Road/Trackday Brakes & Tyres help.

[pentoman]

I'll soon be racing a car in a historic class FIA-GTC '65 probably, and in the meantime am looking to learn the tracks/gain experience on trackdays.

I'll probably just do a few and won't do any more once I'm racing, and will do them in my new-to-me Merc 190E cosworth. So I'd like to make sure it's up to a bit of track use. I don't plan to be super-fast, or to build a track moster, and I dont want to ruin it as a road car (especially as it's completely standard at the moment).

But at 1300kg it's not light and I imagine a brake upgrade would be smart?

There are options of fitting bigger but heavier brakes from other models in the mercedes range (the stock brakes are from the 300E so should be fairly good), but this is a lot of money/effort. Will some decent pads do the trick? What sort of pads should I choose? Do they just reduce fade and that's it?


Also, I have a brand new pair of Pirelli P6000's on my other 190E (with cossie wheels). These were OEM fitment to the cosworth. Shall I get another pair and fit to the Cossie, or for track use do I NEED some sort of fancy high performance tires?


Anything else to think about for my first trackday?


cheers,

Russell

[iguana]

Cant speak from experience of the merc-

but in general if you are just gunna do a few track days, new decent brake fluid, new brake lines (pref braided) new pads & decent discs should see you ok unless you brake really heavy.

Pads wise, lots of choice out there, somat like Ferodo DS2500 or DS3000, or Mintex 1155, or lots of choice from Pagid RS range.

If you have no track experience id say stick to normal road tyres 1st & see how you get on. p6000 IMHO are crap & slidetastic, but no real point is getting rid if yov've got 'em, just burn 'em out then replace.

[pentoman]

Thanks, very handy.

In your experience are P6000's rubbish compared to whatever other boring road tyres I can get at a similar price, or compared to high-performance or track stuff? Because if so I'll just get something else.

cheers

Russell

[GarrettMacD]

pentoman said:

Thanks, very handy. In your experience are P6000's rubbish compared to whatever other boring road tyres I can get at a similar price, or compared to high-performance or track stuff? Because if so I'll just get something else. cheers Russell

I wouldn't worry too much about the tyres on your road car. As you state, your intention is to get familiar with the tracks, and presumably to improve your technique. You can 'learn' a track in any car, from a rented Ford Focus (as I have done many times), and you should always try to get someone with track knowledge to sit in with you.

There's no point spending time trying to get to ideal road tyre onto your car for trackdays and then realising that you have to use a (for example) Dunlop slick for racing. There are no comparison points, so you may aswell just get the cheapest set you can find, and get some serious track time done. However, the 'line' is always the line, and good technique is always good technique. If you can carry both those over to your race car you will be on the pace, after that you'll be looking for incremental speed increases.

Garrett

[weed]

If you are not going to require R-compounds, then a decent set of road tyres shaved to 4/32" may suit you.

m

[iguana]

pentoman said:

Thanks, very handy. In your experience are P6000's rubbish compared to whatever other boring road tyres I can get at a similar price, or compared to high-performance or track stuff? Because if so I'll just get something else. cheers Russell

No probs,

nah i ment vs other road tyres, track tyres vs road tyres is not a fair comparison.

well to answer you id have to say the pirrelli ditchmaster p6000s arnt utter rubbish, they may be IMHO cack in the wet on road & not too grippy, but they seem to cope ok with track abuse & are predictable & if you wnat to experience the car sliding around & practice car control they are ace, but ive driven a lot of cars with p6000s on & for tyres with less grip- all i can think of is those enviro type long lasting type of tyres.

Most other decent brands are IMHO better, from budget Khumos (can't remember what type- tho 312 rings a bell, but I was very impressed) & Yokahamas (im abig fan of the A539 as a budget tyre- only run 'em on fwd tho) to continentals etc.

You hit the nail on the head when you said p6000 was the OE choice when yr car was new, that was what- about 15 yrs ago? tyre technology have moved on leaps & bounds since then, for example a Goodyear NCT2 was of a similar age, well rated yrs ago but they they feel teflon coated now too.

>> Edited by iguana on Saturday 7th January 01:45

[pentoman]

weed said:

If you are not going to require R-compounds, then a decent set of road tyres shaved to 4/32" may suit you. m

OK way over my head. I just wanna go out on the grey track thing and drive. Don't see how using Gillette Mach 4 in the morning affects that?



A good point though, the P6000's I have are probably only H-rated. Whilst I probably won't hit 130mph (certainly not with the car fully laden like the ratings are tested to) is that a problem? Given that I will have a separate racing car so I'm not going to be out there every weekend trying to beat Ferarris or impress Impreza and Caterham drivers with my grip or corner exit acceleration.

>> Edited by pentoman on Monday 9th January 16:52