Trackday Diaries: All Those (Not So) Stupid Rules, Explained

“Why can’t we have coolant in the car when we’re racing?” It was getting close to midnight and I was still trying to get the undertray off our MX-5 Cup car so I could drain the distilled water and get coolant into the radiator. There was a bit of a time factor involved; the temperature was scheduled to dip below freezing in the hours to come, and if the water froze in the engine block we would have serious problems. Danger Girl understood perfectly well why we couldn’t let our little Mazda make it through the night without coolant in the engine, but she didn’t quite understand why we didn’t have coolant in there to begin with.

In her honor, and for the enlightenment of every would-be track rat who has been afraid to ask why such-and-such a rule exists, I’ve picked seven slightly opaque trackday or racing rules and explained them below. Even if you never plan to set foot or tire on a road course, this might still of be of interest… or not. What can I say? I tried to get you to click the jump. Click the jump already!

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  • Master Baiter Ditch the Giga-casting and Robo-taxi. I'd rather have a turn signal stalk.
  • Pig_Iron If it's not hurting anyone, what's the problem? We have a lot bigger problems to deal with like the failure to prosecute the 5-29 insurrectionists. ✌
  • MaintenanceCosts This is already illegal for several reasons. Is this a new redundant law, or is this just an announcement that the police are actually going to be enforcing the law as is?(Also, most lifts at all 4 corners are illegal too, although it's almost never enforced.)
  • Jkross22 I get Lexus much more now, especially this era. This seems to be the sweet spot for reserved styling, comfort and reliability. No turbos, integrated screen, hard buttons and knobs, good to great stereos, great seats. Still have some pangs of desire for the GS-F for all of the above reasons and V8 sounds, but this is the smarter choice.
  • Canam23 I had a 2014 GS350 that I bought with 30K miles and the certified unlimited four year warranty. After four and a half years I had 150K miles on it and sold it to Carmax when I moved to France a little over two years ago. As you can see I ran up a lot of work miles in that time and the Lexus was always quick, comfortable and solid, no issues at all. It was driving pretty much the same as new when I let it go and, and, this is why it's a Lexus, the interior still looked new. I bought it for 30K and sold it for 16K making it the most economical car I've ever owned. I really miss it, if you have to drive a lot, as I did in my job, it is the perfect car. Some may argue the Camry or Accord would foot that bill, but I say nay nay, you really want the comfort and rear wheel drive of the Lexus. Keep it forever Corey, you won't regret it.