Track Paint Protection

Paint quality holds varying levels of value in the eye of the car enthusiast. On the lower end of care, you will have the crowd that barely if ever washes their vehicle. In the other extreme case, you see owners who chose to do full PPF, apply a coating, and have their car professionally washed. I would be willing to bet the vast majority of GR owners fall somewhere in between those camps. We like to spend time at HPDE and track days. There are several products available to those looking to protect their paint pre and post track day.

I want to start off by saying that HPDE and Track Days are not very abusive on your car and you should partake with little concern. So why do you even need to think about protecting your paint on track if you don't on the road? On the road the greatest damage to your paint is likely on the highway due to trucks and vehicles that throw up rocks. That same scenario occurs on the track but at higher speeds where a piece of debris is going to hit your paint with even more force than on the road. On the track you might be following a vehicle that drops a tire off the track surface and throws up rocks. Or a car may have gone off the lap prior and brought rocks onto the track from a gravel trap. It is also very likely that Other People’s Rubber (OPR) will contact your paint as it is shaved off of their tires.

If you are a paint junky and have a high level of care for your vehicle it is likely that you probably have Paint Protection Film (PPF). PPF will certainly do the best job of protecting your paint at a track day but it comes with the highest price. One thing to note, cost can be saved by not putting PPF on the entire car and just targeting the high impact areas such as front bumper, hood, side mirrors, and rocker panels. The PPF will also make the car much easier to clean after a track day. At the very least a non PPF car can benefit from a wash and wax prior to the track event. The wash and wax will help to ensure any decals or numbers do not press debris into the paint when applied. The wax will also make it easier to get any rubber marks in your paint out afterwards.

So, let’s say you are not in the camp of PPF but you still want better protection than a wax or some other form of coating. Then your best bang for buck will likely be with some form of Track Wrap. Track Wrap is a temporary form of PPF that you can apply to your car before a track event and remove it after. Brands such as Xpel Track Wrap and Track Armor are common. You might see some people using painters tape which works as well be it not as aesthetically pleasing as clear track wrap. Track Wrap can normally be found thicker than what a vehicle is shipped with on an open car trailer prior to purchase.

What about your wheels? The best option in our opinion is to ceramic coat your wheels. It will make cleaning off all of the brake dust much easier after a track day. You might be tempted to use pads with low dust but there are not many offerings that have low dust and perform well on track. That does not mean you cannot use low dust pads on track just be aware that they will not perform like a dedicated track pad. In either case cleaning your wheels is a very important thing to do after a track day. If you are a track rat and track your car almost every weekend even high-quality wheel ceramic coat will need to be reapplied.

That leads into the post track day wash. If you are going to do anything to your car pre or post track day for protecting the paint, the best thing you can probably do is wash your car post track day. Washing the wheels will prevent them from staining with brake dust. Getting melted rubber off of your paint asap will help to prevent any permanent damage. A tip for getting that rubber off your paint is to let the paint get warm in the sun prior to trying to remove the rubber. A heat gun or hair dryer can be used but please do so with care. By far the best option for getting the melted rubber off of your paint is to use Griot’s Garage Track Spray. It is by far the quickest way to remove rubber from the paint we highly recommend it.