This rambling post is mostly just to get my current thoughts down now that I've had time to reflect a bit more on my recent HPDE and everything related. The act of writing clarifies them, and I'll be able to review them myself down the road. Feedback on any of it is welcome, but mostly this is a public conversation between me and me :)

Reviewing the raw footage from the green and blue runs, it seems like in an ideal world there would be a group in-between the two that I would've fit into best. Not limping around the track like some of green and really holding up the show, but not quite as experienced as the average blue-grouper. I passed a few cars in blue, but I got passed a lot too, and I'm definitely in the lower range of speed and skill for that group. Still, at least here on my "home" track (MSR Houston), that's probably the group I need to run with going forward to improve. As I branch out to other nearby tracks, I think I do need to start back in green on them at least for a while, because I'm not adept enough to learn the course on the fly so fast.

Looking at lap time stuff: My best lap running solo at the informal lapping event before was 2:04.00. My best lap from the HPDE on the same track came in at 2:02.13. So I improved by almost 2 full seconds, but really I think of it as more than that in some virtual sense. I think there were a number of new complicating/distracting factors at the HPDE relative to how I was running by myself: I was forced to learn to look more broadly (helps planning and better overall, but harder to nail the current point compared to staring in front of the car), forced to pay attention to flag stations and understand them, there was a whole lot more traffic on the track, and I had someone talking in my ear the whole time. That last one in particular is interesting in the after-analysis. It's common in the video replays to see me getting some feedback on the corner we just finished, and my brain gets just distracted enough processing that feedback that I screw up the next corner a bit. I think that will fade as I get more comfortable and able to multi-task better, but again it's just another slowing factor compared to when I was running my horrible/unstable lines solo.

As far as specific driving technique/mistakes go: I need to learn to unwind the wheel a bit more/faster on corner exits while applying a bit more throttle, and trust the car dynamics to do the right thing there. I keep trying to add more throttle without the steering change, which results in my oversteer slip-ups. I need to keep trying to extend the range of my virtual line in front of me. Right now I'm visualizing the upcoming corner and the entrance of the next at best, I need to be able to start visualizing through multiple upcoming corners all at once when they're tightly connected. I need to get more aggressive, too. There were a lot of times I slacked off on the acceleration parts and/or the straights because I was busy thinking and processing things, when I could've picked up some easy time there. I also had a tendency to really back off and be too nice when a driver in front of me seemed slower, and that just complicated passing. I need to just get up on his *** and be ready to pass aggressively instead of worrying about how he feels.

Also, there was a consistent pattern where every time I nailed corner X a little better and came out of it faster, I'd end up entering the next corner too fast and screwing things up, and then maybe next time around I'd try to move the braking zone back to account for it. I need to start handling all of that in one cycle when I can. If I know I entered a corner better and I've got more speed coming out, part of the initial planning process in my head needs to be to move up the braking spot automatically to compensate.

My inter-mediate range plan and goals for now is to keep running HPDE-type (and occasional Auto-X) events at various local tracks, and to shoot for getting my times at MSR Houston down to 2:00 flat or less consistently, barring traffic holdups. I'm going to try to avoid any further major upgrades to the car until I reach that goal, because otherwise it gets hard to track my progress vs the car's progress. I'm still not sure what the long term plan is, or if I'll ever graduate to trying to do something competitive, but I think that's a ways off and I have time to reflect on it and consider the costs.

As far as car upgrades go, the basic lineup of remaining items is about the same as it has been: add some better coilovers dropping the car very slightly in the process, a better LSD, some good seats, fuel starvation fix, and continue stripping out interior weight over time. I think I'm going to hold off on any cage+harness work until the car becomes at least 95% track-only and/or I have a competitive plan and know what regulations I'll need to adhere to, both which are probably around the same future timeframe, whenever it is.

thinking of trading the car in wstar, you could always trade me your seats with some cash. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Lightest but still recline able seats I could find. Sorry we never took the time to let you try them out like you wanted too at that track day. Was fed up with my terrible driving and the car fussing back at me.

That's tempting actually. I think yours is a Nismo thought right? Mine isn't, they're just the leather touring heated seats. I think Nismo ones are slightly different right, at least the word Nismo stitched into the backrest or something?

Great write-up wstar! :tup:

I'd love to see your car in person at Cars and Coffee or a Z Club event.

Wouldn't matter, I sold my Nismo seats to a 240 and they welded those in. Forgot you had leather touring. They'd still work.

A little birdie told me wstar has Bride seats. Guess it's time to change my sig. lol.

Yup, new seats :).

Big thanks to Equinox. I drove out to his place today and we swapped our seats out. Nice deal all around and keeping it all in the "family" here at the370z. These Brides are the GIAS LowMax, they're adjustable and thus a little heftier than true racing seats, but it's a little more DD/girlfriend-friendly. They hug you on the corners a whole lot better than stock, and they're harness-compatible for future upgrades.

Got to try out the comfort level on the ~2hr drive home: not as comfy as the stock touring seats, but reasonable enough for most TX roadtrips. Worst case I might use a tiny pillow for a lumbar support on a long ride. Picked up a PW:JDM radiator air-guide thingy (whatever you call it, the bit that snaps to the top edge of the front bumper along the front) from Equinox as well, in a carbon/kevlar look that matches the seat-backs.

I checked weights on a bathroom scale while we had everything out too, esp since it looked obvious that my driver/passenger seats would be different, and the Weight Reduction Thread only lists one weight. Keeping in mind bathroom-scale inaccuracy, my TPH seats came in at 50.8 lbs driver and 47 lbs passenger, and the Brides came in at 42.2 lbs. So net weight drop is 13.4 lbs from swapping both.

Love the new seats, can't wait to see how they feel at the next track event. Thanks again Equinox :).

Im now a silly Nismo with leather touring seats, lol. Never heard of that before. Seen Nismo's that the dealership reskinned the seats for leather to sell at a premium, but not an OEM swap. I got the power seats working for the motors, but I will wait to figure out the heaters. Turns out the heater relay for the seats are actually under the big pocket in the center dash. Who knew.

Thanks again for coming out and swappin Dubstar.

Oh, you may have to remind me, but I could pull the relays out for you next time I pull the center dash apart. It happens pretty regularly :)

Today I swapped in Carbotech's Bobcat-series street brake pads (taking off my XP8s), to see if they'd cut down on the cold/low-speed squealing. I mainly chose them out of fear of Carbotech's statement that their pads should only be mixed with their own other pads on the same rotor without scrubbing/prepping the rotor surface when changing and re-bedding completely. I figure I'll try to follow the mfg's recommendations and save some labor.

Pad swap was easy of course thanks to the nice design of the Akebonos. I bedded them per Carbotech's directions. I still get a little bit of a squeal in the <5mph range coming to a stop, but it's not anywhere near as loud or frequent as the XP8's, totally livable on the street. Given that it sounds so similar to a muted version of some of my worst XP8 squeals, I wouldn't be surprised if the cause was leftover XP8 material on the rotor that hasn't been abraded/replaced by the Bobcat pads yet, so it may fade completely in a few days.

My stock pads and my Hawk HPS's never made a peep though, so while it's not a big deal if it doesn't, it be nice if this little squeal went away.

As far as pad performance goes, it's definitely a big step down from XP8. I've gotten used to the quick bite on the XP8's, and this is back to feeling more like my old HPS's. Still, it's plenty good enough for a street pad, and seems a bit more consistent and fade-resistant than OEM/HPS I've had on the car in the past. My XP8's still have plenty of material on them, so they're boxed up for the next track event, which looks like it will be the weekend of Jan 21-22 back at MSR Houston again, hopefully in the opposite direction from the last few times out.

Nice write up.
Glad you enjoyed yourself, that's what its all about.

Hey Thanks WStar for swapping heater switches with me, saved my *** when I traded in the Neezmo. Let me know if you need anything, owe you one :)

How'd the grill work go?

I didn't end up doing the grill work that day. I was mostly waiting for the paint on the mesh to dry that day, and then I didn't have enough time to make sure I finished the whole job before I needed to drive the car around for various xmas family trips Fri/Sat/Sun. I'll probably start the real work on the car tonight or tomorrow :)

Oh, how's the new Porsche so far Equinox?

Pretty surprising how different two sports cars can be, because while I drove the 911 home from Houston, I just couldn't get over how smooth/fast/tight/solid of a car it was compared to the 370z. Night and day, crazy enough.

Bad thing is, it's an older car (2006), so I need to do minor maintenance mods on it. Fixed a loose door handle, ordered a replacement cup holder, replaced the radio with Nav/DVD Touchscreen, and now this weekend I just have to replace the accesory belt and I should be good. :)

I (finally) got around to doing the grill work Friday and Saturday. This is basically a copy of Spohn's awesome idea for a grill setup, check out the pics and explanation he had over here: http://www.the370z.com/members-370z-...ml#post1453481.

The basic idea is: Cut out the factory's plastic horizontal grill fins completely for a nice wide open front, spray the whole center area (other than the side inner edges) with Plasti-dip, and attach a wire mesh behind the grill opening.

I used some expanded mesh from Lowe's that was probably for stucco, similar to his mesh, but I don't think they're quite identical. I sprayed the mesh w/ flat black high temp spray paint several days before on both sides in several coats. A key difference from Spohn's install is that, since I've replaced my front-under airfoil thingy once (w/ a unit from Z1), the factory rivets for it have been replaced with nuts and bolts, so I was able to attach the bottom of the mesh to these bolts instead of trying to squeeze it into the clips for the front edge of the undertray. I also plasti-dipped my towhook in red, and I haven't gotten around to cutting a hole for it in my mesh yet.

In the overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I suspect the Plasti-Dip isn't as tough as I'd like. It will probably chip and peel and I'll spot-re-spray it over time and it will look a little ugly up close, and I don't care :). I think the show-car types would want to use some sort of flexible, durable, actual car paint instead or something. Various pics of the process:

Most of the cut-out work done:
http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...ostly-done.jpg

Masking and spraying plasti-dip:
http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...plasti-dip.jpg

Plasti-dipped the tow-hook receiver as well to avoid a big silver shiny thing behind the mesh:
http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...eiver-well.jpg

The mesh install process:

http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...lting-down.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...d-bit-more.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...-area-side.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...ies-up-top.jpg

Results:

http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...e43123-car.jpg

Nice work with the mesh. :tup:

Fixed the image a bit so it's easier to see:

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1325526589

Yeah it looks sunny out today, I'll get a better pic in good lighting later and post it up :)

Got a better pic at lunch. Ignore how highway-dirty the car is in general :)

http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...e43123-car.jpg

As Lightning McQueen would say, "Ka-Chow!"

I like it, somewhat gives the car a fat lipped Koi fish look too, since humans are always looking for patterns to look like faces, lol.

In my experience with the galvanized wire mesh from Lowe's and other stores is that it will chip with rock damage, but so does the car. I used Rustoleom originally on my Mazda Protege5 when I did something similar. You'll be fine. :)

Yeah I used Rustoleum on the mesh too, it was a flat black can of high-temp Rustoleum that's meant for painting BBQ pits :). Gonna leave the mesh and the plasti-dipped section of the bumper alone for a few months and see what happens, then decide what to do based on how well it holds up. The mesh I can just touch up (or replace if it gets banged up, it's cheap and easy now that I have the process down). If the plasti-dip ends up being way too fragile, I may strip it all off and re-paint with something else down the line.

if something else, you can buy automotive rock chip paint used for rocker panels, or have it painted in truck bed liner, like I love to do.

So wstar, get this. I gave my wife a GT Motoring hook to ship out to a guy in Canada on this board. He bought it for 90$, she comes back and says, "Shipping to Canada cost $98 at FED EX, UPS would have been the same." .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .........................funnier/scary part is, she's a nurse.

Minor updates:

HPDE at MSR Houston again coming up this weekend, with the same group as before (The Driver's Edge). Just finished up all my last-minute maintenance: fresh oil change, fresh diff fluid, swapped pads back to CT XP-8, double-checked lots of other miscellaneous bits. I'm excited. We'll be going CCW this time, which is new for me (but we did do some CCW parade-lap stuff last time, so I have some idea). It'll be good to try a whole different configuration and get back out of my growing comfort zone, but it's also kind of a downer that I won't be able to directly compare my times from the last trip.

I've switched my oil from 5W30 to 5W40 on a whim (still Motul 300V). It doesn't really get very cold here, I always warm up, and I think as the mileage percentage increasingly shifts in the track direction, thicker is probably better. Ordered a 12-pack case of 300V cans from Amazon in bulk $$$.

Very cool!

Thicker oil isn't necessarily better, it depends on the tolerances and the ideal viscosity to suit those tolerances. The benefit of course is going to be closer to stock viscosity at elevated oil temperatures.

What have you been seeing for oil temps so far depending on weather conditions?

Well keep in mind I'm on a 19-row cooler as well. I've seen up to 260 in the later summer so far (at this track), and 250 driving a bit harder/longer in November (same track again). Unfortunately this weekend's forecast is mid-70's even though we're just about in the center of winter, so I expect 250-ish again. I figure 5W40 might do me a little more good than 5W30 at that sort of range. Probably a hair too thick down in the 180-220 sort of range I see DD-ing in the winter, but then again I'm not pushing the engine all that hard DD-ing either, so it's not so critical :)

Either way the difference between 5W30 and 5W40 isn't likely to be tremendous.

Yeah the difference isn't huge, still safe for DDing. It should be most helpful in the 230+ temperature range.

-About the throttle maps, I'll be copying the specs you posted on THIS thread, seems to be perfect to get rid of the throttle lag.

-I tried doing a search on the torque maping with Uprev but didnt find much, could You please elavorate more on this feature? and please post some pics of the torque maps values You are using at moment

I'm also running on a 7AT, and the set of bolt ons I ordered, are exactly the same You are running, only difference is I'll be running ART Pipes in stead of LTH, and no M370.

The Torque Map is basically an estimation of the engine's torque output (in some unknown units) based on RPMs and Fueling. The ECU+TCM use the Torque Map to determine how much hydraulic pressure to apply to the clutches in the transmission. The idea is the car wants to apply enough pressure such that the clutches don't slip, but not so much excessive pressure than they engage too quickly and become jerky. I'm running the stock Torque Map now and it's fine. I don't think you can get to torque values that would slip on the stock map unless you go TT/SC or some sort of built engine.

General update:

I've been too overwhelmed lately to have much free time to compose any lucid car update posts. I never even got around to re-encoding my videos from my Jan track weekend for Youtube heh. I did want to note one thing though:

This past weekend was a track weekend at TWS, and I ended up basically scrapping the weekend pretty early over braking issues. I'm still investigating some things on my end, and then after that I need to talk to the vendor(s) involved. Just something to keep in mind if anyone's looking at my parts list: there could be issues with my choice of brake components. Choose wisely. I'll update more once the dust settles out a bit.

Rotors/ caliper expansion kit?

Two piece rotors........ interested to hear your thoughts and how you get this worked out

Installed Stillen's new brake duct kit today. I didn't bother with pics + DIY. I kinda did my own thing with some of it that involved cutting a fair amount of plastic :) My thoughts on the kit in general:

1) The dust shield flanges, which are really the key thing this kit gives you, look like they're going to work great. I had some very minor fit issues (more on one side than the other) with the bottom edge of the flange (with the little lip that Stillen puts on that section) hitting the lower suspension arm that's right behind it. Rather than the torque it flat and let it bend, I flattened out a small section of that lip with a hammer to give the necessary clearance. Wasn't hard and doesn't change anything functionally.

It wasn't clear to me whether the supplied ultra-thin shims were meant to correct for factory variance on that particular issue, or to correct on the "other" side (flange face clearance to brake rotor), but they wouldn't have been nearly thick enough on the bad side anyways, so I didn't use them.

2) Zip-ties and wheel clearance: Don't even bother zip-tie-ing down the ductwork in the wheel well until you've put the wheel on and played with the steering and suspension travel. I'm probably a little bit of an extreme case with 18x10 + 275/35's in the front, but it was rather tricky routing it to both cover the full motion range, and not rub the tire at full steering lock in either direction. I thought I had it sorted out before the tire went on, but I was wrong and ended up cutting my zipties and starting over on that bit.

3) Duct routing: IMHO, even following Stillen's directions, things just don't go together very easy. It's not the kit, it's the car. I don't know that they could make it any easier really. Especially on the driver's side, I don't see how merely removing that little 3-snap small panel solves all the issues. You're still going to have to cut plastic somewhere (at a minimum, the slightly larger vertical piece that's accesible from the front, the one you typically route oil/trans cooler hoses through the grommet notch of).

Ultimately I decided that I didn't care much about cutting plastic in the wheel well / bumper interior areas, so I just went ahead and cut holes as necessary to do a more-direct routing of the hose. Mostly the lower inside edge area of the wheel well plastic. It shortened the path and number of bends considerably (I ended up cutting 1-1.5 feet from each of the hoses for final trimming, whereas Stillen guesses 6-8" extra to cut off with "normal" routing and not so much cutting).

The front fang ducts are a nice shape. My factory clip-nut-things that you're supposed to move over to the new fang ducts didn't fit: they were too short for the bolt hole to line up properly. Probably factory variance or year-model variance or something, who knows. I found a different clip/screw combo from my bin of random parts that fit it fine.

Conclusion stuff: I'm really glad Stillen released this kit. It's the first real commercial option we've had for a dust-shield flange attachment behind the rotor. I had a few minor issues with the flange pieces, but nothing that really detracts from the product or was difficult to overcome. The actual duct-hose routing is a mess to deal with. It's not their fault, it just really sucks to route those hoses on this car, and while the 2" hose they selected certainly makes it easier than the 2.5" I was trying to use before, it's still a PITA.

It's definitely DIY-able (obviously), but with the hose routing issues I wouldn't call it an easy bolt-on job. You need to have a wide array of tools at your disposal, and you're going to need to stop and think and plan and re-plan as you go. It's not a "follow steps 1, 2, 3, and you're done" kind of install. Be wary of doing it yourself at home if you're not well-equipped and familiar with this area of the car and maybe even willing to make some cuts :).

I didn't have any issues with the dust shield. But you and I run totally different rotor setups. I didn't see a point in the shims either so I tossed them.

The ducting wasn't bad. I ran it at full lock then tucked it in with the ties. I ended up cutting the slack out at the front flanges insted so I could manipulate the hoses in the wheel well until all was complete. But here again I run a 19x9.5 on 265 tire. But stil have lots of clearence.

I flirted with the idea of making a cut in the fender well but decided against. Good thing I could always still do it. It is a tight fit the way Stillen does it but it will be fine being they did all the testing in this location and got the claimed results.

Well, my issue wasn't rotor related. Now I wish I took pics :). But I'm referring to the curled up "edges" on the back (away from the rotor) side of the metal outcropping that holds the flange, hitting the fixed (relative to it) suspension member behind it.

Yeah I did my cutting at the front as well, way easier. Did you route as their pics show (i.e. the final tie on the lower suspension around way out to the back)? That was what caused the most problems for me. There didn't seem to be any way to tie down out there and have both enough slack for the stretch direction, and not have it crumple up right into the side of the tire in the opposite lock direction. Your tires aren't that much skinnier than mine, either. Did you check the "short" steering direction not rubbing?

Yeah I don't get this at all. On the passenger side, I could've done a tight fit with just Stillen's recommendation (removing that small plastic square) and doing some extra bends. But on the driver's side, even when you remove the little plastic square in the wheel well, that only solves half the problem. There was no other hole on the other side (more towards the bumper) to reach that area in the first place, without cutting the vertical plastic piece that has the little built in round hole in it. Did you just force the hose to work with that hole? Seemed small for it to me, but it was moot since I have cooler lines running through there already, and both certainly can't fit.

I see what your saying. It is funny and this is where every inch matters. After full lock I got a tad bit more and count on the duct to flex as it should to work. Here's some pics.

This is the full lock and I installed the tie around the lower coilover bracket.
http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/...lingKit012.jpg
http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/...lingKit006.jpg

Here's when wheel is straight.
http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/...lingKit005.jpg


It is very tight and you have to use the push pull technique to get threw as you see above. Below is a pic of passenger side.
http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/...lingKit015.jpg

Ah, I see what made that work for you that I didn't do: that last tie going around near the base of the shock absorber. Mine would "bulge" out in that area when turned the other way (compressed instead of stretched), rubbing into the wheel. I solved it a different way, we'll see how my routing holds up :) As soon as I get my parts to finish up my rotor business I'll be back in the wheel wells again and get some photos.

Yeah I get that on the passenger side, I routed it like that once before I just decided to cut things and go straight. But the driver's side, I don't even see a hole to squish through. Unless you're talking about sending the pipe up very high (over some other plastic bits, several inches "up" out of its natural line).

Over the weekend, I de-installed the Relentless 2-piece brake rotor kit at all four corners. Switched to Z1 motorsports relatively cheap, good quality 1-piece slotted OEM replacements: Akebono 370Z/G37 Sport Package Performance Rotors.

I don't want to get into a big vendor bash side-debate here. Let's just say the scientific data from my end is inconclusive on whether any quality problems in the RA rotors themselves contributed to my issues. I don't think RA has sold enough 370Z rotors in total for anyone to make any statistical argument about the quality level, either, so it's a crapshoot from that perspective. Let's just say in the end the total package of their business model, product, and pricing isn't matching up well with my needs. A good deal of that has to do with their turnaround time on shipping out parts, too.

I'm not planning to re-install the RA rotors. If someone else wants to buy the re-usable aluminum hats and rear caliper upgrade hardware to try out the system themselves, they could buy a fresh set of RA's outer rings to go with them. The fronts are 10 lbs unsprung/rotating weight lighter per rotor than OEM equivalents, so there is that going for them. Otherwise I'll see if RA wants to buy them back as inventory (no flaws with those bits for sure), but that seems unlikely, or just junk them and write off the cost as a lesson learned.

In any case, I've re-bedded on the new Z1 rotors, and everything's much healthier now. I re-used the XP8's I already had for rear pads since they have tons of life on them and the rear RA rings were still in good shape when I took them off. In the front I was concerned the pads were degraded from spending a couple months mating with the front RA rings, and I wanted to upgrade heat ranges anyways, so that's bedded with a fresh set of XP10s. I might clean up and resurface the takeoff front XP8's since they have a lot of thickness left, and keep them as backup front pads to take to the track with me.

XP10+XP8 feels pretty good, the front bite's not as scary as I was worried it would be, it's fine with street tires and still easy to modulate. 6 days to back on the track again at MSR Houston. Need to re-bleed again after a couple more days of working the system out, and get an oil change in, and I'm good to go.

Being paranoid about wasting any further track weekends on unexpected brake issues, I was extremely analytical and careful with the new rotor installations. I took dial-gauge runout reading on all 4 rotors and thickness variation data, etc, and did some indexing of the mounting rotation offset to minimize the runout. Everything's way way below OEM spec limits. My worst corner is at .004" runout prior to bedding measured all the way out at the edge, and even that I think was reduced slightly with the wheel torqued on top (as opposed to lightly torquing lugnuts onto the brake rotor itself when measuring). The OEM spec limit is .014" a bit in from the edge (center of pad swept area, basically). So, measurably, these are good rotors in manufacturing quality terms.

Glad to see you back in the confidence zone with your set up. Enjoy those track days!

Good deal wstar. I also run on the same Z1 rotors with 4 track days and several thousand miles of DD. Been holding up great for me. I also just installed the XP 10's on the front. Need to bed them in this weekend. Glad to hear the bite isn't crazy bad.

Once those rotors wear I have some brand new Stillen J hook rotors that someone sold to me for $200. What a deal. I got lucky. He actually won them at Z Nationals and sold them to me.