Here is a great introduction to driving your first lap of the Nurburgring

http://vimeo.com/22628993

great read guys thanks

Great read fella's got my first trackday on sunday at Snetterton. Nervous but also looking forward to it! This information has come in very handy

Watched a couple of you guys out on track today and you both looked to be going well.
Were you roof up or down?

There was a S written off round there on Friday!

Very very useful advice, thanks! My first track day is at Castle Combe at the end of June (under the wafer-thin pretence of being a birthday present for my Dad...) If we enjoy it then I plan on getting a few things done for future sessions - probably full Dixcel fast road/track setup, decent coilovers, bushings, geo setup etc... I'd better start saving now...

For the first session though I just want to make sure the car is safe whilst spending as little as possible! My pads look like they only have a couple of mm left on them so I'm going to replace those - what pads would people recommend for use with the stock discs (for 1 track day, followed by a 2000 mile road trip the month after)?

I'll also check the fluids, replace current brake fluid with some decent DOT4 as I don't know what's in there at the moment.

I'm running Bridgestone Potenza RE050 all round - they're not too far off needing replacing, how much tread depth should I have for the track? If possible I'd like to replace them after the track day (guessing they'll get pretty marbled), but before the road trip.

Great write up, thanks. Will apply this next month @ Bedford. Worth making sure that people know to check their nuts! Last time round Bedford for the day I lost a wheel nut on the drive home from the track. Check them twice in the day at least, at the same time as checking your tyre pressure. Both vary a lot from cold throughout the day in my very limited experience. :thumbup: