Vendor Track Day Guide for Beginner and Experienced Model 3 Owners

[SammichLover]

Sign up for Tesla Corsa and write down your region, they are planning future events based on the demand in various areas!

I'm unclear on where I would sign up? For last week's event? Where would I put the region?

EDIT: I put something in via the Get In Touch form.

 

[Vines]

Tesla Track Day | East Coast | March 2019
Thread from another part of the forum about an east coast Tesla track day.

 

[works]

EU customer here. After finally getting to test drive P3D I'm horrified by the drivers seat and the support that it provides. Seat is soft, the side bolsters on the back and the seat itself are too low and the seat at front starts to curve down too quickly leaving my thigh behind the knee completely without support.

How do people who drive these cars on tracks keep their asses on the seat? Is there a four point harness that I can get or do I just need to hang on to the steering wheel?

Compared to my current 1-series and 3-series (Exx both) which have the BMW sport seats, the Model 3 premium seat feels like a sofa. I'm even thinking of how could I swap the standard P3D seats to something that provide more support for me in the areas where I feel like I need it. Seat-embedded airbags are going to be an issue unless they somehow are dumb enough objects that have just "yes I'm here" answer to the car's ECU upon inquiry.

 

[MountainPass]

EU customer here. After finally getting to test drive P3D I'm horrified by the drivers seat and the support that it provides. Seat is soft, the side bolsters on the back and the seat itself are too low and the seat at front starts to curve down too quickly leaving my thigh behind the knee completely without support.

How do people who drive these cars on tracks keep their asses on the seat? Is there a four point harness that I can get or do I just need to hang on to the steering wheel?

Compared to my current 1-series and 3-series (Exx both) which have the BMW sport seats, the Model 3 premium seat feels like a sofa. I'm even thinking of how could I swap the standard P3D seats to something that provide more support for me in the areas where I feel like I need it. Seat-embedded airbags are going to be an issue unless they somehow are dumb enough objects that have just "yes I'm here" answer to the car's ECU upon inquiry.

Check out CG LOCK, I have used them for autocrossing stock cars with terrible seats.

 

[Vines]

The seats definitely don't have the greatest support for very spirited driving. Overall the seats seem to be very polarizing, either you hate them or love them. Personally I love them, but I do slide around a bit on course. As to your thigh behind the knee, I have the opposite issue, I feel there's too much rise to the seat. I adjusted the seat bottom tilt to be more flat, and although it doesn't feel as much like a bucket, it does relieve the pressure.

I'd recommend playing with the steering wheel and seat settings, might be that you can increase the seat bottom tilt and get that support under your leg. It also helps to keep you planted in the seat, by dropping your butt down lower.

 

[MountainPass]

You can also put your seat down and back, lock the seatbelt, then move the seat forward and up into the belt.

 

[GTIceman]

I think I responded to this on "another" forum (ahem...) but I'd like to follow this thread. If there is anyone on this forum who would like to meet up and do a track day in the North East (anywhere from DC to New Hampshire) say in March or April when it starts to warm up, I'd love to meet some more experienced folks or fellow noobies who are interested in learning how to track the Model 3.

I have zero track experience, I know a little theory as a racing sim aficionado (Asseto Corsa) but really am starting from scratch.

I would consider a little trip up to see friends in the Northeast to my old home tracks at NJMP for a weekend of fun.

 

[SammichLover]

Agreed the seat could definitely be more aggressive about cupping the goods. It is actually a lot better in practice than what you'd think just sitting down in the car, statically, but it's still work that should be used elsewhere and I find myself leaning pretty hard, gripping like the frightened noob I am, and not as grounded as I'd like to be when tossing the car around.

To aid in this I've have set up a separate Autocross specific Driver profile. Things it does:
1) drops by butt even lower than I typically street drive, this effectively bring the front of the seat upward and presses into my lower thighs a bit
2) adjusts the front back some, for where I want my field of view
3) move the seat back back to allow for my helmet at the top
4) moves steering wheel to account for the above changes and how I want the front-back location to be
5) turns temps to metric, because science (I think I'm going to switch speed/distance to, so it's bigger numbers )

As per MPP's post above, I may in the future now try out having it set to have the seat too far back. Looking into that belt locking time, pretty cheap really. Then my "get into the car" procedure would be sit in, select the "X Plus Size" driver profile (yes, that's the name I use), buckle up and cinch, then manually bring the seat forward using my wrist on 12 o'clock of the steering wheel to gauge when I'm in the right spot.

 

[MountainPass]

Agreed the seat could definitely be more aggressive about cupping the goods. It is actually a lot better in practice than what you'd think just sitting down in the car, statically, but it's still work that should be used elsewhere and I find myself leaning pretty hard, gripping like the frightened noob I am, and not as grounded as I'd like to be when tossing the car around.

To aid in this I've have set up a separate Autocross specific Driver profile. Things it does:
1) drops by butt even lower than I typically street drive, this effectively bring the front of the seat upward and presses into my lower thighs a bit
2) adjusts the front back some, for where I want my field of view
3) move the seat back back to allow for my helmet at the top
4) moves steering wheel to account for the above changes and how I want the front-back location to be
5) turns temps to metric, because science (I think I'm going to switch speed/distance to, so it's bigger numbers )

As per MPP's post above, I may in the future now try out having it set to have the seat too far back. Looking into that belt locking time, pretty cheap really. Then my "get into the car" procedure would be sit in, select the "X Plus Size" driver profile (yes, that's the name I use), buckle up and cinch, then manually bring the seat forward using my wrist on 12 o'clock of the steering wheel to gauge when I'm in the right spot.

SammichLover aka X Plus Size, I love it

 

[SammichLover]

SammichLover aka X Plus Size, I love it

The kicker, I accidentally ordered a 2XL THE-FUT-URE t-shirt.....and it fits uncomfortably comfortably!

 

[SammichLover]

Check out CG LOCK, I have used them for autocrossing stock cars with terrible seats.

Have you used this on the Model 3? I just got mine today and it won't quite fit on the front buckles. The back of the front buckle is maybe a touch too thick, or at least close, and the thin metal portion definitely won't fit into the gap to be able to clamp the CG Lock mechanism in place. It probably can just sort of wedge into place and hold the belt from slipping but doesn't seem to be as designed.

Ironically the rear belt clips almost certainly would probably work. Not sure I want to try pulling apart the belt systems to do this, though, because you have to unwind the belts off the top shoulder spool to be able to thread the buckles out. The belts are folded and stitched in such a way that you can't take the buckles off the bottom end of the belt. That's a lot of messing around with the innards of somewhat detailed, critical safety equipment.

Correction, I'm really sure I don't want to try pulling apart the seatbelt system.