Back at Winton Raceway in Victoria this past weekend for another Hyundai Australia N Tech track day. It was my first time there in the i20N. There's been a couple of small changes since the track day last week at Luddenham. Tyres are now 225/40/18 Hankook RS4 and new Bosch OEM replacement front rotors and Hyundai Performance brake pads have been fitted.
I went into the day hoping to break sub 1:40s and get a 1:39.x. Unfortunately the morning was a bit slow and by the time our group had our first session it was 11am in less than ideal conditions. This first session started out well with 1:41.6 first lap but on my second lap heading into T3 i started getting vibrations under braking. Both rotors appeared to have gotten very hot and i assume i warped one. I've never had this issue with the OEM rotors or OEM pads. Luckily i bought the old OEM rotors with me but i was hesitant to put them on as i had a 3 day road trip through the mountains planned after the track day and didn't want to ruin that set as well.
i persisted through the warped rotors and consistant low 1:41s across all sessions looked like all I'd get from the day. I swapped the old OEM rotors back on early afternoon in preparation for leaving the track early but unhappy with my performance thus far i decided to head out for a one lap dash. I used one lap to build up braking speed and create a transfer layer on the rotor, the next lap to cool the brakes back down and lap three was my attack lap. Instantly the brakes felt 10x better than they had all day and the green sector time just kept growing.
It wasn't a perfect lap and i cooked a couple corners, i still need to work on my consistency in a FWD car but i crossed the line with a 1:40.46 lap. Better, but not the 1:39.x i was hoping for. I will take it though. Good enough for fastest i20N on the day and i think in the top 10 overall.
With no baseline at Winton it's hard to compare but i really want to get out to Luddenham ASAP to compare to stock. Some thoughts are
1. Don't use Bosch rotors again. I have a set of brembo replacements to use next.
2. I think the switch to 225/40/18 tyres in the rear shifted even more rear grip bias. I felt the car struggled to turn in all day and i put the rear PSI up to 47H to combat this.
3. Hyundai performance pads seem to have a higher initial bite but less pedal feel over the OEM pads.
MODS:
2021 Hyundai i20N
Hankook RS4 22/40/18
Hyundai performance front brake pads
Sparco bucket seat