Off-Track "Excursion"

I posted this on the Racing Forum, but only got one response... help! Ijust got back from a one-day track day/DE at Streets of Willow Springs with the Fastlane School. Tons of fun and great learning experience. Pushed my 2003 996 coupe pretty hard and really learned how much more it can do than I ever imagined. I also learned what it/I cannot do - I slid off track twice into the dirt/gravel. I didn't seem to damage the car other than some nasty scrapes under the front bumper - you cannot see them unless you bend down and one of my wheels is scraped. One one of the slides, I got enough rocks between my tire bead and the rim that it went flat and I had to remove the tire, blow it clean and remount it. I was happy the Willow Springs Raceway tire shop was open and close! Anyway, when I got back and cleaned the enormous amount of dust and debris from inside and outside of the car, I realized that there were rocks in between the bead and rim on two other wheels - just not so bad that they aren't holding air. I brought it to a tire place and they cleaned them out. However, I didn't rebalance (I probably should've, I don;t know why I didn't), and now I'm wondering what else I shoudl do to ensure that the car is ok: 1. Should I have the wheels rebalanced? Similarly, should I have the alignment checked? It was not pulling on the drive home, but I spun pretty hard in the uneven dirt at about 65mph... 2. Should I have the brakes bled or fluid changed? 3. Anything else that I need to have checked after only one day driving hard - do my two off-road adventures necessitate checking things that I would otherwise not need to? This was unbelieveable fun and I will definitely do it again. I will back it off a bit next time. Thanks for your experienced advice on this. It's a new car (4k miles) and I feel guilty having beat it up like this. I know it's meant to be driven hard, but I think Porsche meant "on the road - not off". I do want to keep it in great shape for years to come.

I would have the wheels balanced if I felt any vibration. Alignment check might be a good thing but $$$. At the very least least one a season. You might want to look underneath the car for anything that might have been dinged and cracked. I lost one of the clamps that hold my AC lines under the car during an off road excusion. Have fun!

the tire shop should have marked the tires and their clocking so that rebalancing should not be necessary. Have a good luck under your car and dont worry about it. Clean it up and talk to her nicely, promissing to take her to the track again soon. But only if she doesn't act up. Have fun

You might consider bleeding the brakes, but changing the fluid should not be necessary.

Actually you should change the fluid the stock fluid sucks and boils pretty easy, but noting that he went off I think that you're probably right and he can get away with bleeding them given his rookiness, gee wiz, I am glad I wasn't on the track that day.

wait, was I supposed to be using the brakes?...

if you plan to track more in near future, i would replace stock brk fluid with ATE or motul 600.

Mooty - if I only plan to track 1-2x/year, should I change the fluid? Is there any DISADVANTAGE to changing the fluid beside the initial cost? This is my (only) daily driver, although because I live so close to work, I probably only do 6k miles/year.

I use the stock fluid and I have not yet experienced boiling. And I use the brakes!

No reason the bleed brakes if you had no braking problems. If you track the car change fluid every six months. ATE Super Blue or Amber is better than the Porsche Pentosin stuff. Motul and Castrol SRF are way better but very expensive for an occasional track day.

Hey, my first post, and somebody surely will get pissed off, and I don't even own a Porsche yet.. Anyway, just hanging around, looking to get a 2000 996....why, because I do track events and my Audi S4 just ain't cutting it. Anyway, a few comments about the track situation. First, I am wondering which kind of "school" is getting you off the track not once, but twice. Ok, once you are learning the limits of the car, maybe you get it a bit hot and go off the curb into a run off area on a turn...don't know, but twice...hmmm...and at 65mph on the dirt...that is dangerous...if you catch a wheel, you can go over, no joke... So, not sure how that happened, but if the instructor was telling you to push it, and you aren't comfortable, you tell them and don't pay attention, and only push it as far as you realistically can...anyway, I'm not expert, but this story is not a good one. Anyway, don't agree with some of the comments. Like, if you are tracking the car, only do it every 6 months. Most organized operations like Nasa require every 60 days to change the brake fluid...Porsche club in Florida requiresa mechnic to sign off on work to the car. I run with well organized events like Nasa Racing and their HPDE events. First, every 60 days, you are required to have the brake fluid changed. They don't require you to have a mechanic sign off on this at the HPDE events, you can sign the form yourself, but their is a reason for this, and skimping on some Motul brake fluid is not a good idea. Bleeding the brakes is ok. Changing the brake fluid isn't necessarily required, but I would definifitely bleed out at least a bottle of Motul/Castrol. Motul is much less expensive though. Wheels, it doesn't cost much to have them balanced, check for maybe a bend in the rim at the local shop...worth the while to have the tires high balanced every so often. Alignment, find someone in your area who knows Porsche well, also maybe race them...they can hook you up with a good alignment shop to align it properly for what you are going to do with the car. Next, check out www.nasaproracing.com or some other well known orgs like SCCA and read up on their tech requirements. You may only track the car a couple times a year, but when driving 120+mph, I would take all the advice to heart about prepping your car and maintaining it, it could be your life, no reason to risk it, it is risky enough already cranking around a track... Ok, sorry for the long post, just wanted to throw out a few points about tracking the car and prepping/maintaining it as many clubs require. See ya...

Thanks for the responses! I took the car in today - rear wheel was slightly bent. $550 for a new one ($300 to fix it and 2-3 weeks wait; since this is my daily driver, it made more sense to pony up for the new one). Maybe Since it's so minor, maybe I'll straighten the old one and keep it as a spare. The cost difference between bleeding the brakes and a full fluid flush/change was so minor that I went ahead and changed it. I used ATE super blue on a number of people's suggestions. Wheels are all being high-speed balanced. Alignment seems dead on so I'm leaving that for now. Not the cheapest "lesson" - but then again, I feel like I learned a lot about what the car feels like at it's/my limits and how to recognize it exceeding them. Probably a good lesson in the long run. I'll definitely be taking it easier the next time (and there will be a next time...). BTW, the instructors didn't push me one bit. I managed it all by myself.

Wow, bummer, bent rim, yeah not cheap to fix either way typically, good decision to just get another one. Yes, depends on who does your brake work, if you get to know a local shop who does work, maybe they will work with you on future brake work...another good idea to just change it with the good stuff. All true about learning your limits. A good instructor will tell you where a place is to try your limits, like late braking when there is 100 feet of run off pavement at the end, no harm really. But, if you managed it yourself, well, like you said, now you know. There should be signs of the car wanting to let loose though, especially street cars, they are forgiving and will give you many signs of going out of control... It is addictive, glad you didn't get discouraged and freaked, it is easy to do that...but, the only way to overcome and get better is "seat time." Good luck...

Was this a real DE or did you do the drive your own car option for the Fast Lane School? Seems that they turn people loose pretty quickly, and they have no real clue about line and car control. Do yourself a favor and sign-up for PDE, you will learn alot form some of the best.