 306 suffered the same thing (end of the main straight at Bedford, with my mate driving) and the reason was definitely that we'd pushed too hard without giving the car enough of a break between sessions.
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