So You Wanna Race Your Subi This Summer?

 

 

So, you want to go racing this summer? And we are totally on-board and supportive of this decision. You truly do not know your Subaru or your performance car for that matter unless you’ve experienced the car at a track, or in a sanctioned environment. It is not the same experience compared to driving spiritedly through canyon curves or out-accelerating someone on the freeway or at a redlight. Racing is very technical. Where “slow and steady wins the race” and skill many times, will outperform horsepower. Now for many of you that have always wanted to race your car at your local track but haven’t done it for scheduling, not having the right car or if simply the stars just didn’t align, racing can seem a little nerve-racking. What if you crash the car you’re making payments on, what if you blow your engine, what if you hit another car? All these scenarios are normal. The truth about racetracks across the USA is that they are closing in record numbers. What does that have to do with anything? That means that they have room for many driver education events. Racetracks require a nice chunk of land, they are not profitable, and racetracks do not have the subsidiaries and protections to protect them from developers who foam at the mouth every time they are near a racetrack. These developers fill the pockets of local mayors, town commissioners, and government officials who ultimately have the power to decide the fate of racetracks. And that’s why we are losing drag strips and road courses. Because of these reasons, most tracks have open track days where instructors will teach you how to race your car at their tracks, and there are other sanctioned competition events where racetracks can at least try to recoupe some sort of return on investment to keep their heads above water.

Now joining your local SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) is a great way to get your foot in the door. And it is a great way to learn the basics of turning – and not just turning, setting up your apexes and not understeering or oversteering in and out of corners.

Taking your car to a local, or nearest to you state that has an open track is the next level of performance driving because there is more speed and more technicalities especially if you’re sharing the track with other fellow track mates. With autocrossing, you can get through your local parking lot setup in less than a minute, and you are rarely getting enough speed to get into third gear. When you’re at an HPDE (High Performance Driver Education) event, or a time trial, a track rental, or a track day, you could be going all out in straightaways where you are really pushing the mechanical limits of your engine, brakes, tires, and suspension. And that’s what we are going to emphasize on this article to make sure that your car is overly prepared for a weekend track event so that you can arrive and leave safely.

 

MAKE SURE YOUR CAR IS NOT FALLING APART

Make sure that your Subaru or whatever it is you want to race is not leaking an abundance of fluid. And make sure that you at least have your oil leaks fixed if you have any because fluids leaked on the track is the reason why there are many crashes. Many of you after your first track session who will return for another event, will most likely get yourself some softer tires. A soft tire such as the Toyo R888, Michelin Pilot Sport Cups, the Falken RT660s, the Hankook Ventus R-S4’s and so on, will be like driving on black ice if the tire runs over oil or power steering fluid. If you’re flying down the track and you have oil or power steering fluid slinging on your tires, you’re gonna have a bad day.

You need to make sure that you make a checklist of the following which we will take a deeper dive into, but here are the basics:

 

MAKE SURE THAT YOUR BATTERY IS PROPERLY TIED DOWN AND SUPPORTED

PERRIN Battery Tie Down (Fits most Subaru models)

This is a main area of focus in tech inspections. In the unfortunate event of a rollover whether it be on a racetrack or in traffic, one of the worst mechanical outcomes is your battery’s positive and negative posts touching your aluminum hood at the same time when upside down. The battery will arc and start shooting sparks just before exploding. Why does this suck along with being upside down? Because fluids such as fuel, power steering, oil, and even windshield washer fluid will catch on fire. This is why it is very crucial that you have a proper battery tie down securing your battery, and why every vehicle from the factory has some sort of battery support.

CLICK HERE FOR ALL BATTERY TIE DOWNS AND TRAYS

 

 

MAKE SURE THAT YOUR BRAKE PADS AND ROTORS ARE IN GOOD SHAPE

If your Subaru or whatever you want to race has passed the not falling apart stage, you must inspect your brakes. This is very imperative because at the track, your brakes are going to get red hot. You need to make sure that your brake pads still have at least 50% pad life left otherwise, you’ll need to get new pads which is never a bad idea anyways because this is a great opportunity to upgrade to a street/track hybrid pad or just get a better more quality brake pad over those Autozone pads that you needed that one time you wore your OEM pads down to the metal plate. Your brake pads are going to get very hot. You need to make sure that you have decent high-performance pads to avoid the other nightmare scenario at the track which is brake fade. Brake fade is where your brakes get so hot that a film of brake pad melts over your brake rotor glazing it with pad material so that you no longer create friction. When you apply your brakes, you won’t have any because there is no friction, and you’re forced to think quickly, and brace for impact.

CLICK HERE FOR ALL BRAKE PADS

 

Regarding rotors, these are also important for obvious reasons. Because a track day can cause your rotors to get so hot that they crack. When inspecting rotors, you just have to make sure that they are not worn. You obviously should not go to a track day if you have 100k miles on the original rotors, or if they have deep embedded worn grooves in them due to uneven pad wear. Because they do endure so much heat, cross-drilled rotors, or slotted rotors are mandatory in purpose-built race cars, and it is also why they are in abundance in the automotive performance aftermarket:

DBA T3 4000 Series Slotted Rotor Front 2015-2017 STI

Slotted and cross-drilled rotors share the same function. And that is to repel both heat, and brake pad residue. The slots will collect brake pad dust and material to make sure that your brake pads always have a clean contact surface between the pad and the rotor. The holes in a cross-drilled design collect the pad dust and material where it will get slung out and through the vanes of the rotor. For science and entertainment purposes, if you remove a wheel after a track day and see a black ring inside your inner wheel barrel, that is brake pad dust and material that had been slung from your rotors. And because of these reasons, make sure you clean your wheels properly after a track day because chunks of melted brake pad can lead to a high-speed imbalance where your balancing weights would otherwise be thrown off.

CLICK HERE FOR ALL BRAKE ROTORS

 

 

INSPECT YOUR BRAKE LINES AND BRAKE FLUID WHILE YOU’RE DOING YOUR BRAKES

Because lots of heat and pressure will be built while at the track. In fact, bleeding your brakes with high-temp brake fluid should be another top priority if everything else checks out. Why? Because if your brake fluid gets hot enough to boil, this could be very, very, very, very bad. If your brake fluid boils, it’s going to create air pockets in the braking hydraulic system. You’re going to lose brake pedal pressure, and you will need to brace for impact. When is this scenario possible? During 20+ minute track sessions. Bleeding your brakes with a higher temp brake fluid should be on your to-do list before entering a track day:

Motul RBF660 Brake Fluid

CLICK HERE FOR ALL BRAKE FLUID

 

 

Regarding your brake lines, remember brakes are a hydraulic system so they rely on fluid and pressure to operate. The reason this needs to be mentioned is because if you have a higher mileaged Subaru then the rubber OEM brake lines can expand under pressure as well. This is why we always recommend upgrading to stainless steel brake lines:

Faction Fab Front Stainless Steel Brake Lines 2004-2007 STI / 2006-2007 WRX

 

Braided stainless steel brake lines will not expand under pressure when braking. Resulting in better braking response from the pedal to the caliper. These are also much stronger and durable for all the elements because they are replacing the OEM rubber lines. If you are bleeding your brakes with upgraded fluid, this is a perfect time to upgrade to stainless steel brake lines.

CLICK HERE FOR ALL UPGRADED BRAKE LINES

 

 

 

TAKE THE TIME TO MAKE SURE YOUR TIRES, ALIGNMENT, AND PRESSURE ARE ALL IN CHECK

 

That’s right. Since we emphasized the importance of your braking system and reducing the chances of brake fade, we are going to make sure that your car sticks to the pavement. Even the most basic front and rear wheel alignment at your local tire store does a lot to your car. Now professional corner balancing can get expensive, and yes, a good investment. But your average $140 front and rear wheel alignment will at the least make sure that you are using the most footprint of your tire to increase the overall traction. Racing with bad alignment will only accelerate your tire wear rapidly because your tires are going to get very hot.

Especially if you have spent $1000+ on decent street/track tires such as the R888’s, etc., you will want to make sure that you are getting the most life out of them as well. As far as tire pressure, slightly lower is standard for track racing. With autocrossing because there are so many switchbacks that constantly shift the weight of your vehicle, the lateral loads can make your car ride on the sidewall. That being said, too little tire pressure can put you at risk of riding on the sidewalls during those heavy corners. Too much tire pressure can make your car prone to sliding during corners and spinning during hard acceleration. If you set your tire pressure at 32 psi on the streets. Generally, 28 psi is a nice medium on the track. And most importantly, make sure that your wheels are torqued properly because loose lug nuts will spin right off as soon as you enter that first corner.

 

 

TAKE THE TIME TO DO A ONCE-OVER ON THE SUSPENSION

 

Make sure that you don’t have loose struts, coils, or sway bars. Make sure that you don’t have any blown control arm bushings that will significantly affect the driving behavior in a worse way. Make sure that there are no loose objects that can fly off your car and hit any drivers behind you because this will cause major damage. You can use making tape to cover your front bumper, fog lights or lower corners of your rocker panels and side skirts from getting sand blasted from the pebbles. Shake each wheel back and forth by grabbling the top of the tire like a steering wheel and push back and forth to make sure you don’t have signs of a bad wheel bearing. Make sure that your strut mount nuts on top are tight.

 

 

MAKE SURE YOUR FLUIDS ARE TOPPED OFF

 

Make sure that your oil is in good condition. Do not race on oil that is old or that has more than 2k miles on it. You want to make sure that your oil is nice and clean and especially topped off so that you have the best lubrication as possible since your engine will be living in the upper RPM range for long periods of time.

With oil, you especially need to make sure it’s at the full mark on your dipstick. This is because when accelerating through corners, all the oil will slosh to one side of the engine which could potentially starve the other side of oil. Having the oil topped off will help protect against this issue, and installing an aftermarket oil baffle, pan, and pickup tube is a must-have if you are dedicating yourself to frequent track days.

Make sure that your power steering fluid is topped off at the correct level and not over the top because your power steering will get hot on track days. Not enough fluid will cook your power steering rack, and too much fluid will boil over and through your reservoir cap. Make sure that your coolant is topped off at the radiator cap when the engine is cold. And make sure you top off at your expansion tank as coolant temps will reach 210°+.

 

 

FINALLY, HAVE FUN. IT’S A LEARNING EXPERIENCE

 

 

As stated in the beginning of the article, tacking your Subaru or other vehicle to a track day where you can ride with an instructor just before getting cut loose to do a few laps on your own is the best way to really get to know your car in terms of how far you can push the limits of your tires, suspension, as well as how confident you can comfortably test the limits of your driving abilities. Experience at the track makes you a better driver on the roads as you must be hyper aware of your surroundings and be quick to react. And if you have suspension mods or brake upgrades, you’re going to see these upgrades in action.

So let’s go through the checklist again:

• Make sure your battery is secured.
• Check your brake pad thickness.
• Make sure your rotors have a clean contact surface and are not worn or warped.
• Make sure your engine isn’t leaking.
• Top off all your fluids. This includes engine oil, trans fluid, rear diff fluid, coolant, power steering, and clutch/brake fluid.
• Bleed/flush your brakes with high-temp brake fluid
• Leave behind floor mats or any loose items that could interfere with your driving.
• Have a decent fire extinguisher.
• Have an approved helmet.
• Bring water and sunscreen.
• On turbo cars, do a once-over and make sure that all your intercooler clamps are tight.
• Turn boost down to a lower level.

Address any weak points in your car or in your driving afterward, and keep growing as a driver.