Are you interested in taking your car out on a track day? For keen drivers, track days can be a truly fun and thrilling experience as you take your own car out on a race track to test its limits, drive at high speed and even improve your own driving skills. The fact that you can take your own car is one of the major attractions to track day driving. However, if this is going to be your first time out on the track, you shouldn’t simply assume you can just turn up on the day.
It is important that you should make modifications to your car and prepare it for the experience of driving at high speeds. Here are some of the most important things that you need to do to your car to ensure that it is completely prepared for a track day. These will give you the best opportunity to have a full, fun day on the track without any interruptions to make repairs.
The first step you need to take when you come to prepare your car for a track day is to ensure that the key aspects of the engine and inner workings of the vehicle are in the best possible condition. This starts will an oil and filter change before checking parts such as the suspension, powertrain and brakes for tightness. Typically this can be done easily with a torque wrench.
It’s even worth taking a look around the interior of the car and tightening up any nuts and bolts that you find. On the day of the even it is well worth taking some duct tape and cables ties so that you can make hasty repairs; with older cars especially it is almost inevitable that something will come loose from the extra forces being exerted.
Going into a track without having thoroughly checked over your car is a recipe for problems, and even if they are unlikely to cause accidents, the issues can end up disrupting your day or forcing you to end your session early. It makes sense, then, to go over the basic stuff beforehand to ensure that there is nothing silly that is going to get in the way of your track day.
In many track day events, it is part of the rules that your car must have a fire extinguisher. Even on those track events where this is not a regulation, it is still a smart idea to have one installed. Fire suppressant systems can save your car or even save your life if something goes wrong and your car catches fire. Fire extinguisher experts, FEV provide additional reasons as to why installing one is so important here.
Car fire extinguishers are not expensive, especially if you are just buying a simple handheld model that will be secured in the car. You can alternatively opt for a more complicated plumbed in system which will automatically detect fires and put them out – this is by far the more expensive of the two options.
Note that if you are returning to track days after some time away and you still have an old car fire extinguisher that you used in the past, it will likely need servicing before it is safe to take it out on the track. Both plumbed in and handheld extinguishers need to be serviced every two years, so make sure that you have this carried out before you head out on the track.
It won’t be a surprise to learn that your tyres will take a real pounding out on the track. Many track day drivers like to invest in a set of track day tyres that will provide an exceptional amount of grip and ensure better braking and handling. You don’t need to have an especially powerful car to feel enormous benefit from track tyres, so if there is one modification that you are thinking of spending money on, it’s a good idea to make it this one.
If you aren’t going to be buying separate track tyres then it is absolutely vital that you should check whether they are in good condition. Tyres that are on the way out can be a danger on track days as it can be very hazardous to have a tyre blowout at high speed.
29 June 2018 Blog
