Well the first track day was a success! Both my car and my brother'sc ar ran flawlessly for their first time out.

I only expected to make the day a bit of a shake down run and never expected to be able to drive as hard and have the car as reliable. Not a thing went wrong.

The car itself was great to drive, very strong with the weight removed, turn in and mid corner balance was beautiful with the suspension set up. The brakes were strong and even my cheapish semi slicks worked well.

My only gripe was that by the end of the day I was finding the limits of the brakes with Sandowns big long straights, I didn't get any bad fade but I was noticing that they were dropping off a little by the end of each session. Not enough to justify a big expensive upgrade but something for me to be mindful of.

The day was great, lots of track time. The classes were well managed and chosen. I felt that by the end of the day, as I became more comfortable, that I might be able to move up to the next class for the next event.

The car was very strong, there was an FG XR6 manual in my class that I was able to catch on straights and completely blow away in the braking zone and through the corners (although he had street tyres).

It was great catching up with Grippy. He and his car were great to watch. I also picked up a few little things that I need to do before the next event which I will get stuck into. There were a few cool fast fords there including an XF with a 5ltr that was good to watch on track (and listen to).

Overall a great day and a hell of a lot of fun. Would recommend it to anyone.

Here are a few pics.

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nice dude nice!

glad you enjoyed it

re the brakes, cheapest thing to do if you have not done

change the fluid, I sued motul rbf 600 in my ducati and yammi bikes and f**k me the braking performance and feel was improved !

then some different pads more suited to track use
and stainless steel braided lines

then if that does not work upgraded rotors

Thanks mate.

I have done some work with the brakes. Upgraded rotors (on bf turbo brakes) with braided lines.

It only has good street pads as that's what it came with but once I kill them I will put some red stuff pads or something on them. The fluid will be changed before the next run, I will try the ones you recommended.

Cheers!

Do the ba/f turbo brakes bolt straight onto the stock au uprights?
Just curious,ive seen the turbo brakes on ebay.

They sure do, great upgrade.

would only be on AU 2 and up!

I swapped the AU brakes for B-series Turbo brakes on my AU3 V8 wagon, and was very impressed with the improvement. The first hard stop I tried, my eyeballs nearly hit the windscreen.

Best cheap upgrade available, IMHO.

That looked like a great day, must try a track day one day... In something lighter than an AU wagon though.

Update time.

I attended another Tampered Motorsport track day at Sandown a couple of weeks ago. I was excited to get out there as I had put some new pads (redstuff) on the car to take the edge of the little bit of brake fade that I was getting at the end of the front straight.

The day ended up being very challenging but very educational. Although it never rained once, the track was very wet when we got there. It had rained a lot the previous day/night. It was also bitterly cold so there was no heat.

Unfortunately there was a lot of accidents and recoveries, some quite expensive. I was lucky to never leave the track, my brother had a small shunt, just some scuffed paint in the end but a bit of a reality check for him.

The first session out we went really easy. Depsite this, I managed some spectacular fishtails of the first corner. I took it easy the whole session but was spinning wheels constantly.

We were a little disheartened but the track was slowly drying. The problem was there was solid cloud cover and we just never saw heat in the track so grip was a problem all day.

Despite all of this, I was very happy with the car as was my brother, they were flawless all day and we actually put down as many laps as anyone. We were still going hard in the final session when honestly, half of the field had gone home with bent metal, mechanical problems or disinterest.

My best times on the day were only a bit over a second slower than my last day which was near perfect conditions. A PB would have been nice but I was happy with that and even more happy to bring my car home in one piece.

I managed to show up some much more expensive cars with mine and found that with the brakes, the package is reasonably soughed for what it is. The next issue to tackle is the diff, I think it has had it. I will be putting a mini spool in it over the next 6 months for some more grip. The only other issue I have is over fuelling, I noticed over the day that the car was using more fuel this time. It was pulling hard but a smidge doughier down low, I put it down to the cold temp and moved on. When I got home, I pulled the plugs out and jet black! Covered in soot. So I will run the codes over the next few weeks and see if a sensor is gone.

Overall a great day, I learnt a lot about driving which is what it is all about and cant wait for the next one.

Here is a few pics, including one of my brother's civic and a small video just to show how it sounds.

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awesome dude!


great report!

Thanks Frank

Such a cool build have been wanting to do something very similar but couldnt decide on the irs or solid diff hp xr6 for the track.

The IRS will handle better, but is heavier... but IRS have teh VCT engine with a bit more grunt than the HP engine.. so power / weight is similar