CIVICXI *NOVICE* Track Thread!

[MooMoo]

I was thinking 18x9.5 +45 Motegi traklites with 275/35/18 RS4's. If I leave the PS4S for the street they will last forever I assume.

as Bigbird said v730s are probably better than RS4s unless you have to drive the car in the rain. I was on RS4s last season and they are pretty good, they are no RE17s, probably a few seconds a lap slower in some corses but they wear like iron (the v730s apparent wear pretty good too), on limited camber they are great, I did not want to get RE17s on stock camber because I would destroy em in a few track days

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[Tougefl5]

Haha, of course it’s a risk but this car is very forgiving on track. I’ve owned and driven on track:

2013 GT-R
2015 GT-R Nismo
2018 Focus RS
2019 GT3RS
2020 Evora GT
2024 FL5

The FL5 is the easiest to drive safely, followed by the Focus.

This is no surprise. It's easier to drive a slow car fast then to drive a fast car fast lol

 

[BigBird]

Without track insurance on a ~$50k car...TC On please

Throttle lift oversteer bit me hard, so it definitely can catch you out at pace.

 

[J_D]

Another question for you guys in terms of brake bias and such. I have a new set of EBC RPX and EBC titanium shims for the front axel. I originally got them for my FK8.

On the rear axel, should I just leave the OEM pads, or upgrade to something slightly more heat tolerant, like the EBC NDX? I've read on the FK8 forums some guys just leave the OEM rear pads for HPDE days and upgrade the front for sessions.

I'm running EBC because it's cheap and available in Canada BTW. I've read

 

[J1Avs]

I went through a set of Carbotech Xp12 up front in three HPDE days at VIR with everything off except brake vectoring. This is running in the advanced group though but I couldn’t believe how quickly I went through pads.

See my post for a better option than Carbotech on Stock Rotors

 

[J1Avs]

TC off is a conundrum.

On one hand a novice driver might not have the skill to catch the car if something goes wrong so TC is great. On the other hand if you get used to TC you will never learn to drive without it. Really depends on what it means for someone. TC is definitely robbing power and therefore laptime when you start getting some pace. Decisions I guess. I do recommend to take the car to a car control clinic or auto cross so you can at least experience the limit of the car in a safe place.
I do agree that this car is very forgiving and the has a large brand before reaching the limit.

The TC and VSA are both hyper invasive if you have a lot of pace and like rotation. It's a bit on an art to drive around where it wants to intervene.

 

[MooMoo]

The TC and VSA are both hyper invasive if you have a lot of pace and like rotation. It's a bit on an art to drive around where it wants to intervene.

100% l. Very noticable (still fun to drive with tc on though for the casual track goer).

I wish the fl5 had something like MDM on bmw where you get some intervention but gives you more lea-way before it does, its fantastic. On the new cars you can even choose how much you want it to but alas you get all or nothing on the type r

 

[Tougefl5]

100% l. Very noticable (still fun to drive with tc on though for the casual track goer).

I wish the fl5 had something like MDM on bmw where you get some intervention but gives you more lea-way before it does, its fantastic. On the new cars you can even choose how much you want it to but alas you get all or nothing on the type r

Pretty sure motec can accommodate you lol

 

[MooMoo]

Lol don’t want to start my car with a laptop lol

 

[BigBird]

Lol don’t want to start my car with a laptop lol

Hector is not going to be happy

 

[J_D]

Question for you guys, can you rate my brake plan? I'm thinking of swapping the front pads every track session, and the rear pads leaving the 'aggressive' compound for all of summer. Then for winter going back to OEM all around. I'm just doing HPDE sessions/lapping, no competition. I'm still a new driver to the sport.

Summer Daily driving
Front Pads = OEM FL5
Rear Pads = EBC Blues (new brake discs in back each season)

Track days
Front Pads = EBC RPX
Rear Pads = EBC Blues

Winter Daily Driving
Front Pads = OEM FL5
Rear Pads = OEM FL5

 

[Rexpelagi]

Question for you guys, can you rate my brake plan? I'm thinking of swapping the front pads every track session, and the rear pads leaving the 'aggressive' compound for all of summer. Then for winter going back to OEM all around. I'm just doing HPDE sessions/lapping, no competition. I'm still a new driver to the sport.

Summer Daily driving
Front Pads = OEM FL5
Rear Pads = EBC Blues (new brake discs in back each season)

Track days
Front Pads = EBC RPX
Rear Pads = EBC Blues

Winter Daily Driving
Front Pads = OEM FL5
Rear Pads = OEM FL5

Track pad selection should be adequate - Paragon R5s are popular which is what I have now, but I actually have a set of RPX for the front to try once the R5s wear out. Based on mu/temp data the RPX should perform better, but time will tell.

I'm not sure if it's your DD or not (mine isn't), but I just leave the R5s on (front and rear) as I'm lazy, and they work fine on the street too, but if you don't want to deal with some extra noise and/or extra wear on the track set swapping is perfectly fine.

I'd say you are probably being overly cautious with your plan but that's also not a bad thing. If you have a few track days only a few weeks apart though don't feel like you need to swap back and forth - the track pads won't hurt anything.

*Do* make sure you have some good DOT-4 high-temp fluid in the system and plan to do bleeds regularly if you are doing a lot of track days just to purge the old stuff from the calipers.

 

[J_D]

I've only got about 8hrs track experience. About half the time with an instructor. Lots to learn still. For brake fluid I was thinking Castrol SRF as a set - and- forget. I also have EBC's titanium shims for the front axel, forgot about those!

 

[PointByPatrol]

I've only got about 8hrs track experience. About half the time with an instructor. Lots to learn still. For brake fluid I was thinking Castrol SRF as a set - and- forget. I also have EBC's titanium shims for the front axel, forgot about those!

The SRF is typically good to flush only once per year, but Motul is recommended to be flushed more regularly.

 

[svvitch]

Brakes:

SR11 Front year round
EBC Blue rear died after 5k street miles and 4 track days
Switched to Dixcel Z type (similar to EBC Blue) I expect similar performance

If I stop being lazy I will swap OEM for winter.

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