R's Day 2024 roared to life on May 26th at the legendary Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California. Built in 1957, Laguna Seca is a driver's paradise, but its proximity to residential areas has created a sonic challenge. Despite being in the flight path of a nearby airport, neighbors have expressed concerns about noise levels, resulting in strict sound regulations for the track.
The track is limited to a certain number of days with 95 dB, 105 dB, and unlimited decibel levels per year. This has led to some creative, if unconventional, exhaust modifications, often seen pointing upwards and to the left. Determining the exact location of the sound level monitoring station might be a popular pastime among enthusiasts.
R's Day was a 105 dB event, and surprisingly, there was only one reported black flag. The alleged cause? An unexpected upshift, according to the driver.
Brian's car and the Nismo loaded up in the garages May 26 6:43 am
We got up to Laguna late in the day on the 25th. There were a few things on the Nismo that I hadn't been able to work out prior to getting on the road. I was thinking it had a fuel delivery issue. So I brought every fuel related item I could quickly grab before we left the shop. Extra fuel pumps, regulators, set of injectors, fuel filters, line. Spare MAF. I just couldn't work out what exactly was going on. I had a set of HPX- N2 MAF which will meter a ton of air. However no mater what I did I couldn't get the load to work right. There was some MAF scaling that I had setup wrong. So at the track, I decided to swap it back to the normal "R35/Nissan" blade style MAF. Once I got those MAF and scales setup, the car started acting normally again.
Getting setup in the garages early on Sunday morning
Sunday morning came, and I just had a small list of things to do, like tune the car, check the boost. Align it. Get power to the Accusump. . Install the new G-sensor. Luckily I had Aidan and Ernie at the track to help me get the car setup. Normally the morning of the event, you should be doing very minimal things, but hey, life happens.
For R's Day there were two groups, a beginners group, and an advanced group. In the first session, first thing I noticed was that the Hooisers had a ton of grip. Everything else felt decent. Overall third fastest in the first session by 0.022 behind a couple of R35 GT-R.
The next session, as I started to gain some speed, and use the brakes a bit more, I got a long pedal. As in, to the floor, and not slowing down at all kind of feeling. Almost like I lost a line. When I went to bleed the brakes, realized I left my SRF back at the shop. Even though I had ducts, and decent pads in the car, just didn't have enough brake.
Nismo going down the corkscrew
I qualified for the King of Kaiju time attack event, but I sent it a little too hard. I upped the duty cycle on the boost controller, and first time I got on it, I popped the left side lower intercooler pipe off. Trying to decide where to go, I ended up beaching it in a bad spot. Aidan fixed the intercooler pipe, and I turned the duty cycle back down for the last session of the day.
Nismo R32 GT-R at Laguna Seca
Justin Bieber duct tape holding the fuel door closed
OS88 catch can . This cheap catch can even has a dipstick. Around $35, saves a lot of mess. I put this in front of the battery, all the way in the front. I just hooked the transfer vent, and the transmission vent together. It's really not going to mix the two fluids, and honestly even if it does, its not that big of a deal. I ran it sealed, no atmospheric vent, but you might want to try some different ways for your own car. I did have to empty it once at Laguna Seca during R's Day.
Best lap, a bit sloppy. The brakes needed SRF, I forgot it at the shop. The Hoosiers just stick. Great tire.
1:42.1 was my best of the day in the Nismo
The Nismo was making about 330 whp at 14 psi, and with stock brakes it was about what I could do on that day. I know going up over turn 1 into 2 I have at least a few seconds of time. I forgot the Nismo/Ohlins had separate rebound and compression damping. I have been working with single knob stuff for too long. I needed some rebound to give me a little more confidence. That huge floaty, fly off the edge of the track feeling isn't great. Would have, could have, should have. I guess if we didn't think we could go faster, we would just stop trying to go faster. The Nismo is no dedicated track car, but it has a lot of good parts in it from years of experience. It will never be the fastest car on a track day, but it will hold its own
A few videos of the event from several different people.
R's Day is an annual event that celebrates the Nissan GT-R and its passionate community. There was a bit of a false start on Spring Mountain this year, so its back to Laguna Seca in Monterey on May 26, 2024. Its a 103 dB day, so higher than last time we went, but still not that loud. The first session, the first year we went out of 26 car, I think there were 24 over noise. So be prepared to handle noise. If that be a baffle, extra muffler, or lift and coast, its what you are going to have to do, not to get kicked off the track. Look up Laguna exhaust for some ideas.
Checking wheels and tires for fit on the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca
My fathers customer's GT40 #1018, driven by Graham Baker at Monterey Historics at Laguna Seca
On the grid for World Challenge touring car in 2009
If you have driven on track dozens of times, or this is your first time, here are some procedures, and checklists of items to help ensure your over 25 year old Nissan Skyline GT-R survives.
We are in the modern era of taking notes on cars, but I still generally use handwritten notes. I generally have a notebook for each car. In it I have car information.
In the garages at Laguna Seca
2.Maintenance
You have to maintain the car. You have to at least check these items. If you don't know the last time they were replaced, replace them prior to your track day.
Transmission fluid - Don't try and fill it though the gear shifter. Though the gear shifter is the transfer case . GL4 75-90 4.1 liters (4.3 quarts). Getrag has its own fluid
Transfer Case - Nissan Automatic Fluid Type D 1.8 liters (1.9 quarts)
My pick for brake fluid, even though its more expensive, and a little hard to get is Castrol SRF. The dry boiling point is not the highest, but the wet boiling point is. In a perfect world, no water would be in the braking system. In reality brake fluid is hygroscopic (it attracts water), and there is lot of water in the air we breathe.
4. Tires
285/680/18 Toyo slicks
Tires are the only things that touch the track. We would say that the single biggest thing that effect how the car works, are the tires. The wrong tires for the wrong job, will mean you fail to reach your full potential. Tires will be a complicated problem because there are compromises. The fastest tires on track, will also wear fastest. The longest lasting street tires, will preform fairly poorly on track. Now if it rains, the best tires in the dry, may be the worst tires in the wet (think slicks).
18 x 10.5 +22 Volk Racing TE37SL . Toyo Proxes RS1. 285/680/18. 26.7 inches tall These slicks are just a little too big for the car at this ride height . A better size would have been the 285/650/18 which are 25.5 inches tall
Generally I want the stickiest, widest tire possible under the car. The key being under the car. Not sticking outside of the body lines.
Tire pressures are set with hot pressures in mind. You want to have at a minimum a good tire pressure gage, and note your cold tire pressure when you start the day. Then after each session, measure hot tire pressures. I prefer a larger 0-60 psi gage that is liquid filled with a bleeder. That gives you a bit more accurate of pressure readings.
The OEM rotors are cross drilled. Eventually in the GT-R racing range they went to a solid rotor, because cross drilled rotors crack. For racing use, usually a different kind of surface treatment is popular(Plain, slotted, J-Hook). Cross drilling looks good, and works well enough on the street. I like a two piece rotor as they weigh less than a solid disk. You can save several pounds per corner by going to a aluminum hatted rotor.
DBA has their 5000 series of rotors but not in the stock 296 mm size, just the 4000 series rotors (Front DBA 4926296MM 4000 Series Heavy Duty.)(Rear DBA 908) Have to see if I can come up with anything, or do something like a bracket to put a larger rotor on the car. Larger rotors mean larger wheels, and I think I am sticking with the 16's. (I lied, I'm on R34 18" now)Brake Weights - R32 GT-R
Cooling can depend on your ambient temperature and humidity. The hotter ambient is, the more humid it is, the less effective the cooling system is. On an RB26 there is a factory oil/water oil cooler. That cools the oil, but adds temperature to the coolant/water. Oil generally runs hotter than water. Radiator, Hoses, Coolant, Anti-Freeze, Water Pump information.
An RB26 is nearly oil cooled. 7 main caps, twin long cams, oil squirters, oil cooled pistons, turbos. Heat is introduced into the oil, and that heat needs to be rejected via an oil cooler. Big, and many seem to be the RB26 answer.
You probably need to run an aftermarket oil cooler. Bigger is better. If you are making a lot of power, then a lot of that power is turned into heat.
VP Racing fuel at Laguna Seca
7. Suspension
Suspension. There are lot of parts to suspension. Some people use the term to only refer to the coil overs/shocks, but there are also suspension arms that encompass the term. Most Japanese brand coil overs are over sprung and underdamped. What this means is the springs are really stiff, and the control of the spring is not where it should be. While that setup may be fine on very smooth roads, or very smooth tracks, here in the US, we generally have neither.
In order for you to be able to control the car, the tires have to maintain contact with the road/track surface. If the car is so stiff that the tire is bouncing up and down, and not contacting the road, you will not have control. There are many reasons not to over lower a car, or to make it too stiff. Stiffness does not equate fast or good handling. We see all kinds of Chinese branded coil over crap sold to unknowing young buyers. When you are young you might be able to live with shitty suspension, but as you get older, and have a chance to try out cars with hundreds of setups, you will probably much prefer a real coil over, vs some eBay crap.
As far as brands go, we like Ohlins. There are different levels of Ohlins, the newest are the DFV, or dual flow valve setups. Ohlins does a good job of matching spring to damping.
Ride Height : Don't go too low. The suspension has to be able to compress to work and control the tire Camber : The reason for camber, is not for you to fit the widest tire possible. Camber flattens out the tire as you are cornering. Too much camber negatively effects braking. Toe : You have 10 of them. Or rather it is the direction the tire is pointing. Toe in, or toe out. Toe in make a car more stable, toe out makes it a little less stable. Toe being off is the biggest wear of a tire. Caster : Shopping carts have casters. In a car it is self centering of the wheel, and steering effort related.
As far as adjustable parts go, if you don't know what they do, and how they interact with how the car handles, you might not want to mess with them. There are plenty of ways to adjust how a car handles, based on how you drive, and tire pressures, but lots of people want every piece of adjustable suspension component they can get, then leave it all stock settings. Don't be that guy.
Alignment, corner balancing are both very important things in making a car handle well. Most any shop can handle aligning a Nissan Skyline. The OEM specs are above. Once you get into a track car however, your alignment for the track, may/should be different than for a street car. Follow some of the MotoIQ information above to learn more about suspension and handling. I use Smart Strings to align my personal cars, and race cars I work on. This allows for a much more precise setup.
Corner balancing is done for cars with adjustable suspension. If you don't have aftermarket coil overs then you won't be corner balancing. If you do, then it is a critical step in making sure that the car is setup for the track. If you don't have the tools required, you have to find a shop that can help you properly corner balance your car.
This is a double edged sword. If the car is stock, you aren't on a crazy tire, and everything is in good order, then whatever the car has is probably fine. However...
10-60 is what we have found to be the best weight for a heavy run RB26.
Peter from Australia mentioned that I should let people know that the oil level should be filled to the bump/hump in the dipstick. We do talk about it in the basics and oil and filter change, but it might be missed. This overfill may help keep your oil pickup covered in oil. Very good idea for a near stock car that is tracked. Some pictures of oil pan level and that bump are here - https://www.gtrusablog.com/2019/08/rb26dett-oil-pan-testing-filling-it.html
Yes there is an entire book about nuts, bolts, fasteners, and plumbing
Nut and bolt is what we do to any car before we take it on track. It is a critical step to ensure that you have the minimal amount of mistakes or failures. You will hopefully save yourself a ton of time and effort if you just do some checking. You really want to touch, poke, prod, and shake everything on the car prior to going on track. You will find loose items, and fix them before they become an issue. Make sure you lift the car, and grab each wheel/tire at 12 and 6 o'clock and shake. Then grab them at 9 and 3 and shake. You are checking the condition of the wheel bearings, tie rods, and other suspension parts.
Nut and bolt involves taking wrenches, and other tools, and putting them on anything on the car that was touched, might fall off the car. So if you just replaced the brakes, then go back with a little clearer head, and double check them. Often what we do on race cars, is use two people, each with a paint marker that goes around the car, and puts a dot/mark on each nut or bolt they touch. Fast reference to make sure that you have the minimum amount of mistakes. We are all human, we all make mistakes, or miss a bolt.
The best paint marker we have tried and used, is the 1.8 mm to 2.5 mm Posca marker in Pink. Pink shows up on about anything. Easy to see, not expensive at about $5 each. Really worth it if you have things to mark.
11. Tow Hooks
Tow hooks are required for most track day event organizers. They want a safe, defined spot on your car, where they can move it, if it becomes disabled.
12. Fuel
Run good gas in your car. We could talk about octane, and octane requirements. But we just will say, run the good gas. Run the expensive gas. If you are blasting around the track, not paying attention to things like boost, or temperature, good gas may save your engine. So that few hundred dollars in the good stuff, may save you a $5k engine rebuild. If E85 is available, I recommend running it.
E85 fillup for Brians R32 GT-R. Do it don't look back.
13. Modifications
These are entirely optional. There are a metric fuckton of things you can do to a Nissan Skyline to make it preform better, or perhaps worse on track. Yes really. You really can make it worse. If you don't know the hows and whys of a modification, you should seek some help, or guidance. Aka low is good, so lower is better?
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