Looks like great fun.

I'm gonna forward this to the Stig over at Top Gear.

.

 

Looks like a nice track; I'm hoping to go again sometime in the near future.

 

Very niceee. I would and really want to do the same, but, Alabama sucks and there's no circuit tracks here :/

 

Nice! Out of curiosity, how much did it cost? There's a few tracks around here. Been meaning to run the Cam around (to get a sort of baseline) before I do any more to the car.

 

It was a 2-day event, 3x 25min sessions each day, then 2+1 50min classroom sessions. I put in about 150mi on the track.
-Event: $399, +$45 for NASA annual membership (since I wasn't a member).
-Hotel: $115, since I didn't know that you could camp out there on the track.
-Gas: around 10 gal for the 2.5 hr of track time. I ran low on fuel on day1 and my engine started cutting out in corners :dunno: w/ just 2 gal of gas in it, but fortunately it was second to last lap anyway.
-Since it was 270mi each way from home, it was another gas tank and a half + tolls to get there and back.
-Food and drinks for 2.5 days.

So yea, $600+ weekend. Totally worth the experience though, IMHO.

Oh... and look for my "My Camry started having issues on the racetrack" thread. Cause yea, things started going wrong. Oh, and the above does not include hard labor, sweat, tears, tires and brake pad wear. Took about 3/32 off front tires off, and at least 1/6 of rear brake pads. Fronts look like they fared a bit better. Don't even ask me about the ball joints.

 

That is awesome! I have always wanted to do this. Is there another post somewhere about what you have done to the car? Clearly its got bigger rims and looks lowered.
Thanks

 

The just do it. There are some things up in NH - I'm thinking of heading up there one day.

My car has:
- Eibach ProKit springs
- 17" wheels w/ 215/45R17 Goodyear Eagle F1 All-season tires
- V6 brakes (dual-piston front) HAWK HPS pads front, stock rears
- TRD RSB
- 5spd tranny swap
- Iridium spark plugs w/ Denso wires
- New-ish (~25k mi front, 15k mi rear) KYB GR-2 shocks

- I also did poly front LCA rear bushings, but that was after this track day

Other than that, the car is very, very well maintained - new OEM tie rod ends, ball joints, front bearings, TB+WP+seals job. Stock engine and rest.

Upcoming mods? Lightweight pulley, maybe light Fidanza flywheel. Also need new clutch... I may also get a set of nice summer tires - save the all-seasons for the winter.

 

I'm not gonna lie. I got a bit giddy reading that mod list. Well done.

 

awesome mein :thumbsup:

good to see the 5spd swap is treating you well..

how many miles on the swap ?

 

Thanks. I have about 4k miles on the swap, I believe. Going well so far, just replaced the master and slave clutch cylinders - slave was most likely dead, and master was a bit tired, too, so I just replaced both as I was having sticking issues outlined above.

Something to think about...This comes from someone who is a SCCA corner worker (not me), I have been told about many a street car who have had an engine trashed on a road course. They seem to come from long sweeping high speed curves, hard braking zones, etc. the oil pump pick up is exposed because of the amount of oil in the upper engine and the cornering/ braking forces cause the oil to move to one side of the oil pan. The engine is starved for oil and the bearings suffer.
I do not know what the insides of a Toyota oil pan look like so they may or may not have problems, typically a OE pan is not baffled to keep the oil at the pick up in hard cornering or hard braking.

i don't know about the 4cyl but i'd assume it's prone

even the 1mz v6 has a 2 piece oil pan/wind-age tray,

but i've read on mr2 swap forums that those who go crazy, experience top end oil starvation..


i am NOT discrediting your track experience or abilities...

but i've heard this from thread who more so run heavy mod/1g+turning/track only cars..

how ever i though of something...

just make the oil pick up longer. via hollow spacer. or reweld/make a longer pick up.

if you're going through that trouble you could weld your own baffles into a yard pan you can pull.

i'm sure you know...there's more DIY in track cars than you can shake a stick at

I believe it. Road cars aren't designed or required to withstand hard cornering or hard braking. Occasional sharp turn or hard stop to avoid an accident is all they were meant to handle. You see guys breaking down all the time at the track, mostly power modified cars though. Some popular track cars have known issues and solution. Unless you have a Porsche - those you can take to the track stock. :

Maybe I should go hang out at MR2 forums for a bit, see what guys there have to say about 5SFE on the track.

 

Something to think about...This comes from someone who is a SCCA corner worker (not me), I have been told about many a street car who have had an engine trashed on a road course. They seem to come from long sweeping high speed curves, hard braking zones, etc. the oil pump pick up is exposed because of the amount of oil in the upper engine and the cornering/ braking forces cause the oil to move to one side of the oil pan. The engine is starved for oil and the bearings suffer.
I do not know what the insides of a Toyota oil pan look like so they may or may not have problems, typically a OE pan is not baffled to keep the oil at the pick up in hard cornering or hard braking.

 

i don't know about the 4cyl but i'd assume it's prone

even the 1mz v6 has a 2 piece oil pan/wind-age tray,

but i've read on mr2 swap forums that those who go crazy, experience top end oil starvation..


i am NOT discrediting your track experience or abilities...

but i've heard this from thread who more so run heavy mod/1g+turning/track only cars..





how ever i though of something...


just make the oil pick up longer. via hollow spacer. or reweld/make a longer pick up.

if you're going through that trouble you could weld your own baffles into a yard pan you can pull.

i'm sure you know...there's more DIY in track cars than you can shake a stick at

 

here's a few of my racing videos over the years. http://www.youtube.com/user/Gibson99dotcom

my miata did pretty good on the track, stock, with only upgraded pads and rotors and tires. it was great fun forcing a twincharged viper on gigantic hoosiers to let me pass him because i was pushing him through every turn. i have video of that, but haven't copied to the PC for upload.

what sort of camera mount did you use? it seemed to be tilting back and forth, moving around some.

 

Figured I'll throw in some updates to this thread.

After the Summit Point event, I was down at VIR (Virginia International Raceway). Fabulous track, and I had a great time. Unfortunately, same cannot be said for my rear pads:

As you can see, some pad material started to separate from the backing plate. On the pad in worst condition, the material was worn to 1.7mm! The squeal thingy was in contact with the rotor making this horrible screeching noise. Furthermore, as you can see, the pad was starting to collapse inward where the holes are in the backing plate. Mind you, the pad had at leaset 50% (over 6mm) material left on it before the ~180 or so miles of track time. Total pad life under these conditions? No more than 500 miles.

These are both very bad cases of pad abuse. This is what happens when you bring el-cheapo street pad to the track. If you're reading this and thinking of going to the track, please make sure to have appropriate pads. (My front pads are HAWK HPS, and are faring very well - non of the destruction that rear pads suffered).


Oh, and who wants to see a video of me overtaking a Mustang and a brand new Camaro? Stay tuned - I'll post it up once I get a chance. :lol:

 

You should look into Carbotechs or Porterfield pads. I'm thinking about getting the XP-10's in the near future.

 

Hey,

I have a 99 LE I4 and want to give a little extra kick but i have looked and there isnt much on the market (that i could find) for these cars except a couple intakes and some plugs and wires. What are some of the changes you have done? Also how did you go about getting a set of those rims, i have been looking for a set for awhile. He's pushing 200k so i dont have any intent on turning him into a race/track car, at least while hes my daily, i just want a little extra power and enjoy working on the car.

Thanks

matt

 

There isn't much aftermarket support for these 2.2L engines. Not a whole lot you can do easily. Best performance upgrade I have done was a 5 speed swap (conversion to manual), and am planning to install hot cams and piggyback ECU. With all these changes, I'm hoping I'll get to 160whp, but even that may bot be possible.

I think I have the list of my changes listed in one of my posts here - it's mostly suspension and brakes.

Rims are from Gen6 Camry. Bought them here on the forum. I'm really happy with the way they look on the car - much better than what I was expecting.