Track day in Chim

[pullingpower]

Has anyone here experience of tracking their Chim.
I have a 450 with mild engine upgrade (h404 cam and ported inlet) but otherwise standard brakes, suspension.
I was wondering how this will cope.
Everything is in good nick and brakes are pretty new but I do notice the standard brakes can be a bit weak. will I struggle?

[raceboy]

Well my standard 4.0 has been round a few times, must say the brakes are the weak point, but I get round this by being slightly mechanically sympathetic towards them. Instead of going for that final gear and giving it 10/10 down the straights only to stand on the anchors I tend to back off a little early to get everything nicely balanced for a nice big drift round the corners.
Corners are where the fun is to be had not eking out that last 5mph down the boring straight bits.

[bobs4c]

No problem with my 450, although when I needed new discs on the front I went for drilled & grooved with EBC green stuff pads, which helped.

Bob

[cln1]

Not been on track with my Griff yet but I used to track my RS Turbo and I used Mintex 1144's in that. They're a great all round pad which work well from cold but also performed well on track.

I've fitted 1144's to my Griff and based on their performance on the raod I have no doubt they won't disappoint me on track.

Colin.

[RetroWheels]

Chimaera's are great fun on track days ,quick and surprisingly agile.
Standard brakes can get overwhelmed if your pressing on lap after lap .
Follow raceboy's advice and be sympathetic to the brakes , dont do overly long sessions between breaks - bring the car in and let things cool down - and ther car should take a track day in it's stride.

FWIW , my Chim has done well over 50 track days (lost count now) , been dead reliable and been so much fun im suprised someone's not made it illegal yet ..

Granted , i've upgraded the brakes, shocks etc on my car but i do tend to do a lot of track days ,where the expense of mods can be (sort of ) justified.

[richb]

pullingpower said:

Has anyone here experience of tracking their Chim.
I have a 450 with mild engine upgrade (h404 cam and ported inlet) but otherwise standard brakes, suspension. I was wondering how this will cope. Everything is in good nick and brakes are pretty new but I do notice the standard brakes can be a bit weak. will I struggle?

Of course you won't struggle these cars are often used on track days and you will find everything from std. Chimeras right through to fully modified cars. What makes you think there may be problems? The best advice I could give is book up for a TVRCC track day where you will be with like minded people with similar cars. The fact that you mention the your H404 cam implies that you are worried about performance but I assure you the speed you go round the track will be entirely down to the driver so the sooner you book up and get out there the better! The standard brakes will be fine simply brake within your limitations and where's the problem? Remember not to use your handbrake when you park up and leave it in gear Track days are not races they are for yo to enjoy your car at a pace that you are comfortable with so just give it a try! Rich...

[spend]

A set of braided hoses & refresh with dot5.1 is a good preparation, which many seem to do at some stage anyway, without being too radical/expensive/complicated.

Dave

[martin-p]

pullingpower said:

Has anyone here experience of tracking their Chim.
I have a 450 with mild engine upgrade (h404 cam and ported inlet) but otherwise standard brakes, suspension.
I was wondering how this will cope.
Everything is in good nick and brakes are pretty new but I do notice the standard brakes can be a bit weak. will I struggle?

Lots of good advice here. I took my bog-standard 11 year-old 4.0 Chim on its first track day at Croft last September. My only prior experience was a couple of "Experience" days. I did get the car checked over (by RTR Racing in Sheffield) beforehand - no work was required but peace of mind was assured.

I can only say that it was great! The car behaved perfectly apart from a bit of a blow from the exhaust gasket.
On the day, the car's abilities probably outweighed my own. The main challenge was learning the track. The brakes were fine even though, as my confidence grew, I was braking later than quite a few others.

My advice is go for it and see how the brakes perform and then upgrade if you need to. It will be money well spent as I can guarantee you'll want to go back.

[pullingpower]

Thanks for the advice and reassurance guys. Probably looking at Donnington in a couple of months so time to check the car working right before then and sort any minor details. Just had all 4 wheels balanced today as was getting some vibration at 100mph+ which you don't want on a track day. Now all sorted reassuringly! Makes a real difference.

[richb]

pullingpower said:

getting some vibration at 100mph+ which you don't want on a track day.

Agreed but depending on the track you will not be aproaching anything like top speed. e.g. at Brands last autumn I could only get around 105-110 on the mian straight

[chimune]

Took my 500 around knockhill in Oct last year. My 1st trackday and i loved it. I probably looked like a total noob from the stands, but i was determined to drive it home - not into the tyre wall !

2 things struck me most - the amount of grief the n/s tyres got ( its a clockwise track ) - melted rubber refused to the surface. And the speed that the brakes went off. 4 /5 laps and they were noticeably worse. The feeling of the whole car changes as everything gets hotter. Cant wait to get it back on this year ( with roof of this time )

Great fun - do it !

[edward1]

Have done a few track days in the chim (std 450) and not had any problems. Check everything first, and make sure there is plenty left on the pads. As said in previous post a bit of mechanical sympathy will certainly help. I found in my old wedge that donny was fairly hard on the brakes (solid not vented discs!), not been back there in the chim though, but it's been fine everywhere it has been.

[raceboy]

pullingpower said:

Probably looking at Donnington in a couple of months.

Donington's my local so been round there a few times, I tend to back off early for Redgate and after that the only really bad bit for the brakes is the last corner and as the exit of that is one of the few places where an off results in wall contact I'd take it easy and brake early there too.