paver

As I get near 10,000 miles, I have to admit I some bubble-wrapper in me. I want to keep my red mistress pristine, but I also have the track bug and want to have my way with her every weekend. I think the track side will win out and I will just try hard to take care of her afterwards.

This was day before yesterday at Talladega GranPrix Raceway(sorry for the crappy photos, I'm going to have to have a word with my photography crew). It's a short but fun little track, especially for a rookie. Had one minor excursion into the pasture but came away unscathed. The rest of the day was fantastic. The drive home was 130 miles at dusk. I don't think I have ever murdered as many bugs as I did that evening. The whole front bumper was plastered. And then there were the rubber marks...it definitely takes some elbow grease to get those off.

The lower photos are after I spent about 6 hrs detailing it today and yesterday. I'm glad I have XPEL on the whole car. But it's even starting to get beat up on the rocker panels after a few track days.
Anyway, just wanted to share some of the adventure. Rezoom at Barber coming up next.

Izzone

Trakcar , red bear and me will be at rezoom

Veloce Raptor

Same here, see you soon.

Paver, that is one fine looking car...love the yellow PCCB calipers on the red...

montoya

I feel your pain, but track it like you stole it. You can take nice cars to cars and coffee when you are old.

Just did the same thing as you this weekend. I have Xpel on the car too, rockers are shot, time for new thicker wrap on the rockers. Track rubber comes off the film with 3M adhesive remover.

As long as it looks good from a standoff distance, I'm living with the battle scars (only a concourse judge will notice so far).

GT3DE

my black 2010 GT3 has 14k miles on it -- over 11k is on a track. it is almost 2 years old. why clean it until you sell it? just gonna get dirty again and again and again at the track. lol

Snowboarder54

That's the same analogy my kids used to use on me when I would ask them to clean their rooms and change their sheets.

Paver, just buy more blue tape, you can cover the whole car and have the best of both worlds!

911GT3

Love the car. Check my avatar!

Mother's has a track tar streak removal liquid that works great. I follow that with a micorfiber towel and some Meguire's wax polish on each little tar streak that is left--one at a time. This doesn't take more than 20 minutes. This takes the tar streak right off, and over time, if you do it after each track event, ends up putting wax right where you tend to get the most streaks, and they come off even easier next time.

tcsracing1

dont be afraid. these cars like to have their legs stretched once and awhile....

911GT3

The next thing you may want to consider if you are going to track regularly is to remove the ceramic rotors. I replaced mine with steel so I could use more aggressive pads and especially to not worry about replacing ceramic rotors at nearly 5K each! I gained unsprung weight, but took it back off with OZ Superforgiatta track wheels--about 5lbs less per corner.

RSRanger

Hey now, I'm going to have to standup for the 62 y/o extreme minority contigency around here.

Ranger (Sua Sponte)

The Greek

It gives it character....

I have 2 dents in my hood from a Viper losing a piston on the banks of Daytona....

paver

Looking forward to meeting the Florida RS guys
Maybe you can help me learn how to use 'em to their fullest
Montoya, the hell with c and c. When I get too old to play tennis and waterski, as long as I can still see, I'm gonna keep on trackin'
All those bug guts begin to hurt the aero after a while

I wish painter's tape came in guards red, I would cover the whole car for sure if it did

+1 on that

Ceramics are bubble-wrapped in a box in the closet

paver

Man, if you could find the piston, you could hang if from your rearview...now that would be cool

TRAKCAR

I always get my car detailed on Mondays..Never do it yourself and you'll never know how bad it is.

drl

Plastered in bugs like this?

I feel you pain. I track my car regularly, but I also obsess over detailing it. I could pay someone to do it, but I can't afford that and I know they wouldn't do as good a job as me. But TRAKCAR is right - if you can both afford and stomach to have someone else detail your car, do it, that way you won't notice the inevitable imperfections.

The bottom line is: forget about the bubble wrap, or letting your car sit all pretty in the garage. It sometime hurts to see what the track will do to the car, but you bought it to track it, right?

As for the tire marks....make sure you have the right products. They should come right off with the right product. In this case, more product/chemicals is better than more elbow grease (which will only scratch your film and leave it more susceptible to more permanent marks later).