Putnam Park track event observations

Finally got the LGT out to a track, as I did an event at Putnam Park (club track west of Indianapolis) back on July 20th.

A few points: The car is a basically stock LGT Limited wagon, 5MT, wth a Cobb Stage 1 93 octane reflash. It has 17x7.5" Rotas with 215/45/17 Michelin Pilot Exalto PE2s on it. The weather was 96-98 degrees, with humidity up close to that!! I ran 40 PSI all around as a start (on semi-cold tires).

The first two sessions were for familiarization. I had to "unlearn" some FWD traits that I've picked up over the last nine years of track events with a FWD car. The LGT seemed to understeer a bit during this period.

Over the next three sessions, as I got the hang of the car, it definitely became more neutral, with a good balance on corner exits. BTW, this tire/wheel combo rocks!! The tires performed flawlessly!

In the last session, i bumped the front tire pressure to 50 psi hot (it had been at 45 hot). The track was getting greasier, I was getting more tired, and I pushed it too much, doing a 270-degree spin (rear-end first) and went off in the grass backwards between turns 2 & 3. Basic lesson was the tires liked 45 psi hot (started 40 semi-cold), and 50 was too much in the heat.

I have a picture from another guy in my Advanced group that showed the car entering a corner. it showed a fair amount of body lean, but that was irelevant for the cornering ability.

Bottom line:

1. Car did GREAT.

2. It does not need stiffer bars for basic track work with street tires.

I'm sure that the auto-x guys may need stiffer bars for a pivot at lower speeds, but for basic track work (which approximates street duty), it does just fine.

Now, the Advanced group that I run in has more & more guys going to race rubber. If I do that, I will consider stiffer bars (as well as different alignment specs) to let the tires work and keep up with these guys.

We also did Indianapolis Raceway Park for the dragstrip the next day, probably the WORST conditions for drag racing!! 98-100 degrees, humidity to match (it POURED the night before!) and a low barometer. I ran a best of 14.33 (compared to a 13.90 in 72-degree weather), which kept me up with two Lightning trucks and an SRT-4. Not a good representative drag day, but fun!

Sounds like fun!

What alignment settings are you running on the car now?

How were the brakes?

Jason K.

Sounds like fun!

 

What alignment settings are you running on the car now?

 

How were the brakes?

 

Jason K.

Thanks for reminding me!! I was gonna comment on the brakes, and forgot.

Very Good, in fact.

Now, Putnam Park is a rather fast track and has ony one serious braking point at the end of the main straight, and a few other medium-hard ones (actually, reminds me of Summit Point from a "braking" perspective).

That being the case, I don't get my jollies from coming in deep into Turn 1 at 110 mph, and standing the car on it's nose. I figure why should I kill the brakes on that turn? Anyway, I would back off a bit, and hit the turn at maybe 100.

In the 15-minute tracks sessions (1.8 mile track), I experienced no fade with the stock brakes at all. Brake performance was also quite even front-to-rear, as the rears also had brake dust on them (obviously not as much as the fronts). I never got an infrared reading on the calipers after a session, but with the brakes holding up I didn't hunt for the guy with the infrared.

I was also going to flush the brakes before the trip, but high temps killed my motivation! Fluid held up fine (with about 18K on the car). I flushed it the other day, and the old fluid looked good, with only a few bubbles from the LF.

I didn't pop out the pads, but they seem to have plenty left. I still would like a slightly more agressive pad for overall street/track use, but the stock ones arent bad.

As for alignment.....stock from the factory. Before I do another track even a little more camber woud be nice (or with race rubber a LOT more neg camber!!)

Wow, I'm impressed the stock brakes handled the abuse. I don't doubt the rotors or calipers, but stock pads/fluid don't usually like the track. But then again, the stock pads don't have the initial bite a lot of OEM pads have, maybe a little trade off for increased heat resistance?

I'll bet that there is a lot to be gained with some tweaking of the alignment, specifically the camber as you said. I just checked the repair manual, and it appears our cars have adjustable camber bolts in the front! Hopefully there is enough adjustment for at least a degree and a half of negative camber in the front. I didn't see anything about the back being adjustable stock.

I agree with you about the sway bars. I think too many poeple rush to fit the biggest rear bar they can find to get rid of their "understeer.' In reality, they are often just inexpirienced and driving too hard, entering corners too fast, or way off line. They don't take the time to learn their own limitations before the rush to "fix" their car. Most of the time, a simple alignment and change of tire pressures make a huge difference.

Jason K.

The other good thing about the brakes is that they did NOT deposit pad material on the rotors. Regardless of fade, I have found that to be a sign (on other cars with various pad combos) that the pads are being overworked.

FWIW, all of my other track sessions over the past nine years have been in SHOs with various levels of suspension/brake mods (never did get my former 911 out, as I didn't want a roll bar in the cabriolet). FWD track work is a "bit" different than AWD. I found that the LGT got much more neutral with higher exit speeds than FWD can stand.

I normally ran -1.5 front camber (up to -1.8 for awhile), and got good tire wear with regular rotations. Honesty, I don't even know what the LGT is set at from the factory, but I would shoot for this range on street tires. track rubber would be another matter.

I skimmed through a thread here on the Forum awhile back that had some runnng lower rear pressures to get the car to pivot. Now, in auto-x, I can see doing this to get a lower pivot speed, but not on a track. As I got the hang of drivng it, the car pivoted well enough.

WRT sway bars, I've had this discussion for years on other forums about folks slapping in big bars. They do it, drive around the block, and claim what a "great" mod it is. All they are feeling is the increased spring rate when one tire rises higher than the other. And, there have also been a few crashes with cars sliding out backwards!

As I've seen with FWD (and now AWD), most of the "understeer" complaints are from poor driving technique. I serve as an instructor for one of the clubs (mostly newbie track folks.....not like I'm anything close to an expert!), but it takes folks awhile to learn the 'slow in - fast out" technique, as well as smooth steering to not overload the front tires.

I may be doing a second event at Gingerman (western MI) in the fall, and I suspect that I will then try a more agressive alignment.

I also want to get new pads, and I hope I can find something better than factory.....not that I found the factory ones to be lacking.