Heavyweight tips please.

[edoverheels]

I have a track day coming up and can't use my usual track car (Elise) and will have a go in my daily instead. This is a 370Z which is nearly double the weight of the Elise (although at 1460kgs it isn't that different from a lot of cars out there now - BMW M2 at 1550kg for example).
I will replace the brake fluid with something decent and I am putting some slotted discs on and proper pads on the basis that the existing ones are juddering a bit anyway and it is the brakes that will work hardest.
Apart from keeping my stints on track short is there anything else that i should think about on the day?

[braddo]

Pray for rain.

Maybe keeping the braking in a straight line will help? Avoiding trail braking and excessive turn-in speed to reduce the load on the outside front tyre.

[edoverheels]

Agreed on praying for rain!

[narbles]

Interested to hear other responses here. I'm about to track my 1 series and believe that's not far off the weight of the 370z. May be looking for something lighter sooner than later from the sound of it.

[Om]

Keep an eye on the oil temperature. Up to 2013MY they did not have oil coolers as standard and there are a few reports of the oil temps soaring on track days (usually in the US, but still). Apparently even post 2013MY the standard cooler is marginal.

[edoverheels]

I had heard about the oil temperature and so will keep the sessions short. Not worth me fitting an oil cooler for what will probably be a rare track outing for it.

[brillomaster]

A heavy car at high speed will have a lot of energy to shed, so as usual, is temperature management you need to be aware of when braking and turning. Brakes will obviously take a beating, and without management will overheat and fade, either pad material or fluid. Tyres similarly will get very hot, again careful management of hot pressures will be required.

conversely i wouldnt be too worried about oil temps - assuming the cooling system is ok normally, high speed driving gets plenty of air through a radiator, and you're naturally aspirated so no hot turbos to worry about.

Personally i'd keep sessions short, and do proper warm up and cooldown laps. though you may find you can do a warm up lap, 4 hot laps, 3 cooldown laps, then another 4 hot laps.

Oh and keep an eye on the fuel gauge, you'll be needing a lot!

i'm envious... sure lightweight track cars are unquestionably better than heavy ones, but theres a perverse satisfaction from stretching the legs of a heavyweight, high powered bruiser.

[nickfrog]

It also depends on the circuit to some extent, where will the day be?
I would have thought decent pads will help, not sure if you find DS1. 11 for that caliper but they work well for me on the M2. I am not sure there is any point getting non plain discs either, probably more money and perhaps not always the same quality as OE (or perhaps the OE discs are slotted anyway?).
The other thing is to try and use hard but short brake applications rather than drag the pads on the discs unnecessarily, as part of heat management.

Edit Not sure if the caliper is the same as the 350Z but this may help https://www.350z-uk.com/topic/118760-review-ferodo...

Edited by nickfrog on Tuesday 20th October 11:14

[edoverheels]

@ Brillomaster
Agreed on the fuel, will be interesting to see how much I use because my Elise only does 12mpg on track. I am also interested to see what a bigger car is like. On the road the 370z seems to generate a lot of mechanical grip and I wonder how that translates to a track. have now done quite a few track days but only in an MX5 or the Elise.

@Nickfrog
Circuit is Brands GP (hence why I did not want to miss it)and so not too bad on brakes. I had already arranged to upgrade the brakes because mine are poor already, worn discs and judder.
The car is looked after by Abbey motorsport who specialise in Japanese cars and they have recommended Stoptech pads and discs. They seem to know what they are doing and the costs are not unreasonable and so happy to go with their advice.

Will have to report back

[Tommo87]

brillomaster said:

A heavy car at high speed will have a lot of energy to shed, so as usual, is temperature management you need to be aware of when braking and turning. Brakes will obviously take a beating, and without management will overheat and fade, either pad material or fluid. Tyres similarly will get very hot, again careful management of hot pressures will be required.

conversely i wouldnt be too worried about oil temps - assuming the cooling system is ok normally, high speed driving gets plenty of air through a radiator, and you're naturally aspirated so no hot turbos to worry about.

Personally i'd keep sessions short, and do proper warm up and cooldown laps. though you may find you can do a warm up lap, 4 hot laps, 3 cooldown laps, then another 4 hot laps.

Oh and keep an eye on the fuel gauge, you'll be needing a lot!

i'm envious... sure lightweight track cars are unquestionably better than heavy ones, but theres a perverse satisfaction from stretching the legs of a heavyweight, high powered bruiser.

^^ This, in summary.

[Cupra Black]

I track a Golf R32 which is stripped out but still weighs 1476kg without my fat arse in it.

It copes well but its on coilovers, poly bushes, uprated ARBs and R888R. Obviously I keep a good eye on Tyre pressures but even before I stripped the car it coped reasonably well.

[Mark83]

I track a standard M4 albeit with some RSL29 pads and updated brake fluid. I found tyres the limiting factor in the summer. I kept my sessions to about 20mins as I'm conscious of the load on brakes and tyres. I'm back on track next weekend and hoping the cooler weather helps.

[warch]

Nothing wrong with a heavyweight track car....

Though even that's lighter than a 370z

[veehexx]

edoverheels said:

my Elise only does 12mpg on track.

only? i hit 9mpg avg on my donington attack last weel which runs tank refill > tank refill. refiled at texaco 5mile up the road > 50% track and an hour drive home with a refill a day or 2 later.

i'm in an Civic FK2R; 306hp 1460kg so similar power/weight class as the 370z. i drive it balls out on track. Brakes are first; get as much ducting as you can in there or sacrifice a set of pads. probably better weight distribution than the 62/38-ish on Civic but power&weight is what your fighting with. tyres also. cup2's are minimum on the fk2 else you'll just chew up the outter edge (ps4s's included if your driving over 7-8/10ths). is the 370z turbo? likely going to see oil temp issues so keep an eye on things there. i ended up on a setrab 919 cooler for the FK2 and that seems to be minimum size for 15-20min sessions. the 616 just wasnt man enough to cope with the temps from the turbo for those 20min attacks.