Which ___ works best on the street AND on the track?

[gcassidy]

I frequent OG Racing and saw their latest blog.
I thought I'd share it here as it's probably of interest to some of us.

Which ___ works best on the street AND on the track? - OG Racing Blog

 

[BlackStripes]

Damn, I have racing seats, roll bar, 6 point harness and I was going to put a racing steering wheel.. geez. Well, Not sure if I will change anything but driving 500 miles a year makes things a little more improbable ... :-/

 

[N/Angel]

interesting to read through... I decided to build a track car that can be driven on the street. Rollcage, racing seats, harness, no A/C, no radio, gutted interior don't bother me when I feel like driving a "racecar" to work, LOL!

 

[David Hester]

Good article, Greg and pretty much what I've been preaching. Don't fub up your street car trying to make it look racy. Good way to get maimed or killed. Poop does happen. I work in a hospital, remember.
I did Atlanta Motorsports Park a few weeks ago in my street car. No harness, no rollbar, only change I made was some HP+ pads. (hate them on daily driver BTW)
I did have some fresh Nitto 555 I use on the street every day.
Trouble was, I was out with some full on racecars and being a racer....well, I TRIED to keep them behind me, impressing them with by driving prowless.
Not so much. Car was squirlly going into corners and I couldn't put the power down (to keep them behind me) coming out. Did catch several into turn 1 which surprised the heck out of me, but you could REALLY smell my pads. Would go in thinking "hope I don't rearend them, hope I don't rearend them".
Know that a street car on track is just that, a street car. You will not be able to keep up with even an average prepared race car by a driver that knows what they are doing. Just enjoy your car at 9/10's and watch your mirrors. And have fun.
maybe switching to synthetic blinker fluid would have helped...:burnout:

 

[gcassidy]

And Dave, I think the more you are used to a race car (as you well are), and the more seat time you have, the more you notice the shortcomings of a street car.

Everyone remembers their first times out and how fast everything was happening. The car was fine then, it was the driver trying to keep up.

 

[David Hester]

Exactly. I've converted several street cars to race cars, I even won some Time Trial titles with them, but they never performed as well as a dedicated race car. The A/Sedan car belonged to Jerry Walsh of Racer Walsh fame down in Florida. He had won a National SCCA road race or two with it. No chance of that happening with me, but was a FUN race car.
The formula Vees, the formula Ford and the ProChallenge car I have now are just EASY to drive fast. The Roush was work at AMP to drive fast, even with Tokicos, Hawk HP+ and decent Nitto tires.
Second session out when I stepped back and thought about why I was there, was a lot more fun. I'll go back next year, but with a different mindset.
I guess my point is, go in with the right mindset, Track days aren't races. Enjoy going fast, if you pass a car, great. Other driver may not have the experience you have. If you get passed, watch the other car and see if you can pick up anything that will help you go faster, or if they are a squid in a fast car, watch for things you don't want to do. It's all fun.
Just don't forget this is all about FUN, and being safe. We all have to drive back to work Monday.

 

[SVT_Troy]

That was an excellent read Greg, thanks for posting. I was torn between the two awhile back and also realized that I'll just continue to build a fun street car able to play on the track from time to time.