Best ways to control traction
 

What are the best ways to keep traction , seems like it’s everything I can do to keep traction running 12 lbs on the boosted performance kit ...was thinking on going more but what’s the point if you just spin ..other than Dyno bragging numbers. Currently I’m on stock nismo suspension with 305 Michelin pilot super sports for daily driving, I know the Toyo r888 have more grip but not really great for daily driving ..is there any other options

Have you done a diff upgrade yet? Wavetrac or OSGiken. They will make the car more predictable and controllable.

MT ET Street SS.

Last about 5K miles tho...

No ..I don’t have much knowledge in that aspect of the car mostly I know under the hood ....I thought the nismo had a upgraded diff from the other models ..but I don’t know ...and what would the upgrade do for daily driving ..is it more of a full positraction ?

Yea that’s another drawback on going with softer tires ...I was under the impression that the Michelin ss was the best all round for daily driving

You will get more positive traction with the upgraded diff. The stock VLSD is not very good. When it get's hot it is done. I had a big improvement in traction when I upgraded my diff. Your car will stop doing that unpredictable stuff under full boost. HotRodz said it was the best money he ever spent and he has been boosted a long long time. I got my diff before the snails, but I too noticed a much improved predictability of the car.

MSS is a great sport tire but it will not hold 500whp+ Z in 1st or 2nd. if all you care for is straight line grip then go with MT S/S it will put all your power to the ground without any issues. but keep in mind at high speeds you will suffer from lack of stability due to the soft side wall.

and if you are like me and you care about stability and handling. the MT will not do.. i currently have the Toyo R888R sitting in my shopping cart for a while now just waiting to finish up my current tires (Nitto INVO) i had great reviews from many users of the R888R its definitely a DD and a track tire.. it grips real nice when it warms up and the only draw back is its little bit noisy tire .. which is something i can live with.

If you run drag radials; they will spin like any other tire (unless heated in a burnout box)
Then they’ll grip....any of those tires listed will light up with that much power.
You may want to lose some of that factory Negative camber in rear; to prevent burning off inner portion of tires.
Keep fuel tank full & ride a “Fat-Girl” around.

Just noticed that you have a 15’ Nismo; if it’s a stick-shift car/ you have 3.92 gears out back,,,thus will intensify the lower speed spinning.
You may end up using Ecutek’s traction control,,,as it can be adjusted in small increments
Otherwise 1st,2nd & possibly 3rd will go up in smoke.

VitViper.com has rolling traction control - needs a Motec ECU though

jinxx, i just threw a set of bridgestone potenza re71r 's on the rear of my z,285 wide, made a helpful difference, still will spin but much better, i have toyo r888's on my dodge viper, they are amazing, but are also 335 wide.

My 2011 Z had 314whp & 3.69 diff...it would run the tach from a 30mph roll in 2nd/into 3rd.
Also was a 7A/T,,,which has lower gear ratio.
Ran 345/30/19 Nitto Invo’s on 19x12 Forgestar wheels (65# each)...Camber was about -0.75* & would only hook with a burnout first.
You may have to look around at different spring rates & work on some weight transfer.
Don’t forget the “Fat-Girl”
;)

OSGiken and tuning your suspension would be a start. What is your camber?

What I have found is that tires that are good at hooking up for straight line acceleration are pretty bad for handling corners (race tires are the exception) and tires that corner really well aren't the best for straight line traction. It has to do with the sidewall design. Drag tires have very soft sidewalls so that when the load transfers to the rear they flatten out and gives more contact area. Watch a top fuel car coming off the line. Good cornering tires have very stiff sidewalls (check out an F1 car in a corner) you will have very little flex in the sidewall.

I upgraded my diff to a Quaife ATB diff and it made a world of difference with control ability. The rear tires still spin in 1-2 and above 80mph in 3rd. I'm using Bridgestone RE-11 tires with 305 rears. These tires are known to not be great at straight line traction but oh my, when it comes to cornering, you have a hard time reaching the limit anywhere except on a track. These are great autocross tires but you do have to watch the power application.

As someone else already stated, you can improve the rear traction by taking out some rear negative camber so the tires are more upright to improve the footprint and load across the tread. It is a small improvement but it does help. I'm running 0 degrees camber. With the great grip I get with the RE-11s I can get away with this and still have a great handling car.

One other thing to keep in mind, the Z was never intended to be a drag car. It was designed to handle and if you want more grip you will need to dive into the suspension to get any improvement. Street tires can only do so much.

My $0.02

Good luck!

I had a 2015 with supercharger but recently sold it now I’m focusing on the 2017 turbo nismo ...which is pulling much more torque than the supercharged one....and yes it’s a stick shift

For my driving habits I was thinking adjusting the camber upgrading the diff and depending on mileage maybe switch to the toyo r888 .......one of the main reasons I went with mss was more mileage...if I was to push the car it would be more so a straight line not so much on the track

If you're using an electronic boost controller, maybe try ramping in the boost more slowly? That big hit of torque on spoolup always seems to break the tires loose.

Right now manual boost controller ...but it’s closed ..and I’m using a 12 lbs spring in wastegates ...boost controller was for increasing to 14 next Dyno run ....and boost comes on really fast lol

You could always try using your RFTCS. :p


Seriously though a "proper" LSD will make a world of difference. I had a Quaife on a previous ride and liked it a lot. The OSG is probably the best to grow with.

My experience has been different.

I run 325/19 re-11 on the rear and 285/19 on the front.

The RE-11s do not hook at the dragstrip at all. They dont hook in the corners either, unless heated up well. Not really impressed and my car makes only 300 whp.

The MT ET street SS in 285/18 on the rear at 25 psi, are quite simply amazing in the corners. These are not typical soft side wall bias ply drag tires, they are short sidewall radials. The MT tire does very well at the dragstrip too. It requires no burnout at the track, or on the street. My car is very stable and perfectly comfortable with the MT ET street SS on the street, they just dont last very long.

My ET streets have about 100 1/4 mile runs on them and 2600 street miles. They are nearly to the wear bars now.

To hook, you need a soft tire compound and a good suspension set up. Few street tires have a soft compound.

I never tried the ET Streets; though I’ve heard it’s a great tire.
Here’s what I had to do-to make the 345 Invo’s grip.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...51d6ff964d.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...1982c0e720.jpg


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

There is a lot of good advice here. To add my two cents, there is no hooking up on any tire without heat in them period. All tires do better when they are at their appropriate running temperature. Mechanical grip is limited in the Z do to suspension set up and drive train. So the more you can do to improve it the better off you will be for what ever setup you you shooting for. After spending time this year with Jeremy from Nissan I learned a few things about the Z and one of the big ones which I knew but didn't know what to do about is the rear end of the car is really light. He showed me several Nissan, various Z models and all of them had a way to add weight over the rear axle. I got to come up with a way to do this for my z lol.

The deal is the Z was not meant to be boosted and NA the car is pretty damn good out of the box all things considered. The number one thing I have learned and I am sure Chuck can back this up as he has been boosted a lot longer than me is, you got to learn how to control your right foot. You can't simply smash the go fast pedal an not spin!

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

^^^This, I have been driving boosted cars for years. Mine will just be one more I have to get us to. I struggle a little with my current NA car. That will be cured shortly. You need to learn how to roll into the throttle and tell by your butt when you're at the edge of traction. All of my boosted cars never had any nannies or traction control. You were on your own.

So true!

I scaled mine with an empty trunk and 5 gal of fuel and ..

1553lbs 44.50% rear
1937lbs 55.50% front

Holy cow! it is light in the rear. I thought that the car hooked better at the dragstrip with a full tank of fuel. That is real trade off for me cause I dont want the added fuel weight to the total.

The guy that corner balanced my car said If I wanted to get the perfect corner balance he could add weight at the lowest part of the car in the rear.

My cross weights were 1755lbs, 49.9. I didn't take a snapshot of the front and rear. I may have them in the car. I will go check. It will be corner balanced again after the TT install. The diff cooler and axle upgrade for the rear will help.

Here my corner balance numbers are with 180lbs of led weight in the drivers seat.

LF- 988
RF- 941
LR- 814
RR-772

Cross weight %= 49.9
Rear- 47
Front- 37

They could be better but I am not tracking yet.

With the 440 Dodge Dart that I drag raced. I used to bolt down some weight lifting weights in the trunk.

Yep, old school!

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

The MT tires that my friend with a monster turbo Supra (over 800hp) has doesn't handle worth a da*m. It must be because of the way he has it setup for drag racing.

Setup has a lot to do with how a car handles turns or straight line.

That Turbo Supra can blow past me in a straight away but I gain it back in the curvy parts. Fun! It's all in what you want out of your car.

The real limit of my car is my wife. I have to back way off when she rides with me. She was much more adventuresome when she was younger. I still have not "grown up" at 64........

^^^Now that is funny. LOL

Yeah, I got the same problem. A female speed limiter. If I'm pulling out from some where. And I jump on it. She wants me to give her a warning before I do it. :rofl2:

All that she has to do is watch your face. When she see's the "sh!t eating grin" on your face, she'll know you're going to jump on it..

My wife is more like an early warning system...please be advised I am in the car and if you do stupid it will hurt!

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

Ouch! :rofl2:

In the motorhome. It has air ride suspension. And it's smooth. So is the tranny. You can't feel it shift. We'll pull out of somewhere. Start to accelerate. After a couple of minutes. The wife will ask me. "How fast are we going?" I'll look down at the speedo and say, "cough......cough......85." (The speedo only goes to 85.) And she will say. "This isn't the Z, slow down!" Remind you. I'm pulling a Grand Cherokee behind me, and my weight is 41,000 lbs. :eek:

And people ask why I'm single. :rofl2:

Well.....the wifey is right is this case. You ever try slowing down 41,000 lbs quickly? My stopping distance is measured in yards, not feet. :rofl2:

I bought my wife an s5 so she can stay out of my car! LMAO

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

My wife is great. When we went to my friends wedding in my 1990 300zxtt we were cruising home on the interstate. I was just cruising along. She looked at me and said, "You can drive however you want". LOL So I did. She enjoyed the ride and was giggling the whole way. I have a method to my madness on the interstate. I got a Kawasaki side by side Teryx years ago. We were cruising around on the dirt roads. I came to a cross road and ripped a few donuts without warning. She knew exactly where the OH shet handles were and was shaking her head smiling. LOL My dad however did not do that well. While we were going around in a circle he was screaming "Derrick, I didn't teach you to drive like this" at the top of his lungs. LOL

Z's in general have a terrible time at putting power down even at stock hp levels. If you want to get any sort of traction you'll need to get drag radials, re work the rear suspension completely, zero out the camber, fix the toe, and get a good LSD. To put in perspective I can dead hook at 800whp+ in my Supra, which weighs less than my Z, with 275/35/18 federals. A $100 street tire...
If you want a car that hooks up you'll need to sacrifice handling by changing all the components listed above, or you'll have to sell the car and get something more favorable for straight line acceleration. I loved my boosted 370 but I sold It for that very reason. It would cost way to much to go fast compared to other cars. I found the cars to be a lot more fun NA so I bought another but vowed to do minor bolt ons and stop there. ECUTEK does have that traction control software built in but I never liked it. I felt the best way to moderate power was just by using my right foot.