QOTD: What Makes A Good Track Package
The V6 Mustang reviewed yesterday wouldn’t be the car it was without the Track Package, which provides pretty substantial upgrades to the brakes and suspension.
With plenty of you having track experience in one form or another, it’s worth asking, what makes a good track package, and who does it right. Conversely, who does it poorly? If I had to give my two cents, I’d say good brakes are worth more than anything when it comes to a factory track car. In our comparison test with the Scion FR-S, the Hyundai Genesis Coupe and the Mazda MX-5 the lower weight and tossable handling of the FR-S and overall fun factor of the MX-5 were both worth little when they had to be brought in after a few laps. The Genesis, with its superior Brembos, resisted a brake apocalypse far longer than the other two.
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Brakes, tires and seat, in that order. Everything else is nice, but not strictly a deal killer.
Call me crazy, but I think the Regal GS does a good job of this as far as the upgrades go. You can argue it is too heavy, but lets just look at the upgrades. Brakes Tires Suspension Seats More power (ehh, more optional in my opinion for a track pack) Transmission (probably not going to happen in most track packs)
No. 1 would be cooling. Keep the stock size brakes, but add some ducts such that you can upgrade pads and fluid and not have them overheat. Make sure the engine, gearbox, diff and everything else have adequate cooling too. No. 2 would be camber. Especially for fwd cars, make the camber adjustable so that the car can be aligned tosuch theatrical the tire does not roll over onto its outside edge. No.3 would be engine tune. A quick way to disable any electronic nannies, including brake assist, and provide a direct, linear throttle response. That means no dbw tricks like increasing throttle response or reducing emmisions on throttle application or lift resulting in delayed response. Now we're down to seats, diff, gear ratios, suspension.
Brake upgrade(size, material, cooling), seat upgrade, tire upgrade(Max or above) and limited slip diff. I think the first. Brake is a must IMO, seat sorta depends on how good the regular ones are. I doubt OEM will give the car good enough tires, but better ones than the run of the mill all seasons that cars seem to come with these days would be nice. Most people who track will end up buying their own flavor of tires anyway. Factory installed LSD will always be a nice option...