How hard do you drive on a track day? 90%, 100%, 110%?

Have you any idea how hard your car is working too?

How hard do you drive on the road? 60%, 70%?

Track days are incredibly hard on a car. No problem for a track car but bear in mind how much you are stressing the car. Everyone understands that brake pads wear quickly, tyres wear on the edges faster than normal but what else?

Think of the stresses on wheel bearings, wheel studs, discs, suspension bushes, oils, steering joints, engine mountings, brake fluid etc.

If you are serious about track days and do more than two or three a year then look at the maintenance schedule of your car.

You cannot expect to do this to your car and then poodle off home and go to work in the morning, checking only the washer fluid level.

You should think about a service and check over after 3 track days if they are occurring within a 2 month period. If you regularly visit

the track and cannot bring your car to us then please take some advice from us for free.

The list below is in addition to the usual tyre and brake checks:

• Change the brake fluid twice a year.
• Change oil and filter every 3000 miles.
• Check the air filter every meeting. Clean if cleanable every other meeting.
• Change wheel studs and nuts (if applicable) every year without fail.
• Change transmission oils at the end of the year.
• Inspect discs for cracking and overheating after every meeting.
• Get wheel bearings checked at the end of the year.
• Change cam belt every year (depending on road mileage).
• Check suspension alignment twice a year and all bushes (unless an off meant this was recently done).
• Check all air, water and fuel hoses and clips for stressing and chaffing every meeting.
• Check engine and transmission mountings at the end of the year.

Regarding actual track day use, try to follow this advice:

• Take a torque wrench to the track day and check wheel torque after 1st session and then at the end of the session before lunchtime. If one stud only needs tightening at any time then it is stretching. Replace immediately.
• Do the last lap of each session a lot slower than the others, let the whole car cool down.
• Do not switch off immediately on returning from the track.
• Do not put the handbrake on immediately on returning from the track. It can warp the hot rear discs, because of uneven cooling. Try to keep the car still with the engine running but with no handbrake or footbrake.
• When you switch off the engine put it in gear, do not use the handbrake.
• Check oil and water (carefully) before each session.

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