I know that many of you take your MINIs to the track and run the c#$#$ out of it. I had my first track sessions yesterday and had a blast.

A friend that went with me (we took a performance driving class) blew his engine. He has a highly modified Toyota MR2.

A friend of his wrote up a long email to him with all the things that could have gone wrong...but this got me wondering...how is my MINI going to hold up?

SO...Please tell me what I need to know so I can go have fun at the track but not damage my beloved little MINI.

I have intake, exhaust and pulley (engine stuff).

Advice please!!!

One thing the other guy was saying was to always run 101 octane fuel...do I need to do this? Randy? help!

 

You don't need to run 101 octane gas with your mods. You'd need to increase the boost considerably and not increase the intercooler size before you NEED to run race gas. However, on really hot days where the intercooler might not be able to cool the charge enough, a 50/50 mix of 92 octane and 101 octane will help gain back some fo the lost power due the engine mgt software pulling back the time due to engine knocking (detonation).

However, if you don't care about losing a few ponies on hot days, you can still run 92 octane; the engine will protect itself from detonation so there isn't anything to worry about.

Really, the main thing you can do is to learn to drive well; smoot smoot smooth :smile:

Upgrade your brake fluid to Motul 600 or Catrol SRF. Upgrade your pads to Ferodo 3000 front and 2500 rear pads; this will make sure you don't run out of brakes.

Change the oil and bleed the brakes frequently (I do this every 2 track days or 2 months; which ever comes first). Use synthetic oil.

There is a MINI track day on Aug 26th at Pacific Raceways; sign up! I'll be there...

 

Thanks! Yes I have already signed up for that day and I'll be there Aug 19th as well...and sept 7th with the Alpha club.

I look forward to meeting you and all the other MINI folks that show up. I'll do the brake mods. I didn't have any problems but was running limited laps (12 or 13 at a time).

You are absolutely right on about smooth, smooth, smooth. I really noticed that gradual smooth power application after apex got me out of the turns faster than mashing on the gas. Same thing with steering...if you aren't smooth you are slow.

I'm so looking forward to getting back out there to just practice everything and get better.

See youi at the end of August!

 

Question: I have 17's with Hankook preformance tires, I dont have the funds to keep a second set of 16's or 15's for track, can I run on a track using 17's I did not think they were for high end cornering or raceing around a track. Thanks for any help or advice.

 

From what I'm learning, the track is very hard on tires. You walk out on the track and it's literally littered with little black tire chunks.

Seems there are 2 issues: 1) wear and tear and 2) performance.

If you are new to the track, like I am, don't worry too much about performance (I have the all season runflats) because the biggest gains are made in your skill and you can have a BLAST with any setup.

For the wear part, it would kinda suck to waste your only set of tires. If you only track every once in a while then you'll do ok. I'm planning 3 tack sessions in a span of 5 weeks so I assume that I'll be 75% done with the Falkens I plan on buying.

The "good" news is the Falkens, for example, are fairly cheap. Track time up here in Seattle is expensive ($150 for the afternoon) so adding about $70 per session for tires doesn't seem TOO bad...now that I say it...ouch! But still..go out there and have fun and see what you see.

 

picoman -

You'll also want to rotate your right front out of that position after each track day; it is the one that gets REALLY beat up at Pacific Raceways. What I do is I first swap the right side's front/rear tires, after then next track day I go to a tire shop and swap left/right.

Adjust this rotation to suit your tire wear. But, if you do this, you'll get a lot more out of your tires. Pacific Raceways eats tires for breakfast :smile:

Also, I like to run a bit more pressure in the right front; this will put a tiny bit of negative camber to the outside part of the tire, moving some of the wear to the middle of the tire. Try it out.

See you at the track!

 

To get the most out of your track day without melting your MINI in the process:
1. Drive fast but easy (gentle and smoothly) on the brakes and the throttle, and steer with least movement of the wheel.
2. In the last lap of the track session (as the time is running out)on aproach to the last series of turns before the pit, don't drive hard, just take it easy and coast in to the pit using your brakes the least you can.
3. Roll into the pit area and find a nice cool spot, use no brakes just coast and cool off as you go (this allows a stop but not heating up your brakes which might be red hot)
4. Open your bonnet and stand back for 10+ minutes
5. Let yourself and your MINI cool off well between each track session.

Inspect the tires, check tire pressure, check fluid levels and do quick dash check before turning off the DSC to be ready for the next session. Have fun.