[pyxen]

...coming soon. Just wanted to tease.

All about the:
- Handling
- Braking
- Transmission
- ... and more!

With video and more!

Calabogie Motorsports Park »

 

[PLP]

little too far away...

 

[275836]

...coming soon. Just wanted to tease.

All about the:
- Handling
- Braking
- Transmission
- ... and more!

With video and more!

Calabogie Motorsports Park »

Darnit, you got me all excited. Now I have to wait longer.

 

[M3Chef]

That looks like a very nice track!

 

[1Bigball]

You made me click this for nothing.....

 

[pyxen]

Got all my video and pics offloaded, and need to cut up a few laps before sharing..

I thoroughly pushed the car, so have a really good idea of what it can and can't do well.

I'll get a write-up finished on Monday! I'm way way too busy to focus on it right now...it's coming tho

That looks like a very nice track!

Chef...nice doesn't cut it - it's a phenomenal location.

 

[PLP]

I thoroughly pushed the car, so have a really good idea of what it can and can't do well.

I wish there was one near here... I would not have to use parking lots and such.

 

[pyxen]

My Trackday Experience with the Elantra GT :shades:

Friday May 24th, 2013, I spent the day at Calabogie Motorsports Park, near Calabogie, Ontario. I was the (paying) guest of the Motorsports Club of Ottawa (MCO), who were hosting a lapping day at one of the best facilities in North America. At 5.05KM (3.1 miles), and 20 corners, it's also one of the longest - with a significant change in elevation throughout the length of the course. We were on the long track, and made the best of every inch of it!

Car Prep

Car prep was pretty simple - the MCO provides you with a checklist for inspection you're to sign and hand in, guaranteeing that your car is road-worthy, and in good repair. They recommend that you have a licensed mechanic sign off on it, but since my GT is so new, and I'd been behind the wheels a few times already, I knew I had no issues with the brake pads or fluid, suspension, engine fluids, etc... it was a pretty easy prep this time.

The one thing I did do was take anything I could out of the car! All loose items had to come out, but I went as far as removing the rear seats to lose some weight! Let me tell you -- the 60% side of the rear seatbacks is really heavy. There's an integrated seatbelt mechanism, and it probably weighs a good 30-40 lbs, which *had* to come out.. the underfloor storage came out of the trunk, and at the track, the spare and tools all came out. Road noise was in full effect....

The Drive

So how did the car do? In a word: fan-fricken-tastic.

Yes, I have the KYB shocks in the back so that helped a bit, and yes, I have the K&N so maybe got a tiny bit more power at the top end (where I spent 90% of my time), but the stock GT is a very capable corner-carver...once you're comfortable with how the weight shifts around.

While for the weeks leading up to the trackday I was worrying about upgrading this and that, it ended up that whatever I ordered or tried to find either never shipped on time, or just wasn't available. As it turns out, I really didn't need any of it.

Brakes

One of the major areas I really thought I needed more power was the brakes. Once scrubbed in, and once the driver is comfortable with pushing the pedal *way* harder than one does on the street, you realize that the brakes on this car are actually really good. I didn't once notice any significant brake fade that made me pucker up -- sure there were some spots where the brakes started to feel a little softer, but a bit more pressure from the boot got the job done. Right now, back on the street, the brakes aren't feeling like they did before the trackday (as far as I remember), so a little TLC is definitely in order - maybe just a bleed, to get some firmness back is all it'll take. I definitely don't feel unsafe with them at all..and maybe it's just that I got used to braking so aggressively on the track that it feels a little wierd not to.

Acceleration

Going in I knew for a fact that the car wouldn't get me from A to B very quickly in a straight line, but I found out that while I can't compete with any of the large displacement cars out of the corners, in the corners this thing is a blast to drive. I've never spent so much time with my foot flat on the floor!

With it's relatively light weight, I was able to hold my drive into the corners deeper than the bigger/faster cars, and close distances nice and quickly. While the cars I was driving with were admittedly driven by novices like myself, mustangs, chargers, a G8, 370z, even a porsche fell to the might of the little GT.

One point on traction control -- for the morning sessions I had it on, and it worked as expected. For the afternoon I turned it off because it was interfering with the feel out of corners...when you cook the tires a little too hard coming out, the TC does engage a bit -- so it's never completely completely off.

Steering/Suspension

The suspension upgrade to the rear end that Hyundai did over the sedan definitely came into use here. While a stock GT may suffer a little more than mine did from the rear-end hops found on the street, with the KYBs installed the car felt amazingly planted and took turns really well. The rear end never felt like it was out of control, and by the end when I was really pushing the car, it did start to feel slightly loose - which is exactly what you want in a FWD car, and what the integrated sway-bar is supposed to do! With the traction control on, understeer was pretty much non-existant, because the car would just shut down the drive anytime it felt like it was going to spin.... With it off, the car would certainly push hard out of a corner, and having the rear end coming around a bit helped drift laterally a little bit. I'm really looking forward to getting the Progress Tech bar installed, and heading back out early July (next trackday). The front could be damped a little bit better - but I really have nothing to complain about. I got a ride in a buddy's Focus ST the other day, and noticed the difference between the cars. Now, I'm not actually comparing the GT to the ST, because they're definitely built with different levels of performance in mind, but while he was able to run 2'45s around the same track I did - he was only 8 seconds faster than my 2'53. I'd put the win in the GT column, frankly...

Rubber

So each GT that hits the street gets general purpose all-season tires (afaik), and they were definitely the limiting factor for this day. I've never experienced so much tire squeal in my life. I'm not saying that Hyundai spec'd the wrong tires, because they're decent for what they're intended for, but on a track my basic Nexen econo-rubber ended up getting DESTROYED by the end.

I've rotated the tires, so have the rears up front now... in another thread (I think the brake pad thread) I linked to a post about this car being nose-heavy and not bothering to do anything about the rear brakes... the rear tires are definitely evidence of that, because while they're slightly scuffed around the edges, they're more or less fine.. the fronts have huge chunks ripped out of them, uber-cupping, and look like they're 100 yrs old. First on the list now are 18x8 rims, and (at least) 225 summer tires.. If I need spacers to fit, I'll get 'em.

I don't know if I'll bother getting summer/better tires for normal driving, because any significant pushing I do will probably be on a track now - basic all-seasons will last longer everyday, and I'll have my fun in a closed environment.

Transmission :3gears:

So here's where things get interesting... Two words: freak out. :blink:

The Elantra GT's gearbox, while pretty good driving at regular rates of speed, shifting fairly comfortably, gets super pissy when you're pushing the snot out of it. The gears at time are hard to engage (up, not only down), and as a result they don't always go into gear as you expect them to. :wallbash:

A perfect example is turning onto the main straight of a track, pulling to 6500rpm in 3rd, going to choose 4th, missing the shift, and flooring it again...racing the engine, and finding out that when that happens, the tach shuts down, the engine won't rev up above around 1500rpm, and the traction control light stays on constantly. :wacko:

This is one of the most disconcerting things that can happen on a track, as you start to focus on "WTF just happened to my car!?", and worrying about whos coming up behind you as you scramble to get thru 3 uphill turns, and pull off on the grass of the back straight... As you can guess, this happened. :mellow:

Twice.

Apparently the Elantra GT has some serious safety mechanisms in place.

Luckily, if this happens to you ever just know that once you turn off the car and turn it back on (can probably do this while rolling and the clutch in even), it seems to reset itself. I don't know for sure if it's immediate or if you need to give it a few/30 seconds for the computer to stop going nuts, but it drives perfectly well afterwards. My best sessions of the day came after these freak outs, so nothing came of it. Good car. :beer: :clap:

Best advice is pulling hard to 6K, roll off the throttle, and shift right there -- no sense pushing much past, since you'll run out of power soon anyways.

Next Steps

So as mentioned above, I'll be looking at installing a few new additions to the car...

1) Progress Tech 19mm sway bar in the rear, and really want to see how the car behaves with it
2) 18x8 wheels with at least 225 width summer tires
3) Performance brake pads up front
4) Slotted performance brake discs up front
5) Aftermarket exhaust to evacuate the extra air the K&N is bringing in
6) *MAYBE* custom ECU tune...I have a guy here in Ottawa who is amongst the few in the world doing actual ECU reverse-engineering, so there's some potential there.. If we can recover some of the low-end power in this car, and get rid of the lean lean fueling, there's some fun to be had!! Otherwise, could also look at the Dynojet CMD, assuming they have a universal model that will interface with the GT injectors. They do have one for the Genesis, so it's possible..

Video!

For your viewing pleasure, here's some bumper-cam video of my 2nd last session, and dashcam video of my very last session. These two were definitely my fastest of the day, and while it doesn't look it from the footage (always looks slower), the car was cookin'

3:30pm session (starts at 2'40):

4:30pm session:

Thanks for reading!! Highly recommend getting out for a performance school near you, if you have one, and experiencing the full potential of this car. It's changed my driving style for sure, and given me much more confidence in the GT. :auto:

 

[MEC-777]

Tracking is a HECK of a lot of fun!!! Should upload my footage running my civic at Cayuga road course 2 years back. Never had more fun in my life!

Interesting reading about the issues with the manual shifter in these conditions. In most cases, cable-shifters are finicky when it comes to quick shifting. Sounds like the Elantra's 6M is no exception to that rule and made me feel just a little better about opting for the 6AT. I'd be very interested to go head to head with another Elantra, 6m vs my 6at.

Great write-up, none-the-less. Looking forward to reading it in more detail and watch the vids when I get home from work.

 

[M3Chef]

Great write-up! You are now on a financially downward spiral due to mods, track fees, consumables (tires, brakes pads/rotors/fluid), extra wheels with track tires, magnetic numbers, and all manner of real-time telemetry gadgetry.

Welcome to the club.

 

[Flying Turtle]

Very cool, Tim. Thanks for showing us armchair racers what our little GTs can do. I think I'm too old for that much fun.

Geoff

 

[Frelo]

Great post Tim. Thanks for sharing. I am looking forward to trying out my stock 6AT GT at Mirabel on Tuesday nigh. I ran a few fast turns of a road north of Montreal in the fall & was quite happy with the way it handled. Could use a bit more power, but still a blast to drive. :-D

 

[PLP]

It's changed my driving style for sure, and given me much more confidence in the GT.

Well, well, well...
much fun.

A few questions.

1. How much does it cost to have one session (a few laps)? They do post prices, but I was wondering if one wanted to drive say - 5 laps only...

2. Fuel economy??

3. What does GOPR stand for?

 

[warpdriv]

great write-up Tim... and enjoyed the videos, especially the second one where the camera was inside the car... the CAI and tires howl sound gave much more of sense of speed and how hard you were working. That looked like a lot of fun.
I will check out the track days at Toronto Motorsports Park near me.
I did some organized and competative go kart racing a few years back... enjoyed it a lot. Somedays you did well, others just average.



well done.
Brad

 

[275836]

PYXEN:

Awesome write-up and awesome video!!!

 

[pyxen]

Great write-up! You are now on a financially downward spiral due to mods, track fees, consumables (tires, brakes pads/rotors/fluid), extra wheels with track tires, magnetic numbers, and all manner of real-time telemetry gadgetry.

Welcome to the club.

Thanks Chef - I'm glad to be in!

Here's the roof-cam for the 4th session. More wind noise than i'd like, so I'll need to find a better way to place the camera next time -- closer to the roof, I guess.

Thanks all!

@PLP --

1. How much does it cost to have one session (a few laps)? They do post prices, but I was wondering if one wanted to drive say - 5 laps only...
Places like Mirabel and Shannonville off the 401, near Toronto do that, but 'bogie, is more of a day thing. It's a "lapping facility", so they tend to rent the whole track out, and not have one off per lap evenings. I think it's about $50/30 minute session..but I think the min. organized is a 2 hour lapping session, so 2 sessions out if a red (slow) & blue (fast) group setup. From what I gather, it's usually around $400 an hour to rent the track.

2. Fuel economy??
I found it was about 100% worse...so when I was leaving the track to fill up, I had around 19.1 L/100KM I'm usually between 8.5 and 9 L/100KM. Not too bad for foot to the floor!

3. What does GOPR stand for?
It's the standard prefix for GoPro videos.

You guys down in the GTA should consider making the trek up to Calabogie for the July 8 afternoon session (check MCrg for details). It'd be awesome to have a bunch of GTs on the track at once Not sure if it was just the day, but when I was at Mosport (Canadian Tire Motorsports Park now), there were a ton of tuners...not the case at 'bogie, just a lot of good guys and fun/normal cars.

 

[GusHassen]

"but I went as far as removing the rear seats to lose some weight! Let me tell you -- the 60% side of the rear seatbacks is really heavy. There's an integrated seatbelt mechanism, and it probably weighs a good 30-40 lbs, which *had* to come out"

How difficult was it to take off the rear seats???

 

[pyxen]

super super easy -- fold 'em forward, and then on the bottom corners there's little triangle velcro tabs that you open up. A bolt under each removes the seats from the tabs that rotate the seatbacks forward. I think it's a 12mm bolt.

The larger of the two backs needs to have the seatbelt bracket removed from beneath the bench though, so you'll need to lift those, too. 14mm bolt there, iirc.

To do that, you pull up on the front of the seats themselves, and then they kind of swing forward and up into the backseat foot area out of the way.

 

[LeMeez]

Looks like fun Tim, I've always wanted to do that but not with this car. Maybe when I get myself a real toy, I'll go there.

 

[pyxen]

Bah! July 8!