Had my first track day yesterday...The HPDE @ Palm Beach International Raceway

Alstann

So, since I can barely contain the excitement of yesterday, let me just start by saying that doing a road course was one of the best, if not the best things I've ever done behind the wheel of a car. Better then any AutoX, drift, or drag strip I've done.

My basic setup for the car was 245/305 Potenza RE-11 rubber on the Volk wheels, Ate Superblue for the brake/clutch, KW Variant 3 set to KW stock specs, and stock brake pads over Z1 2 pc rotors. Otherwise, stock cooling.

The HPDE was a new driving club, and this was their first event. Best part? The price for the whole day, with instructor for novice and all, was 1 dollar. 1 DOLLAR!

We had 4 sessions of 30 mins each, and since this was my first event, I had a experienced instructor there to coach me through the lines and rules on track. I consider myself a decent driver, at least at AutoX, and I wasn't too nervous on the limits of the car. Mostly I was too excited, I've always wanted to be on a track and this was finally my chance to get started with it!

The car held up decently well - of course, being in novice, my first 2 sessions were slower paced until I got used to everything, but after that, I progressively got faster and faster at my instructor's command. After the first session, he felt comfortable with my control of the car.

The brakes held up quite well - no noticeable fade and great pedal feel. Oil temps did peak quite high, around 270 degrees on track when I was really pounding the car trying to keep up with a Evo 10 that had full bolt-ons. Tires held up very well as well - they feathered on the edges, but otherwise never got greasy or changed their characteristic under heavy load.

Two things did happen, however: My car had fuel starvation with 3/4 of a tank, which was quite annoying, and my clutch fluid boiled over. Clutch dropped like a rock to the floor when I attempted to shift hard into 5th on the back straight, and I ground the hell out of it. Had to back off for a couple cool-down laps before I came in. Luckily, it was my last session, so it wasn't a big deal. My stainless line is unwrapped and close to the header, so I plan on wrapping it up with some insulation and then bleeding the entire system again.

Overall, it was an awesome day. Perfect weather, and I gotta say, 300 dollar track days make sense. It's an outrageously fun experience, and I can't wait to be back on a track and learn to push the car to higher limits.

Video from my friend's WRx dash cam. I was the Z in front of him:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snM8QVpwZ6o#t=102

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R/T Tuning

.....and now you are hooked.

Track days are such a great way to legally enjoy some of the performance of these cars and rub elbows with other like minded car guys.

gussyturbo z

Sweet looks like a very nice track.

Rusty

Another trackday junkie in the making.

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Hammtastic

Awesome video, can't wait to hit up my first track day. How was it racing at night? I would be a little nervous, I know the track is lit but it doesn't look well lit.

nomodsjk

Just had my first track day today too! I'm down in Georgia for nationals. Track day was cool but I was terrified of messing up my new body so I didn't finish but I had a lot of fun. The track was a tuff one to start out on. Very technical

BuckeyeZ

Hmmmmm.....never done a night time track session. I'm not sure I would like that. Seems like unless it was well lit it would be hard to see the points in the turn and definitely hard to see the flag stations.

You did great for a first timer in a night time session.

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ENT-Z

Yeah I agree - I have never done a night session and can't imagine trying to learn a new track under those conditions. Good job.

1flaguy

Glad you had fun. What was the name of the group? Kudos for doing a night session for your first time

chops

get some new pads ASAP. once you get faster, those stock pads will melt in a few laps. also, id keep the oil temps under 260. 270 is pretty high!

GSS138

They use LED lights for flags usually. It is honestly a bit scary, I did one at streets of willow CCW(which I had never run it that way before so it was basically a new track). I would do it again, but it has taken me a year to get over it lol.

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Alstann

The track was actually very well lit - my friend set his dashcam to compensate for it. The track is fully lit with stadium-style lighting every 400 feet or so - it was like being in a baseball stadium at night, if you know what that's like. No issues at all with visibility. The sessions started at 4pm in the afternoon, but there are rotating run groups, so this session began at 8pm.

I actually felt more comfy at night - the car was running much cooler, and the light was consistent. In the late afternoon, the blinding sun was kinda hard to work with. Either way, it was absolutely amazing. I felt no fear with the car, and I had so much more left in it. I just wanted to take it easy and feel it out to be safe on the brakes and on myself. ^^

I have a full set of Carbotech Bobcats I had before, but I took them off due to noise on the street. Was too lazy to put em on for this first day, but I figured since I was in novice class, I wouldn't go balls to the wall for the 4 sessions.

Definitely gotta invest in an oil cooler though, it sure was toasty! I'm pretty excited to go again though. Gonna save up and set the car up good for next time, my assumption is that I'll be let into Novice Solo or Intermediate, and I'll really get to hound the car hard.

Also, to anyone thinking about if it's worth it...even if this one cost me 300 dollars, it would have been worth every penny. It was absolutely awesome to be able to pound on the car around a racetrack and have every sense in your body going wild. Simply awesome.

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Mike

congrats! you just got an expensive new hobby!

regarding the clutch, if it does it again to you, when it goes to the floor, just hook your foot behind it and pull it back up.

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JWillis72

Tony asked me to come and I would have loved to attend their first event but doing it on a Thursday night just didn't work. Glad to hear it went well and welcome to the addiction. If you start looking for more events Henry with Performance Driving Group does great events.

phunk

Sounds like a blast. Makes me want to buy another 370z to setup just for track days.

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