Well I used to track my S2000, now I'm in a Mini. This was my first time getting to track the Mini as well as my first time on Buttonwillow. Feel free to criticize as I can always use pointers.

Some things I already know: "over" use of brakes...this was out in the 4th session. By my 2nd session out I saw that my normal use of the brakes was DESTROYING them as they were nearly 1/2 gone and deep gouges were in the rotors with only 2 times out. So the rest of the day I was braking earlier and less violently to preserve life. I do know that some people say braking HARD for 2 seconds and giving more cooling time wears brakes less then 6 seconds at medium-hard...but hey IT WORKED

Anyway...I also posted this to give a link to the current track brakes threads and keep the clutter out of them

Thanks for watching - mZero




I am NOT saying that the XP10 pads ate my rotors...I am saying that I ate my rotors, me, I destroyed them. Got them very hot and probably started fading the stock rotors themselves.

 

I like the vid. Love the tire sound. haha.

Want to joing me at streets of willow on the 24th ? Its with speedventures and its $150. Let me know.

-Arthur

 

Cool video! That's a fun track!

 

I'd love to but I honestly cant afford it right now. Not so much the track cost, but the fact that I absolutely destroyed my front brakes. So I also need new rotors/pads up front, I should have new tires before I go to a track again...the star specs held up well but I went to the track with a little less then half life and came out with not very much Then, lastly...sad to say the cost of fuel, I was surprised to find out that I was eating up a little more then a 1/4 tank each session...6.7 MPG on track baby

Everything combined and I realize I will be eating steamed rice for a month if I do another track day

Once I get everything sorted...I will be going to SOW for sure, I'd also like to try Laguna and Sears/Infineon

 

Autoxcooper sells Carbotech pads, he mentioned to me that my comment at the end may be miss leading about the XP10 pads...I can agree with him.

I am NOT saying that the XP10 pads ate my rotors...I am saying that I ate my rotors, me, I destroyed them. Got them very hot and probably started fading the stock rotors themselves. Sure I ate up a lot of pad, but that is expected when you start getting faster on tracks and actually using your brakes!

 

Thanks for clearing that up, I know when you called Tue one of the issues was that of running the new XP10's on rotors that were near the end of usefulness and that may really be the bigger lesson.
Start out with new pads and new rotors. Now many of my track customers get 2 sets of pads to every set of rotors, some more some less, but it's common for trackers to change rotors with pads each time. I'm sure a new set of rotors will find you running even faster and deeper. Have fun, be safe and look at all the pads before, during and after a track day.

 

I have used Carbotech pads a lot with my SSB car. If they are NOT bedded in properly, they will wear very fast, I would get two weekends when I did not take the time to bed them in. I normally use XP12 and bed them in the correct way with new rotors and get 4 weekends on the pads, normally about 500 race miles. Stock rotors are what you want to use. Don't use drilled or slotted on the track. OEM or a good quality aftermarket rotor is fine. I have used OEM, Brembo's and premium rotors from NAPA.

 

Looks like a sweet track. Are you running the star spec Z1's or just the Z1's? I had a track event last weekend at Pueblo Motorsports park and had almost zero tire squeal from my Direzza star specs. Looks like you might be overdriving the car a bit (tire squeal is a common sign but some tires just do it), which is easy to do with a front wheel drive car. Looks like you had an instructor with you? If you get the chance to do one of these instructed driving days do it, its a great learning experience that applies not only to the track but to driving on the street as well.

 

Hey Rocky...I have the star specs, not the original Z1's. I know what you mean by near zero tire squeal. Originally I thought that the star specs were quiet, but you aren't taking them to their absolute limit. At first on the street and such I never had a hint of squeal, even when driving reasonably hard. Even at an AutoX they weren't that noisy. But at their absolute limit of adhesion, they certainly let you know! Its the difference of squeal induced by too much turning angle and scrubbing, vs. the tire simply sliding sideways as it can't hold on any longer! Granted this, yes I did "over drive" in a few areas...but not much.

The guy with me was not an instructor, if anything I was actually teaching him . I did start out with instructed days several years ago, and I agree that it is a great experience . I'm now just one step away from feeling comfortable adjusting line mid corner while being dive bombed. Maybe a year away from doing some instructing myself

 

Looks like fun... Maybe you can coordinate and hook up with Dr. Mike out there at some point!

 

I think that would be a lot of fun! I'd love to sometime

 

The noise issue could also be a track surface thing. I know there was one corner at pmp that had a big long patch through it and no matter what I was doing fast or slow tires made noise. But everywhere else on the track felt like as soon as the tires made noise I was pushing or tires were simply fighting for grip, this is my expreience. I was on the fine line of the grip of those tires there is no doubt about that, the fact that I was doing a instructed driving event dosent mean I dont posses the experience to know the available grip of my tires. They are great tires, keeping me closely matched with people running slicks (all stock suspension except a swaybar ).

 

Good point, I didn't even think about the surface oops. I just went back a re-watched it on my computer in "higher-def", you can see the parts of the track that are paved differently and I squeal on all of those parts, but you'll notice that I come off of some of them mid-corner...no changes in steering input or anything and bam squealing is gone. Except for a few select corners where I did throw in a slight bit more angle on occasion, in places were I did over drive.

If you go to the actual You-Tube page, just below the lower right corner of the video is a button that lets you change the quality you watch it in, since I uploaded that video in a slightly better quality.