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Racing at VIR (Virginia International Raceway)

15K views 43 replies 11 participants last post by  Fr3AkAzOiD 
#1 · (Edited)
EDIT 2/26/13: Made up a spreadsheet to track my progress, figured I would add it here.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ahjtu4ysCvs5dHVwTDhGQ05mOUJadThSU2taaTdNaEE&usp=sharing


Trackdaze was having a HPDE (high performance drivers education) course at VIR and I signed up for it several months back.

Other then changing the brake fluid and coolant as well as making sure I had enough life in the tires and brakes I did nothing to the car.

Arriving the night before for tech check in I saw nothing but high performance cars and was starting to worry what I had gotten myself into driving an '05 Malibu V6 with 152k miles on a racetrack with Corvettes, Mustangs, Vipers, Porsches, etc...

The next morning things were looking better as people who just drove up the morning of were checking in with cars like Integra Type R, Miata, 240sx, S2000, etc...

Still a little worried but got paired with a great instructor and learned very quickly that most of the people bringing their nice cars there didn't push the cars past 70% of it's ability. My Malibu being an extra car after getting my wife a new SUV a few months back was something I felt confident pushing to 90% of the cars ability 90% of the time.

Each time I went out my lap times just got faster and faster as I grew more comfortable with the track and the cars limits.
Passing was only allowed in the straits and by point-by only.
I was catching much faster cars in the corners as I was pushing much harder.
I was getting point-bys from Mustangs, Vettes, a Mercedes clk, Integra Type R. I kept up with with a brand new Subaru BRZ for over three laps till I had to let off the gas and give a point-by to a Mustang Boss 302 that had been gaining on me.

The second day I had a new Mustang 5.0 owner who used to track BMW m3s (5 years track experience but first time at VIR for him) say I was driving the hell out of the Malibu and it was hard for him to catch up. I had to admit to him it was my first time ever on a track and he was blown away with what I was doing with the Malibu.

Overall it was an awesome experience I would recommend to anyone and I think I'm going to replace the worn out tires and brakes currently on the car with better tires and brakes and track it again next year.

For anyone interested trackdaze.com, racesuitrental.com, LongRoadRacing (in Raleigh, NC), and nasaforums.com helped me prepare for the event.

I had four 30 min runs and here are my best times per outing.
Run 1: 2.55.568
Run 2: 2.50.696
Run 3: 2.49.172
Run 4: 2.45.588

Pics of my car and track map.

 
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#2 ·
Sounds like your 4 best times were 67 up to 71 mph for the 3.27-mile course. Did they record your top speed? Do they provide any pictures or video of your experience?

Sounds really cool! I already copied those websites into my Chrome browser and I'll look them over later on. I'd love to do something like this! Thanks for sharing it.

If you have any pics you'd like to share we're all ears, er, eyes! ;)
 
#3 ·
Only records lap times and misses first and last lap so I only got about 5 recorded laps per session. You can get data loggers that will record top speed, Gs, etc.. but those are bring your own.

I did take a look and was doing about 108 mph down the back straight.
I was running 88 mph uphill through the climbing esses of turns 8 and 9 and 70+ mph through turn 10. Everything is happening so fast that you have to try to not look at the gauges. It's hard and I did catch myself peeking once every now and then.

I'm thinking of getting a camera mount for inside the car but I have other things higher on the priority list.

My pics are still on my phone but I'll try to get them up over the next few days since there is interest. Got a short vid of a Viper ACR blowing past a 240sx and one guy who went off a little in turn 14 and kicked up a big cloud of dust.

There were a few people who went off but most didn't hit the tire walls as there is a ton of run off space. I think between 2 days and 70+ cars only a S2000 and a vette smacked a tire wall. Both hurting their pride more then their bodies.
 
#5 ·
It's a great track and I had tons of fun. Right now looking into slightly better but still street tires and some better then oem but not racing brakes and rotors.

May upgrade to a Malibu SS suspension setup if it isn't too much money as custom suspension is way out of my price range.

Engine wise I would only like to see if I can find some of the horses that escaped over the past 152k miles. I have no plans on putting a huge amount of money into this thing.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Spring is coming and that means time to get ready for the track.

Just dropped my car off to have the alignment redone since I did 3 track days last year and it might be off a bit.
Also having a Corbeau CR1 reclining racing seat installed which should help keep me put. Last event once the track dried out I was fighting just to stay in my seat through the corners.

Will put some pics of the seat up once I get the car back.

I put together a spreadsheet of lap times and what I have done to the car. Mostly so I can track my own progress but I figured I would share.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ahjtu4ysCvs5dHVwTDhGQ05mOUJadThSU2taaTdNaEE&usp=sharing

Got a GoPro Hero3 for X-Mas so if everything goes as planned I'll have some good vids of my next event which is the first weekend in May.

In the meantime I'm going to put up those pics of last August that I never got around to doing.
Please excuse them being cell phone camera pics.

First thing in the morning.
Turn 3 in foreground, turn 2 in background


Walking the track at the end of the day.
Turn 6/Snake


Bridge Straight between turns 6 and 7


Turns 7, 8, and 9/ Climbing Esses


Looking backwards from the top of the Climbing Esses/ turn 9


Looking backwards at turn 10/South Bend from right before turn 11/Oak tree


Looking at turn 11/ Oak Tree


Looking down the back straight from Turn 11/Oak Tree


End of back straight and going up into turn 14/ Rollercoaster.
I get on the brakes around the 3 marker doing 110 mph.


At turn 14 looking out over turns 15, 16, 17, and the front straight
 
#9 ·
All in all I expected this to turn out to be some fiasco story, but pleasantly I was surprised and happy that it wasn't. Track days are cool for sure.

BTW that first picture you posted is utterly amazing!! Calm before the storm!
 
#12 ·
If I wasn't such an old fart with glacial reaction times I'd be there in a heartbeat. VIR is only a couple hours from me. Looking forward to following your adventures.
 
#13 ·
It is hilariously awesome you took a freakin 05 Malibu to the track and kicked ass. At first I was thinking you had some screws loose, but you had a great time and had an experience that I'd kill for.

Beautiful pictures, by the way.
 
#18 ·
It is hilariously awesome you took a freakin 05 Malibu to the track and kicked ass. At first I was thinking you had some screws loose, but you had a great time and had an experience that I'd kill for.
My thoughts exactly! When I lived in upstate NY I always wanted to go to Watkins Glen for open track day. $25 but it is a paced lap.
 
#15 ·
Now THAT is true Stock Car Racing! Awesome, man, just freakin' awesome!!!

One of these days I'm gonna break down and do that. Maybe I should get a part-time job and save all the money toward that goal...

Hmmm...

*scratches head, rubs chin, thinks*
 
#16 · (Edited)
Best lap of the weekend 00:02:38.167.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nXJElYKQ78&feature=youtu.be




Just wait till you just about need new brakes and tires and then do a coolant and brake fluid flush and sign up for a HPDE Day.
Thats all I did first time out.

Granted track costs, gas, hotel, helmet rental (unless you own one), etc.. can all add up to $1,000 for a weekend or $650 for a single day.
VIR isn't cheap but there are other places that cost a bit less and you can usualy camp at the track and bring in jugs of your own gas @ $3.40 a gal vs $5 a gal at the track and save a good $250.

Granted our cars aren't exactly meant to take this sort of punishment and between maintenance, upgrades (racing seat, track pads, etc...), and stuff thats gone wrong I've put $3,500 into the Malibu over the last year.

Hell first run Sunday my ABS went out, ran the rest of the day with no anti-lock.
Was kinda fun though, could trail brake coming into a corner and drift the tail around. Not the fastest way but sure put a grin on my face.
Praying it costs less then $500 to fix.
 
#17 ·
OK, forget the part-time job - I need a whole new career!

I also watched the 2 Porsche 944 kills (and a few others ... ;)) and discovered my right foot left an imprint in the carpet under my desk. :D
 
#23 · (Edited)
Back from another great track event at VIR with the Trackdaze group.
Pics and vids of the good, the bad, and the ugly should hopefully be added over the next few days.

Ran with my Miata Monday, thought I had enough brake pads to get through the event based on how the track pads were wearing on the Malibu. After third session I realized I was wrong so planned on going home and switching cars after the fourth session.

With 10 minutes left in the fourth session I'm coming down the front strait at about 105, entering the braking zone for turn one when I get 1 second of brakes then the front right goes out. Kept the car under control with some downshifting and counter steering even though braking balance was thrown off and safely took the car off at the end of the strait.
Limped the car home on e-brake and grabbed the Malibu and headed back to the hotel to get some sleep before day two. Six hour round trip. :(

Third session of day two and coming out of Hogs Pen (second fastest turn) I apexed a little early and ran out to the edge a few feet before the gators (higher curbing) began. Dropping to the grass wasn't a problem it was the impact when I hit the begining of the gators that was harsh and had me a bit concerned. Took it easy rest of that run but everything seemed fine looking at the car afterwards so I ran the fourth run of the day.
Will take a look to see if anything was damaged, hopefully the alignment was just knocked out of whack and no parts bent.


When learning a course you take two turns at opposite ends of the track to work on and then switch up corners till you have perfected your line through the whole track. Well after 24 sessions in the Malibu at VIR (+10 with the Miata) I felt confident enough to do an all out run on my last session Tuesday and have a new lap record in the Malibu to show for it.

My fastest time up to now was set back in May at 00:02:38.167.
I was able to better that Tuesday and get a lap time of 00:02:34.795

That is a difference of -0:00:3.372 which is a fairly large chunk of time on a 3.2 mile course, roughly 1 second per mile faster.
Or it can also be seen as increasing my average speed from 72.8 mph to 74.4 mph.

My stretch goal I made for myself in August of 2012 was a 75 mph average speed, looks like I'm only 1.2 seconds away from reaching it.

Did bring home both cars in worse shape then they left home in but at least I'm not this guy.
 
#24 ·
Took a bit longer due to family coming in from out of state for the weekend but here are some pics and vids from this outing.

First thing Monday Morning.




Fog burned off fairly quickly but there were multiple black flags for the first two groups out (red and blue), unfortunatly I was in the second group and with two black flags our 30 minute session was reduced to around 12 min.

Here is a 5 lap run in the Malibu from Tuesday.
(all videos available in HD so you may want to open in another window)
Second lap is the quickest but I'm not happy with my driving lines. Was pushing the car too hard in a few spots. Lap 5 has much cleaner driving lines and is only 0.73 seconds slower.
Lap1 2:35.503
Lap2 2:34.795
Lap3 2:35.900
Lap4 2:35.998
Lap5 2:35.523
5 lap average was 2:35.5



Here is my only slightly faster lap in the Miata from Monday.
Lap time 2:34.607


So yea, thats all the good.
How for the bad.

Front breaks going out into turn one.
The video doesn't do it justice.



Then the next day hitting the curbing.

Still not sure on the full extent of that one. Front of car is jacked up in the garage awaiting a new set of Carbotech brake pads. Track pads aint cheap, 2 sets for front and one set for the back was $500+ and thats with me installing them.
Will take it to my race shop to have them check on the suspension once I have the car put back together.

Now for the ugly.
This is brake dust from just one day. These wheels were clean before heading to the track.


Notice how there are pieces of tire tread missing from the outside edge of the tire.
This is what people who track their cars call chunking.
With street tires you don't run through your tread faster at the track than with street driving, you literally have chunks of tread flying off as you round corners.

FYI, this tire only has 5,000 miles of use on it, only around 600 miles of which were on the track.


Running low on brakes on the Malibu made it harder for them to get rid of heat, so it just kept building up. I boiled my brake fluid, which means the fluid got to 400+ degrees F.
I also did this lovely number on my front left brake caliper. Now it's just a dust jacket and shouldn't cause any problems but still.


When heat builds up the brakes become less effective (past a certain point) so what do I do, I push the brakes harder to finish out my lap as I'm doing well (lap 5 of my 5 lap video). So everything is so friggin hot now that I push my brake calipers piston into my brake pad backing and it sinks into the metal and deforms the whole damed thing.


May add some more pics if I find anything interesting while working on the cars but this should be all for now.

For anyone interested my racing budget is about $5,000 a year. The more I break, then the less track days I go to. But I'm looking to average between 4 - 6 weekends a year.
 
#25 ·
I've been lurking this thread for a little while and it made me want to take my SS to the track. But I have since pushed those thoughts aside after seeing this last post since it's my daily driver :)

I envy you though, thanks a lot for taking the time to share all this!
 
#26 ·
Hats off to you my friend!
Might I suggest a set of Michelin Super Sport tires?

Also, have you considered a G-meter? Would be interesting.
 
#28 ·
Suspension needs to be improved before I could go with stickier tires. Also would need new wheels as the tires I am running now are best available in this size.

Been looking into '07 SS suspension parts but doesn't look like its in the cards this season.


Good call on a G-meter. I downloaded an app to my droid so I'll play around with that on the street before next track day. Will only tell me max Gs and not sure how accurate it will be but at least I can ballpark effects of any changes I make.
Of course this will all be strictly for science. :rolleyes:
 
#27 ·
Looks like fun regardless of the cost. Race on, my friend, race on! :D
 
#29 ·
Downloaded a G-meter for my smartphone but it didn't work out, will see if I can some up with something better next time around.
Was cold and wet so Gs wouldn't have been that impressive anyways.

Mr Bear and I kicking butt in the rain.
 
#30 ·
Wow, a $5k annual budget?

Just throwing this out there, on that budget you could finance a brand new 323 horsepower Camaro V6 stripper and spend far less on replacement parts while crushing your old lap times.
 
#31 ·
That $5k a year is mostly track fees and consumables.

Figure four 2 day track events a year runs $1,800.
Gas for those events would be $700.
At least one set of tires a season $500.
Alignments through a season $200.
Brake pads, two sets front, one set rear $550.
Total $3750.

Others things that made up the extra $1250 a year were...

2012: new shocks, struts, new front rotors, rear brake caliper was dragging and had to be rebuilt.

2013: Corbeau racing seat that needed a custom mount to be made for it.

Upcoming: My left rear hub bearing is going bad and needs to be replaced over winter, Strut tower brace, possible new dogbone and poly endlink bushing thingys for front sway bar.

That doesn't count the Maita track car I have that I'm saving up for a crate engine and supercharger for.
 
#32 ·
Racing something seriously that you have a payment on is just asking for it haha. But I agree it is sometimes tempting to just buy the latest and greatest but doing something unique is far more worth it in the end.

I spent a fortune and 5 years turning an old Mitsubishi Diamante into a monster that would eat cars that cost more than my house for lunch at most things. All custom, all one off. I often think about why I didnt just buy a mustang and spend less than 20k on an already done upgrade path involving no research or trial and error.

I think putting that malibu on the track is pretty bad ass
 
#33 ·
Bump from the grave.

Still running the Malibu at VIR and NJMP, still braking something almost every time at the track.
I then use that opportunity to make small improvements.

Even though I'm still running street tires my run last Monday had my fastest lap time down to 2min 29.505seconds.
Beating two and a half minutes has been a goal of mine for a while, time for me to pick a new goal.
 
#35 ·
Looks like you need to step up and put some racing tires under that thing and go for sub 2 min times.
May I suggest that you put together a meet and invite CMF members who'd like to bring their own cars and see how often we get lapped?

:D

Doing what you're doing is on my bucket list!
 
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