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.
