MG TF at trackdays?
Discussion
ninjaboy said:
Ok i've got a TF and i would love to do a trackday in it, firstly which would be the best track for a novice and small car and secondly is the TF going to be suitable for track use with continetal sportcontacts?
I'd have thought your road tyres would be fine.
Given that the TF is not a massively powerful car you want a track where its strengths shine and its straight line ooomph is less important. Therefore you want a tight and twisty track. As a beginner a track with fewer corners lets you gain experience of "the line" more quickly and allows you to start attacking the corners better. As a beginner a track with lots of runoff so that errors are punished only by shame rather than in cold hard cash to fix the car would be good.
To find a track with all three is pretty hard.
Tight and twisty: Anglesey - especially if you are based near it.
Short (but epic): Brands Hatch Indy. Quick to learn. Very hard to master.
Lots of runoff (but very, very long): Bedford Autodrome GT circuit.
To be honest I'd suggest Bedford if you are anywhere near. You can have loads and loads of fun with a high degree of safety (not total). Yes it has a couple of long straights your car will run out of puff on - but then so does mine and it has 100+ more bhp. I suspect if I had a car with 400bhp I'd still be wanting more...
Should be a fair few threads on track-fettling a road-car, and trackdays for beginners. Do a search. Main things are change oil if more than ~5thou miles or 6mths old, change brake fluid if ~1y.o. or more, and make sure brake pads have enough meat. With a TF I'd keep a careful eye on the temperature guage as well.
Some good advice above - Anglesey is a great little circuit but a bugger to get to, high-speed circuits like Bedford will hammer your brakes, which if road-standard are likely to be the weakest link in the car. And don't worry about the amount of corners - as a beginner you won't be trying to string a quick lap together until late in the day, you'll be learning the car and learning the lines - I know I was. Mallory has a very good rep, not sure about run-off.
Some good advice above - Anglesey is a great little circuit but a bugger to get to, high-speed circuits like Bedford will hammer your brakes, which if road-standard are likely to be the weakest link in the car. And don't worry about the amount of corners - as a beginner you won't be trying to string a quick lap together until late in the day, you'll be learning the car and learning the lines - I know I was. Mallory has a very good rep, not sure about run-off.
To be honest I wouldn't worry about being relatively slow on the straights. I have a Westfield which, because its aerodynamics rarely gets above 110mph (something you should easily achieve), and I have had huge fun at Silverstone GP and Cadwell both of which are pretty fast tracks. Absolutely no one will take the pee. The straights are boring no matter how fast you are going, and if there are much faster cars it's very easy for them to pass on the straights.
cross-eyed-twit said:
there was an ad for 4 MGF wheels with slicks on for about £300. You could get a little tread cut in them and swap in the pits. The TF would be a whole lot faster and road legal when you drove home.
might need a mate to get them there though, not much room in the boot.
I wouldn't recommend slicks without baffling the sump first - the additional cornering forces you can generate could easily cause oil surge...and then you might find you need a new bottom-end!
wee_skids said:
Get the car out as it is!
Try my friends at: www.mgs-on-track.com
Tony
These are well organised fun days. I take my ZT190 (now245) and sometimes an old Midget I play with. Always fun but do check you insurance!!!!
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