Guide to Preparing a Coupe for Track Days

So you fancy getting you Coupe out on track to see what it can really do? This is the second of a series of guides aimed at helping you book up a track day, prepare your Coupe and finally attend the day itself. Hopefully you will find the information useful laugh !

Preparing your car is vital to ensure that you get the most out of the event, without having to worry too much about what could go wrong frown . This guide will purposely not dwell on the tuning of the Coupe to get increased power for the track, as this is something that should come with time, once you have a clearer idea of what you want from the car. Rather, the guide sets out some basic things to do before any track use, and then suggests certain upgrades that will benefit your enjoyment of using the Coupe on track in terms of braking, handling and general safety & enjoyment. Then, if you want to find out how to make your car even faster, you know where the Tuning Section is laugh !

Basic Car Preparation

First and foremost before you take your Coupe on track, you need to be confident that it is in a generally good roadworthy condition. If you have a niggly problem with anything that affects it’s day-to-day operation, then I would suggest that you get it sorted before the event. If you turn up and break down on the first lap, there are no refunds wink .

Assuming the above, there are certain things that benefit from some extra attention on the run up to a track day:
1. Check all fluid levels and top up if required (take some top up fluids with you on the day, just in case)
2. If your brake fluid hasn’t been changed in a while, get it changed with some good quality DoT 4.1 or DoT 5.1 fluid, as it will be heated to levels that it won’t have known about before, and you do not want it to fail shocked !
3. Make sure that your brake discs and pads are in good condition. If not, have them replaced, but make sure that you give them time to bed in before going out on track.
4. Make sure that your suspension is in good condition, and that there aren’t any knocks or bangs indicating worn bushes or mounts. Track use will make these significantly worse, so get them replaced before the day if you can.
5. Make sure that your tyres have a decent amount of tread on them, but preferably aren’t new. You will wear them down significantly on track, so make sure that you have enough to get you home legally at the end of the day.
6. Check all of your hose clamps are tight, particularly the boost ones for those with turbos wink
7. Check that all your wheel nuts are nice and tight, that the tyre pressures are OK, and that you haven’t got any foreign objects poking out from between the tread
8. Clear out any unnecessary ‘stuff’ from the pockets, glove box, etc., as you don’t want it flying around whilst you are trying to enjoy yourself
9. You might also like to apply RainX to your windows in the event of rain being forecast. It helps to keep them much clearer at high speeds, as the Coupe’s wipers are poor at the best of times wink
10. For turbocharged cars, you really wnat to limit the boost levels somehow (particularly if it is going to be a warm/hot day). A PRV or boost controller set to 1.0 - 1.1 bar is ideal, but if you have the standard EBV, just be aware that your charge temperatures will be higher if you spend a lot of time on full boost wink

Upgrades to Consider

Once you have your first track day under your belt, or maybe in advance of even your first track event if you are into modifying your car anyway, you may like to think about some of the following upgrades that will enhance your on-track enjoyment:

Braking
- Uprated front discs, such as DBA, 3G, Red Dot
- Uprated rear discs, such as 3G, Red Dot
- Uprated front pads, such as Pagid (Blue/Grey/Yellow), EBC, Red Dot, Mintex
- Uprated rear pads, such as Textar, Red Dot
- Braided hoses (if you go for this option, please don’t fit the Goodridge front hoses, as they have a problem with failures at present)
- Racing brake fluid, such as Motul RBF600

Handling
- Uprated struts/shock, such as Bilstein, coilovers
- Uprated/lowered springs, such as Eibach, coilovers
- Poly-bushes
- Seam-welded subframe
- Upper & lower front strut braces
- Uprated front anti-roll bar (not best done by itself, but fantastic with an uprated rear)
- Uprated rear anti-roll-bar
- Negative camber adjustment on front struts (various methods possible)
- Wheel spacers to widen track
- Semi-slick tyres, such as Maxsport RB5, Dunlop Do1Js, Toyo R888s (Possibly the single best improvement that can be made IMO cool !)
- Spare set of rims for your track tyres wink

General Safety & Enjoyment
- Improved cooling for the charge (e.g. FMIC, uprated SMIC, charge cooler, Aquamist)
- Uprated alloy water radiator
- Uprated oil cooler & pipework
- Race seat (sub-frame is a bit of a problem, but not impossible)
- Harness (3-point clip-ins can be used with a standard road seat and give greatly improved restraint, but you will need to drill a hole into the central tunnel to fit an eye-bolt)
- Roll cage (requires cutting through the dashboard, and not for the faint-hearted shocked !)
- Flameproof race suit (it might seem a bit OTT, but better safe than sorry!)
- Driving boots (make a surprising difference)


Now, if you’ve missed the guide on booking a track day, or if you want to find out about attending the day itself, please follow the links below:

Guide to Booking a Track Day

Guide to Attending a Track Day

Phil