Firts Track Day

[dwarf101]

Hi all.

Been lurking on here for a while......

Did my first track day last Saturday at Bedford (Exige S) - t'was absobluudylutely fantastic....

I have a couple of questions:

1. I seemed to use a hell of a lot of fuel - 2 1/2 tanks !! I drove a lot but can't have covered that much distance - reckon I only got 10 mpg (if that) - can this be real or is the car spilling / over injecting or something. On this note I almost ran out before the lunch break - had fuel starvation on one of the 3rd gear corners - made an interesting oversteer moment ! Is starvation bad for the engine ??

2. Tyres. I have the 048's fitted and it looks to me like I used more than half the tread...I'm now a wisker off the depth blocks and the car has only done 2.7K with only one track day ! Again - is this normal?

Thanks

[lincoln lad]

Not so sure on the fuel - I've got an Exige S and it isn't that thirsty !

Regarding the tyres - did you reset them when hot to approx 24F, 28R. If not they will heat up and degenerate. The AO48's are great but if they get too hot they do start loosing rubber..

[squirejo]

ah yes, the true cost of a trackday...

http://www.jackals-forge.com/lotus/

go to 'counting the cost' on LHS. Nearly £1k a pop? I think Rich's numbers are extreme, though I would say the cost is probably double the entry fee when you take true account of wear and tear & servicing. make that £500 then for a big circuit like Silverstone GP.

Your fuel? Yes, pretty normal especially at a fast circuit.

[dwarf101]

Thanks guys

No I did not reset the pressures - does it really make that much difference to wear ?? I did feel them and they were certainly hot and tacky....my hand was black...

Also, sounds like the fuel issue is no surprise ??

[lincoln lad]

It really does make a difference with the tyres. In terms of temperature, again it depends how hard you drive a nd how long you are on the track. I aim for approx 20 mins a time (most sessioned track days are 20 mins) if open pit lane and reset my tyres after a couple of laps. In the early days I made this mistake and found the tyres at around 36 ish. At that temperature they feel unstable and also start to pick up lots of loose rubber on the track.

Tyre temperatures have always been a debate and it often falls down to your preference / set up on the car. Often if the GEO is out, tyre pressures are used as a way of stabilising the car when in fact its the camber / caster that's out.

Try it and I'm sure you'll notice the difference, particularly towards the end of each session.

[Cuzza]

Fuel isn't really that surprising - was talking to Andrew Kell at Spa and he couldn't manage a 50 min race without refuelling in his S/C Honda which is probably a bit thirstier but the blower will make a big difference. In my car I work off 2 minutes a litre and that's a bog std 1.6 K series.

Tyres - as said, if they're too hard, they'l get hotter and wear faster, they'll also get squirmier and that'll wear them faster.

[dwarf101]

Thanks

I'll try lowering the pressures next time out - It was an open pit lane and a couple sessions I ran for 30 mins or so - the tyres did pick up a lot of bits and bobs, also they did get more squirmy to the end of the sessions - especially at the back after I took the traction control off.

What are the recomended pressures to reduce to, and are these the hot pressures ?? (my tyres are 048's and the set up is the standard GEO - I've had nothing done to the car yet....)

Thanks

[lincoln lad]

24f and 28r (hot and cold). Try to maintain this temperature when both hot and cold. On my Exige S these are the optimum temperatures. Clearly when you set off in the car the cold pressures will rise. As a rule of thumb i come in after 2-3 laps and reduce the pressures back down to 24/28 (not sure what the equivelent hot running temp equates to).

In terms of GEO, look out for wear on the inner edge of the tyre (tramlining) and general un-even tyre wear. I'm no great expert on the GEO settings (they are in your service book i think). I have taken my previous cars to Pat Thomas @ Kelvedon in the past and he has sorted. But beware, there are GEO checks and GEO checks. The actual worked involved in correcting a badly set up car (adding shims etc) is not a 2 minute job..

[Mclovin]

Isn't there some kind of service bulletin ecu upgrade which stops it running so rich?

[S Works]

All sounds perfectly normal if you ask me.

Welcome to the world of trackday fun and expense

[dwarf101]

Thanks

Still seems like a lot of gas to me.......2 1/2 tanks at the track....I can't have covered that much distance ??

[Cuzza]

Mclovin said:

Isn't there some kind of service bulletin ecu upgrade which stops it running so rich?

It's not the rich running (not that it will be running rich anyway), it's the caning the tits off it that uses fuel so quickly 2.5 tanks is about 90 litrees which probably equates to about 2 hours or so on track in an Exige S.

[Mark B]

dwarf101 said:

Thanks

Still seems like a lot of gas to me.......2 1/2 tanks at the track....I can't have covered that much distance ??

I did a tank and half in a day at Abbeville... In a pretty standard 'ish S1 Elise...

About 170 miles if I remember rightly...

Oh, and pretty much destroyed a set of toyo road tyres, not even sticky stuff

[dwarf101]

Thanks all.