Took my Vantage to a road course last Sat & Sun. Each day it was on the track for 2 grueling hours spread throughout the day. The track is almost 2 miles with 10 turns that vary from 75mph to 20mph and a straightaway that I got up to 105mph. Overall it’s a very fast track with high speed cornering. You’re on the track with 10-15 other cars at a time. The main types of cars at the track were Porsche, M3, Lotus and Miata. Several were not street legal.

I’m thrilled to report that the Vantage got a lot of praise and attention from both those on the track with me and the drivers who were spectators waiting for their turn. The main comments were that people were impressed it had so much power to pull out of the turns so quickly and that it stayed planted in the turns considering how much it weighs. So, it more than held its own among those folks and I passed cars a lot more than somebody passed me.

Other than many many comments about its great looks, spectators were also full of praise about how great it sounded banging through the gears on the straightaway. I asked my instructor why the sound was getting so many comments considering all of the cars out there tended to be very loud. He said that the throaty V8 engine is a rare treat for these whiny V6 guys. So, kudos to that as well.

I have Bridgestone Potenzas. 3 of them held up great with no visible wear on the edges. I pushed it as hard as I could in the corners, so they weren’t being babied. That’s evidenced by the melted tire pieces stuck to my wheels and along the side of my car (they easily clean off). For the front left tire it feathered up pretty bad on the tread.

I had the track pads replaced with performance road pads awhile back. I’m going to put the track pads back on it before I do this again. The breaks held up well, but didn’t have quite the stopping force I expected. A few times under hard braking they went soft, but by the time the next corner came up they were back to normal. Somebody said that could be the type of brake fluid I was using.

I’ve taken a Gallardo and F430 out on a track in the past. The Vantage can’t compare to their weight and power. But, I’m pleased to report the Vantage was just as satisfying.

 

I'm quite pleased to hear that you enjoyed your time on track. I enjoy road courses as well, and I'm also contemplating picking up a Vantage.

Which track did you go to?

 

druid, glad to hear you had a good time on course, I enjoy road racing more than any other form of motorsport. I hope you're hooked now.

Adam, you're seriously considering a Vantage? That would be awesome.

 

Druid, congrats. Love to hear about Vantage owners that take theirs to the track. Definitely not the norm.

 

Took it to Putnam Park in Indiana (not far from Indy). http://www.putnampark.com/Gallery.html Beautiful course with many challenges.

I think I will easily become hooked. I have to think some more about the additional expense for both the entry fees and the repair/replace/inspect costs. Not sure how often I'll do this, but my concern will be the expense...not from a feeling that I'm torturing my car. It was made to do this.

 

It typically costs me anywhere from $700-$1,000 per track day pending on which track I go to (I typically run at Virginia International Speed or Carolina Motorsports Part) and what time of year, and also what breaks.

CMP I normally drive home without brakes (long story), and VIR has been generally incident free the few times I've run there, just a couple off track moments.

 

Yeah, the wife is ok with me picking up a used Vantage. I'm pretty stoked about it. She is on the fence as to which one she'll drive.

 

You and your wife are awesome, haha. We need to get back on track together sometime soon. Hitting VIR anytime soon?

Then the Vantage just needs to make the trip to Wilmington for a supercharger system.

 

^ I'm headed back to CMP in Oct, and then the car is done for the year. I'm picking up a track beater (probably Ford Mustang), so I can do this more often. I've been to VIR quite often over the last 2 years.

I've seen your posts about the supercharger. It is becoming quite hard to NOT look at them.

 

Right on, what year Mustang? SN95? S197? Gutted and caged, Griggs Racing suspension/braking system with a little extra power = go kill everything on street tires.

Haha, well keep it in mind. I've also got a design for a twin-turbocharger system together, E-Mail me if you want some details so I can stop destroying druid's thread.

 

Awesome!!! The Vantage has such a great chassis, and all the 'underpowered' comments soon go out the window when you see how much fun it is to put it through it's paces.

Did you see the thread on the AMOC trackday in September? Probably a little bit of a drive for you but it's going to be a blast.

Drop me a line if you're interested in a few upgrades - a lot of our customers do trackdays and stuff like the brake cooling kit or SS remap are really, really popular, and in some cases, they pay themselves back in saving brakes and keeping you on track!

 

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...sc-tuning.html

Should have posted a link really! It's at Gingerman Raceway, about 50 miles South of Grand Rapids, so maybe it's not too far for you to come from Indiana!

 

Had my first track experience today and the Vantage was responsive, stable & reliable. Looking forward to more days in the future.

 

Just finished 3 consecutive days at on the track with my 09 Vantage Roadster. The track here is short in comparison but with all the technical components thrown in so needless to say, very hard on the brakes. It was more of a coincidence that I ended up using the Vantage instead of my Porsche. Took the Porsche 997 on the first day and had to limp it home in the morning to swap with the Aston due to engine troubles. The Aston performed admirably considering the only mods on the car are lowered and slightly wider forged wheels with performance street tires. Was able to catch everyone except for the Porsche GT3, GT3RS and Turbo's. A bit of negative camber and some stickier tires would have helped faster corners but not much I can do on the straights other than pedal to the metal. burned through the stock brakes with less than 3500km on the car and will have to replace them. Will probably do a brake fluid change to higher temp fluids at the dame time. Any suggestions on pads other than Pagid Yellows ? Oh nad turning off the DSC is a must. Was a bit hesitant at first due to the fact our track has a lot of concrete walls but shutting it off on the 3rd day made it even more fun and a lot faster without the intrusive DSC cutting in all the time. One thing that I will need to address is high speed stability if I want to use this as a regular track car. I found the car a bit loose on the straight full out but nothing alarming. Overall, a worthy track weapon. Can't wait to get my hands on a the Vantage V12 so I could give some of the Porsche boys a run.

 

I'm assuming you were out at Mission? I'm heading out this weekend for the historic racing. If you're killing brakes you might consider our Ram Air brake cooling kit - a few people on here have some experience with that and were happy with the results. If you want to go even further we worked with Brembo to develop a GT braking kit for the DB9 and Vantage that gives even more stopping power.