First Track Day, where to go and how to prep?
Discussion
Hi all,
Firstly: Can someone suggest a good track for me and the misses to chuck our 1600 mx5 round? (trackday noobs)
Ideally would be as cheap as poss and within an hour or two from manchester. I though oulton park would might be a bit too open for the MX, also seems expensive?
A couple of mates had a great time at cadwell and also anglesey, which are both tightish in my understanding. any other to consider? Would be in september.
Secondly. My to do list:
-fitting a roll bar (propper one).
-coilovers £500 budget- recommendations?
-dot 5.1
-proper pads
-braided hoses
Anything to add/not bother with?
I've got really crap budget tyres on at the moment, i was thinking of replacing the fronts and leaving the rears. don't like the idea of too much traction out back-hard enough to oversteer as it is!. rubbish idea?
Sorry about the barrage of questions!
Rick.
Firstly: Can someone suggest a good track for me and the misses to chuck our 1600 mx5 round? (trackday noobs)
Ideally would be as cheap as poss and within an hour or two from manchester. I though oulton park would might be a bit too open for the MX, also seems expensive?
A couple of mates had a great time at cadwell and also anglesey, which are both tightish in my understanding. any other to consider? Would be in september.
Secondly. My to do list:
-fitting a roll bar (propper one).
-coilovers £500 budget- recommendations?
-dot 5.1
-proper pads
-braided hoses
Anything to add/not bother with?
I've got really crap budget tyres on at the moment, i was thinking of replacing the fronts and leaving the rears. don't like the idea of too much traction out back-hard enough to oversteer as it is!. rubbish idea?
Sorry about the barrage of questions!
Rick.
Porkie said:
BEDFORD Autodrome. perfect for beginners.
Porkie said:
sort your brakes before you do any other mods.
Making sure you can stop well is more important than being the fastest person into the tyre wall. If you fit a roll bar (or cage), make sure you use harnesses and that they're correctly fitted. Driven well, you'll be surprised what std road tyres can acomplish.
Make sure you don't go with too stiff a spring rate when you change your suspension, as you'll ruin any on-road compliance and also possibly upset the balance of the car. Remember that this may also alter your suspension geometry to make the car handle very differently!
Hi
Try looking at this for a deal it's perfect for a first time track day,i have tested here and would recomend it as an introduction into trackdaying.
It would be suited for the mx5.
www.thetrackdayclub.co.uk
Regards
Craig
Try looking at this for a deal it's perfect for a first time track day,i have tested here and would recomend it as an introduction into trackdaying.
It would be suited for the mx5.
www.thetrackdayclub.co.uk
Regards
Craig
Scho said:
Hi all,
Firstly: Can someone suggest a good track for me and the misses to chuck our 1600 mx5 round? (trackday noobs)
Ideally would be as cheap as poss and within an hour or two from manchester. I though oulton park would might be a bit too open for the MX, also seems expensive?
A couple of mates had a great time at cadwell and also anglesey, which are both tightish in my understanding. any other to consider? Would be in september.
Secondly. My to do list:
-fitting a roll bar (propper one).
-coilovers £500 budget- recommendations?
-dot 5.1
-proper pads
-braided hoses
Anything to add/not bother with?
I've got really crap budget tyres on at the moment, i was thinking of replacing the fronts and leaving the rears. don't like the idea of too much traction out back-hard enough to oversteer as it is!. rubbish idea?
Sorry about the barrage of questions!
Rick.
Firstly: Can someone suggest a good track for me and the misses to chuck our 1600 mx5 round? (trackday noobs)
Ideally would be as cheap as poss and within an hour or two from manchester. I though oulton park would might be a bit too open for the MX, also seems expensive?
A couple of mates had a great time at cadwell and also anglesey, which are both tightish in my understanding. any other to consider? Would be in september.
Secondly. My to do list:
-fitting a roll bar (propper one).
-coilovers £500 budget- recommendations?
-dot 5.1
-proper pads
-braided hoses
Anything to add/not bother with?
I've got really crap budget tyres on at the moment, i was thinking of replacing the fronts and leaving the rears. don't like the idea of too much traction out back-hard enough to oversteer as it is!. rubbish idea?
Sorry about the barrage of questions!
Rick.
An MX5 is an excellent trackday car in standard form, even down to brakes. My advice would be to change tyres to something like Yokohama A539's, Toyo Proxy TR1 or if you want loads of grip, Toyo 888's. Do not under any circumstances run budget tyres on the rear, with grippy tyres on the front,..... the car will be virtually undriveable, unless that is, you want to learn the art of "drifting" and I wouldn't advise that on your novice trackday!!!
ginettajoe said:
Scho said:
Hi all,
Firstly: Can someone suggest a good track for me and the misses to chuck our 1600 mx5 round? (trackday noobs)
Ideally would be as cheap as poss and within an hour or two from manchester. I though oulton park would might be a bit too open for the MX, also seems expensive?
A couple of mates had a great time at cadwell and also anglesey, which are both tightish in my understanding. any other to consider? Would be in september.
Secondly. My to do list:
-fitting a roll bar (propper one).
-coilovers £500 budget- recommendations?
-dot 5.1
-proper pads
-braided hoses
Anything to add/not bother with?
I've got really crap budget tyres on at the moment, i was thinking of replacing the fronts and leaving the rears. don't like the idea of too much traction out back-hard enough to oversteer as it is!. rubbish idea?
Sorry about the barrage of questions!
Rick.
Firstly: Can someone suggest a good track for me and the misses to chuck our 1600 mx5 round? (trackday noobs)
Ideally would be as cheap as poss and within an hour or two from manchester. I though oulton park would might be a bit too open for the MX, also seems expensive?
A couple of mates had a great time at cadwell and also anglesey, which are both tightish in my understanding. any other to consider? Would be in september.
Secondly. My to do list:
-fitting a roll bar (propper one).
-coilovers £500 budget- recommendations?
-dot 5.1
-proper pads
-braided hoses
Anything to add/not bother with?
I've got really crap budget tyres on at the moment, i was thinking of replacing the fronts and leaving the rears. don't like the idea of too much traction out back-hard enough to oversteer as it is!. rubbish idea?
Sorry about the barrage of questions!
Rick.
An MX5 is an excellent trackday car in standard form, even down to brakes. My advice would be to change tyres to something like Yokohama A539's, Toyo Proxy TR1 or if you want loads of grip, Toyo 888's. Do not under any circumstances run budget tyres on the rear, with grippy tyres on the front,..... the car will be virtually undriveable, unless that is, you want to learn the art of "drifting" and I wouldn't advise that on your novice trackday!!!
Give Tasha @ Motorsport Events a call - they run a series of airfield days...great for your first time, nothing to hit and loads of run-off if you get it wrong!
http://www.motorsport-events.com/
http://www.motorsport-events.com/
Scho said:
Hi all,
Firstly: Can someone suggest a good track for me and the misses to chuck our 1600 mx5 round? (trackday noobs)
Ideally would be as cheap as poss and within an hour or two from manchester. I though oulton park would might be a bit too open for the MX, also seems expensive?
A couple of mates had a great time at cadwell and also anglesey, which are both tightish in my understanding. any other to consider? Would be in september.
Secondly. My to do list:
-fitting a roll bar (propper one).
-coilovers £500 budget- recommendations?
-dot 5.1
-proper pads
-braided hoses
Anything to add/not bother with?
I've got really crap budget tyres on at the moment, i was thinking of replacing the fronts and leaving the rears. don't like the idea of too much traction out back-hard enough to oversteer as it is!. rubbish idea?
Sorry about the barrage of questions!
Rick.
As all the advice above but also book yourself on a novice trackday and get instruction, do a few novice days before you do a non novice day. It's better for you and for the experienced guys.Firstly: Can someone suggest a good track for me and the misses to chuck our 1600 mx5 round? (trackday noobs)
Ideally would be as cheap as poss and within an hour or two from manchester. I though oulton park would might be a bit too open for the MX, also seems expensive?
A couple of mates had a great time at cadwell and also anglesey, which are both tightish in my understanding. any other to consider? Would be in september.
Secondly. My to do list:
-fitting a roll bar (propper one).
-coilovers £500 budget- recommendations?
-dot 5.1
-proper pads
-braided hoses
Anything to add/not bother with?
I've got really crap budget tyres on at the moment, i was thinking of replacing the fronts and leaving the rears. don't like the idea of too much traction out back-hard enough to oversteer as it is!. rubbish idea?
Sorry about the barrage of questions!
Rick.
Oulton is a great track.
A.Wang said:
Give Tasha @ Motorsport Events a call - they run a series of airfield days...great for your first time, nothing to hit and loads of run-off if you get it wrong!
http://www.motorsport-events.com/
My first track day was with these guys at Abingdon last year. I can't recommend them highly enough. The day was great fun, tuition was excellent and the standard of driving from all drivers was good.http://www.motorsport-events.com/
Do an airfield where you have nothing (apart from other cars) to crash into and book some tuition. I've done 3 track days so far and have only had tuition at 2. Funnily enough, I only enjoyed the two when I had tuition...go figure...
DC
Novice trackday at Oulton.
I did my first last month in my standard 1.8 MX5 at one of the novice days at Brands. You turn up, they give you the safety briefing and show you the way around the track, then let you go out for three sessions of 20 mins each. Trust me, that's easily enough for the first time, and Oulton would be even more fun than Brands I think.
If you're on budget tyres, make sure they're even all round, but they'll be fine. I had crappy tyres on mine and managed to blister them due to some hamfisted driving (session 2) and then some power oversteer (session 3).
Brakes - if you've been driving enthusiastically on the road you'll know what it feels like when the brakes overheat. If this happens on the track - come into the pits: you're not forced to stay out all session.
As for the lack of rollbar - don't crash. Being conscious of the possibility of your face rubbing along the road should mean you don't do anything stupid enough to need the rollbar.
.
I did my first last month in my standard 1.8 MX5 at one of the novice days at Brands. You turn up, they give you the safety briefing and show you the way around the track, then let you go out for three sessions of 20 mins each. Trust me, that's easily enough for the first time, and Oulton would be even more fun than Brands I think.
If you're on budget tyres, make sure they're even all round, but they'll be fine. I had crappy tyres on mine and managed to blister them due to some hamfisted driving (session 2) and then some power oversteer (session 3).
Brakes - if you've been driving enthusiastically on the road you'll know what it feels like when the brakes overheat. If this happens on the track - come into the pits: you're not forced to stay out all session.
As for the lack of rollbar - don't crash. Being conscious of the possibility of your face rubbing along the road should mean you don't do anything stupid enough to need the rollbar.
.My 2 cents would be do the brake fluid and pads, buy some new reasonably decent performance road tyres (I would avoid track day tyres for your early days - if it rains you might just regret it and it is doubtful that you will really have the initial pace to need them).
Book a novice day pretty much anywhere and feel free to chew through as much as you like of the remainder of your budget on tuition. Seriously - it is a better investment early on than anything that you can do to the car. On a novice day it is easy (and often quite amusing) to spot the lines of the people who don't think that they need it
Book a novice day pretty much anywhere and feel free to chew through as much as you like of the remainder of your budget on tuition. Seriously - it is a better investment early on than anything that you can do to the car. On a novice day it is easy (and often quite amusing) to spot the lines of the people who don't think that they need it
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