Expectations on first track day

[Juan2many]

Hi all -

I've done nothing but clean and polish my 2013 ZL1 Silver Ice with 5k miles since I bought in Sept. I'm now registered for my first Chin Track Day at COTA and starting to get nervous about stone chips, windshield damage, tire wear....

That said I'm super excited for the 2 day Novice instructional event.

My question to some of the experienced folks out there - do you see any more road ware than on the highway?

[ZMEnow]

Originally Posted by Juan2many

Hi all -

I've done nothing but clean and polish my 2013 ZL1 Silver Ice with 5k miles since I bought in Sept. I'm now registered for my first Chin Track Day at COTA and starting to get nervous about stone chips, windshield damage, tire wear....

That said I'm super excited for the 2 day Novice instructional event.

My question to some of the experienced folks out there - do you see any more road ware than on the highway?

Depends on the track, but the answer is yes, you will eat tires like eating fries, although depending on the tire you should start at 28 for F1 supercars and it will climb to. 32/33. Start at 33 or higher you will run the edge right off the tire.

If you get speeds up over 100 and have to brake be cautious because you will boil the fluid which could leave you with no brakes and also leave your clutch pedal on the floor until the fluid cools.


It will definitely put a lot of stress on the struts, and bushings

If you are doing a lot of laps read the section on the rear diff fluid.

After all that it is a lot of fun for such a heavy car, but you pay to play..

[docwra]

Tire wear will be more but unless youre drifting you wont destroy a set, same with brake pads - they will wear faster but nothing ridiculous. If you havent had fluid changed recently Id consider getting it done, brakes are more important than power on track.

Good advice is to take a lap to warm the car up, drive hard for no more than 15 minutes then do another cooldown lap and try and remember not to put the E-brake on when you stop

COTA shouldnt be too bad for stone chips and instruction is an excellent idea, they will encourage you to build up pace gradually which will also be a bit easier on the car.
Most important thing to remember is its not a race, there will always be faster guys out there so just focus on enjoying yourself

[Juan2many]

Thanks a lot guys really appreciate the feedback. I’ll let yall know how it goes!

[wscott62893]

A lot of good feedback offered from other members. Aside from what has already been mentioned, don't forget to have fun! I've seen many novices come to the track so consumed by the idea that they need to be "good" and not embarrass themselves. Don't let your concerns about your car or what other people might think detract from the day. Only maintain speeds and distances that you're comfortable with and wear a quality certified helmet!

Oh and "smooth is fast and fast is smooth"

[Whisper1]

Better check the price of struts before you get too consumed with tracking the car. One of many parts that are not available. I just replaced 2 fronts and it cost me close to 4K. If you have plenty of money then run it and enjoy it.

[Indian_Mack]

Use an app called track addict. It'll track your time and speeds. Found that really helpful my first time on the track. Plus a dash cam.

[FASTFATBOY]

Make sure you tape up the entire area on the quarters around the fake gills. Hot front tires throw up rocks and they hit this area.

If you have a stock alignment it may wear the outsides of the tires.


When you come off track and park DO NOT set the parking brake, you will weld the parking brake pads to the inside of the rotor.

[cdb95z28]

The most important question that needs to be asked is....

Have you flushed the brake fluid with high quality DOT 4 brake fluid?
Castrol SRF
Brembo HTC64T
Endless 650
Torque 700

Make sure all your fluids are fresh. What pads are you running? Tires?

You didn't ask about brakes....but, I've got lots of time at track days. You got lots of power. Brakes are the most important thing for track day safety.

I ran COTA last April with CHIN. CHIN is awesome. Best group I have run with in over 15 years of track days. In three different Camaros.

Yes, stone chips, windshield damage, tire wear... you could see some of those. The closer you follow someone, the greater the chance stone chips happen. The gills WILL get peppered. When I got my '14 SS 1LE, within 1 week of street driving, my gills were showing signs of damage. I promptly added PPF. Windshield hits will happen but 2 days in novice, I would not worry about these things. The windshield hits, again, depend on how close you are to the car in front of you. But the nature of track days is that you will eventually get behind someone slower than you. While you hope they give you a point by quickly, you have to stay close to make them aware you are ready for that point by. In all fairness, being your first event, in novice, most likely you will not be in position to be that close, that often.

Do you want to preserve the car or enjoy it? That's just my simple take on it. I get it though. Preserving the like new nature of one's car is important. It could be a hard pill to swallow with track days, the cosmetic wear along with mechanical wear. Been there, done that. But I enjoy performance driving so much that I am willing to accept some of the cosmetic degradation. Mechanical wear will be very minimal at a novice level. Even at advanced level, if the owner does the right things with preventative maintenance, wear is not a big concern. Your ZL1 was engineered for the track! Sure, tires and brakes are consumables. But you might get hooked! If you let those things worry you, you will never enjoy the track day to the fullest. Biggest thing is that the car is mechanically ready to rock. Track days are not to be taken lightly. Brakes, tires, fluids.

My '14 SS 1LE and my current '22 SS 1LE have shown the effects of track day wear. That's about 58 days between both cars. But I installed PPF on both to help protect them. If you do enjoy the event and want to continue, get PPF. You can get windshield protection also but depending on the brand, the optic quality may suffer. I had windshield protection installed when my '22 was new but after a year I peeled it off, the scratches were enough to say enough. Good advice from the above posts on temporary protection.

Tire wear is inevitable! Inspect them after each session. Depending on the tires it could be reasonable or terrible. Track alignment goes a long way. There's lots of track day info here on theses forums. Do exactly what GM says to do on tack prep of your ZL1. Read the owner's manual. I bought my '14 SS 1LE with the intent of tracking it. I installed the ZL1 front 6 piston Brembos and had the Z/28 brake ducts (similar to your ducting) and 3" hose ducting and my brakes were near their heat capacity. I did have Raybestos ST43 race pads but if you are running your OE pads, they won't generate the same total heat my race pads did. Those OE pads are an excellent dual purpose street/track pad. Made by Ferodo for Brembo they are the HP1000 pad material. Same material used on the Gen6 Camaros. But they can be overheated on track. Novice braking technique can be as hard as 10/10s advanced driver braking technique. Your ZL1 is heavier with more power. If your brakes do not feel right, tell your instructor. Some pedal softness is possible but not always an emergency. Except for outright brake component failure, boiled brake fluid is the worst scenario. Look at your brakes after every session. Follow GM's brake burnishing/bed in.

You will either be hooked or scared to death. I've seen both drivers. Either way, focus on you line and have situational awareness. Use your mirrors. Watch youtube videos to get an idea of the preferred lines. Don't worry about lap times. You need to get comfortable first.

Here's my best lap in a Gen6 A10 SS 1LE from last April at COTA. I was immediately comfortable at COTA because I ran about 10+ hours in a Spec Miata on Forza on my son's XBOX. This was valuable to learn the track. It was actually easier in real life than on the videa game. You may notice I attacked the curbs pretty hard, my advice to you is to stay off of them.

https://youtu.be/9ZAiI5uAnNc?si=Wwdl6WW1uM4xvX20

[Brutale arancia]

Originally Posted by cdb95z28

The most important question that needs to be asked is....

Have you flushed the brake fluid with high quality DOT 4 brake fluid?
Castrol SRF
Brembo HTC64T
Endless 650
Torque 700

Make sure all your fluids are fresh. What pads are you running? Tires?

You didn't ask about brakes....but, I've got lots of time at track days. You got lots of power. Brakes are the most important thing for track day safety.

I ran COTA last April with CHIN. CHIN is awesome. Best group I have run with in over 15 years of track days. In three different Camaros.

Yes, stone chips, windshield damage, tire wear... you could see some of those. The closer you follow someone, the greater the chance stone chips happen. The gills WILL get peppered. When I got my '14 SS 1LE, within 1 week of street driving, my gills were showing signs of damage. I promptly added PPF. Windshield hits will happen but 2 days in novice, I would not worry about these things. The windshield hits, again, depend on how close you are to the car in front of you. But the nature of track days is that you will eventually get behind someone slower than you. While you hope they give you a point by quickly, you have to stay close to make them aware you are ready for that point by. In all fairness, being your first event, in novice, most likely you will not be in position to be that close, that often.

Do you want to preserve the car or enjoy it? That's just my simple take on it. I get it though. Preserving the like new nature of one's car is important. It could be a hard pill to swallow with track days, the cosmetic wear along with mechanical wear. Been there, done that. But I enjoy performance driving so much that I am willing to accept some of the cosmetic degradation. Mechanical wear will be very minimal at a novice level. Even at advanced level, if the owner does the right things with preventative maintenance, wear is not a big concern. Your ZL1 was engineered for the track! Sure, tires and brakes are consumables. But you might get hooked! If you let those things worry you, you will never enjoy the track day to the fullest. Biggest thing is that the car is mechanically ready to rock. Track days are not to be taken lightly. Brakes, tires, fluids.

My '14 SS 1LE and my current '22 SS 1LE have shown the effects of track day wear. That's about 58 days between both cars. But I installed PPF on both to help protect them. If you do enjoy the event and want to continue, get PPF. You can get windshield protection also but depending on the brand, the optic quality may suffer. I had windshield protection installed when my '22 was new but after a year I peeled it off, the scratches were enough to say enough. Good advice from the above posts on temporary protection.

Tire wear is inevitable! Inspect them after each session. Depending on the tires it could be reasonable or terrible. Track alignment goes a long way. There's lots of track day info here on theses forums. Do exactly what GM says to do on tack prep of your ZL1. Read the owner's manual. I bought my '14 SS 1LE with the intent of tracking it. I installed the ZL1 front 6 piston Brembos and had the Z/28 brake ducts (similar to your ducting) and 3" hose ducting and my brakes were near their heat capacity. I did have Raybestos ST43 race pads but if you are running your OE pads, they won't generate the same total heat my race pads did. Those OE pads are an excellent dual purpose street/track pad. Made by Ferodo for Brembo they are the HP1000 pad material. Same material used on the Gen6 Camaros. But they can be overheated on track. Novice braking technique can be as hard as 10/10s advanced driver braking technique. Your ZL1 is heavier with more power. If your brakes do not feel right, tell your instructor. Some pedal softness is possible but not always an emergency. Except for outright brake component failure, boiled brake fluid is the worst scenario. Look at your brakes after every session. Follow GM's brake burnishing/bed in.

You will either be hooked or scared to death. I've seen both drivers. Either way, focus on you line and have situational awareness. Use your mirrors. Watch youtube videos to get an idea of the preferred lines. Don't worry about lap times. You need to get comfortable first.

Here's my best lap in a Gen6 A10 SS 1LE from last April at COTA. I was immediately comfortable at COTA because I ran about 10+ hours in a Spec Miata on Forza on my son's XBOX. This was valuable to learn the track. It was actually easier in real life than on the videa game. You may notice I attacked the curbs pretty hard, my advice to you is to stay off of them.

https://youtu.be/9ZAiI5uAnNc?si=Wwdl6WW1uM4xvX20

No substitute for experience! Though I will never need it for myself, I enjoyed and appreciate your input.