[Sideways]

Greetings everyone. Just finished organising a sucessful track day in Chennai. Hats off to Jd and Sawan (Biker SG) and Poncho for the enthusiasm.Cheers to the guys from Bangalore for having ridden / driven to Chennai to participate. Weather dampned (literally) things on the second day but the beer and biryani made up for lost time.

We would like to involve our fellow team Bhpians from the rest of the country for the next track day. Could you all give us ideas / suggestions and your opinions on how we can make things easier so that you guys can make a trip down south to have some fun.

Looking forward to hearing from all.

Cheers,

Sideways

[ajmat]

Clear instructions on

Clothing
Car conditions - specifics - tyre tread, brakes, steering play etc

Suggest we bring spare brake pads filters etc. - I've seen a Jag go thorugh a set of pads in one day

List of car part dealers nearby if sometthing urgent like a new tyre etc is required

Provide mechanics - to fit /repair - owner pays

Clear and explicit rules - plenty of fast and furious fans who do not know the words discipline and safety

No one goes on track unless fully briefed

[Sideways]

Thanx for the inputs Ajmat. Try and get hold of the briefing notes from one of the guys who came to Chennai. I think we have pretty much covered most of the issues you have mentioned.

Basically I am trying to get inputs so that we can have the guys / girls of Team BHP from all over the country to meet up in Chennai / coimbatore for the future track days.

Cheers.

[mclaren1885]

the initiative is a brilliant one sideways..and trust me the next time u have this kind of an event happening anywhere we four as sure will be there to enjoy it..well im yet to finish my report on the whole track day which will include of few things for u guys to take notice of and stuff like that..so will put it up shortly..

coming to ajmats point that one needs to keep a strict scrutiny on the kind of brakes,tyres,and other stuff used on the car then trust me such a show will be a a big FLOP..what made this event most exciting is to race in our own cars that we use for daily drive at a track to see what they can do,which inturn gives us better oppurtunity to understand how the car behaves in panic stricken situation on the roads..

first we are told to show our agression on the tracks and not on the roads and now when its time to show it on the track u guys wanna come up with some weird rules as to u need racing clutch,brakes,slicks and blah blah..not happening guys specially for guys like the 4 of us who are yet doing their studies..then where do we get to show our talent as in we cant afford to pay for all these things and or hire a few race cars to show what we can do on track..

what made this entire trip so exciting for us was the fact that it was very simple and they let us use our own cars without we having to spend a lot..but given such rules trust me we wouldnt or rather cant offord to participate..

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by mclaren1885

coming to ajmats point that one needs to keep a strict scrutiny on the kind of brakes,tyres,and other stuff used on the car then trust me such a show will be a a big FLOP..what made this event most exciting is to race in our own cars that we use for daily drive at a track to see what they can do,which inturn gives us better oppurtunity to understand how the car behaves in panic stricken situation on the roads..
.

Mclaren

You need to accept that track days cannot be skimped on. Cars are expensive......period, nothing is free. All those F1 drivers have had a hard life to get to where they are - finance wise. I have only got to do these things in my 40's even though I wanted to be where you are at your age but alas no moolah

You need to have decent roadworthy brakes/ tyres which will last the duration of the circuit day- 2 mm of tread will disappear in no time and your pads will be halved. I have seen an EVO8 wear out its tyres in one day after about 30 laps and a Jag wear out its pads in a day. No one is asking for slicks, racing clutch/ pads etc.

Circuit days are not for "panic situations" when others are around . For that skid pans are the answer. As for aggression, tact and skill are required on the track, not blind aggression.

The bottom line is if one wants to sacrifice safety and discipline on the track and create damage and endanger lives, the circuit ain't the place!

[v1p3r]

Ajmat, while you may be right about the Evo and the Jag, neither are we carrying that kind of speed on the track, nor is the short loop so killing on the brakes. On the tyres, yes, I have lost tread, but my tyres were less than 20k km old, so I'm a bit safe there. While your inputs on spares etc are valid, there are certain people who bring stock cars to track for the fun of it. We can't push them so much, and we know that. Our car only slid off the track once in two days, and it was pretty harmless at that.

Just FYI Ajmat, I paid for this with the little money I had saved up over time. Which is why I wasn't in a position to drive on both days.

[mclaren1885]

Originally Posted by ajmat

Mclaren

You need to accept that track days cannot be skimped on. Cars are expensive......period, nothing is free. All those F1 drivers have had a hard life to get to where they are - finance wise. I have only got to do these things in my 40's even though I wanted to be where you are at your age but alas no moolah

You need to have decent roadworthy brakes/ tyres which will last the duration of the circuit day- 2 mm of tread will disappear in no time and your pads will be halved. I have seen an EVO8 wear out its tyres in one day after about 30 laps and a Jag wear out its pads in a day. No one is asking for slicks, racing clutch/ pads etc.

Circuit days are not for "panic situations" when others are around . For that skid pans are the answer. As for aggression, tact and skill are required on the track, not blind aggression.

The bottom line is if one wants to sacrifice safety and discipline on the track and create damage and endanger lives, the circuit ain't the place!

well i understand the point that one needs to take enough precautions before heading out onto a track,but rest assured no one is that dumb enough to head to the track without having the right equipment like tyres that would last,last thing that anyone would want to do is take on a track with no brakes or a totally burnt clutch plate..i think guys who are interested in track events are atleast that knowledgeble..

well as far as the EVO and the JAG story u mentioned there we are not well off to afford to drive such cars around tracks and i guess the wear and tear on the cars also depends on what speeds et performance its capable on track..so a indian car like a baleno wont show the same amount of wear that an EVO would,would it..so comparison on such issues is of no use..

as far as the agression thing is concerned,let me give u an example..on saturday around evening it started to pour on the track so the bikes session was cancelled and we were allowed to take our cars on track,the wet nature of the track helped us gain knowledge as to how to handle the car in the wet into corners,even if the car drifts how to correct the drift which if happens on a road by chance rest assured u will land up with situations u would repent for the rest of ur life..atleast on a track u wont have to worry about being rammed by other vehicles such as lorries,trucks,busses which are 20 times the size of ur road car..and a track does have run off areas which help in avoiding a incident if at all anything happens..at the most even on a collision the damage suffered would be comparitively less when compared to what could happen on the road..so hope u get my point which says a few experiences learnt on the track do help u in road situations when the need comes..even under panicky situations on track if ur not able to recover even the other guys can get off the track and use the run off areas to avoid u,so i guess a track is not that risky after all..if any such thing is available on streets to avoid accidents then i for sure would welcome the move..

oh ya coming to skid pads,will u pls tell me how many drag strips we have in india where drags are held with safety as the most important factor..as far as i remember the jakkur track has not enough run-off area to stop a few of our super cars and coming to talk of bombay i heard the last time a zen had to do a 360 to avoid being hit into the wall at the end of the run...if the drag scene which is so popular here cant get enough sponsors to build rubberized drag strips where in the world will we get SKID PADS from..as for ur statement on tact and skill pls try and understand that tact and skill without agression(wise at that that is) will land u nowhere on the track..u seem to misunderstand the meaning of agression here that i talked about..controlled agression is what u need on track and thats what im talking about..

all the guys who head to track are resposible enough atleast i think so,if u have the brains to get onto a track and not show ur skills off like what happened at the burnout with that santro this in itself shows it..so guys heading onto a track are not reckelss,indisciplined as ur last sentence says..comeon give some credit to the wise decision they take of not wanting to do such stunts on roads..

i didnt want to get personal here,but need to point out something..first we thought of taking my zen,then for stability reasons we decided to take the baleno..coming to think of it suppose we had a VTEC(using it just as an example)..can u imagine doing a track event on a VTEC knowing how badly the rear end looses out in highways only(lets not get to taking corners on a track yet)..so according to ur advise is it advisable to get ur suspension work done on the VTEC just to attend the track day..the work will cost u arnd 10k and u think we can afford that kind of money just to take part and learn,and i guess even u know how important it is to have a stable car around a track..but such things sound good on paper but how practicle are they..wise thing would be know the limitations of the car and restrict urself not to cross that border..thats quite easy and thats what we did and came out successfully without any glitches..or organise practise session and races in competitve and equal cars like the FISSME's to avoid all this jhanjhat at an affordable price for all who aspire to get onto a track..

well i do appreciate ur concern for safety but making it too complicated would only hamper the spirits of the participants(for instance i have a zen and i know its not that gr8 across a track..so does that mean i shouldnt take part)..and here we are talking about building talent whereas such complication would lead to loss of talent if thats what we want..

[Sideways]

Alright, time for me to intervene. I appreciate all your concerns about safety etc. But I think the objective / purpose of starting this thread got lost some where in between. Therefore I would request all to kindly contribute to the subject matter.

As far as modifications are concerned, we have fully prepared race fit modified esteems at our disposal. We are considering the use of these vehicles in future track days, after evaluating the driving skills of the driver. Therefore a participant will be able to differentiate between a fully race prepared car and a road going vehicle.The boys from Bangalore got a taste of the FISSME formula when they were here. We will next time also try and incorporate the esteems.

I am sure we will be able to discuss issues connected with the above closer to track days but for now I would like to hear your suggestions and ideas which will help us bring our other friends from all over the country down south to participate in these events.

Cheers,

Sideways.

[GTO]

What the heck is there a complication for? If you can afford to race a 10 lac car, I bet you can afford to spend a couple of grand on a set of SPARE pads. Again, remember that these are spare pads! Its not like you are wasting your money because you can always use them at a later date when they will wear out eventually!

Forget EVOs, I have track raced in a Civic in Boston and the pads were totally fried at the end of a two day session. Trust me, for safety reasons....its best to carry an extra set of pads with you.

Finally, its a CHOICE and no one is talking about making it mandatory. People who are smart enough to think with the left part of their brains will certainly carry that little bit of insurance with them.

GTO

[Psycho]

Well here are a few points:
1) Can we have regular track days in fixed durations, makes it easier for people to plan
2) Can we segregate it into 2 days first day as open for all 3 laps with 30 sec gaps between participants with a max of 5 people on the track limited to 3 laps at a time. 2nd day optional pro day for drivers with better experience moving to the modfied cars, all this time with no overtaking allowed.
3) Sessions like what you had on driving tips over lunch making it easier on the drivers to practive what they did wrong.
4) Would also request if a driving training school can be setup to train those would like to learn over a longer duration using the track days as an excuse.
5) Acco near the track to make best use of the track
6) Like Ajmat said briefing before anyone gets on to the track
7) Driver scrutiny training on the first day for each driver to see if their car is good enough to get on to the track. (check for water, air, fuel, tyre condition, oil leakage etc.)

Really missed being there this time will defn make it there next time around

[Sideways]

thanx psycho,

finally. noted your inputs. Will bring it up at the meeting with the guys. Yes we have already decided to make a calender with set days so that people can plan well in advance. Will update you guys with more after our brainstorming session.

Cheers,

Sideways.

[Sideways]

By the way, can the mods please contribute with their inputs. Infact it will help if Moderators from the different cities give us their inputs and also co-ordinate with the local Bhpians in their areas.

Cheers,

Sideways.

[v1p3r]

Psycho, point 2 that you have mentioned seems a little on the negative side, for lack of a better word. 3 laps means you only get one flying lap, and with cars and bikes needing to be separated, it may be tough to work out.

I might add that I have very little experience in these matters and the one track day I attended, I was lucky to be at a rather empty track.

[mclaren1885]

well i quite agree with psychos points..and like v1p3r and me spoke to jaydee the other day it would be better to run a class of cars in separate categories..as in run the FISSME's separately from all other cars unlike what happened this time,just to make sure the guys driving the FISSME's are safe from being run over by the other road or modded street cars..

and regarding the 3 laps i too agree that it would be too short a time to get acclitamised to the track,so id say on the 1st day set the 1st half for the bikes and the next half for the cars depending on the strength..and let each section run on 40 min sessions just like u did the last time..that way the participants will get enough time to get used to the track..

[nitrous]

I suggest we need to segregate cars into two classes:

1) novice
2) pro

First session of 20 minutes for the novices, 2nd 20 minutes for the pros.

This i brought out since during the track day,the second session had a BMW M3 and an EVO 6 along with us tiny esteems,ikons and balenos.After seeing the speeds of the 'supercars' compared to my matchbox on the track, i decided to stay off track.I didnt wanna be run over by the biggies.

Mclaren, we should agree with ajmat that we need a spare set of brake pads and good enough tyres for the track. We know that the track has rubber for breakfast.