[Freakaccident]

I have a 2013 Challenger SRT8. I have a track day coming up and I want to make sure I am good to go so I don't have a bad day. I want to make sure I am not having brake issues with fading. I am the second owner of the car so I don't know what brake pads are on it. It has slotted rotors which may or may not be stock. I am not sure what brake fluid is in it either.

I think I may bleed the brakes and put Pentosin Dot 4 fluid in it. I might as well pull the pads and see what they are at that time. Any recommendations for me? This will be my first time on a track with a powerful heavy car like this. I usually run a Miata or an old 5.0 Mustang at the track.

Thanks

 

[Ron380]

First time out you shouldn't be going 10/10ths anyway, most likely. Will you have an instructor riding with you?

Check out the Road Course Prep thread: Lx Road Course Preparation!
Several of us have posted a bunch of good info. in there to get you started.

What tires are on the car, and how old are they? I ran my first track day on all-seasons, and they were screaming in agony around the corners! haha Obviously, this car will handle and feel a LOT different than the Miata. (I had a 2002 NB I tracked a couple of times, too.) Take it easy for your first track day with this. Learn how it handles and feels, then start modifying things as-needed. If you start changing a lot of things right off the bat before you get familiar with the car, you'll start throwing money at things without really knowing what is really needed.

Have fun! What track will you be running, and how many sessions? I ran Mid Ohio with the SCCA, and we usually had 3 or 4 sessions of 20 minutes.

 

[Freakaccident]

This is an SCCA Time Trial at Putnam Park in Indiana. I think I will have an instructor. Unfortunately I have Continental All seasons on the car. They are the Extremecontact DWS 06 tires but I don't know how well they will do on the track. It supposedly an Ultra High Performance All Season tire. 245s front and 255s rear. Before this I had a Saab 9-3 Aero V6 with about 400HP and I ran cheap 200 treadwear summer tires on it all year round and just get a new set each year. Now with the 20s that isn't easy to do financially. My Miata has 15" 200 treadwear tires on it so those are even cheaper and the car is so light that it takes forever to wear them out. The Challenger would eat up those soft tires in no time. I daily drive the Challenger and I drive it hard all the time so brakes and tires don't last long for me anyway.

I don't intend to modify anything. I put an AFE CAI on it because it was on sale for 200 bucks and I might get the mids removed but that's just show and noise. I am super hard on brakes and I drive a lot of country roads where there is a mile between stop signs. So it is basically nail it and then hard on the brakes and nail it and hard on the brakes. I can fade the brakes pretty easily just driving home if there is a good song on the radio. They do not cool off in between stop signs. So my main thing is that I want to get better fluid in there and an extra set of pads for fade resistance.

I race a Mustang in Champcar and we run the Autozone GT pads. They work great for about 7 hours. Has anyone run these on the Challengers on the track? They are like $55 a set.

 

[Ron380]

Under the Tire section in the Prep thread I noted I ran HTR ZIII's. I got that particular size because they are XL load-rated, good for the 2-ton car at-speed. I ran multiple track days at Mid Ohio and beat a 2-minute lap time, and ran a few times at NJMP. One day on Thunderbolt was in moderate rain all day, and those tires with my AWD car worked wonderfully! My Charger was a V6/AWD, so I didn't run as fast as you probably will. (I also needed to drive the car home!) I was also relatively easy on the braking, because bushings and suspension parts are harder to get for the AWD cars. The tires had plenty of tread left when I sold them.
The EBC Yellowstuff brake pads worked great for me, but might not be the best for you.

 

[Ron380]

Also look for the track-related posts from @MattRobertson. He raced a Magnum much harder than I ever ran and had a TON of info. about his build and techniques. He's not on here much any more, but might trip over this thread sometime...
Also @X E Ryder, who ran a Charger back in the day.

 

[Freakaccident]

Why don;t more people track these cars? Is it the weight? Are they slow? I just don't see much participation with them and I don't understand why.

I am going to run mine and see how it does. I am considering using it as my track car and daily driver or building my Miata for track racing. I haven't decided which way to go yet. The Dodge already has the power. The Miata does not. The Miata already has a race suspension on it and is ready for tracking but would also need a roll cage.

 

[Ron380]

Almost forgot, also look for the posts from @Joelvan. He raced a Challenger and guest-starred on "Are You Faster Than a *******?" :mrgreen:

Here's an old thread of his, he designed a custom radiator for the Charger/Chally: New Custom built Radiator for the Road Racers

I know most of this is "ancient history" in forum-time, but it's the best we have around here.

 

[Freakaccident]

I now know why more people don't track these cars. It's stupid heavy and eats tires and brakes like mad. I drove today and I left early because my tires were getting shredded. I am on all season tires which doesn't help at all but man the tire wear is bad. My tires were slick after 5 laps and at that point beyond their temp rating and just eating rubber instead of sticking. I ran about an hour on track and wore down about 40% of my tread. Slowing down from 120 into turn 1 just thrashed the brakes as well. My front wheels are almost black. I don't know what pads are on it but I definitely track day pads. If I decide to do this more I need much better tires, track pads, and a small trailer to haul the track tires.

I also had transponder issues for the first two heats so I had to start at the back of the grid. That put me behind a lot of slow cars I had to pass. After heat 3 I moved from 28th to 12th. I would like to have finished out the day but I wasn't prepared to eat all of my tread and buy tires. The officials out there said that for time trials the best thing to do is go out and run 2 laps at max for each heat then slow down for the 3rd lap and pit and park it until the next heat. Lap 1 warms up the tires and brakes, lap 2 is your fast lap, and 3 is the trip back around to pit. I really wanted max time on track for experience.

 

[Freakaccident]

Are there any other forums that more people frequent regarding racing these cars?

 

[pursuitlx]

I now know why more people don't track these cars. It's stupid heavy and eats tires and brakes like mad. I drove today and I left early because my tires were getting shredded. I am on all season tires which doesn't help at all but man the tire wear is bad. My tires were slick after 5 laps and at that point beyond their temp rating and just eating rubber instead of sticking. I ran about an hour on track and wore down about 40% of my tread. Slowing down from 120 into turn 1 just thrashed the brakes as well. My front wheels are almost black. I don't know what pads are on it but I definitely track day pads. If I decide to do this more I need much better tires, track pads, and a small trailer to haul the track tires.

I also had transponder issues for the first two heats so I had to start at the back of the grid. That put me behind a lot of slow cars I had to pass. After heat 3 I moved from 28th to 12th. I would like to have finished out the day but I wasn't prepared to eat all of my tread and buy tires. The officials out there said that for time trials the best thing to do is go out and run 2 laps at max for each heat then slow down for the 3rd lap and pit and park it until the next heat. Lap 1 warms up the tires and brakes, lap 2 is your fast lap, and 3 is the trip back around to pit. I really wanted max time on track for experience.

Thank you for posting your experiences on track! The SCCA has really gotten behind their time trial program, most street tire classes don't require ANY additional safety equipment, mods are left up to the driver.
From what I've read and observed these cars are great ways to have fun on the track. Are ya gonna "beat" anyone with a car weighing 1000 lbs less? maybe not, but you will beat them in the fun department.
And yes all of this is expensive, but a thoughtful approach cam maximize fun per dollar. Are you making plans for your next event?

I'm also one of the "what happened to jolelvan" club? I mean should we put a price on his head? Anyone seen/heard from him?

 

[Freakaccident]

Thank you for posting your experiences on track! The SCCA has really gotten behind their time trial program, most street tire classes don't require ANY additional safety equipment, mods are left up to the driver.
From what I've read and observed these cars are great ways to have fun on the track. Are ya gonna "beat" anyone with a car weighing 1000 lbs less? maybe not, but you will beat them in the fun department.
And yes all of this is expensive, but a thoughtful approach cam maximize fun per dollar. Are you making plans for your next event?

I'm also one of the "what happened to jolelvan" club? I mean should we put a price on his head? Anyone seen/heard from him?

I have no plans for this year but I hope to have better tires and 18" wheels along with track pads for the Spring.