Hey guys, I’ve been meaning to ask this for a while and I’d really like a few answers so hopefully this is a good time. Last year was my first time at the track and in all my extensive preparation I was advised to get a track alignment on the Cayman to increase cornering traction and minimize wear on my tires. The values for a stock Cayman S were well documented so I went with those. On the one hand, this may have been stupid to never experience a track event with my stock alignment as you certainly learn a lot from that, but on the other hand my tires fared amazingly well over the 6 track days.
Now, here’s my question. Should I try an event without the track alignment?
The benefits I think would be to know my car better going into the event because I’ve obviously spent more time on the street with the standard alignment. This would allow me to know when I’m at the limit better as that’s something I struggled with. I didn’t realize often when I felt like I was losing traction that I wasn’t going fast enough in the turns to make the camber work for me and in fact adding throttle made the car turn faster. Even when I did the right thing, I’m not used to the feeling of that grip vs the stock alignment grip around say an on-ramp.
I’m planning to get 4 new tires for track events this year but my current tires have at least another event on them so I’m not that worried about wrecking them. I also have the Miata now so I don’t just lose my only ride if my tires are bare.
On the other hand, I’ve done all my track days with that alignment so why should I change that when I’m still very much a novice? Shouldn’t I keep things similar until I actually need to change to get better?
This seems about right.