sig11's Journal... not that anyone cares
 

Purchased from Suburban Nissan (yuck :P ) on 6/17/2009 Thanks to Robert_Nash and the VPP program! :)

The old car (2007 Solar Orange. Oh how I miss that paint.):
http://reprehensible.net/~sig11/370z/350z.jpg
And the 370:
http://reprehensible.net/~sig11/370z/370z_lot.jpg

On 8/22/09 I ran the first Jawbreaker Road Rally:
So hung over the next day that I tried to get my co-driver to drive us to the awards ceremony but he refused. Camera man got a ticket speeding up to snap photos of the group on the highway.
http://reprehensible.net/~sig11/370z/jawbreaker09.jpg

Then the mod bug started biting. I ordered the FI TDX and a set of Hotchkis sway bars at the end of September 2009. Unfortunately I didn't get the exhaust before the car had been covered for the winter.

Finally December 28th with a little help from some local Z guys we installed the exhaust:
http://reprehensible.net/~sig11/370z/snowed_in.jpg

Unfortunately Nissan decided to cross thread the right rear end link on the sway bar and we had to hold off on installing the Hotchkis sways for the time being.

3/??/2010 - Thanks to a group by I picked up a stillen G3 intake.
Installed it myself and cursed the dremel.

4/03/2010 - Installed Carbotech pads with Dad's help. XP10f XP8r.

4/05/2010 - Shot my first turkey :)
http://reprehensible.net/~sig11/370z/turkey.jpg

5/01/2010 - Mod party at local Z guy's house.
We finally put my Hotchkis sway bars on. I can't feel any difference on the street.

5/03/2010 - Water in brake fluid... flushed the Nissan fluid out with Superblue before my first track day ever.

5/13/2010 - First track day at Waterford Hills with SEMPCA.
The Z's outnumbered Porsche's for quite a while in the signups for this track day but only 4 of us weren't scared off by the rain. Those of us who stuck it out had a blast aside from a new fellow to our group who rolled his Nismo into Swamp. Fortunately no one was hurt and the car was repaired. (Videos below!)

http://reprehensible.net/~sig11/370z/swamp_rollover.jpg

5/20 - 5/23/2010 - ZdayZ
The dragon is a blast. ZdayZ is amazing. I expect I'll be making that trip every year from now on. (Damn I needed a haircut at ZdayZ : )
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4038/...5573b208_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3413/...b1203707_b.jpg

5/26/2010
Switched to Eneos 5w30 because no one local carried Redline.

5/29/2010 - Gingerman Raceway with Auto Interests.
AI is probably the least strict of any of the clubs I've been to the track with this year but there weren't any incidents I was aware of. We were the first group to hit the new layout of track. I had a NASA instructor who on our first lap went offroading in his Elise. During the parade laps there wasn't enough speed to feel a new elevation change which led to us running right off the end of the track. No damage to his car. He really helped me to get my foot in the gas out of corners. When I finally got some clear track I felt like I was finally getting the rhythm of the track and some speed. By the 3rd session when I could push it my car was hitting 280-290 by the cooldown lap.

7/21/2010 - Installed 25 row Z1 oil cooler kit. Have to use a piece of cardboard to block the air flow to it even on 80+ degree days on the interstate. If I don't tape the cardboard on the oil temps stay around 160-170F. Switched to Redline 5w30.

7/24 - 7/25/2010 - Mid Ohio with NASA Great Lakes Club course Sat, Pro Sun
WOW What a fun track. NASA is definitely the most formal group I've been with so far this year but they do keep things moving on schedule somehow. I was a little unhappy with my instructor because he was so quiet. Judging by his evaluation though I guess that was because I was doing things right in general. Carousel and madness are bitches. I really liked the bus stop in the club course. Something about hitting that apex at speed was really exciting to me. I felt like I was standing still at times though. Rained on Sunday morning. I really enjoyed running in the rain and during that session I felt fast compared to the rest of my group. Can't wait to hit Mid Ohio again.

8/7 - 8/8/2010 - Jawbreaker Road Rally 2010
This year the roads were better than last year but unfortunately we say way way less of the other cars. I pushed it a lot harder than last year too. We missed the second turn unfortunately which put us about 20 minutes behind the rest of our group at lunch. In the afternoon though we more than made up for it passing a friend in a 350Z twice while he was pulled over. :ugh: Even though the Jawbreaker is a TSD we pushed for the fastest time. That honor went to a fellow in a partially race prepped 996 by over half an hour. I believe we ended up with the 6th fastest time but they haven't actually posted them this year.

http://reprehensible.net/~sig11/370z/jawbreaker2010.jpg

8/28/2010 - Bought SAllen's TE37 Time Attack wheels and RE-11s. Drove my winter car (2000 Cavalier) to PA to pick them up. Long day in a car without AC or a radio. I was a bit worried when I tried to put the fronts on and discovered that silly spacer bolt thing.

http://reprehensible.net/~sig11/370z...passeneger.jpg


9/4/2010 - Oil change. The oil was still golden! I was shocked. 200+ track miles, 250 hard road miles, and 1000-2000 highway/city miles. The Eneos was black and nasty in a similar timeframe.

9/9/2010 - Waterford Hills with SEMPCA again. It was dry this time! HOORAY! What a fun track in the dry. It's tiny and tight but I was picking up some good speed. My first time signed off to drive solo. I was shocked by how much different the car felt. It makes complete sense when you consider you're dumping 150-250lbs! :) My instructor rated me with the "Orange" group in my log book. I'm not sure what that means for next year with the club since I was in Green (Green -> Yellow -> Orange -> Red/Instructors). He timed me in my last session and said my best time was 1:29. I played with MaxQdata a bit but it didn't seem to understand the track and didn't detect any laps.

Steve (local Z fella) Took some great pictures (click for more): http://reprehensible.net/~sig11/370z...-09-090016.JPG

9/11/2010 - Grattan Raceway with 3balls Racing
This group rocked. 30 minute sessions with two groups. Normally they run 4 groups but occasionally will set up a day like this. 30 minute sessions meant you got off track and had just about enough time to check over the car and get a drink before you were headed back out. Grattan is a wild track. Off camber and blind turns all over with a long smooth straight. My group (Group 2) had one and a half dry sessions then it was full rain the rest of the day. My friend Lee took me for a ride his first session and then rode for mine to help me with the line. My best lap was a 1:38 in the dry but was mostly around 1:56 in the wet I my best and average looks like 2:10. MaxQData worked really well here unlike Waterford. After our lunch break we started running the track in reverse. In the dry I think this would be a LOT of fun and probably faster than the normal direction but in the wet it was just scary at times. The rivers crossing the track seemed to be a bigger problem this direction and I never really found a good line through the turn that led onto the straight. The biggest problem I had was that I was hydroplaning at about 60mph on the straight. I could feel the car twitch back and forth the whole time.

I offered to let Lee take it out for a session and he accepted. When I let him hop in it was only a few minutes after my session and the brakes were just starting to feel good. We turned 3-4 laps and I was happy to see he was following a very similar line to me. We let a cobra pass early in the straight and just before the braking zone we hydroplaned and did a complete 360 on the straight. Very wild ride. Unfortunately I didn't turn on the GoPro but some guys in an Evo behind us did catch it. Lee did the right thing and kept the wheel straight and brake and clutch in so we were able to get going right away. No damage but a little water in the face. I'm anxiously awaiting the video. :)

An hour or so later I went back out for one more session but the rain hadn't slacked up enough for me to keep traction yet so I headed home about an hour early.

One of the guys took this amazing picture I'm going to have to get the full res version:
http://reprehensible.net/~sig11/370z..._4036294_n.jpg

I've been posting my track and other driving videos on Vimeo. I'm quite a ways behind since I haven't even edited the Mid Ohio videos yet: sig11's videos on Vimeo

Mods to come:
Coilovers - I am debating whether or not I'm at a point where these would help me yet. I think that I have a lot of car left to grow into as a driver as it is so I am torn.

Looking good.

And no, I wouldn't bother with coilovers until you feel as though you have maxed out the grip potential of the car, and are contemplating race tires. Get a little more experience under your belt and learn what the car is like on the limit, once you're comfortable with that on a regular basis then you are ready for coilovers.

Thanks, Chris! I'm fully addicted now.

If everything works out (weather mostly) I will have to take a trip down to Atlanta for work in late October/early November and I will try to find an HPDE at Road Atlanta or VIR or something. :) Would make a good side trip if I can think I can cross the mountains.

There is a 2-day VIR event on the 16th & 17th of October through Track Club USA, I am contemplating signing up. Might be a bit early for your schedule though.

Yeah. I think my best bet will is Chin Motorsports on 10/31 - 11/1. Unfortunately there is no way I would be able to make the Monday if that is when our meetings start.

Did you get the wheels repaired? Great thread by the way. Looks like you are well on your way. :tup:

Not yet. I'm going to wear out the RE-11s first. Probably get them fixed next summer. Apparently there is a GREAT wheel repair guy here in the area so it should be a snap. Looks like only two of them will need any real repair but I think all 4 will need new pinstriping.

I lost a center cap 9/9 at Woodward. I guess I should take those off for track days but not having a garage makes me pretty lazy about things like that. We'll see how painfully expensive the center caps are. :)

Why would you post this? I don't care!!!!!!

J/K

Good read. :tup:

I'm sure you got a great deal on them. They are very nice wheels.

You might be able to find a used center cap for cheap. A new one will probably cost $30-$50.

Thanks! Maybe I'll actually get to meet you at ZdayZ next year. OR I meet you and be sober enough to remember.

I was talking with Ryan@Forged about 'em. Apparently that center cap has been discontinued. :( I'm ordering some locking lugs now though. My girlfriend's apartment isn't in the best neighborhood. Her friend's car was stolen there a couple weeks ago and some other friends in Detroit proper say they see cars on bricks quite a bit. I've never seen anything like that but I am in a pretty decent neighborhood.

Likewise! I'll be there for sure. Can't wait. :tup:

Oh yes! The video of our spin at Grattan was finally posted. My friend Lee was driving. If the link doesn't jump to the 3:00 mark that's right about where we start to come into view of the Evo who was filming.

YouTube - Grattan In the Rain

Short video from 9/9/10 at Waterford. SD card filled up but it was a great session that ended a little bit too early. I think the Boxster and I could have had some fun if it lasted a little longer.

Waterford 9-9-10 on Vimeo

RIP 2010. Got 'er back from Motor City AutoSpa today. They did an amazing job as always. Already anxious for spring. I can't wait to hit the track again.

With the ambient temp at 28F I had to do a lot of driving to get the oil up to temp today. We're supposed to have ~4" of snow by Monday night.

http://reprehensible.net/~sig11/370z...winter10_t.jpg http://reprehensible.net/~sig11/370z...winter10_t.jpg
Click for slightly larger images :)

You should come out next year for WMHM @ Gingerman. Ive been going for the past 5-6 years. Probably one of the most fun weekends at Gingerman. Awesome group of peeps. CVO days @ Gingerman are pretty fun too.

I'm going to have to put together a budget and a calendar for next year. :) So many track days I want to hit and only a few groups have started posting dates.

I have heard the WMHM guys are a good group. I think I'll hit a lot of the 3balls events this coming year. The Grattan track day went really smoothly and soooo much track time. We were running alternating 30 minute sessions which really kept you hopping.

3Balls are the balls. With them it is all about maximum track time.

Ive heard the 3balls sessions are awesome from a lot of local guys. Definitely going to check it out next year.

hehe Wait a second... Is balls a good thing out east? :)

"Balls" = bad but "The balls" is good. ;)

Here's an example. As Ken rolled through Big Rock and accelerated over Candy Mountain he thought to himself "This track is the balls!". As he finished his lap and cruised into the pits he felt a cool refreshing liquid squirting onto the back of his neck, followed by a glowing gentle warmth. Realizing at this point that his car was on fire, he rolled up to the fire truck and exclaimed "Balls!" as the crew circled his vehicle with extinguishers.

True story, ask Ken. :icon17:

Bwahahahah I heard about that at Grattan. He had just got the car running again... and it only lasted a couple sessions. :(

03/19/2011 - De-winterizing. :)
Changed the oil and took a quick little road trip to Cabela's. I forgot how much I HATE changing the oil on this car with the oil cooler sandwich plate. I always end up spilling oil everywhere and it's extra hard to check for leaks because of it. The Purolator filter is just long enough that it's a real bitch the wrench off after breaking it loose. Doing this upside down on cold concrete also sucks. While greasing the sway bars I noticed that my exhaust cans had been scratched and dented pretty badly.

http://reprehensible.net/~sig11/370z/exhaust_damage.jpg
Also took the opportunity to put on the biggest power mods to date:
http://reprehensible.net/~sig11/370z/stickers.jpg


Against my better judgement this week I bought a used set of BC ER coilovers revalved by Relentless Autosports with 12k/10k swift springs from phantom21 (at the370z). I really had planned to hold off on any more modifications until I was driving the wheels off of what I already have but they're in great shape and I just couldn't pass up the deal.
http://reprehensible.net/~sig11/370z/bcer.jpg

I ordered a set of SPL rear camber links from Z1 along with some SS brake lines, an SS clutch line, RBF600 for the clutch, Red Line MT-85 for the transmission, and Red Line 75W90 for the diff. The fluids and lines came yesterday (3/23/2010) but unfortunately the camber links were not in the box! I have called Z1 and emailed but haven't received any response yet... and that kinda annoys me. :)

I'm going to have to re-learn the darn car after all these mods. Not to mention the fact that lowering the car scares the hell out of me. The front spoiler thingie is 3" from the ground as it is and I have to take my very mild driveway at an angle to keep from scraping. Toss in the damage already done to my exhaust and it's scary.

Wee! Thanks to the rapidly approaching HPDE at Gingerman on the 23rd and the lack of a garage I had Mufflers & More install my SS lines and coilovers on the 6th of April. Fortunately Kenny was able to get the suspension on without having the BC tools. They worked pretty much the whole day on the car... and my only complaint is that they over torqued the lugs and I had to buy a breaker bar to get the wheels off to raise the car back up. My alignment is probably a bit too agressive for the street but my tires did seem to be wearing a little too much on the outside.

http://reprehensible.net/~sig11/370z/alignment_t.png

They left the height set how phantom21 had them set which resulted in them having to disassemble the lift to get the car back on the ground. Surprisingly enough there didn't seem to be any issue with rubbing.

Whew boy was it low though:
http://reprehensible.net/~sig11/370z/slammed_t.jpg

(thanks to thekinn for taking these at Cars Coffee & Karts)
http://reprehensible.net/~sig11/370z/cars_coffee1_t.jpghttp://reprehensible.net/~sig11/370z/super_low_t.jpg

Unfortunately it was only barely drivable at this height in the Detroit metro area... every little bump resulted in more scraping of the already rough front spoiler so the next week (4/10) I raised the front by about .5". This also resulted in making the ride height almost exactly 26" from ground to the top of the arch of the wheel well on all four corners.

http://reprehensible.net/~sig11/370z/raised_t.jpg

Friday I ordered a set of 275/35R19 and 295/30R19 Yokohama AD08's since I haven't been able to track down any 305/30R19 RE-11s. Should have them on Thursday morning just in time for my first track day of the season on the 23rd at GingerMan with 3balls. I may have Kenny back off the alignment a little bit but without the front control arms I'm not sure how successful that will be.

I was planning on heading straight from the track to my parent's house in southern IL but since it's looking like cold and rainy day I'm not sure what I will do. If I treat the track as a half way point I have to take my dog with me and I'm afraid he will bite me if he's stuck outside in the cold and rain all day. :)

I guess that's about it for this week. I'll hopefully have some new track video from GingerMan to post after I get back to Detroit.

Click images for larger versions as usual...

Yeah, that's pretty low. If you raise the car up a little bit you will also lose some of that camber, so it could end up where you want it. You will have to realign regardless but height is the only thing that is going to affect camber in the front.

At this point the height isn't an issue for most roads around here. I backed the compression and rebound down to 10 on all four corners after raising the front .5" Kenny left it set up how it came and when I finally got the tools to adjust the height I counted off the clicks on all four corners and was honestly really surprised how wildly different they were.

I'm going to give the Koni method for tuning a try Saturday.. I'm sure that will eat up at least one session. I need to get a drill/hole saw so I can cut access to the rear rebound adjuster too. I keep forgetting to look for appropriate grommets to replace the plastic that's cut out too... oy!

Any suggestions or comments on setting up this way?

That seems like a pretty fair approach.

The ball park setting of 10 is a pretty good starting place for street tires on a warm day. On a cooler day I like it a little bit softer especially on the rebound to assist in weight transfer.

BTW the rear rebound setting is really awkward to reach.

I'll have to install the extenders I suppose. :P That could mean a smaller hole in the plastic too.

Sorry, I meant compression. The one on the external reservoir at the bottom of the shock. It is placed such that you have a long reach around the wheel to get to it for quick changes.

Ahh yeah. If I wasn't so tall it would be really tough. :) I kind-of dread having to reach back there with hot tires and brakes.

Ugh. I didn't consider the fact that I now have 10mm wider front tires. I am going to have to raise all four corners this afternoon. :(

And I need to borrow a jack so I can unload the front since I only have one floor jack.

Mother fucker.

My front left shock just blasted oil all over my driveway while I was trying to raise it.

http://www.reprehensible.net/~sig11/...agic_oil_t.jpg

Eeww, that's not good. Did it get over extended?

I'm not sure... It didn't seem to be changing in height at all and it was actually turning fairly easily. It may have over extended but I'm not really sure honestly.

I'm going to have to pull it and snap some pictures for Scott. He said he hadn't heard of that happening with the BC coilovers before. Hooray for doing work like this in my driveway. :(

As long as you didn't pull on it that never should have happened. Hopefully Scott can help you out.

I'm just sad I'm gonna miss my first track weekend of the year. I don't think my Cavalier (winter car) is trackworthy. It's barely roadworthy. hehe

Hot car! Are you running +22 in the back? I wanted to get the time attacks, but wanted to see a picture first.

And boy, that car was low, haha. I'm liking the progress!

Thanks. +12 in the back actually +22 in front. I love the look. I wanted to get them repaired before I got new tires but the possibility of a wet track day pushed me to wait again.

I really liked that tucked look... but these 275s are just too wide for it.



Gonna offer free beer to my local friends in exchange for help either pulling this thing. :)

Your Z looks fresh!
+1

Thanks much!

We just finished getting the stock shock back on so that I don't have to leave the car up on jacks. If it doesn't rain I may put the other on as well so I could limp around. I'm not sure how wise that would be though. :)

I don't see any obvious damage anywhere. Maybe someone with a better eye/more familiar with the part could see something. I'll take some snaps tomorrow.

Been a really busy season so far. I wound up getting the stock suspension put back on with the help of a couple Great Lakes Z club friends and a brand new tent in lieu of a garage. :)

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...s/DSC03654.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...s/DSC03653.jpg
(That's me freezing my *** off in the cold rain, thanks to phreakdout for the pics)

Managed to get an alignment JUST before closing at Mufflers And More (MANY MANY Thanks to Kenny and the rest there for helping me out repeatedly). After returning home to pack it started to really pour which slowed the drive to the track quite a bit. I finally arrived 00:30 despite the VDC fault light coming on and the BRAKE fault light beaming at me any time I accelerated.

Thankfully spearfish had experienced this issue before and posted about it on the forums here. Apparently to Nissan MAX brake fluid level really means MIN. I again got lucky and a friend had a bottle of RBF600 that had just been opened so I was able to top off and run. Wet morning, dry afternoon... was a blast.

I had my worst track experience to date at Waterford Hills 6/9. I could not shake a strange feeling of dehydration all day no matter what I drank. I had Great difficulty focusing and looking ahead on the track so I was really rough and slow most of the day. Despite all my troubles I still managed to boil my power steering fluid and clutch fluid for the first time. At the end of my last session the clutch just dropped to the floor. The next day I REALLY felt like a wreck even with 12 hours of sleep. Waterford is already punishing but doing it sick is a real drag on the body.

Last weekend (8/6-8/7) I went to Grattan Raceway with 3Balls racing. Saturday was an incredibly wet mess. We had one sort-of drying session before lunch... enough to make the car feel pretty good but nothing like it was on Sunday. Finally a dry day at Grattan. The weather gave a 60% chance of rain and the radar showed it moving in quickly so I rented a garage to scare it away. After a short shower during the driver's meeting the track dried out quickly and it was a cool overcast morning leading into a beautiful sunny afternoon.

Every session I was getting faster and smoother until the last session of the day. I was the second car on the track behind a white M3 who was very quick. He let me by on the front straight after a couple laps and started chasing me when I had my first instance of fuel starvation at turn 10. I recovered and ran a couple more laps taking care to not go so fast around 10 but when I started getting closer in a few laps I couldn't help myself and ended up causing the issue to reoccur so I just hopped off track and went to pack up. Harry's Lap Timer says my fastest lap of the weekend was that session with 1:36.79 and I think I would have been topping that if I had a full tank of gas! To go along with the fuel starvation I boiled my PS fluid again as well. Good think I have the Z1 power steering cooler ready to install this week before Mid-Ohio with NASA.

At some point I am planning on posting videos.. I just have to find some time where I'm not scrambling with work!

Contemplating signing up for the 3 day Mid-Ohio school next week... That would be 5 days at mid-ohio in one week and they advertise as prepping you for NASA comp school. I wonder how many terrible habits I will have to break?