JayG

Unless you have a special tune, 100 octane is a waste of money for a stock 996
There are a bunch of gas stations on the way to/from 1-10 and the track entrance

As Cuda noted, on the banked turns T1 & T2, pick a lane and stay in it until you apex T2. The asphalt patch they use between the lanes is slippery than unicorn snot. Also as he mentioned, do not drop down into the blend line at speed, it has very different grip and can shoot you right to the top.

Cuda911

Also, be sure to remove the front floor mats! Make sure there is nothing in the frunkenstein.

Brake hard before T3, late apex on T10

Here's a track map, for those not familiar with Fontana.

Slakker

As stated earlier you shouldn't need any oil. Your gauge will lie to you during the event so there is no way to know if you do. Letting it sit overnight then checking it is the only way to get a good reading.

And as for oil level, dead center on the stick is recommended.

garrett376

It's interesting all the different recommendations... Traffic permitting, I have found it significantly faster to go high at turn 1 and dive through all the lanes by the apex of turn 2 - going a half a second longer at 145+ gains a lot more ground than turning in early though turn 1 at 130 or so where the turn is tighter and way slower. There's a lot of room up there in Turn 1 to keep going - yes, the wall looks ominous! Those tar lines look like they might be slippery but I've found even in the pouring rain like last year's club races it wasn't anything abnormal. What's slippery is all the crap/marbles up high if you stay high too long at turn 1. I only found the stripes at start finish to be slick in the wet, but at least it's a straight away. I'm usually in 5th there and the car will hop! Then it's to 6th, then down to 2nd for turn 3.

I found at cal speedway the fronts increase by 8psi and the rears 10psi and I keep the back right tire one or two PSI higher so it can handle the extra load. These findings were the same with Nitto or Kumho R-compound tires where I'm shooting for around 35 or 36 hot. If you start sliding all over the place, your pressure is too high!

Have a great time, the Roval is a fun track to run. It's a big track that goes fast and you can't see a lot of the rest of the track while you're on it, so don't forget to look far ahead of yourself!

JayG

Yes, you are spot on. Apex T2 to the inside and track out right full gas, then brake hard and downshift 5-2 into T3 on the left, then hard right into T4
I just don't have the ***** to hold speed into T2

vandersmith

I think pretty much everything has already been said already but here's just a few .02s from the internets:

Since you've got a lot of experience on the bike at the track, just be patient. Both with yourself and your abilities in the car, especially your first time out.

Listen to your instructor, if you don't have one yet make sure to sign up for one.

You'll be glad you did.

Probably the most humbling moment I've ever had was after a day of me lapping with my instructor (and feeling like I owned the course), he took me out in my own car (his first time ever driving it) and absolutely torched any possible thought I had that I knew what I was doing. Witnessing 'the gap' firsthand has been forever transformational. You might be further ahead than I was but maybe ask yours to do the same in the afternoon sessions.

Your car is more than capable of anything you can do on the track and the instructors are there to help you learn, have fun, and get the most out of your paid track time. Its a win, win, win.

The learning curve is steep so take your time getting a feel for the track, the car, your comfort level and most of all enjoy it.

The itch is real.

philooo

First day.. just take it easy, just don't push anything past 70%.

That will give you space for mistakes and keep the car cool.

The biggest mistake is to try to feel the limit on first day, even worst first laps.

dkraige

My comment that higher tire pressures would be "safe" was based on taking it pretty easy the first session, in which case pressures should only rise a couple psi, not 8 or 10. You don't want to start too low to the point where the tires are so floppy they can roll over onto the sidewall during heaving cornering, especially on a banked track where you'll be loading one side more heavily for an extended period of time. Too low of a pressure and you'll end up wearing the outside shoulders of the tread pretty heavily.

As you progress and start driving harder, THEN you'll definitely find tire pressures increasing more during a session, and then you'd want to start at a lower pressure to compensate.

If you start a little on the high side, you'll just find that the car loses some grip as you get warmed up because the tire contact patch is smaller and the tire is stiffer. But you won't damage your tires, and you'll have a nice early-warning system that you are starting to get the tires hot and maybe it's time to make an adjustment before the next session. That slight reduction of grip, if you find it, will remind you to keep within your limits in the first few sessions, rather than encouraging you to push past the limit and abuse the car.

For your first track day I'd just try to maintain a safe, consistent pressure throughout the day, relatively close to the factory recommendation, rather than messing too much with adjusting. Your time for your first few days is better spent on learning driving technique rather than trying to tune the car; it's best if the car is a constant, so you know whether changes you're making as a driver are working or not. The only goal for the tire pressures should be to keep them in a safe range and not damage the tires by letting pressures get too high OR too low.

Of course there are lots of competing opinions, this is just mine!

JayG

Yea loss of grip and slippery tires are a really good idea @ 120 mph in a banked turn

Factory tire pressures are for normal street driving where the tires only get a little warmer, not the track where they get HOT. They will go up 6-10 PSI after a lap or so at Fontana unless you are not pushing it at all.

Yes you don't want them, so low that they roll off the wheel, but we are not talking 70 series tires here, most likely 35-45 series and reasonably wide.

As far as extended banked turn driving, T1 and T2 are the only heavily banked turns, other the the front straight which has some banking, but is basically straight, the rest of the course is a relatively flat road course

Curious, do you have a lot of track experience DK?

Macster

While 100 octane is way over what the engine needs, 93 being the nomimal required grade of octane, and even allowing that an engine's octane requirement can go up as the miles accumulate, there is more to racing gasoline that its elevated octane rating.

Here's the observations by a professional racer regarding using racing gasoline in a street car:

dkraige

Yes, have been tracking various cars for ~10 years, but nothing worth arguing about. I'm certainly an amateur. In my opinion the goals and setup necessary for a beginner are different than those of a seasoned vet. If a beginner is gaining 10 psi in a single lap, I think they are taking too many risks, or driving extremely sloppily and abusing the car. They don't yet have the skills in hand to safely support that speed. Hell, I keep pace with most folks in the intermediate and advanced groups at the tracks I go to and I don't even gain that much pressure in my tires in a 20-minute session. But that's just me. I come from more of an endurance background of trying to drive a consistent lap time all day long without abusing the car or taking unnecessary risks, and working in a friendly, comfortable manner in traffic with other drivers on track, whether they're slower or faster, rather than lighting up the stopwatch on a single lap. None of us get prize money.

Never meant to touch off an argument about car setup. Just trying to give OP some friendly moral support that if he shows up to the track at reasonable pressures and drives with his head on straight, his car won't explode. He can learn and tinker from that comfortable starting point.

Macster

What?

I get a good oil level reading -- using the digital level display -- from my Boxster even after pushing it hard in the twisties after the car sits with the engine off just long enough for me to fill the fuel tank.


My advice is to the OP is to check the oil level before heading to the track then after filling up the fuel tank. At the track then check the level before starting the engine before heading out.

While the engine may not use any oil under "normal" circumstances under track conditions with the elevated RPMs and high g-forces with the increase in the oil vapor content of the crankcase fumes the AOS may be overwhelmed and pass through copious amount of oil to the engine in the form of vapor.

Even though the oil doesn't get into the engine past the rings or valve seals/guides it still gets into the engine and is burned.

I could no more not take an oil level reading at various times during a track session than I could not wear a helmet on the track.

And I would run the oil level -- hot -- at the top. Why add to the risk of the engine running low on oil during a hard turn/under severe braking by running less than the maximum hot oil level?

dkraige

Totally agree. I get electronic oil readings just fine at the track, and would be be afraid to go more than a couple sessions without checking it (although to date my car consumes no noticeable oil at the track). I'm also curious what the rationale is for 1/2 stick. I always run the car full (not overfilled!) to help prevent starvation in a corner. What is the benefit of running less oil?

OP's car is a 2001 and should have a dipstick anyway, right? So no need to trust the electronic gauge if you don't want to.

DTMiller

He said it's "only worth it in a race car where a second a lap is a lifetime."

DTMiller

OP, just make sure the car is mechanically and fluid-ly sound, come with an open mind and have fun.