Geoff Drucquer

I’m a 50 something year old git that used to race single seaters in the dim and distant past. I drive a classic Impreza, which is mildly tuned.

My advice to anyone wishing to take their pride and joy on a track day is as follows:-
A) Prepare yourself
and B) Prepare your car.

A) The Driver.
If you’ve never driven on a race track before, go to you nearest track and take up one of their beginners courses or induction days. Firstly you can wreck/wear out their cars not yours, you will be given some expert supervision and advice and then shown how it should be done. This can be quite an eye opener, the car driven hard and the bump stops, tyres squealing in protest, with the driver calm and relaxed.

Learn how to heel and toe. Its easy in an Impreza, but if you’ve never done it before, find a deserted road or car park and practice. The object of the exercise is to brake consistently and evenly with the ball of your foot, while twisting you foot approx. 20 degrees to the left, with your heel on the floor, so that the outer edge of your shoe blips the throttle. The amount you blip the throttle depends on the number of gears you are changing down.Practice makes perfect It will feel odd to start with, but becomes second nature after a while. What you should achieve is to match your engine revs with the the speed of the road wheels so that when you release the clutch there is no judder or lurch forward. Each gear is not the same number of revs apart, but what you need to do is listen to your engine and get used to the rise in pitch as you blip the throttle. You won’t have time on a race track to look at the rev counter in the braking zone.

Racing is not a white knuckle ride, but a calm mental process of getting the maximum out of a car, braking, acceleration and cornering on the right racing line and gradually lowering your lap times. Its not a macho thing, although your adrenaline will be pumping, your mind should be ultra alert and aware, with your body relaxed, more like a state of meditation.

Firstly you need to find or be shown the racing line for the track. Generally speaking when driving you are either accelerating flat out or braking as hard as possible. Accelerate down the straight, brake in a straight line at the end of the straight (this keeps the car stable), turn into the corner andaccelerate hard
all the way past the apex until you reach the next braking zone at the end of the next straight. There are
exceptions to this, but that's the basic principle to start with.

What is harder to learn is car control. What to do when your car understeers or oversteers spins etc. A skid course is one of the best ways to learn. These courses can save you a small fortune the first time you encounter black ice or a greasy road. On a Skid Pan it all happens at slow speed and you have more time to react and learn what is going on. To encounter oversteer for the first time at 120 mph, at the first corner, will certainly give you a brown trouser moment.

B) The Car.
It doesn’t matter what your car is, its going to be trashed to an inch of its life on a race track if driven properly. Racing cars are designed to do this road cars are not. The tyres and the brakes are going to take alot of the punishment, so at least a 5.1 brake fluid, hard compound pads and a foot pump to over-inflate your tyres. If you don’t, bit of tread will start to come off tyres and the second time you use your brakes the pedal will go to the floor and your go straight to the scene of the accident.

Your car will feel different on a race track. What felt taught and sharp on the road will feel like a wallowing sponge on the track, so a compromise is the best solution. A car set up for the track will shake you filling out on the road. How far you go and how much you spend will depend on whether the track bug bites. A basic road car driven well will be quicker that a highly modified car driven badly, so spend your money on honing your driving skills first, then when you know what your doing, you can work out where best to spend the money on your car.

I hope this has been of help and if anyone’s interested I do more on the more advanced stuff.

Gutmann pug

I think its is possible to drive on a track without heel and toeing, its also possible to drive on track without 'thrashing your car to within an inch of its life'

Gary

JCScooby

some sound advice there mate. I dont think i'd ever take my own car on the track unless i had a 2nd car which was bought with track use in mind. I might look into one of those begginers courses cause it is amazing how many pointers an expert cant show u. I think most folk who think there really good drivers (in terms of racing) would get a fright when shown by an experienced track user/ Racing Driver.

Stephen Pope

Or get a £500 Peugeot 205 GTI like I did and save your £17k Scoob from getting bumped!!! Takes guts to use your Scooby on a track - wish I could!!!!

Brit_in_Japan

Good reading Geoff, thanks for taking the time to post.

I had a track day at Donnington a few years ago driving Elise's. That day I was told not to heel and toe, despite it being second nature to me. My Dad taught me to heel and toe when I learned to drive, much to the shock of my driving instructor when preparing for my test

It must be said I found the pedal layout of the race schools Elise's difficult to use, so maybe that's why they told me not to.

John 37

Hi Geoff, a good piece of advice.
One (minor) point, with the exception of 1st to second, the gear spacing on my '00MY are almost equal.

.........Ratio .....Change
1st ----3.454
2nd ---1.947 --- 0.56369427
3rd ----1.366 --- 0.70159219
4th ----0.972 --- 0.71156662
5th ----0.738 --- 0.75925926

1st to 2nd drops your revs by 56%
2nd to 3rd drops them by 70%
etc
Sorry about the ...and --- but the excel bit won't paste.

C8 DHC 04WRX

iTrader: (13)

i've done the same - just bought a swift gti for peanuts + just preparing it for my first trackday at rallydrive, Blyton in april.

i know what you mean about using scoob - still paying for mine so would hate to smash it up on a trackday. Think i will enjoy the track more + take swift closer to limit as if that gets smashed then iv not lost much!

ru'

So changing from 2nd at 6,000 rpm would mean you end up at 1,800 rpm in 3rd?

Either my maths is wrong, or the 70% bit is...

John 37

Sorry, that should be "drops them to 70%" ie 6k to 4.2k.