Re: Taking to the Track in 90 90Q20v

[Glenn Lawton <lawtonglenn@gsmai.com>]

Royal,Paul wrote:
> After watching people do the roundy round all my life and spending an
> enjoyable afternoon with Glenn Lawton watching him flog his Q around
> NHIS, I believe I may have caught the "bug."

Thanks Paul, I had a good time too.

> Since I believe that readying my car for "safety events" will be a long
> and potentially expensive process I'd like to start getting some ideas
> about what I should be doing to make the car both fun and safe at the
> track.

I'd say don't replace the shocks, bushings, exhaust etc... unless they
really need it. No need to revamp your car to have fun.

What you NEED to do, is make sure your brake system is in really good 
shape. Get a good set of pads (PaGid Blue or Yellow, glen says Metalmasters
but I'd stay away considering other's experiences). Get new rotors.
Flush the brake fluid after each event. For the first couple of
years I used regular DOT4, but started boiling the fluid and changed
to Ate Super Blue.

Next comes tires. You can probably get away with a few driver's ed
events without totally chunking (destroying) your street tires, but if
you get a set for the track, you'll save the streets, and stick MUCH
MUCH MUCH better. Currently almost everyone uses BFG R1s, but there
are a few holdouts using 008RS, some racers with Hoosiers, and 
some early adopters with Yokos new 032s.

Other then that, use your money on getting more track time. That will
make you a better driver than ten K&N filters, chips, 2.5" exhaust, etc....
Then the following year you can decide how much to spend on which mods.

Glenn Lawton