Many of my racer friends will jokingly say, “my racecars get washed when it rains at an event,” and that’s probably a fair statement for most of us.
Washing and waxing a racecar can often be seen as a waste of time and effort especially in some of the amateur and grassroots organizations where we don’t have a crew of folks to prep our cars for us. What people forget is that there’s often on-site photographers capturing all sorts of interesting moments from the weekend and we want our cars to look their best.
Consider how much better your vehicle looks hanging on the wall of your garage or “man cave” when it’s fresh and clean. Not to mention the benefits of reduced drag if the bodywork has been recently waxed. Is an extra tenth of a second per corner worth the time it takes to apply even a layer of the simplest spray-on detailer? I think so.
Oof! Look at all this crud! Our MK4 Volkswagen GTI racecar is half wrapped and half original (20+ year old) paint. Race cars are subject to all sorts of grueling conditions and because of limited garage space they do have to sit outside. The joke around the paddock is, “Race cars aren’t Show cars” – but we still want our stickers to look nice in photos, right?If you use an aerator (foamer, sprayer, etc.) for your carwash solution, using this method means wasting less of your product while keeping your clean soapy water and dirty scrub water separated.Not every soap foams up the same way. Some are designed to make everything look like a ’90s foam party, so you have to ask yourself, “If your soap is really foamy, does it clean all that well?”Lesson #1 – Always wash your vehicle TOP >>> DOWN! Rinse your sponge often and use even overlapping strokesLesson #2 – If you don’t like bending over, find someone shorter to do the bottom half of the vehicle! Never drop your sponge. If you do, stop everything and rinse it thoroughly looking for anything that you might have picked up that would suddenly scratch the surface.Rinse, Rinse, and more Rinsing. You’re always working on the car in sections rather than overall. Run your free hand over the surface of the paint (or wrap) to make sure you don’t have anything stuck to the surface. If you find something, re-wash that area, and rinse some more!
The results speak for themselves.
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My daughters love washing the racecars, and they enjoy seeing daddy out on the track with a clean car. I especially love it when they volunteer to do the work, once the car is prepped to go on the trailer.
One of the most important aspects of the products we choose to use when washing our vehicles is that they’re so effective and safe we will let our kids use them with no hesitation. Because of the natural ingredients in Zymol’s Auto Wash, it’s also important to point out that it doesn’t cause this young lady’s eczema to flair up. It’s also safe for our lawn, as well as pets, and she absolutely loves the smell.
Sometimes elbow grease and mother nature isn’t enough, having the right product makes all the difference. There are so many things to consider the next time you fill your wash/wax bucket, but take it from me, don’t neglect your racecar, it needs some love too. As they say around the paddock just before heading out on grid… remember, “keep the shiny side up!”
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