Jack667

Questions for the street/track DIY crew - does anyone do their own alignment when going from Street to Track and back again?
What about rotors? When you swap to track pads, are you also swapping rotors?
I have a 997 that I plan to track somewhere down the road, as the depreciation kicks in a bit more. I have some pretty cool suspension bits and I'd like to get RSS LCAs at some point. I'm curious about whether I'd be able to mark the settings for street and track and adjust myself, or is that crazy talk?

If I was to really set my car up for dual use - maybe 5 DE weekends/yr max - I would be fine with the following:
- pads change
- Rotors? I just did my first pads/rotors swap and it's not that big of a deal. I've heard that you shouldn't use the same rotors for street and track pads, but I'm not sure if that's overly conservative
- maybe a brake bleed or maybe I'd have a shop do that along with a tech inspection to make sure I haven't missed anything
- front seats swap for race seats w/harnesses
- roll bar in, then out, along with harnesses of course. I'm too tall to leave it in, plus I use the back seats for small kids, so might as well take seats out while messing with the roll bar
- wheels (tires) change
- in-car video like go-pro
- fire extinguisher in/out
- and then there's the alignment. I wouldn't so much mind getting one alignment for each track weekend, but I'd need two: one for the track setting and one back to street setting. That's my biggest sticking point.

I think I'm OK with 4-6 hours of prep, but I'd figure on getting that down to 3-4 as I get used to it.

Interested on thoughts from other dual-use DIY'ers. I know you're out there!

38D

Jack Olsen would have some good views on this, but when I still had a combo car I did none of the above. I just drove it on the street with the track stuff. If you do this more than 1-2 times per year, the swap back and forth will get really old IMO.

pontifex4

+1. Putting in a roll bar, properly mounted harnesses and seats in will cure you of the desire to ever do that again, or even remove it, in my experience.

I've also become quite adept at living with a 'track' alignment on the street (for what little driving I do in the real world). Then again, I barely drive anywhere in real life -- mostly to and from the track!

acao

I don't, that sounds crazy. Get a separate set of wheels and tires for the track. If the track alignment is chewing up your street tires too quickly, be more vigilant about flipping the tires on the rim for extra life.

Keep the rotors, swap the pads. Pads can be done in less than 20 minutes. Jack up the car, and 2 minutes per corner. Rebed the pads each time, I've never heard of changing rotors for this.

Brake bleeds are easy with a Motive bleeder. But, my shop does my tech inspections for free, so I feel like I should throw them some business by having them flush/bleed the brake fluids for me. The job is easy, clean up is more of a pain for me than it is for them.

Stock seats are heavy. Seat rails are sharp. The work space is very limited and the bolts aren't the easiest to access. You can only do this so many times before scratching something. This is crazy.

Easy, and yes. You already have the wheels off to do the brake pads.

I'm down to 1 hour of prep which involves swapping wheels and brake pads, adjusting the dampers, packing, mounting numbers, and stripping the interior contents. Takedown is 1.5 hours because I have to wash my track wheels before putting them away. It doesn't sound like alot of time until you start looking at arriving home from the track Sunday evening, getting the car changed over, getting dinner, playing with your kids, and heading to work Monday.

This is only a stopgap solution. If you're 997 is aging, you'll replace it with a Land Cruiser. You can daily drive the Land Cruiser and tow the track-prepped 997 with it on the weekends.

Jack667

I know about the slippery slope and went from a street 911 cab (1990), "converted it" to dual use and then bought a dedicated track car - between 1999 and 2003. The 944 is now broke, taking up garage space, and I'm not sure I want to fix it. I'm very busy with kids and I'm lucky to get out once/twice per year. 5 DE events/yr is extremely optimistic. With that little of track time, it seems a bit silly to have a dedicated car.
So - if I dual-use my 997, I'd really want harnesses and they don't work with my sport adaptive seats. I can buy the GT2 seats or whatever for $6k+, or get some other solution, but putting the roll bar in and out will not be as easy with the seats in vs out. I know I need a roll bar if I have harnesses. I already have the HANS. If I gut the 944, I can use those Cobra seats and Shroth harnesses, plus some other bits.
I think the advice is good and I'd probably have to skip the alignments and go with a compromise setting. I'd skip the rotor swap and just do pads - thanks for that. I wasn't sure what everyone else was doing on that one.
I agree on the brake bleeds - seems like a good way to deal with the shop that does the tech inspection. That was my original thought.

As far as converting the 997 to a dedicated track car, that's not going to happen any time soon. Maybe in 7-10 years. I've been daily driving a 911 since 1999 and I'm not going to stop any time soon, and I'm not going to afford a 911 AND a dedicated track car unless I fix the 944 - which might still happen. We'll see...

This is not something I'm going to start doing right away, but it helps plan my mods. I was hoping for a reason to 'invest' in the LCAs, but I don't think I really need them.

Thanks again!
Jack

Frank 993 C4S

If you're doing harnesses, you'll need a roll bar and race seats. Both can be easily swapped before a DE weekend. If you're on regular street tires, you won't need to change pads. If you go with a dedicated R-compount track wheel set-up, it's worth doing pads.

Jack667

Yeah - that's what I'm thinking. I was pretty set on all that, but the rotors have been a question since I've had a dedicated track car for so long and I'm out of step with what people are doing with their dual-use cars.
I knew the alignment was an oddball thought, but I had a mechanic once who told me he was marking the suspension bits for my alignment setting, so they know where it goes if it gets out of whack. So I figured I could get it marked in TWO places, one for the street and one for the track. But - it probably makes more sense to go with an aggressive street alignment and swap the tires on the rims 1/2 way thru their life.
Thanks for the input!

Edward

With 5-6 weekends/year, you will soon find what is and is not a good tradeoff of your time/energy spent and what your reap as benefit.

For example, you know what to do WRT the rollbar: your height constraints made your decision. But other items are up to you.

For example, are you adept at alignment? And will you be comfortable with living with what settings you've created on the track (you might screw it up and hate the car's handling for the whole weekend).

Wheels are a gimme: easy and makes sense to swap. That said, I used to do so and eventually ended up selling the track set and simply mounted r-comps on the car all the time. That saves me time, expense, and one less thing "to do" ...which makes each event that much more enjoyable

Brakes are easy. With the wheels off, swapping street/track pads is a 3-minute affair and well worth it. Rotors? I wouldn't bother: no reward here, IMHO. No issue whatsoever with the differing pad compounds on the same rotor ...or at least none I've ever noticed on the two cars I've done so on. And brake bleeds: that's a duh-gotta-do task. It is only a few minutes with a Motive Power Bleeder, and the consequences of old fluid cooking on the track as your pedal drops to the floor is, let's just say, costly.

Bottom line is you add up all the stuff you do to prep the car for track, then de-prep for street, sum your time and energy, and then decide what your comfort level is.

Edward