VE Track Car Adventures

[SV6GUY]

Avoid the hollow bars, a big heavy car like the VE needs solid bars + in my experience, superpro bars tend to be noisy. I swapped mine for whiteline bars. In saying that though, every other bush has been super pro, by far the best quality bush compared to nolathane/whiteline/pedders.

Tow bar, spare wheel, boot carpet, rear cradle weights, engine cover, rear seats and carpets would be a good and easily reversible start.

Did you feel a difference in the pedal between 4 and 6 pots?

 

[Smashfist]

Also consider removing the foglamps and using the hole for brake ducting. The brakes will last a truckload longer with a bit of cooling.

 

[K-Man]

Good info about the Sway Bars, I'll do a bit more research before deciding, in fact some of the info I found is remarkable on how to set up your car, especially with regards to using maths to determine your spring rates and sway bar thickness.

Also there is a good free program called Optimum Lap, you plug in all your data (with some educated guesses) and it will spit out charts with best shift points, where you will break traction, what RPM to drop to when shiftingeverything you can think of.

Link here Company - OptimumG

Some numbers I used if people are keen to plug in their car are in the original post.

You also have to add a track. Many of the Australian ones are already in the database, but for me I had to use Google maps to measure the straights and turns for Mallala. For those wondering, Google (sky net) measured within 1% of the official track length. I also uploaded the Mallala for all those (R)Adelaide folk.

Having just then run a simulation, its pretty damn close to what I got last time I was there, perhaps a tad fast on the straights but certainly within 10% of its stated accuracy that's for sure. I'm really excited to see how accurate it turns out to be in 2 weeks.

 

[phillmac]

Street tyres won't work at track temps, that's why they all run semi-slicks. I could feel the heat from the brakes just standing a few feet from the car.
They were toast after the 1st lap. Need a big wallet to track a big car, be like chasing your tail with the mods.

 

[K-Man]

So fellas I went to my track day today, some more lessons.

1 - Tyre pressure on 20" wheels. 35psi cold = 42psi Hot. There was a nice chap running a VE GTS there who went down to 30psi on the same size wheels. Said the first few laps were a bit wiggly, but his consistent 1.26 around the track shows it works.

2 - VE sticky clutch problem strikes again! Sadly halfway through my 2nd lap of the 2nd session, my clutch decides to take a dump and get stuck to the floor. Apparently this is a common VE problem, and changing the clutch clearly doesn't fix it.

3 - 6pot Brembos area awesome! Oh my the braking from 160kph to 30kph is fast, the pedal remains firm all session without fade. Cracking upgrade, anyone who wants to go racing, go 6pot CTS-V brembo straight away.

 

[handydagger]

So fellas I went to my track day today, some more lessons.

1 - Tyre pressure on 20" wheels. 35psi cold = 42psi Hot. There was a nice chap running a VE GTS there who went down to 30psi on the same size wheels. Said the first few laps were a bit wiggly, but his consistent 1.26 around the track shows it works.

2 - VE sticky clutch problem strikes again! Sadly halfway through my 2nd lap of the 2nd session, my clutch decides to take a dump and get stuck to the floor. Apparently this is a common VE problem, and changing the clutch clearly doesn't fix it.

3 - 6pot Brembos area awesome! Oh my the braking from 160kph to 30kph is fast, the pedal remains firm all session without fade. Cracking upgrade, anyone who wants to go racing, go 6pot CTS-V brembo straight away.

Wooow thanks to google This post made my day I subscriped to the fourm very long time ago but I didn't go though it, I just totaled my STI 2015 RIP 1 month ago , I was using it for track only
2 weeks back decided to rebuild my parked Lumina SS 2007 "commodore VE" in middle east edition only differences it's left side driver

just placed big order for break kits, BMR suspension parts I'm missing coilovers ,new rims and tires more details coming as I don't want to spoil this thread, for now I'm going through the tread

good job brother and wish you best luck

 

[Mike Litherous]

Nice to see a commodore do some track work.

I have a similar issue with the clutch. Apparently it's the fluid that overheats. I have a heat shield on order and will flush out the old fluid and replace it with some motul dot 5.1. Your brakes should have this fluid also.

On the tyres id definetly put some semi slicks on. At least 2sec per lap can be gained. The best ones are Hoosier r6 but they need a lap to warm up and are no good in the wet. The toyo 888 cope with the wet ok but are not as grippy as the Hoosiers. For a budget tyre perhaps the federal 595rsrr or hankook rs3 would be a good choice. I've never used either but have heard positive things from both.

You make no mention of improved alignment geometry. Lots of people spend a fortune on suspension and could probably get better results with better alignment geometry that would cost them $80. For road going car probably start with 0.3mm toe in on the front and at least -2deg front camber. The rear toe shoould be around -1deg on both sides also. You will be able to drive on the street with these a settings without inside tyre wear. If doing track only alignment go to the mid -3's with the camber and perhaps zero the toe.

The chap mentioning the tyre pressures is onto a winner. On a street tyre u don't want to see any more than 38psi and on a semi slick 36psi hot. So around 28-32 cold depending on how hot the day is would be the go.

Happy trackday motoring. With all that power it will be fun especially if u have grip and some good chassis setup.