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Cross Post: Running the Tire Rack One Lap of America
Thought you guys who don't look in the 997 forum might be interested, too.
One Lap has been on my bucket list and this year it hits two bucket list tracks: Road Atlanta and Sebring. Threw out a FB post to see if any of my friends would bite to co-drive and one of my friends and racing buddies, Ken Brinkman (admittedly drunk at the time), raised his hand!
Start/Finish (Tire Rack) is 45 min from my house. 3300 miles and 6 road courses (including our "home" track, GingerMan).
We will run my bone stock 997.1 S. Looking for suggestions from any Lap Dogs on gear/tips to make the most of the event!
I'll update this post over the next 5 months as we prepare for an epic road trip!
5/3/17 UPDATE:
Got the brakes bled and the Hawk pads from Andrew Racing installed. Yakima rack mounted. It's a slick system. It'll be for sale after the event ("used once")!
4/2/17 UPDATE:
Serious preparations underway! THE STICKER GARAGE delivered the cut vinyl, and ANDREW RACING/NASA GREAT LAKES sent along some decals. Got a more track oriented alignment done: Camber 1.1, 0 toe in the front; 1.5, 1/8-1/16 toe in the rear. Finally, got the Rennline fire extinguisher kit installed. Next weekend we go to NASA Great Lakes' event at Gateway for some tire testing!
3/18/17 UPDATE:
FIRST THINGS FIRST: SPONSORS!!!
I am pleased to announce that NASA Great Lakes (http://nasagreatlakes.com/) is sponsoring our effort! Check them out if you want to race or drive on track in the Midwest!
Also, Andrew Racing (http://andrew-racing.com/) has joined on as our brake pad sponsor. I'll be running Hawk DTC-30s in the event. If you are in the market for Hawk pads and other goodies, give them a call!
Also, The Sticker Garage (https://stickergarage.com/) will be printing out our vinyl livery. Give Jeff a call if you need anything!
Busy planning and preparing. Drove a 991 from Miami to Chicago a month ago. It was a great opportunity to learn what I needed to survive the transits. Lessons learned:
1. Don't clutter the cabin. I'm definitely getting a roof box to store stuff so we can keep the cabin clear.
2. Switch seats often. Don't wait to gas up, eat or pee. Two hours off, two hours on. You don't realize how much concentration you are using just driving down the highway until you get in the other seat, turn on the internet, and chill. We'll throw the spare tires, jack and a few other things that (hopefully) we won't ever need in the box.
So, my Amazon Prime cart is full of stuff like power strips, FM transmitter, roof rack, and other necessities.
Just picked up my tires! Decided to go with the new Michelin Pilot 4S. I have the Carerra Sport wheels, so I went with 245/305 stagger. Got them mounted up. I'll scrub them in and do some testing at Gateway in a couple of weeks.
1/22/17 UPDATE:
I made a FB page to document my preparation for and participation in this year's One Lap! Banter, advice and donations to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research are welcome! Follow me @pajamapantsonelap
1/14/17 UPDATE:
I have set up a donation page on www.michaeljfox.org to collect donations to fund Parkinson's research as part of my One Lap adventure! To donate, go to www.michaeljfox.org and roll over the green "Donate" button. Scroll down the dropdown menu to "Team Fox". Enter "PajamaPants Racing One Lap" in the search box and it will take you to my page where you can make a donation. The donation form lets you leave a message and share on FB and Twitter. Please feel free to "share" this with all of your friends!
1/7/17 UPDATE:
I am looking for sponsors! We will be driving my Speed Yellow (read: high visibility) 911 in the Stock GT class. We are also raising money for the Michel J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research in honor of my father, Bob Burkhardt (more information to follow in that). The event will be covered in Grassroots Motorsports magazine! Please contact me by PM or email (kburkhardt12 at comcast dot net) if you are interested. Thank you!
I have run it in a E46M3 highly modded, 6GT3 with Moton's, 6GT2 with $40k in mods that were on the car when I purchased it and a stock 981 CGTS last year. I won't make it this year as work has reared its ugly head.
Unless you are taking spare tires, I never have, then ditch the roof rack. You can get everything you need in the car. Loading and unloading a roof rack wastes time that you can be on the road to the next track!!!! Sleep is king, if you aren't transit driving then you are sleeping.
Pack light for clothes, you can wear the same jeans or shorts for several days and I took old shirts and just throw them away after wearing.
Carry large tie string garbage bags to put gear in at stops if it rains, keeps things much drier than tarps.
I carried a soft bag of tools, Al jack and 1 jack stand, never needed brake pads and rotors as I started with a fresh set at the beginning. Also carried a small compressor and a Safety Seal plugging kit just to be safe. A plastic box with brake fluid, oil, paper towels, duct tape, zip ties, invisible glass/RainX etc.
Figure the total track time to be equivalent to a regular DE day.
I am old and crotchety so take this for what it's worth, I wouldn't run Hawk pads as they will eat up your rotors especially in transits and DTC30 are not a true track pad. Much better to run a PFC pad such as 01 or 08.
Now all that being said you will have the most fun you have ever had with your pants on. It is a great group of people and after you are a Lap Dog you will run into other Dogs all over the US.
Thanks for the garbage bag tip, Peter! I want to bring spare tires--the racer in me wants to be prepared for the most likely hitch. There's a big difference in storage space between an E46 and a 997! I want minimal clutter in the cabin. Plan is to just disconnect the crossbars and box at the paddock and set it on the ground, so no need to load and unload it.
As for pads, my sponsor, Andrew Racing, is a Hawk distributor. DTC30 is the best compromise in the Hawk line. Running street tires, after all. Will bring a set of true track pads as a back up or if the DTC30 don't work out.
I have run it in a E46M3 highly modded, 6GT3 with Moton's, 6GT2 with $40k in mods that were on the car when I purchased it and a stock 981 CGTS last year. I won't make it this year as work has reared its ugly head.
Unless you are taking spare tires, I never have, then ditch the roof rack. You can get everything you need in the car. Loading and unloading a roof rack wastes time that you can be on the road to the next track!!!! Sleep is king, if you aren't transit driving then you are sleeping.
Pack light for clothes, you can wear the same jeans or shorts for several days and I took old shirts and just throw them away after wearing.
Carry large tie string garbage bags to put gear in at stops if it rains, keeps things much drier than tarps.
I carried a soft bag of tools, Al jack and 1 jack stand, never needed brake pads and rotors as I started with a fresh set at the beginning. Also carried a small compressor and a Safety Seal plugging kit just to be safe. A plastic box with brake fluid, oil, paper towels, duct tape, zip ties, invisible glass/RainX etc.
Figure the total track time to be equivalent to a regular DE day.
I am old and crotchety so take this for what it's worth, I wouldn't run Hawk pads as they will eat up your rotors especially in transits and DTC30 are not a true track pad. Much better to run a PFC pad such as 01 or 08.
Now all that being said you will have the most fun you have ever had with your pants on. It is a great group of people and after you are a Lap Dog you will run into other Dogs all over the US.
Peter
OLOA 2007/08/09/12/15 2nd overall in 2009
DTC30's are a true track pad. All the DTC line pads are. In fact I've found DTC60/70's to have more bite and available torque than PFC01/08. As far as rotor wear I got about 10-12 days on DTC70's on my GT3 before I cracked the drilled holes on my factory rotors.
DTC30 should be perfect for Mich 4S, I ran DTC60 at COTA on NT01 and DTC70's with Slicks. The tires will still be the limiting factor, not the pads.
DTC70's on the street will absolutely TRASH your rotors. In fact, I ran them on my car when I did One Lap and they destroyed my stoptech rotors, I had to replace them at the end of the event. Ouch, $$$.
Bring a bicycle with you so you can ride the track several laps before each day. One Lap is like an overgrown auto-x, 3 timed laps in the am, same thing in the pm, then pack up and drive a whole lot to the next track.
Unless you've run all the tracks beforehand, the only time you'll actually get to see the track are those early am reconnaissance laps. Bring a bicycle!!
Stock seats and belts do yourself a favor and get a CGLock, only way to stay fairly well planted in your stock seat. I agree, run PFC pads. They may squeal a lot on the street cold but they will stop you on track without destroying your rotors.
I understand about the OP sponsorship from Hawk that is why I said crotchety old man in the brake pad comments.
I took a bicycle the 1st year but after that I left it home. I just get to the track early and walk it to wake up. Over the years I got to be a minimalist as I carried way to much stuff the 1st year.
The OP is a NASA TT so that means he knows how to go flat out on the 1st lap. The only thing different is the recon lap needs to be near flat out to get tires and brakes hot.
Really going to miss not going this year as Sebring is my home track, but I will swing by and say hi to my Lap Dog friends when they are there.
I'm NASA TT and used to auto-x a lot. The bike was really helpful on the tracks I didn't know. Big difference between walking the track once and cycling it 5-6 times.
Sorry to resurrect an old thread; I'm thinking of running my 996 40th in One Lap 2018.
A big issue I have is one I see you didn't mention at all- oil. I can't find an oil that will survive track temps in the M96 and last the duration of the event.
What was your experience? My friend Chris was in the engine-swapped MR2 and he will be driving with me next year.
We are leaning towards taking my E39 M5 since it is more comfortable and has wayyy more room, but I know the 996 is WAY better on track and more reliable/better maintained/lower miles.
Seriously, what good synthetic oil can't handle ~6000 miles? You're not doing that much track work, literally 6 laps a day.
I ran One Lap in my B5 Audi S4, a car that was very hard on fluids as it got them REALLY hot. No issues with the oil, I changed it before I left and changed it again when I got home. Car did fine.
Honestly I'd take the M5. So much of One Lap is spent driving from track to track. The M5 will be SO much more comfortable! Plus it lets you bring a third driver to help you guys drive between the tracks, which makes an *enormous* difference in you getting sleep...
Seriously, what good synthetic oil can't handle ~6000 miles? You're not doing that much track work, literally 6 laps a day.
I ran One Lap in my B5 Audi S4, a car that was very hard on fluids as it got them REALLY hot. No issues with the oil, I changed it before I left and changed it again when I got home. Car did fine.
Honestly I'd take the M5. So much of One Lap is spent driving from track to track. The M5 will be SO much more comfortable! Plus it lets you bring a third driver to help you guys drive between the tracks, which makes an *enormous* difference in you getting sleep...
Lots of good info here The 1Lap track time over the whole event is the equivalent of a normal DE track day.
I guess people here are not aware of the problems with tracking an M96 engine. Use the wrong oil or degraded oil and it could lead to spinning a Rod bearing. After that either its an engine rebuild or replacing the engine. Thats the risk of the M96 engine on the track.
I think people have alresdy given you a good perspective and plenty of people are familiar with the m96 engine. I ran mine up to 125k miles with lots of track work and normal oil change intervals on mobil1. I did use the x51 oil pan but oil starvation doesn't seem to be your concern based on what you've written.
04-02-2017, 09:33 PM
Cross Post: Running the Tire Rack One Lap of America
It is a great group of people and after you are a Lap Dog you will run into other Dogs all over the US.
The 1Lap track time over the whole event is the equivalent of a normal DE track day. 
