20,000 miles and 40 track days with an 818.

[Dave 53]

Just thought I'd post some of my notes after 2 1/2 years, 20,000 miles and 40 track days with my 818.

The track days are at Thunderhill, Laguna Seca, Sonoma, Buttonwillow and Willow Springs. I drive it to the track - don't always drive it home.

First track day 1/16/22 at 3,780 miles. Started with proper broom stick roll bars (one under the hood too), Arctangent oil control plate and Killer B pan. 2.0/2.5 Hybrid 265hp.
After 2nd track day - Broken shifter cable - drove home in 3rd gear. Surge pump.
After 4th - MAF sensor fail on drive home. Powerflex black rear bushings. Alignment. Cusco motor/tranny mounts. Front pads - Wilwood BP20. 4 R1R tires. Sparco seat.
After 6th - Oil change, Motul Sport.
After 7th - Cooked the oil to 290. Another oil change.
After 8th - Oil cooler. Repositioned the oil temp gauge and added warning light.
9th - MAF issues - limp mode after 2 laps. Speed Density tune 275 hp. Front pads.
11th - Oil change. Brake fluid flush.
12th - 4 RT660 tires
14th - LSD. Clutch fluid flush. Front pads.
15th - Rear wheel bearings.
16th - Tow home. Blown 5 speed 3rd gear, rebuild. Fire suppression system. Oil change. Moved brake bias to cockpit.
18th - Hit by a GT4. Knocked rear alignment out. Remarkably, no other damage. Rear RT660 tires. Alignment.
19th - Front pads.
20th - Bearing failure on drive home. Front wheel bearings.
22nd - Rear shocks.
23rd - Tow home. Pinion gear fail, rebuild. Front pads.
24th - Tow home. Pinion gear fail (probably made a mistake with rebuild), ZF Designs 6 speed close ratio transmission with cooler.
25th - Tow home. Over reved and overheated engine. M45 Engine rebuild. Water temp warning light. LED tach bar.
26th - Tow home (yes, 4 in a row). Driveshaft Shop Axles. Rear wheel bearings. 4 RT660 tires on Konig wheels. Fabricated a rack for the track wheels. Street tires on FFR wheels.
30th - Front brake rotors. Alignment.
31st - Threw a wheel weight - too out of balance to drive. Tape weights with high temp tape. Oil change.
32nd - Front wheel bearings. Power Flex Black front bushings. Springs from 350/275 to 475/350.
33rd - Alignment.
34th - Tried Wilwood PB28 pads - fail, back to BP20. Fabricated a "Laguna Pipe" to get below 90db.
35th - Cracked exhaust manifold. Replaced only the manifold. Front V730 tires. Sparco Circuit seat.
36th - Tow home. Remflex exhaust gasket fail. Replaced the whole exhaust system including equal length header, up pipe and muffler.
37th - Front pads.
38th - Oil change. Brake fluid flush. Clutch fluid flush. Rear V730 tires.
40th - Bad turbo coolant hose leak due to heat damage. Low oil pressure sensor.
20,206 miles. Still on original rear pads (not for much longer though).

Overall, the car seems pretty sorted out and is a very competent track car. But, there's always something on the to do list after every track day be it something simple like get a new water bottle to rebuild the engine! This list doesn't do justice to the amount of time or money it takes to keep a track car running and I don't keep track of either. But, I'm undeterred!

Laguna 1 8 6 23.jpg

[lance corsi]

Kudos to you Dave! You went about sorting your car in a logical method. You’ve proven that a wet sump is a good option. I’ve enjoyed your build process.

[Bicyclops]

First track day this coming Saturday at Streets of Willow. Gonna be hot! We'll see how it goes. Got about 5.5K on the car and 4.5K on the engine. AWIC, dry sump, fuel swirl pot, LSD in 5sp, Michelin Pilot sport 4S, E85 tune. I'm going to leave the baffle in the exhaust for comfort. I can afford the ~24hp it costs. It drops me to 362hp. Should be enough for a first timer. ;-)

Ed

[Dave 53]

First track day this coming Saturday at Streets of Willow. Gonna be hot! We'll see how it goes. Got about 5.5K on the car and 4.5K on the engine. AWIC, dry sump, fuel swirl pot, LSD in 5sp, Michelin Pilot sport 4S, E85 tune. I'm going to leave the baffle in the exhaust for comfort. I can afford the ~24hp it costs. It drops me to 362hp. Should be enough for a first timer. ;-)

Ed

My first track day in my 818 was at Streets of Willows. I've also done a couple of days on Big Willow. And stayed in the sketchiest hotel ever in my life near there.

I'll be at Buttonwillow this weekend racing the Sorry For Party Racing Chevy LUV in the 24 Hours of Lemons race. Gonna be hot there too. And we have to wear a double layer fire suit. But, we have a Coolshirt setup with a giant ice cooler and a big block of ice that works really well. I have the Coolshirt Club Bag system for my 818 which is enough for 20-30 minute HPDE sessions.

My next 818 track day should be Oct 6 at Thunderhill West as long as it's not raining. I'll wait until the day before to sign up.

I live in NorCal and I'm a little hesitant to go to Willow Springs because it's out of my towing range. But, I'll make it again someday. Just gotta check the nearby U Haul inventory in case I need to rent a truck and trailer.

You have any plans for the NorCal tracks (Sonoma, Thunderhill, Laguna)?

[Bicyclops]

Howdy Dave,

I've read about Lemons. Pretty dang cool.

Getting my feet wet this first time out. ;-) If things work out well, I'll be up for more. I got a feeling I'm going to like doing this. Wish I'd thought of cooling shirts in time to equip myself. If I do this a lot in hot weather, I'm sure I'll wind up spending the $$. Does the club bag work for more than one session or does it need to be re-iced? Driving in with an 818S doesn't leave a lot of room for cargo.

NorCal would be as tough for me as SoCal is for you, I'm afraid, though I'd love to. If I'm doing that, I'd probably rent a trailer and come early. If you blow it up at Willow, we could use my truck to tow you home, after we tow my blown up car home.

Ed

[Dave 53]

Howdy Dave,

I've read about Lemons. Pretty dang cool.

Getting my feet wet this first time out. ;-) If things work out well, I'll be up for more. I got a feeling I'm going to like doing this. Wish I'd thought of cooling shirts in time to equip myself. If I do this a lot in hot weather, I'm sure I'll wind up spending the $$. Does the club bag work for more than one session or does it need to be re-iced? Driving in with an 818S doesn't leave a lot of room for cargo.

NorCal would be as tough for me as SoCal is for you, I'm afraid, though I'd love to. If I'm doing that, I'd probably rent a trailer and come early. If you blow it up at Willow, we could use my truck to tow you home, after we tow my blown up car home.

Ed

I got my Coolshirt Club Bag "used" on Ebay for $350 including an extension hose (needed), battery and cleaner. It was brand new and pretty safe to assume it "fell off a truck". On the Lemons car, we have a huge cooler and a giant block of ice that will last several hours. In my 818, the Club Bag straps into the passenger seat and the ice last a bit over 30 minutes, so it needs new ice every session. I power it off my cigarette lighter.

Things I did to my 818 for hot weather:
1. Ducted the radiator air intake.
2. Cut out the horizontal section of the bumper cover that obstructs the air intake.
3. Biggest oil cooler I could fit.
4. Big oil temp gauge with high temp warning light in prominent easy to see location.
5. Coolant high temp warning light.
6. Transmission cooler with temp gauge.
7. Motul V300 oil.
8. Oil analysis every oil change. I sent in a sample after a 107 degree Buttonwillow day when I was running the oil at 265* with unintentional peaks of 290*. Analysis said the Motul held up.
9. Keep an eye on water, oil and transmission temps and back out of it before warning lights.
10. Watch the weather forecast. I no longer go to the track is the forecast is for rain or over much over 100 degrees.

I had a 109 degree Thunderhill day earlier in the summer. We ended the day early because everyone's cars and the corner workers were getting cooked. My high water temp warning light saved me. I had to back out of it and drive by the oil temp gauge throttling back to keep the oil below 265. Tires and brakes were fine. With my Coolshirt, I was fine.

[Bicyclops]

Well, I survived and so did my car. Went through about 10 gallons of E85 at the track. Spun off the track twice with no apparent damage. Gotta get her up of the floor and do a thorough inspection. Never seen so many Miatas in my life!

So cold driving up there before dawn and so hot later!

For a first track day, I'm very satisfied with my progress. I got smoother and faster every run. Need to do this some more. Too tired to even unload the car.

Ed

[Dave 53]

Glad to hear you had a fun day. Was this your first track day ever or just the first in the 818?

The Lemons weekend at Buttonwillow with Sorry for Party Racing was a blast (on and off track), but not without major mechanical issues. We fought the Chevy LUV for days before trying to get it to run right and finally found a vacuum leak that was sort of fixed with flex tape and a new distributer seemed to help too. But, it never ran well and we were the slowest car on track. None the less, we turned a bunch of laps and took the checkered. We've given up on the Chevy LUV's Isuzu engine and will be doing an Ecotech engine/tranny swap pulled from a SfPR Pontiac Solstice that got wrecked, new rear end and gen2 Camero Wilwood brakes. We won't have it done in time for the November Sonoma race, so for that race, I'll be driving something else, TBD.

Next 818 track day is this Sunday at Thunderhill West.

LUV.jpg

[Bicyclops]

It was my first track day. The 818 is my first sports car. I learned a lot and got faster. I had an instructor on board for three sessions. I fitted an aviation intercom and we had foam earplug headsets under our helmets so were able to speak in normal tones. After lunch, my instructor vouched for me and they gave me an intermediate one wristband. I had been faster than some of the beginners, but you can guess that I got passed by all the intermediates.

Takeaways: I enjoyed it a lot and it was hard work. I need stickier tires - I spun off twice, once with the instructor aboard. Can't blame it all on the tires tho. I made mistakes for sure. 26 front and 28 rear hot seemed to give me pretty even wear, might could go a little lower. Never got past about 105mph in 4th and never got into 5th. SOW is kinda short I think and I was frankly afraid of going off at high speed in the tight turns at the end of straights. Brakes worked well. I have the Caddy Bremos all around with stock pads. I could smell them and the instructor was convinced that they would fade, but I didn't feel that they were. Better pads might be in order. Suggestions? The pedal did not get soft. I'm using motul 660 brake fluid. Temperatures seemed to be under control even on a hot day, bout 94. I can't cite oil temp, my gauge isn't working and face it, I didn't have the attention to spare to look anyway. (I still haven't seen what my boost is - every time I put my foot down, I'm focused on staying on the road and not hitting anything.) I did shoot the return fitting to the reservoir and got about 190F. Getting ready to drain the oil and give the car a real good look. Oil pressure was stable at about 90psi hot. It idles at 45 0r 50. I went with the 11mm ported oil pump reasoning that more flow would help with an external oil cooler and longish hoses.

With more experience and more faith in my car's and my abilities, I hope to be more aggressive and get faster. Doesn't seem right to be beaten my Miatas. ;-) I know, it's not the car - it's the driver. I don't have another HPDE scheduled as yet. Will advise.

Ed

[Dave 53]

An argument can be made for learning on "street" tires. But when it's time, I'm having good luck with Kumho V730.

Not sure about specific pad suggestions. I have Wilwoods and use the BP20 pads which is a Track/Steet pad (vs the PB10 Street/Track pad). I tried the PB30 track pads and it was a fail. Too temperature sensitive causing brake bias to be all over the maps. My suggestions is, don't go crazy with tracky mctrack pads.

Do you have the Factory Five gas tank? Any fuel starvation issues in turns?

Make sure to check your rear axle bolts. At least for me, they tend to loosen up at the track. Lug nuts too. I'd check them after every session until you get a sense that they are holding. I have ARP lugs, I'm up to 85-90ft/lbs and check them almost every session and still occasionally find one or more nuts loose.

No shame in being passed by a Miata. They are wonderful cars with many really good drivers. And there is nothing more satisfying than passing a GT3 with my 818.

Looking forward to seeing you at the track some day!

[Bicyclops]

My Michelins are now covered with pieces of other folks' tires vulcanized right onto the tread of mine. Found handfuls of the stuff in my front end deck.

I was looking at some EBC Bluestuff pads. Supposed to be easy to break in and happy both street and track. Maybe I'm not hammering the Delco pads enough, but they seemed to be working. It's a light car after all with brakes from a much bigger Caddy. My track instructor says that he's never been happy with EBC though.

I've got the 14 gallon FFR tank. If I'd had the energy/time to do much more track time, I would have needed to drive into town and get some more fuel. Maybe take a gas can with me next time. I put an AEM pump in the tank for lift to a 1liter swirl pot with another AEM pump in it for pressure. What with the dry sump and the swirl pot, I never experienced any pressure loss. Incidentally, I was very unhappy with FFR's design choice to stick the fill neck about halfway down the aft side of the tank. Would have been just as easy to put a doghouse on the top so you could actually fill it. That's what I did. It was my first welding project. Then I cut out the frame and dropped the tail of the tranny. While I was at that, I welded on a tow loop. They could have thought the design through a little better.

I've got her up on the lift now doing oil change and inspection. I will definitely check the lugs and axle nuts. I have the 1.5 pitch ARP extended lugs. When I was doing my pre-track day tech inspection I did get a little something on most of the lugs, cold. I torque them to 85lbft, normally with my electronic torque wrench, but I used the clicker that I was going to take to the track and maybe it's a little different. Or maybe it's true and heat cycles in the canyons loosened them a little. I probably should have checked between sessions and I was always so busy with post track download sessions and talking with my instructor that I never got around to it. Will advise if I find them loose now. Thanks for the advice. I'm learning not to trust everything to stay tight.

Ed

[driveslikejehu]

Glad to see someone else tracking their car.
This was my first year of serious track-days. Four events, not counting one rainy day, of increasing speed and confidence. The brakes are solid with such a light car; nothing special required except adjusting front to rear balance (first spin off). Its taken some time to gain confidence with a such a raw car. Many years of track days in normal sport cars spoiled me for ABS, anti-spin, etc. Still skittish applying full throttle out of high speed corners as the rear gets loose. Especially on cool/damp tracks (second spin off).
I really notice the claque or throw-off rubber especially braking after a straight; it bangs loudly against the fender lining aluminum.
Congrats on your success!
frts at t-day.jpg

[Dave 53]

Those look like RT660's. I had a set and liked them, so I got a second set. One of them disintegrated after one day and I became another story of recent RT660 inconsistent quality issues. Having good luck with V730's now.

Had a successful day at Thunderhill West yesterday which means I was able to drive home. A bit over 100 degrees in the afternoon. This is the second hot track day that my 21,000 mile Subaru OEM clutch started slipping. 275 whp. I'm thinking about the Exedy Stage 2 FXT clutch, but still looking. We'll see if I can get the clutch swapped out before Oct. 20 Laguna Seca.

[Bicyclops]

private video

[Bicyclops]

I wouldn't call them loose and I did get a little turn on the lugs. Mostly just a little bit and a few of them went about an eighth of a turn. Heat cycles and aluminum wheels.

I wanted to see if my clicker torque wrench mostly agreed with my electronic SnapOn. I was chagrined to find it breaking consistently at about 66lbft. What?! Then I checked the setting again - 65. Damned old eyes! Properly set to 85 and pulling slowly and steadily, it clicked right at 85 or 86 every time. I'm calling it calibrated.

Ed

[Dave 53]

I wouldn't call them loose and I did get a little turn on the lugs. Mostly just a little bit and a few of them went about an eighth of a turn. Heat cycles and aluminum wheels.

I wanted to see if my clicker torque wrench mostly agreed with my electronic SnapOn. I was chagrined to find it breaking consistently at about 66lbft. What?! Then I checked the setting again - 65. Damned old eyes! Properly set to 85 and pulling slowly and steadily, it clicked right at 85 or 86 every time. I'm calling it calibrated.

Ed

I recall with the Subaru 65 ft/lbs spec at the end of a track day (5 - 20 minute sessions) I had lug nuts at zero ft/lbs ready to fall off! A loose nut is one that is any looser than I started with. A loose nut after the first session is a missing nut by the end of the day. Now with the ARP lugs and 85 - 90 ft/lbs, I'm confident that the fronts are fine, but 2 or 3 of the 10 rears need a little snugging after ever session. Maybe 90-95 ft/lbs is the answer? ARP says 98ft/lbs.

I put witness paint on the axle nuts. Fronts have never loosened. I recall the time one of the rears loosened 1/8 of a turn and without the proper socket (1 1/4"), I drove home. Got home at it was loose 1 1/8 turns! The rears should really have a castle nut. Now that I'm thinking about it... I'll be pulling the tranny out over the next week for a new clutch and maybe I'll pull the axles and drill them for a castle nut while it's all apart.

[Bicyclops]

I drilled them in place through the stock nuts with an air powered angle drill and put cotter pins through them.

Ed