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FK2 FK2 Track Day Discussion

abingdon done, and i'm feeling drained. issue free day this time - not even a minor failure. No blown turbo hoses, no cooked brakes but i do think they can be improved more, as can the dunlop rt2 rubber which will be replaced in spring once worn out.

plenty of red flags in the morning so felt like i had half a day... plenty of 5-10min sessions pre-lunch and poor driving awareness but both improved once people had their midday burger and chips.
videos converting & uploading so i'm hoping to get' 'em up tonight.
 
video time!
[video=youtube_share;s-aGI3JL3-U]https://youtu.be/s-aGI3JL3-U[/video]

[video=youtube_share;bydSULLzeI0]https://youtu.be/bydSULLzeI0[/video]

[video=youtube_share;_ZtmgrTbkp8]https://youtu.be/_ZtmgrTbkp8[/video]

[video=youtube_share;p12QbXTq6D0]https://youtu.be/p12QbXTq6D0[/video]

feel free to comment - still in the early stages of track life, and was trying to focus more on correct cornering which the instructor said was an issue at my last event - i tend to start cornering too early.

as i said in my last post, tyres let me down a bit but that'll be fixed once they're worn out. brakes, while fine, need to improved. found that the pedal would feel a bit mushy and i didnt know what the brakes were up to. It's weird, i didn't feel it on my last event and felt i was harder on the brakes last time. RS29, 2peice discs, and (i think) braided hoses are the way forward.
need to see what the brakes are like on the road again. i had an off onto the grass at the first chicane (turn 4) on my second session because the brakes just didn't want to work. Doubt it was temps as they've been out on for the drive down, and fine in session1. very abnormal behaviour from them but they improved throughout the day and didn't falter from then on.
 
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Did you do a gearbox oil change before the event ?

Any issues ?
 
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yes, oil was done on wednesday. does seem to be far better and while i did miss the odd cog on the track, i doubt that was down to the oil.
was going to give it another week before i'm sure it's fixed the issue but seems like it has so far. I've not checked, but honda gearbox oil is 70k change (so about year 6?). i've done mine at 2yr10months, 24k.

car gotta go back though. i found a loose earth strap directly under battery and looks like it bolts to the top of the gearbox within inches of where they fill the oil. marks look fresh so it's not been loose for long. No problem, i've got some warranty parts due for replacement so they can do both on the same visit.
 
well, been having some issues with the HC800's recently. first corner on the september track day i pretty much went straight on at one of the corners. put that down to cold brakes and the fact the car's been driven like miss daisy for many weeks before.
similar thing happened on the road 2 weeks ago though. 3-4miles from home with a bit of brake use so they werent stone cold, brakes just felt like they were made of wood.
off came the HC800's, looks like they've glazed up again so back on with the OEM pads.

i'm wondering if i cooked the hc800's on the first trackday when i ran the ns400 pads on the rear. fronts failed, rears compensated but obviously not man enough to be useful hence cooking them.
2nd day in sept ran the same hc800's but with dixcel Z rear pads without much issue.

the HCTR brake ducts have been on ready for track use, so not much more i can do with air ducting.

aside from the likes of a 2peice disc from tarox,girodisc or EBC which are all expensive, is there any worthwhile midway disc option between these 2peice and OEM discs that i've not seen?
 
HC800's are pretty crap, so I am not surprised you've had issues with them.
 
yeah, figured they'd be 'good enough' when they claim to be track&semi slick suitable based on pMu's website. Real world doesn't match the claim and even more of discrepancy in the claims when i'm essentially running stock power and not even track suitable tyres.
wont be going pmu in the future.

RichE doesnt seem to have issues with PBS pads, so the price and the fact he like 'em and not had issues on track is swaying me, but i'm a big beleiver of you get what you pay for. pagid does seem the way forward. lack of decent discs that aren't 2peice also doesnt seem to be an option. does seem a bit of a waste when i'm only doing a few trackdays a year.
 
I've tried all manner of pads and settled on Pagid RS29. They work from cold, last ages, don't fade etc. Can't fault them at all, except that for for my calipers they're £500!
 
I've tried all manner of pads and settled on Pagid RS29. They work from cold, last ages, don't fade etc. Can't fault them at all, except that for for my calipers they're £500!

We've tried many pad types on Fords and Reno's, the best all round pad i would say was the RS29. Not cheap, however we never had any disk issues using these. Never used them in the rears, we only fitted a mild upgrade pad at the back something like a Mintex 1144.
 
I just use OEM on the rear, but then it's a lightweight car and so far I haven't had any brake balance issue. Rear pads are tiny anyway so a mild upgrade wouldn't be expensive at all.

I did get some minor deposits with the RS29 after Castle Combe, but then that's a funny track for brakes. They cleaned up nicely after a few laps of the 'Ring and Spa.
 
focus is away from the brakes now.
car back from dealer for MOT and some other stuff. they want to pull the gearbox and strip it with a suspect synchro issue.

thoughts on clutches? plan is to do 3-4 trackdays a year, plus daily year round use.
Probably too soon to know what the FK2/FK8 clutch is like for track use as i haven't heard anyone replacing them. But if the box is out on warranty, then why not extend the period i have to go with parts&labour in the future, and just pay for parts this time around.
 
I'm expecting Chris to chime in here - brakes again.
I took the wrong option with hc800's against your advice (although dream recommended them). Burnt 'em out on Friday and gonna need to replace them after only 3weeks of them being fitted. I'll be giving it till the end of the week for them to bed in again after a sanding & let the grooved discs do their job, but very sure they wont recover. Yes to the RSL29's even though they've increased from £250 to £330 in the last month or two.

however I've burnt through 6 of the 8 dust seals on the brembos due to what i assume is heat transfer through the HC800's. how well do the RSL29's insulate from heat?
is there anything that can be done or recommended to avoid burnt seals in the future or is it something i may just have accept and cost into trackday maintenance? I do run HCTR tuning's brake cooling ducts so the inner seals are better. outer seals seem to be the ones worst hit.
 
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I had the PBS smoking at Donington and they are still spot on now, worth speaking to one of their guys before stumping up that kind of money on pads Tim.
 
some of the top end ferodo's look interesting on paper.... uno, ds3.12 & ds1.11's.

pbs very tempting based on price and i've only heard good things about them.
Plan is to hit silverstone or donnington for next event so with the layout differences vs abingdon, brakes may well run cooler anyway.
 
Ah no, I thought they seemed to be holding up Tim?

My Carbotech pads have always taken everything in their stride if that's another option for yours? Not sure how they compare price wise.

Sent from my Mi MIX 2 using Tapatalk
 
they were. pretty good on track and didn't fade like I've had in the past. only time i came off was my own fault by locking up or testing a later brake point - definitely making progress on that front.
problem is things have gone crap since getting home. stripped the brakes on Saturday - glazed & cracked pads, and another 2 dust seals burnt (6 of 8 replaced). Ran some aluminum paper over them to de-glaze and pads feels (both pedal and fingers on pad material) just as bad as my last set did. 95% sure I'll be stripping brakes AGAIN this weekend (3rd time in a month!) to fit the OEM pads back on.

Friday was probably the most amount of heat I've had into the front brakes based of dust seals. 2 past trackdays and i found half the seals gone. 3rd one took out another 2 so obviously more heat than in the past.
wheel arch clearance wont allow pipe ducting like most run so i'm running bigger air redirectors. Looks like HCTR-Tuning aren't trading anymore to give info.

not sure if carbotech are available. I know we share pads with some evos&scoobies. evo forums mention CT and Carbone Lorraine's a lot and they get a good rep from what I've seen.

could also be a circuit issue. abingdon doesn't really have the straights that silverstone or donnington does for cooling so those circuits might actually be kinder on brakes.
venue + £90 full set dust seals + front pads per event isn't quite the budget I've been expecting on track so far! If it takes £330 pads to cope with the heat, then that's the cost.

plus side, the rear Dixcel Z's on OEM discs are working well. 2nd event out on 'em i think and no problems with their life expectancy.
 
ok... just come off the blower with chris@PBS.
He says I'm too hard on the brakes. explains the temps, crispy dust seals and (as he picked up from my youtube vids) squirming under braking. reckons I'd have trouble with any pads if i drive the way i do, unless going for very big brakes.

hard to justify the pagids if i'm cooking brakes due to my own eagerness. PBS very very tempting till i learn better as it sounds like I'll be going through pads till i get it in my thick head! :D
 
Told you so...

I have had no issues with RS29 on both the DC5 and FD2 with similar size brakes to the FK2.

Maybe look into additional cooling.
 
planning a real track for my next event - donnington. hoping to go with riche and/or a guy from PBS and get some benchmarks. Just thought that Norv in his supercharged EP3 was keeping pace with me and watching my mirrors seemed to be down to power differences on why i was quicker. braking and cornering didnt seem too much in it so i'm not sure i'm doing anything completely weird. Should of took the opportunity to grab a ride and first hand experience his brakepoints and style.

I'm going to look into cooling at the weekend. already have bigger air redirectors but will be looking into ducting as a more forced direct method. No idea if possible and i've not seen it done on an fk2 yet. i'll expand my scope to fk8. Civicx is probably worth a peruse to see what the yanks have done.
clearly the discs are getting proper hot with the 630c+ paint marker changing colour, so that really doesn't give much headroom for pad temps with 800c max.

till it's fixed, i'll run cheaper pads and aim for the pagids once i know i wont be replacing pads every event.
 
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