With funds running low this year, I’ve been pretty selective about what events to attend. Thus far I’d only done one HPDE back in April, but when I found out a bunch of friends were going to the July trackcross I couldn’t say no.
There was, however a problem. The last HPDE completely toasted my front brakes. Having run Porterfield’s street and autocross HP-R4S pads for almost a decade on other cars, that’s what I put on the Corolla as well. While they perform flawlessly on the street and even at trackcross events, the temperatures generated during HPDE are just too intense. The pads glazed and basically melted to the rotors, leaving deposits causing a vibration. Also the pad material had lost most of its friction, requiring much harder pedal pressure to slow the car.
With only a few days to spare, a new set of rotors (whopping $13 a piece!) were installed, along with a set of pads that should be able to handle the heat. These R4 pads are rated for track use and are supposedly not very street friendly.
Another issue that had popped up was air in the brake system. After installing the proportioning valve, I’d had trouble getting all the air out of the system by traditional two-person means. I’ve never been a huge fan of vacuum-based bleeders, so I picked up a pressure bleeder and proper master cylinder adapter off Amazon. After a.... somewhat messy learning phase, all the air was removed and a solid pedal returned.
With the work done just in time, trackcross was a great way to test out the new splitter and brake system.
With the heat index hovering close to 100*F, conditions were good for a heat stress test on every component (check out those blued rotors!), including the nut behind the wheel. I almost tapped out of the last run of the day due to the heat, but luckily I didn’t as it ended up being my fastest run!
Fortunately everything held together well and, with some adjustments, the new brake system performed flawlessly.
Next up: two-day HPDE weekend in September!
Miscellaneous non-Corolla stuff - I had to do the oil pan seal on my daily driver Matrix XRS and found something kinda interesting.
The Toyota 2ZZ-GE engine has exactly zero baffling in the oil pan. No wonder they have slosh/starvation issues. Apparently the lame 1ZZ even has a factory baffle. Why Toyota would omit that from the high performance version is completely.....baffling.
Supposedly a 1ZZ oil pan will fit with minor modification and only cost like $25 on RockAuto so next oil change I might swap pans. Seriously though, WTF Toyota? And since I don’t know how to finish this up, here’s a picture from the last Cars and Coffee of my MR2 with its Italian uncle.
And since I don’t know how to finish this up, here’s a picture from the last Cars and Coffee of my MR2 with its Italian uncle.