Thanks! I am not 100% sure yet how I am going to go about doing the brake ducts yet to be honest. I will be sure to document whatever I end up doing though.

Those wheels look perfect.

Are you running any spacers on those F14s? :)

Mike, why the hawks over a set of carbotechs?

Nope.

A few reasons. One, I have liked these pads on other cars I have driven so I figured I would try something different. The Carbotechs have a more aggressive initial bite than the Hawks but the Hawks have a different torque curve. I am hoping that the less aggressive initial bite may aide in avoiding "ice mode" but there's only one way to find out! Since I will be running street tires, I think the less aggressive initial bite will be beneficial while the temperature range and torque curve will still be plenty. And perhaps the most important reason is budget as they are a sponsor this year haha. I wouldn't have taken them on as a sponsor though if I didn't think they would work as good or better than the Carbotechs.

Which compound did you go with DTC-70 or DTC-60? I'm with you, I like medium bite pads in the 0.45 to 0.5 range like these. I haven't had any ice mode issues with pads in that range and I also like to make sure they have an MOT of 1400F or above (which these do of course).

Nice, I am interested to see your results since I would like to buy track pads soon. I have held off very long thinking I would just get AP brakes, but there are more important things like reliability to consider right now.

I went with a split friction setup, DTC-70 front, DTC-60 rear since that worked well for me before on the Carbotechs. From what I have heard the 370Zs are a bit rear brake biased with matching compounds front/rear.

This is true. If I run the same compound front and rear then the rear can get a little squirmy under heavy braking. ABS keeps it in check but if you like to brake in straight lines go with the one step down for the rear.

Corner balanced the 370Z today. She's a fat pig for sure. 3500 lbs. race weight with me in it and full tank of fuel...and that's with the spare tire/tools/trunk plastics removed. Yes, I corner balanced with a fuel tank of fuel on purpose since our wonderful cars have to run a full tank at all times to avoid fuel starvation.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...ce_6-14-11.jpg

The Z looks great Mike, I have been following your blog and saw you pop up a few times on speedhunter and you have been going very well this year! Keep up the good work, do you have any ideas to tackle fuel starvation?

Thanks! Yes this year has been great so far. As for the fuel starvation, no I have not thought of any solutions that would be easy and realistic for a daily driver unfortunately. Leaving it up to the aftermarket to come up with that one.

Mike have you thought of building a small surge tank?

Plenty of times, but that task is beyond my level of mechanical ability unfortunately haha. Not to mention, to do it properly in a way that it would pass a tech inspection for a reputable event, and to do it in a way that is truly safe in a car that has no separate trunk area is harder than it sounds. The driver needs to be 100% protected from any fire danger from the tank. Easy to do in a car that has a partition between the trunk area and the cabin, not so easy in the 370Z. Can it be done, yes...by me personally...hell no.

Alignment done! Hopefully brake ducts and wheel studs will be done this weekend. First track day will be July 10th at Buttonwillow! Will also be at Buttonwillow on July 9th offering instruction with a group called Speed District if anyone is interested.