Preparing For A Track Day Part 3: How Things Went

How Things Went

In my previous two posts I talked about the preparation I did to get my BRZ ready for its (and my) first HPDE / track days at Watkins Glen with Trackmasters. Those track days occurred on August 26th and 27th, and I wanted to follow up with a post talking about what went well, what I'd have done differently, and how my experience was overall.

Trackmasters

Before getting into the mechanical stuff I wanted to talk about my overall experience and also about Trackmasters inc., the organization that I drove with. 

As a track day beginner I was already feeling a little nervous when I arrived at the Glen on Monday morning. My nervousness quickly turned to total intimidation, though, when I pulled into the paddock and had to find a parking spot to put my car while I got myself registered. The first open spot I saw was next to a pair of gentlemen that were unloading not one but two track prepped Ferrari F430s from a large covered trailer. I decided to keep driving and see if I could find somewhere to park where I felt like my car and I might "fit in" better. As I drove around, though, I realized that wasn't going to happen. Almost everyone had brought some very serious hardware. There were more Ferraris there than I had ever seen in one place before, a Corvette ZR1, a pair of NSXs, a GTR, many track prepped Porsches and BMWs, and even a former DTM car that was now in the hands of a private individual that used it as their track day toy. Eventually I circled back around and parked next to the two Ferraris saw when I'd first arrived being VERY careful to leave a comfortable gap between my car and theirs.

After waking to the registration desk I introduced myself and was given a packet with some general safety information, a schedule of events for the next two days, and a set of numbers and windshield stickers to put on my car. At this point I still had almost an hour before my first classroom session (I'm chronically early to everything) so I decided to walk around and see if I could chat with some of the other folks that were there.

I was a little bit surprised to see that everyone I tried to talk to (from other event attendees to Bill Schultz, the president of Trackmasters) were very friendly and personable. I guess I always had an image in my mind of these experienced racking / track guys and girls being a bit arrogant and "clicky" with each other but I found the reality to be totally the opposite, and by the time my first classroom session was scheduled to start I felt much more comfortable and much less intimidated then when I had arrived.

In the first classroom session I met the other ~ 22 novice school attendees as well as our classroom instructor Adam Burrows. Like everyone I bet before, Adam was very personable easy to get along with. He was also an amazing teacher and he seemed to know the track very well.

It wasn't until I did some research after the event that I realized just how impressive Adam's qualifications are and why he seemed to have the level of knowledge that he did. He's taught with Skip Barber, is currently listed as an instructor with Lime Rock Park's drivers club, and is an active racing driver in the Grand Am Continental Tire series where he won the ST class championship in his rookie season. I was very impressed with Trackmasters for providing a group of track day beginners with an instructor like Adam.

After a 45 minute initial classroom session I was sent to my car to meet my in-car instructor. I was very fortunate to be paired with a man who introduced himself as Bob. I say I was fortunate before not only was Bob very experienced at the Glen (I was told by a couple of different people he may have more laps than anyone else alive today) but one of his personal vehicles is a totally stock FR-S that he happened to bring with him that day.

I spent the two days alternating between classroom time with Adam and track time in my BRZ with Bob. Also, I was given opportunities to ride as a passenger with Bob in his FR-S (very valuable experience) and also with Adam in a track prepped BMW M3 that he borrowed. In the last driving session of the second day I was allowed to drive to drive solo and invited to return to a future Trackmasters event as a driver in their intermediate school. Overall my experience was awesome and I'd recommend anyone interested in track driving to check out Trackmasters and give it a try with them.

Mechanical Stuff

My BRZ performed really well through the event. For the sake of anyone looking to get some insight to prepping for a track day I'll  break down the things I want to talk about one-by-one.

Brakes

In my last entry I mentioned that the brake upgrades I performed had noticeably increased the BRZs braking performance on the street. That performance increase was also noticeable on track, and Bob commented that the brakes on my BRZ felt better than the stock brakes on his FR-S.

Before the event my biggest concern with the brakes was fade and thankfully the changes I made prior to the track days seemed to hold any fade off very well. Our driving sessions were between 20 and 30 minutes long at at no point during any session did I feel any brake fade.

I brought an extra set of brake pads in case I needed to change them during the event but that turned out to be unnecessary. In fact, I found that the brake pad wear I experienced from my ~ 250 miles of track driving was only a little heavier than the total wear I'd experienced through my previous ~ 3,000 miles of street driving. See the pictures below for a comparison.

This picture shows a front StopTech brake pad after ~ 250 miles on track (top) next to a stock brake pad after ~ 3,000 miles of street driving (bottom). The StopTech pad shows a little bit more wear but is still very usable

This picture shows a rear StopTech brake pad after ~ 250 miles on track (top) next to a stock brake pad after ~ 3,000 miles of street driving (bottom). The pad wear looks almost identical. Also, it's worth noting that I drove with VSC turned on and both the left and right rear brakes showed very similar wear

Tires

I used the stock Michelin Primary HP tires throughout the event. Before using them on track I knew they had a reputation for being predictable at the limit and rather durable but not very sticky.

Toward the end of my second day I found that it was easy to "feel" the car well enough to consistent push it to just before the point where VSC would step in, so I think the predictable part is very true. Also, the tires had some noticeable wear after the two days were up but not so much that I'd have to think about replacing them so I'm happy with the durability. I have no experience with any other tires so it's hard to comment on their level of grip compared to anything else.

Remaining tread after ~ 3,000 street miles and ~ 250 track miles

Cooling

The good news is the engine cooling on the BRZ seems to be adequate for track use. At no point did I see coolant temperatures above 210 degrees Fahrenheit and almost all data points showing temperatures above 200F occurred while the car was stationary in the paddock immediately before or after a driving session.

The bad news is that the BRZ is in desperate need of an oil cooler. With an ambient temperature of ~ 85 degrees I saw oil temperatures rise above 250 degrees quite quickly during my driving sessions and peak at almost 270 degrees. That's too hot and I'll want to put an oil cooler on the car before I attend another track day.

If you'd like to take a closer look at a data log for one of my sessions in .csv format you can do so here - https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-b50HEZXbX5RlRRcllJQ0o1QzA/edit?usp=sharing.

Conclusion

Overall I had a very positive experience, and other than some scary oil temperatures I thought my BRZ performed wonderfully.

I was very impressed with Trackmasters for putting together such a good school. I'm looking forwarding to continuing to drive with them in 2014.

I'll also continue to post about any future upgrades I decide to do to my BRZ.

I invite anyone to message me with any questions you have about the car, preparing for a first track day, or anything else that I can answer.

Myself and my BRZ before the last driving session on the second day

Preparing For A Track Day Part 2: Brakes

Introduction - Part 2

In my last post I wrote a brief introduction and discussed how I set up data logging to prepare a Subaru BRZ for its (and my) first HPDE / track days. Now I'll continue with brake upgrades.

I starting thinking about brake upgrades while reading the FT86Club.com Forums and coming across a bunch of posts from people who reported varying degrees of brake fade when tracking their cars. I know there are a lot of factors that figure into whether or not brake fade will happen on track; driver skill, the nature of the track, session length, and any modifications to the car all play a part. Unfortunately, at this point all I have to go on are the stories of other people's experiences. I understand that it's hard to predict exactly how my brakes will perform based on what I find in forum posts but I think Ben Franklin's proverb "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" applies here so I decided on doing at least a very mild brake upgrade.

Also, in addition to trying to hold off brake fade I also wanted to improve the feel of the BRZ's brakes. I know this is very subjective but I found the BRZ's brakes to be a little bit more squishy than I expected them to be. After some research I found that they could be stiffened significantly with a couple of relatively simple modifications.

Improving Brake Feel

To improve brake feel I decided to do two things - replace my brake lines with a set of braided stainless steel lines from StopTech and install a Perrin Performance master cylinder brace.

The brake lines were ordered through and installed by Cantech Automotive. This is a little off topic but if you're in the central New York area and need work done on a sports car you should consider Cantech. They're one of the only shops in he area that specializes in sports cars and exotics.

One of the front brake lines after installation

One of the rear brake lines after installation

Before owning my BRZ I had never heard of a master cylinder brace. To sum it up, on some cars (like the BRZ / FR-S) the firewall and brake master cylinder mount actually deflect slightly during hard braking. That deflection results in slightly longer pedal travel than would otherwise be necessary. To see exactly what I'm talking about check out this video from GrimmSpeed.

I decided to purchase the Perrin Performance brace after watching this video from FT86SpeedFactory.com. Installation was very easy; Perrin's instructions were good, all necessary hardware was included, and the required holes were already drilled and threaded so no modification to the car was required. Actually, it's like Subaru pre-planned for people to install something like this.

Up-close view of the master cylinder brace after installation. Also notice the blue brake fluid

I actually took quite a lot of pictures of the installation and I intend to write up a how-to later.

Improving Fade Resistance

To improve the brakes fade resistance I decided to upgrade the brake hydraulic fluid and change the brake pads.

Changing the BRZ's brake fluid was a no-brainer for two reasons. First, fresh fluid was required by my track day organization. Second, the brakes at least needed to be bled once the new brake lines were installed. It seemed logical, then, to have Cantech hook my car up to their power bleeder and the tool used to cycle the ABS pump and completely replace all brake fluid with ATE Super Blue Racing.

Regarding brake pads, I decided to change the OEM brake pads with StopTech Street Performance pads. They were a direct replacement to the stock brake pads and I encountered no issues during installation.

Front brake pads - StopTech 309.15390

Rear brake pads - StopTech 309.11240

Conclusion

To recap, my goal with this brake upgrade was to improve brake feel and fade resistance.

Brake feel was noticeably improved after the installation of braided stainless steel brake lines and the master cylinder brace. During anything but the lightest braking I can definitely tell that the brakes on my BRZ are much stiffer than they were before.

Regarding fade resistance, at this point I'm really not sure. I have never encountered it on the street with this car and I haven't tracked my car pre-upgrade so I don't (and won't) have a benchmark to use for comparison. All I can say is that I'll report back after my HPDE is over!

10/06/2013 - Update - Preparing For A Track Day Part 3: How Things Went has been published

Preparing For A Track Day Part 1: Data Logging

Introduction

I've been into Formula 1 since about the 2004 season and I've always thought it would be a ton of fun to drive a car around a racetrack. I got the chance to have a very small taste of something like that in 2010 when Clarkson University's alumni association hosted a "drive and dine" at Watkins Glen International. Basically, it involved paying a small fee to drive three paced laps of the track and then have a buffet dinner at the Glen Club building at turn 1. It was a nice time and even though the laps were paced it was really easy to give yourself a gap and push through a couple of turns before coming up to traffic so I had a lot of fun. Also, it really made me want to do it for real.

A couple of years later I remember reading articles online previewing a new sports car that was being developed jointly by Subaru and Toyota. Everyone seemed excited because the car was light, rear wheel drive, and very inexpensive by sports car standards. It was launched as a 2013 model in the US called the Subaru BRZ / Scion FR-S (it's called the Toyota GT86 in the rest of the world) and it seems like every reviewer loved it. Lots of reviews also said the car felt right at home on a track.

Jezza looks so happy!

At the beginning of this year I decided to get a little more serious about living out my fantasy to be a race car driver and with permission from my wife (thanks babe!) I bought a BRZ in April and signed up for a two-day driving school at Watkins Glen with Trackmasters at the end of August.

Prior to my track days there are a couple of things I want to do to prepare the car and the point of this post is to talk about the first thing I decided to address - data logging.

Goals

One of my biggest concerns going into a track day is the stock cooling system's ability to cope with the heat that'll be generated with track use. I haven't seen hard data one way or the other, but I don't want to take for granted that everything will be fine. My primary goal is to have a way to see how the car is doing in as close to real-time as possible by monitoring a couple of important numbers like oil and coolant temperature. My secondary goal is to be able to conveniently review and share any data I generate after my track sessions are over.

Solution

My needs are fairly simple - unlike some of the fancy and expensive systems used in purpose built race cars I don't need to monitor a lot of different parameters at once and I don't need great resolution. I can live with a longer resolution (a second or two would be fine) and every piece of data I'd like to see is already being monitored by the car. I figure the best way to achieve my primary goal, then, is to take the data I'm looking for from the OBD-II bus and stream it to a mobile device for viewing and logging. Actually doing this requires two things -

First, I need to get the data that the car is monitoring and broadcast it wirelessly. To do that I'm using an ELM327 V1.5 OBD-II to Bluetooth adapter. You can find them on Amazon.com or Ebay for around $15.

An ELM327 OBD-II to Bluetooth adapter

Second, I need a way to capture the data that's being broadcast and interpret it. I'm doing this with and Android smartphone and there are actually quite a few apps out there that can do the interpretation. I'm choosing to go with Torque Pro.

Setup

Installing the OBD-II to Bluetooth adapter is very easy - it just needs to be plugged into the car's OBD-II port and paired with the receiving device.

The adapter plugged in to the OBD-II port under the dash near the center console on the driver's side

Setting up Torque Pro is also quite easy. To begin, a profile is created for the car you'll be using the app with. Then, by navigating to 'Settings' under the main menu the program settings can be accessed and there's option there labeled 'Data Logging & Upload'. From there, selecting the top option labeled 'Select what to log' brings you to a screen where you can add OBD-II PIDs (parameter IDs) to log in addition to a few defaults that are always there.

The list of PIDs that will be logged

I'm choosing to log speed, engine RPM, ambient air temperature, intake air temperature, coolant temperature, and oil temperature. All of these PIDs (except oil temperature - more on that in a second) are automatically detected and available by default.

Logging Oil Temperature Through OBD-II

A special note about accessing oil temperature data via OBD-II - you can do it on some cars, but many cars either don't support it or only support it using a non-standard PID. Fortunately, the BRZ and FR-S support it using a non-standard PID and Torque Pro allows you to specify custom PIDs to monitor.

FT86Club.com user andreyiv figured out the settings needed to monitor the oil temp PID and his instructions made his way to a sticky'd thread here - http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23530. I'm able to use his settings and it they work perfectly - thanks andreyiv!

Creating a custom PID for oil temperature

Oil temp is probably the most important piece of data that I want to see so I'm very glad to find that this works.

Usage

To start data logging I access the Realtime Information screen in Torque Pro and select 'Start Logging' from the main menu:

Click 'Start Logging' to begin

After I'm done driving I can access the same menu and select Stop Logging to end my data log. The log files are saved in .csv format in a folder called 'torqueLogs' on my phone's SD card. Here's an example of a data log that captures a drive I took this morning - https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-b50HEZXbX5REswN1gxak9JR3M/edit?usp=sharing

Up to now I've only talked about using Torque Pro to log data for review after I finish driving. I should mention that you can also set up a customizable, real-time, virtual dashboard of whatever parameters you'd like to see independently of what's being logged. I don't know if that feature will be valuable to me on track (I don't think I'll be allowed to mount my phone in a visible spot and I probably shouldn't be paying attention to it anyway) but it's definitely cool during normal driving.

Screenshot of my custom dash on Torque Pro taken while stationary, just after starting the car

Conclusion

The combination of an ELM327 OBD-II to Bluetooth adapter and Torque Pro definitely satisfy my primary goal of being able to monitor how my car is doing in real-time. It's also a very affordable solution - I paid under $25 for both the adapter and the app.

The only thing I'd like to make a little easier is going through the data logs. I can use an app that lets me view .csv files to go through my logs but that's cumbersome and not very pleasant on a smartphone. If I'm in front of a computer I can transfer the files and use a program like Excel to go through my data conveniently but that's not realistic at the track. What I'm looking for, then, is a way to upload my data logs somewhere and have them made available to me graphically. Also, I'd love for that to happen over the Internet without the need for any client software. Anyone that's used fitness sites like Strava, MapMyRide, or RunKeeper will know exactly what I mean. I have a couple of ideas for accomplishing that - check back soon for a follow up post.

Also, please check back soon for a Preparing For A Track Day Part 2 post where I'll address another aspect of the BRZ that I'd like to improve - the brakes.

Data logging is all set up!

08/26/2013 - Update - Preparing For A Track Day Part 2: Brakes has been published

Introduction

I've always thought it would be a good idea to set up some kind of information repository for myself on the Internet. It seems like every time I work on something I spend a bunch of time doing research online, and at the conclusion of every project I tell myself that I hope I can remember the useful things I learned later if I need them again.

I've also been wanting to register a domain name for myself and establish a web presence.

This Blogger site is kind of like the merging of those initiatives. My vision for this blog is to be a place where I can do two things - store information that I'll want to reference later (probably in the form of how-to guides and work logs) and write about things of interest to me.

I'm also very hopeful that I'll be able to help (or at least provide reading material for) others with similar projects or interests. I know I've done more than my fair share of forum lurking and Internet browsing without any return contribution until now.