Tracktime '73 Dart

This sunday I was finally able to spend some time on the circuit with my '73 Dart. The track is at the Dutch city of Zandvoort.
The tracktime event was a 20 minute event that let you run around on the track with other cars.
No race, just free tracktime to gain experience and get a feel of how your is behaving.

First thing that became apparent quickly was how difficult it is to slow down enough for an unfamiliar corner. And how difficult it was to 'see' the corner, especially when the track has elevation changes, being on the dunes right next to the westcoast.
On the street, the brakes and tires on the car do their job just fine, but on the track, with higher speeds and relative tight corners, that's a different matter.

Also learned that the tires needed some heat to become better, as during the first run I slid off track, into the gravel pit when I couldn't slow down quick enough for a short right/left corner.
I was able to keep moving through the gravel and find my way onto the track again.

Luckily, there were only 5-6 other drivers on the whole 4+ km track, so rejoining was easy.

Another thing I learned, during the 4rd lap, was that the transmisison tube really should have a sealed dipstick, as some ATF came out during hard left-cornering.
At that time I got into the pits to find out where the smell of ATF was coming from.
With only a few minutes driving time left for the event and not cover everything with ATF, I decided to call it a day.

The event was Great fun.
My main goal was to find out how the car would handle during cornering. How much bodyroll and such.
I had adjusted the front Hotchkis shocks to full stiff, and added 2 clicks on the rear QA1 shocks, above the 5 clicks from 0.
For a next time I will be upgrading brake pads, tires, and maybe some more engine power as well. But the car's 234 rwHP were reasonably adequate, for now.

I have onboard footage of the entire event, which I will be uploading to my YouTube-channel this week. Although watching back the in-car footage, everything sure looks 'dull' and boring for the most part

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Short clip of my car on the track;
https://youtu.be/_pvFTPwUlEI?list=LLtrx_z3PXNJYuLEui9O-hkg&t=690

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Yep, you'll find out very quickly that track time is very different than street time. Everything on the car gets pushed really hard on the track, street stuff just doesn't cut it. Brakes, cooling, seats, etc.

Fluid control is very difficult as the car gets faster. We had problems with everything on Tim's Valiant. Diff oil would come out the breather, transmission oil, engine oil, PS fluid, etc. All of the breathers need to be modified for the track. Building a road race car is a lot different than a drag car. I had no idea at first but after a few track days it became really obvious that everything had to be beefed way up.

Looks like fun!

BBM -- T/Anks for sharing the event and your experience! Regarding the trans fluid coming up the dipstick, yes, a sealed (and LOCKING ) dipstick will help, BUT,, I've found that IF you'd be running a deep extra-capacity trans pan... that is when the problem is more likely to occur.... from my own experience. When I changed back to the standard depth/capacity trans pan (stock). then the problem grossly went away. I later added a better dipstick/tube locking type and the problem is 99.9% gone under hard g-force ... typically during hard deceleration while making a hi-g-force LH manuever.... again, its the combination of both at the same time when it would happen.

One thought... IF the pan (deep pan with extra capacity) could have a baffle welded in place ... say, in the front and where the dip stick is, then maybe it would be helpful for keeping the oil within the pan and not running up the tube. OR.. if the tube had a baffle within it.

The car has an A518 transmission, so the deep pan comes with it.
I have a long locking dipstick and tube laying somewhere out of a newer transmission. I will look into cutting to the correct size and install it in the fresh A500 transmission I'm currently putting together.
It was a bit unnerving to start smelling ATF during the laps, thinking a transmission line started leaking but once in the pitlane I noticed drops hanging off the passenger-side frame rail, so I knew right away it wasn't serious.

As for the engine, during the build last year I took to the time to make a proper oilbaffle covering the pickup-tube for the most part. Unfortunatly I didn't think or have much time to look at the oil-gauge during the laps.
The seats are late 80's BMW seats and did their job perfectly.

The tires are 240 threadwear Good Year's or Michelin's. Don't recall the type at the moment. I just changed them the day before the event.

Another thing 'not' helping, are the 2 heavy steel propane tanks in the trunk area.
One cylindrical tank is located above the rear axle, and a donut-shaped tank is inside the spare wheel area. It's this tank that adds a lot of weight, located relatively far behind the rear axle, making cornering a bit more challenging I think when grip becomes an issue.

Here's the in-car video of the 4 laps I did with the Dart.
Hope you don't fall asleep during the clip

But the upside I suspect your car has a decent F/R balance because of that rear weight?

I've never weighted the car but I'm sure front/rear balance is changed enough.
Although when the car starts spinning, the momentum is harder to stop with the weight in trunk.

Nice job on the track time! Most people argue about suspension, steering and brake parts without ever having tested them. High speed maneuvering changes the game entirely.

I've been on the track may times with my 71, and found my 14" srt brakes up front and 11.75 rear discs do the trick. If you need help outfitting, I can help. I'm just a PM away.

Looks like it wants to eat that Miata.....

Thats not a Miata. Its Sushi!

Didn't mention it before, but that is a neat track, looks to be a lot of fun, I like all the elevations and occasional banking.

LOVE to see MOPARS at the track, especially surrounded by..or in front of other makes. I ran a 727 for years behind a 340 in both autocross and road racing and while I had several fixes for keeping the trans fluid where it belonged, the best, and simplest was removing the dipstick entirely (when racing) leaving the tube, and capping it with rubber cap (like the kind to block off unused heater hose) I also used a worm style clamp for extra measure.

Not sure what you have for brakes, but heat may be a big issue with yours if they are factory. A somewhat easy/affordable solution would be better/aggressive pads for whatever calipers you run. My car is now dual purpose and road and track (fulfilling the R/T legacy) and I spend some time before events changing brakes, shock settings, alignment settings, ride height, tires etc, and the car becomes completely different on track than on the street. A little planning and a few minor tweaks can make a street car a pretty decent track car.

Removing the dipstick alltogether for a race is a simple trick indeed.
But I think a more modern locking dipstick would be a once-and-for-all solution.

The Dart has 11.75" dia, 1.25" thick C-body discrotors and 2.75" diameter single calipers. But the brake pads are some 30? year old stockers taken from a another car.
I've had Yellow Stuff pads before which work much better, and I've also still have a set of good Hawk pads which I will install again when the stockers are gone.
The stock pads work fine on the street with spirited driving, but they were lacking at the track as I found out.

The 10" drums on the rear axle lost their function fairly quickly too on the track I think. Again, they work perfectly fine on the street.
As this is a 100% street and daily driven car, I need to have a good reason to upgrade. Usually when multiple thing require refreshing, I tend to look at better solutions.

In due time I would like to lighten-up the front brakes, as there's a lot of metal mounted to the spindles.
I've been thinking of swapping the 11.75" ventilated Wilwood front brake-system from my '57 Chrysler to the Dart. This would save quite some weight and won't cost much or anything to do. The only I would be worried about are the calipers which don't have dust seals.

Unrelated but this guy makes some good videos and adds commentary along the way for those looking to learn new tricks. He races his camaro ZL1 1LE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0y8kPigx3c&t=404s

excellent video!! I like how the camera is mounted to his helmet.... gives more feel to the action.