TravisJB Journal

travisjb

This Journal is to track progress on my silver 6MT 370z... the car will be used primarily for the track and for occasional weekend road trips. I plan to keep the car street legal and within warranty. I will use these pages to update on modifications primarily. 4-AUGUST... OKAY, BIG UPDATE EXPLAINED IN LATER PAGES... CAR IS BEING CONVERTED TO RACE CAR... WILL BE A GRADUAL PROCESS THROUGH REST OF 2009! THANKS FOR CONTINUED SUPPORT FROM DOUBLEDOWN MOTORSPORTS, REDLINE MOTORSPORTS AND FORGED PERFORMANCE!

The car...


Here's my current project list as of 13-SEP



-----------------from 15-April------------------
For you photography buffs, I'm shooting with a 85mm fixed lens on a canon 5d mark ii... some of these were shot in near darkness, with ISO 1600... pretty cool! Unfortunately, it's my wife's camera and I'm not a great photographer so forgive the image quality

Starting with the engine bay... you'll notice that I've removed a lot from here... no wipers, don't need those in Arizona ! battery gone ! will show you that in a moment... can't see it but the washer fluid reservoir is goneso too ! you can see that I've removed the plastic engine cover


A couple more shots of the battery area



Battery has been relocated to the rear... as you can see, I temporarily have the OEM batter wedged in there on the other side of the brace... that's because my pc680 is in for a warranty check - left it idle for a couple weeks and it's not taking a charge... will be back soon.. you'll also notice the custom bracket... straight forward, bent 1/8 metal with padding along the insides to help with vibration... used existing holes on the sides, drilled 4 new holes on the top of the mount into cross-member


Here's a closer view of where we created a ground connection... grinded down the paint and drilled in a couple contact points


...

travisjb

Here are a couple other angles of the back of the car with most of the plastic and matting removed... my car will stay this way, but I may at some point spray it with a ceramic sound/heat insulating material




I've also removed the headliner... at some point, planning to remove all the side airbags and related hardware... have a look at what's underneath your headliner... first one shows the passenger side, second one is looking from drivers window towards back of car and you can see more of the airbag actuation gear

Bluemeanie

Travis, if you need a harness bar PM me, we have made our own that looks great and works well. It bolts up in the same stock position. I use it on my 370 Z race car. We've designed our own carbon fiber splitter as well if we can help with that.

Our first track day was at Button Willow for the Super Lap Battle where we took second with a 2:00 time on a completely stock motor. The car had cannards on it with our splitter and our wing with a KW suspension. We just finished the Red Line Time Attack at Cal Speedway and took second again behind a more powerful 370 Z...him 1.55.5.....us 1.55.6. Tires NT05's 285/35/18's squared with spacers using BrakeMan brakes.

If you're looking for down force or suspension needs we can help as well. We're in Calif.

I can't wait to see your final package as that's the direction we're headed.

We should have a supercharger on the car soon. We're a race shop only for fabrication and suspension needs. Maybe you've heard of us, ROBISPEC.

Awesome thread by the way with great detail!

We'd love to help you achieve your goals!!

travisjb

Nice to hear from you! Priority right now is just to get the thing running... But yeah, we should talk at some point and I will PM you after I get through my tgiving event.

Already have a custom-made cross-member that my cage fab guy built.

We are working on a custom front splitter as well... would LOVE to see pictures of how you set yours up!!! Feel free to post here.

Congrats on your successes so far! Sounds like you came in just behind Paul at AE??? How do you like the square tire setup ? I thought about doing that but ruled it out b/c I feared it would throw the balance off and create too much oversteer.

Also, can you share which supercharger you are pursuing ?

Rgds

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2009 370Z #104
*For Sale*

Robispec

Yes 2nd by a 10th! Paul worked hard for his win .....though lol
Rotrex Race only kit as we will be using the space where the A/C compressor lives...

LiquidZ

Did I just read about a potential S/C build?

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Bluemeanie

Thanks Travis!

I see Robi has already responded and he's much more capable than I to share what we're doing. It's always refreshing to compare info between fellow racers with a common goal in mind.....to be very fast AND safe!



Thanks for the invite as well Travis and best of luck with your build

Z06Stan

RedNismo

How do you make the parts in your pictures look miniature? They look like toy models.

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2003 Skyline 350GT--Tein Suspension, NRG Strut bar, Nismo CAI w/bypass, JDM emblems, Nismo Graphics...
2009 Nismo Z34 #389-- Clear Bra

ChrisSlicks

He does all his work on a scale model before attempting on the real car.


In reality it is probably the low light that caused the effect. Low light causes the camera to use a wide aperture (lower number) which decreases the focal depth, a similar behavior that happens when shooting minatures up close (but for different reasons).

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Hotchkis ARB | Stillen CAI | Art Pipes | Berk CBE | Stillen AP Racing Brakes | AE Performance Oil Cooler | BC Racing ER Coilovers | Doran Control Arms

travisjb

Now on to mods...

I got about 5 boxes of stuff from Stillen this week... It's all laid out in my garage waiting to be installed !

Stillen seemed like the right choice for all these products... I haven't installed any yet, so I can't say anything about performance, but the materials, construction, welds etc all seem A++++ top notch

In this first pic, you can see the CAI gen3 kit, their headers, and muffler


A couple more angles of the same



More exhaust parts here


I have all the Stillen exhaust pieces except the HFCs, those should arrive tomorrow (THUR)... I saw some requests for detailed photos of those, I'll do my best

Here's an aftermarket muffler that I had made a few weeks ago... It sounds great, and works great, but I no longer need it... If anyone wants to purchase, please send me a PM... if you just want a great sound but don't want to do the whole exhaust, this is for you! 3" pipes, single muffler design... bolts on directly to your existing setup with no mods... UPDATE: SOLD !


Stillen anti-sway bars! Almost went with Hotchkis, but didn't find a compelling reason


Stillen underdrive pulley and Gates belt, good for a few HPs


Not sure if anyone else has these yet... SPC adjustable front control arms... I'm holding off on installing until I get my other suspension parts lined up, but the quality looks great and should save lots of time down the road when trying to dial in the suspension! I already have the adjustable rear control arms installed... Purchased from THMotorsports


And finally, here's an oil cooler


More to come !

LiquidZ

Wow man... very excited to see your results.

RCZ

Looks good Travis. Let us know how those swaybars affect the handling of the car

I am installing the crank pulley and the oil cooler tomorrow afternoon.

SoCal 370Z

Travis,

You actually laid out the products on your nice epoxy coated garage floor versus your bedspread? What's this forum coming to!?

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Why I NEVER say NO to the Panda Lou Fusz!!!

RCZ

Jerk

370Zsteve

Pot= kettle....you know the rest

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SOLD MY Z MARCH 2018 - another Core OG moves on - new ride 2019 Z Corvette Grand Sport - no mods necessary but already have eyes on HFC and intakes LOL IT NEVER ENDS.