[Trackpack]

I now have 7500 miles on my daily driven 1LE. A track day at Raceway Park of the Midlands was just what I needed. Track prep was a catch can, oil change, swapped out rear diff fluid, added splash guards and paint protection film. The car holds nearly 14 quarts of oil but I still put in a 1/2 quart additional. (I have a history with General Motors drive train warranties that leads me to this behavior even when I know it doesn't matter.)

Edit: it holds 10 quarts of oil. Please strike the 14 from the record! Long day and 3 IPAs into the Cosworth Toolbox!

I have a good amount of track time over the last 15 years. Here's the string of cars: 91 Z28, 1994 Z28, 2001 Camaro SS, 2008 Corvette Z51, 2007 Lotus Exige S, and a 2015 Mustang GT Performance Package.

https://youtu.be/BoxdNvg8xTs

The Cosworth Toolbox for the PDR is out of this world! The day was moderate temp for Iowa and the car did ~100 miles on track. Water temp never went above 216, max oil temp was 275, and trans temp hit 192. Nothing to worry about.


I must be spending too much time in maintenance throttle as my best lap was 51.2% acceleration and 14% on the brake?

The clean laps I got were in Race mode on PTM. Just like the manual says I could mash the throttle prior to the apex and the car would feed it in. I'll need to be more controlled in my shifting or figure out a cover for the PTM switch. I found myself in snow mode more than once!

Now to my observations:
The brakes work but they start out mushy. I didn't get to brake fade but I would like more initial bite. My son's Mustang GT had rock solid brakes on stock pads?
Body roll didn't happen and the shocks made the car feel planted the entire time.
The large front tires make a huge difference. I didn't do the track alignment which would have given me a faster time. I can see the tires wearing on the outside half.
Engine water, oil, transmission, and tire temps were all fine. Nothing to worry about here.
The seats kept me as planted as much as possible without a harness. I still had to brace myself with my knees.
Driving home I noticed the clunking others have posted about and sure enough the top passenger side sway bar mount was slightly loose.
The car is calling out for Hoosier Rs and an aggressive front end alignment. This is probably another 2 seconds on a short track like RPM.
My guess is that with "all off" I can be another second faster. PTM is much safer and repeatable when combined with no lift shift and rev matching. I would have never guessed I would be excited about these technologies but they definitely made me safer on the track.

Impressive daily driver....

[mlee]

Love the PDR video on these cars. Looks like a fun time was had..

[Eric SS]

Glad you had fun! Was that a typo when you said You put in 14 quarts of oil? If you put in 14 you are way overfilled. Capacity is 10 quarts. Cheers.

As a side note, I have 5 track days and 3 Auto-x days on mine and it has not used a drop of oil (oil life monitor around 55% now). Some seem to use more oil than others but mine seems to be tight. Also, GM has denied warranty claims for a catch can during track use so be careful about throwing that tidbit around.

[Uncle Sam]

Hi! I think this car is for the true enthusiast. I had a 2008 Z51 Vette, Mustangs and ... wait for it ... a couple of Lotus! I traded my 2006 Elise Sport for this 1LE and I am hoping it will be as fun as my Lotus. Any comparisons?

Also, did you mean 14 quarts of oil TOTAL including coolers? I bought only 10 for the oil change and one extra quart for the track. My Sport held 9.5 total but I only changed six at each change.

[Trackpack]

Originally Posted by Eric SS

Glad you had fun! Was that a typo when you said You put in 14 quarts of oil? If you put in 14 you are way overfilled. Capacity is 10 quarts. Cheers.

I got that number from the manual which says 13.96 quarts for a 6.2 liter with auxiliary cooler. Without a cooler it is showing 11.84 quarts. I just topped off whatever was in there with a half quart more. This is probably a big reason why it wouldn't overheat the oil. The catch can had about 1.5" of oil.

It was a ton of fun. I got into my son's Mustang GT and it felt loose in comparison. The technology in these cars is amazing.

[Trackpack]

The front tire wear was biased to the outside given that I didn't do the track alignment. I thought this would be too aggressive of an alignment when 99% of the time the car is on the highway in a straight line. Tire temps went as high as 180 degrees. I'm not sure what the temp range is on the stock tires but they didn't feel greasy.

[Eric SS]

Originally Posted by Trackpack

I got that number from the manual which says 13.96 quarts for a 6.2 liter with auxiliary cooler. Without a cooler it is showing 11.84 quarts. I just topped off whatever was in there with a half quart more. This is probably a big reason why it wouldn't overheat the oil. The catch can had about 1.5" of oil.

It was a ton of fun. I got into my son's Mustang GT and it felt loose in comparison. The technology in these cars is amazing.

That's odd. I'm pretty sure that the 1LE and standard SS have the same oil capacity and coolers.

[JeromeS13]

Originally Posted by Eric SS

That's odd. I'm pretty sure that the 1LE and standard SS have the same oil capacity and coolers.

OP is referring to the COOLANT capacity... Page 351 of the owner's manual states 13.96 qts for the "Engine Cooling System"... Page 352 specifies 10.0 qts for "Engine Oil with Filter"...

[Trackpack]

Originally Posted by JeromeS13

OP is referring to the COOLANT capacity... Page 351 of the owner's manual states 13.96 qts for the "Engine Cooling System"... Page 352 specifies 10.0 qts for "Engine Oil with Filter"...

Yes, I referenced the wrong category. 10qt for oil plus the half extra I put in;}

[Eric SS]

Originally Posted by Trackpack

Yes, I referenced the wrong category. 10qt for oil plus the half extra I put in;}

Did you put 14 or 10 quarts in? You say you referenced the wrong section but also mention that you put in 14 + 1/2 extra in your original post.

[Trackpack]

Originally Posted by Uncle Sam

Hi! I think this car is for the true enthusiast. I had a 2008 Z51 Vette, Mustangs and ... wait for it ... a couple of Lotus! I traded my 2006 Elise Sport for this 1LE and I am hoping it will be as fun as my Lotus. Any comparisons?

I still have the Exige S and it is intended to primarily be a track car. Stock it was 220 horse and now it's ~310. As you know, the feeling is very different. I'm sad to say that this 1LE is faster around my home track despite weighing 1600 pounds more! Nothing will beat the feeling, sounds and smell of the Lotus.

Check out this Exige S doing 1:35 around the same track my 1LE did 1:42.

https://youtu.be/eQjixKvTc3k

[Th3Beast]

Trackpack, for you comment about how the stock brake pads feel...

I am on my 3rd track day with the factory pads (Motul 660 fluid however). The first event I felt the pedal was soft and as they got hot it needed a lot more pedal travel than I like. They didn't fade, just needed a lot of pedal.

The next two events, the day before I went out and burnished the pads in (bedding) by doing about 8-10x 60-5mph progressively harder stops. Then after the last one driving for a few miles to cool them off. The goal of course is to get a nice transfer layer of pad material to the rotors. The rotors should look blue'ish/gray when done. After doing that, my brakes feel awesome at the track. Even on Sebring where there are multiple brake zones from 115-140mph they did great.

Could the car benefit from more aggressive track pads, sure, but then I feel there is more of a chance to out brake the stock tires. I personally don't need to dive on the brakes at marker 3 lol.

[Trackpack]

I too am still on the stock pads and with over 7k miles on the clock the pads are bedded. I was surprised by the soft pedal. The car stopped cleanly and the brakes didn't fade. This was a completely different feel than the 2015 Mustang GT Performance Package. This car has very strong initial byte. The SS brakes are much better for every day driving than the Mustang which is hard to brake smoothly. Interesting how the two manufacturers approach braking differently.

[formoutofchaos]

Try using SRF brake fluid and a flush i found the brakes to bite more