I picked this up from another site, miata forum, and tailored it slightly to Mini Coopers. Works well for simple first track day things and such, it proves to be helpful for those guys figured it would transfer here. The Mini Cooper (any year) bone stock is a great car to take to the track. There are however a few items that need to be added to insure your safety and a good time. First is a decent helmet, most hpde groups will let you run a motorcycle helmet (m2005), an auto racing helmet is accepted everywhere (sa2005/sa2010). The nice thing about a sa rated helmet is that you can use it later if you move up to time trial or wheel to wheel racing. Make sure it is comfortable, so you might want to try it on first. If not they can be ordered from many places like... SafeRacer - Auto Racing Safety Equipment, Auto Racing Gear, Auto Racing Helmets, Auto Racing Suits Auto Racing Safety Equipment - Head & Neck Restraints - Racing Seats - Helmets - Fire Suits The easiest way to ruin a track day is failing tech. Make sure your car is in decent condition for the track. Most org's will have their tech sheet up on their website. Sample Tech Inspection Sheet! CLICK HERE! The next easiest way to ruin a track day is to have crappy brakes or fluid. Make sure the temp rating on the fluid is higher for track duty like Motul or ATE. Make sure to do your clutch fluid while your in there. Motul RBF600 Brake Fluid Brakes are also very important, there are many choices out there that will normally fit the bill. Stay away from pads that offer little benefit over something from autozone I.E. ebc green stuff, hawk hps, etc. Some pads like Cobalt Friction XR will work fine with rotors that have old pad material on them making it cheaper to just switch them before the track day. Some offer very little rotor where or corrosive dust and can be drivin on the street like Carbotechs XP line, though they do require fresh rotors. Don't cheap out on pads or fluid, it will bite you later. See Forum Vendors for these! Rotors might be required if yours are in bad shape or if your running something like carbotech pads. The cheapest rotor is fine for 99% of the guys going to the track. Pick them up locally from any autoparts store. Discount Auto Parts Catalog - Partsgeek.com The next weakest link will be the tires you are on. There are many opinions on which is best for what. Most hpde type groups won't let new guys on the track unless you have decent tread. If you do decide to take your all seasons or low end tires out there just remember that they will probably only last 1 track day before they are toast. If you want to put a tire on that can serve dual duty street/track look for lower tread wear ratings and larger blocks of tread. Some examples of these might be Hankook RS3, Bridgestone RE-01, Kuhmo XS, Federal 595RSR, Dunlop Star Spec, Nitto NT05, etc. Try to stay away from more aggresive tires like Hoosiers, Toyo RA1, Nitto NT01 until you have a decent amount of track time under your belt, you'll know when your ready. These items will make your track day a blast without breaking the bank. Getting on track is the next part. Go to youtube and watch videos of people running the track your going to. After picking someone to run with that has a beginners group. Make sure you bring some basic tools for rotating tires, checking psi, tightening hoses, etc. Bring lots of water, snacks, sunscreen, long sleeve cotton shirt and jeans, and good shoes. Also make sure that you run very little if no antifreeze at the track. You will ruin everyones day if you dump it out due to a blown hose on one of the corners. There are also some things to remember so that people don't hate you after your session. full tank of gas grab an instructor listen to the instructor check your mirrors give point bys quickly drive in your limits no red mist be humble, no one likes a cocky newb Last but still very important, use the search function on this forum. Almost any question you have has been asked and answered 35 times in the last year. You could build an entire podium finishing race car without posting a single question if you read enough. 99% of you will not have anything ground breaking to offer. Make sure to update your lap times in the sticky and post youtube footage for critique.
I don't know anyone who's going to change out their antifreeze for plain water just to go do a track day. Just make sure your hoses are good and your connections are tight. They say don't set your park brake when you come back to the paddock after a run, leave it in gear after you shut off and leave the brake off, cause you don't want to weld your pads to your red hot rotors. Truth be told, if you drive slowly enough on your cool down lap, I doubt this would be a problem, and since most of the braking effort is on the front anyway the rears shouldn't get that hot, especially for a new track driver. But it's certainly better to be safe.... If you have a turbo motor you do not have to let it run for a while to cool down after you get to the paddock, you have an aux water pump for that - it's not necessary. All this applies to street driven cars on the odd trackday, not to full on race cars in a race event, of course. I agree with getting a better set of tires just for trackdays, I run my All Seasons and they are definitely greasy once they get warmed up after 3 or 4 laps. Some good summer only ultra high performance tires would be far better, and then put the all seasons on for the cool weather, when the season's over. I run good old regular Dot 4 in my car and have never cooked the fluid, but I'm not as hard on my brakes as some drivers, and I change it before each event. I also run stock pads and stock rotors, they're fine for the occasional event. If you're gonna run every weekend or something, then it might be wise to invest in some better stuff, but again, for the first timer or even those who only run a couple times a year, stock stuff works just fine. One thing I would advise investing in is a Schroth harness, the extra holding power allows you to steer the car instead of holding onto the wheel for support, you'll really appreciate the extra support it gives when you start going faster.