Hello Kansas City and welcome back to the Bespoke Automotive Refinement podcast. We’re so glad that you’ve joined us today to talk about track racing. Now before we start, Thomas, can you tell them a little bit about Bespoke Automotive Refinement and what we have to offer the Kansas City Car Detailing clients that we have? So we are the highest rated Kansas City Car Detailing service in Missouri.
We offer very high level, high end car detailing services. We offer everything from interior cleaning, steam cleaning, shampooing, extraction, to three levels of paint correction. So whether you are wanting your car to just be polished, to look new again, or if you’re wanting a full paint correction, ceramic coating package, we do all of that.
All right, today we’re breaking down some more track racing and Thomas does offer Kansas City Car Detailing services and Kansas City Car Detailing packages to his clients that do track racing. You said earlier like there’s things you have to clean off of it, you have to protect it, you gotta maintain it, and this is a great way to do so. Absolutely.
All right, um question number one, how do you decide what tires to run while track racing or any sort of racing? Stickier the better. So if you’re drag racing or you’re doing any type of heads up racing, I always ran Mickey Thompson ET Streets, which are a drag slick. So if you look at the tire, it’s smooth.
There’s very little grooves in it. That’s a tire that the hotter it gets, the stickier it gets. Typically run it at a lower, you run low air in it, so like the Jeep that we’re driving right now has 36 psi in it.
When I was drag racing, my rear tires only had 11 psi in them. You want the tire to be able to crinkle and you want the sidewall to wrinkle. That’s what’s going to allow the car to hook.
If you’re racing on a track, going around corners, the best tire, and they’re the most expensive, but they are the best tire are Michelin Pilot Super Sport Cup 2s. They’re sticky. They don’t last very long, but they are the best tire for cornering.
They add so much grip and a car that maybe naturally would have a lot of understeer is going to feel like you just changed the steering ratio or like it’s going to oversteer. Michelin Pilot Super Sport Cup 2s are the best tire for road racing or autocross. Next question.
What are your opinions on Aero Mods? Are they worth it or overrated? If you’re drag racing, yes, overrated. If you’re racing around a track, no, not overrated. I also think it depends on are you a weekend warrior? Are you a guy that has a car that you drive to work every day? A lot of people do that.
A lot of people, the car that they take to work every day is going to be the car that they take to the track on the weekends. Do you want a huge wing and front canards and large front splitter on your car? Probably not. If you’re taking it to Starbucks in the morning, you probably don’t want that.
But if it’s a track purpose car, Aero is a great thing to have. Do you know why you have a spoiler on the back of a car? Well, if you see a big spoiler on a Hyundai Sonata or something, it’s because someone’s trying to look cool. But if you see it on a CR1 Corvette or the GT2 and the GT3RS, Porsches have them to keep the back end of the car planted to the ground when going into a corner.
That allows the car to stay more planted. Going into a corner, it keeps it closer to the ground. It’s called downforce.
Downforce is like actual air. The faster the car goes, the more air is being pushed down planting the car to the ground. No, I don’t think it’s overrated.
I think it can be overrated if you’re putting it on a street car. I still like the way a big wing looks on certain cars though. If somebody was to get into track racing and they want their current car, but it’s built for the roads, what would be the first thing that you would change? The wheels are the most important.
What would be the most important thing you would change first? The brakes. Brakes and tires. Road racing is extremely expensive because you’ll go through a set of brakes in a weekend.
The last thing you want is to show up to the track with old crappy brakes and you go into a corner at 120 miles an hour and you press the brake pedal and your foot goes to the floor. That’s how Ken Miles died. You know who that is, right? That’s how he died.
They didn’t put brakes on that car. The brakes failed. He flew off the road going 150.
So, brakes and then tires. You want a good set of tires that are sticky. They’ll keep you planted to the ground.
I like to think that oversteer is way better than understeer. Understeer is very scary. It’s a very scary feeling.
Understeer is when you go into a corner and you turn the wheel and the car isn’t gripping as it turns. So, even though you’re turning the wheel, the car isn’t turning the way you want it to. Oversteer is you turn the wheel a little bit and it turns.
That’s what the GT Porsches do. Like the GT2 and the GT3. Really, all 911s oversteer but they do it in such a way that you can control it versus like a base model Corvette understeers horribly because it’s designed, you know, to be driven like the way your dad drove his C6.
You know, took it to dinner, took it to coffee. If he’s taking it around some curvy roads, it’s fun but on a track, that car is going to suck because base model Corvettes have a ton of understeer. Makes sense.
What’s the most underrated upgrade for track performance? Tires. Tires. Everyone wants to put, and this is such a guy thing, and when I went from drag racing to wanting to get into road racing, it was something I had to train out of myself.
I wanted to spend money on the car going fast but the reality is a 350 horsepower car with proper tires, proper suspension, and proper brakes is going to be way more effective on a road course than a 700 horsepower car with street tires and a bad set of brakes. So tires and brakes for sure. Makes sense.
What’s your favorite track you’ve ever driven or been to? I’ve only raced on two. Pallet is genuinely fun and I’m really lucky that the first track I ever got to race on was at Pallet. It’s designed specifically for road cars, street cars.
It’s not designed for Formula One. I would love, I would love someday to race at Willow Springs in California. It’s a beautiful track.
Koda, my brother-in-law used to have a Porsche 911 Turbo S and he took it around Koda and it was, he said it was one of the coolest experiences ever. Koda is a Formula One track. Okay.
So that’s where whenever F1 comes to the United States, they race at Koda and he actually ran his 911 Turbo and his Ferrari 488 Pista on it. And that would be like a dream to run any supercar but, you know, to ship your Porsche and your Ferrari to Koda like he did would be like the dream. What’s your dream track day lineup? Which cars and on which track? Like whether you’d be driving or racing against.
You know, my dream track day setup would be, it would be at Willow Springs in California and I would want to drive a Porsche Carrera GT because it’s one of the most, it is actually dubbed the most dangerous supercar ever. You have to have a lot of experience. I’ve driven a Carrera GT but a Carrera GT on a track with corners would be just insane.
A 911 GT2 RS which I, it’s the car that I’ve learned how to race around, how it at, which was an incredible experience. And then the new C8 Corvette CR1. That car is designed specifically to go around a track with a ton of power.
So those three cars. So if somebody’s wanting to get ahold of you for any Kansas City Car Detailing services, Kansas City Car Detailing packages, restorative coding, paint correction, car detailing, how would they go about doing so? The best way to get ahold of us for any Kansas City Car Detailing package or service is to call 620-282-0402. You can also go online to bespokewithclimate.com. There you can check out a list of all of our different Kansas City Car Detailing packages and services that we have to offer.