wstar's Journal

wstar · 09-13-2014, 03:47 PM

Had an incredibly fun weekend w/ Driver's Edge @ Texas World Speedway (a week ago; I finally got around to uploading video today!). I swapped back to the stock rear sway and tightened up my damper adjustments a bit. After a couple sessions re-adjusting dampers and tire pressures I found a setting I was happy with and then maintained for the weekend. I have some uprated springs (900 front 700 rear) to put on and try at the next track weekend, and I still feel like those are a good idea at this point.

Video of various stuff:

( Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6BJpqH1js8 )

Rusty · 09-13-2014, 05:52 PM

How did it feel with the stock rear bar?

wstar · 09-14-2014, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rusty

How did it feel with the stock rear bar?

Moving that back to this thread where we talked about it before: Spring rate help?

carlitos_370z · 09-15-2014, 07:32 AM

nice run dude!! can wait to track my Z... hope to run in October

wstar · 02-28-2015, 01:24 PM

Holy lack of updates for 5 months or so

The TL;DR recap is: Back in late October I had a drivetrain failure on-track again. I knew the torque convertor was basically destroyed from how it felt/acted. My worst-case assumption was that the vibration from the incident had probably damaged my crank bearings (again), and that bits from the convertor had probably flowed into the main transmission and caused it to need a rebuild as well.

On top of that, both of my sets of tires were on their last legs and various maintenance was all due before the next event as well, and my wallet had already been screaming "Please, stop the hemorrhaging, it's just a hobby!" for months. Also, I was already kinda mentally preparing for possibly switching to an SRF car anyways, so I decided it was time to shut this hobby down for a bit and contemplate my situation thoroughly.

So I basically just left the car in the trailer broken down for a few months and focused on catching up on the rest of my life and finances for a while, and endlessly dithered back and forth in my head the whole time about whether to try to fix the car and drive it, or part it out and work on an SRF, or perhaps fix it, drive it a few times, sell it whole, then go for the SRF. I did show up for a local Z event at MSR-Houston to do some instructing stuff, but other than that I've been off-track the whole time.

Eventually, in early February I had still come to jack-all of a conclusion, and Guru happened to be getting some work done at JTran here in town at the time, so I dropped by their shop with him to check the place out. I ended up deciding to drop my car off with them and at least have them pull the trans out of the car and diagnose the drivetrain so I'd have more information to go on.

As it turns out (a) JTran is awesome to work with and (b) aside from the destroyed convertor, the rest of the drivetrain seems to have miraculously escaped with relatively-little damage. The car's still with them while they wait on the rebuilt convertor, and I'm having them take over and finish up a few of my other random projects on the car while it's there. I expect to have the car back on-track sometime in March at this point.

--------------------------

Suspension stuff:

Prior to the drivetrain incident on the same weekend, I did get to test the car with the new springs (900 front 700 rear on true-type JRZ RS1's). With that setup plus the stock rear sway, the car was too loose and tail-happy for me, so I pulled out the rear sway completely to cut rear springrate and get back to closer balance. With the rear sway gone, the car was still just a *little* more oversteery than I wanted, but was totally safe, driveable, and fun.

With stiffer springs the car was much happier and so was I. I expected to have traction issues in the bumpy spots on the track and/or when running my inside wheels over low kerbing from the stiffer springs, but I was completely wrong about that. With stiffer springs the car stays glued down even better in those situations, I suppose owing to the spring pushing the tire back into the pavement faster/harder.

I've ordered some 1100 lb front springs to try out when I get the car back, so that I kill more front body roll and get the car closer to neutral at the limit than it is now. I suspect with 1100/700 springs and no rear sway the car may actually understeer, but if so I can stick the stock rear sway back on to compensate and I bet it will work out fine that way.

Tires
I also have a couple sets of sticker slicks coming in. Track junkies take note of Hoosier's Winter Discontinued Stuff Sale: they have lots of sticker Conti GT-I slicks in 285/645R18 for $200/tire right now (second from the bottom of the page), which fit great on 18x10s! The meaning of the GT-x codes seems to evolve every year, but I think these will be a bit softer than the GT-O Oval compound I had last year, but may not be quite as soft as even an R6. Still will probably be a great tire for DE stuff.

Rusty · 03-07-2015, 07:57 PM

Welcome back.

Thought you had done went with the SRF. Glad you didn't.

Orestp · 07-19-2016, 11:45 PM

It looks like you've had the JRZ RS1's on for a while now - given that the rears are true type, have you had any issues / concerns with the rear shock tower - some people think it might need reinforcing if you go with true type coil overs.

Did you change any bushings when you installed the JRZ RS1's?

Thanks for all the info you've posted.

sig11 · 07-21-2016, 06:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orestp

It looks like you've had the JRZ RS1's on for a while now - given that the rears are true type, have you had any issues / concerns with the rear shock tower - some people think it might need reinforcing if you go with true type coil overs.

Did you change any bushings when you installed the JRZ RS1's?

Thanks for all the info you've posted.

I also have JRZ RS1s on my 370 and haven't had a single issue. I do mostly street driving now but have a good 8-10 track days on them (probably 15-20 hours. Most with race tires). I don't believe there is a need to reinforce. YMMV!

teknoprep · 04-30-2015, 10:47 AM

If you are going to upgrade the 7AT i would reccomend these guys

Level 10 Performance Transmission Systems Bulletproof Transmissions,Supercharger

I have a fully rebuilt TC and AT and its amazing. We have a great tune right now on the torque map using UpREV as the one everyone uses on the stock 7AT just doesn't work well with this trans upgrade.

conor1123 · 09-09-2015, 11:31 PM

How is the Z doing out there? I feel like it is being outclassed in most events.
I'm still trying to decide if I want to put some money into the Z and track it or just buy an S2000 and track it out. What do you guys think?

I'm just worried because any 370z (depending on mods) would be like TT/ST 1-3. Seems like it is falling behind and maybe needs a base class change lol.

DR_ · 09-10-2015, 08:42 AM

We have some of the fastest TT3 (Mustang GT) and TTB (S2000) cars in the country here in NASA Texas. You will need aero and Hoosier A7 to be competitive with either. IMO the 370z is a tweener as it isn't fast enough for TT3 but gets to many points to fit into TTB with the needed aero and tires. Probably the best way to be competitive in the Z is to supercharge but detune to fit into TT3.

conor1123 · 09-10-2015, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DR_

We have some of the fastest TT3 (Mustang GT) and TTB (S2000) cars in the country here in NASA Texas. You will need aero and Hoosier A7 to be competitive with either. IMO the 370z is a tweener as it isn't fast enough for TT3 but gets to many points to fit into TTB with the needed aero and tires. Probably the best way to be competitive in the Z is to supercharge but detune to fit into TT3.

Yup! That is why I was considering an S2000. I just got back from NASA West Coast Nationals at Laguna Seca and one of your s2k guys was there and put down the same times as most of the TT1 guys. I was shocked. He is in TTB, still NA.

Valkyrie Autosport was also there with two of their ST/TT3 350Z cars which did pretty well but they also start in a lower class so they have more points! Not sure if they were supercharged or not.

TravisJB did what you said and built a detuned supercharged 370 to make like 380whp. I'm not sure what he was classed into though, if at all. Also...it was a custom supercharger hah.

Here is the TTB guy that ran a 1:39 that I think is from Texas. SIMPLE!

wstar · 12-27-2019, 10:30 AM

Hi again!

Blast from the past time, logging in for the first time in a few years and re-upping my premium membership, also cleared out my overfilled PM inbox.

Since my last posts here back in ~2015 (!!), the car did see a few more minor updates (the transmission swap from JTran worked out fine, they also cut hood venting for me, and I upped the spring rates further) and made it through a few more track events, but my event pace really slowed to a crawl, and I'm pretty sure the last time the car was on-track anywhere was around late 2017. None of the final events ever made it into the forums or youtube (I pulled out the data system a while back and never replaced it with something better). Since then it's just been in maintenance mode sitting on the lift in my garage for the past ~2 years with the slicks stored indoors, and it gets fired up once in a while to do oil changes to keep everything a little fresh.

Life changed dramatically a few years back (TL;DR - I got married and gained a couple of kids!), and the racing hobby just wasn't a priority for my time or cash anymore, as much as I loved it while it lasted.

Now more changes are coming, as I'm about to sell my house out here and move a few miles, and the time has finally come to sell the Z itself (and all the random takeoffs and extra bits and the short-rise lift from the garage, etc). I took some recent pics of the thing and I'll make a for-sale post over in the appropriate classifieds in a little bit and cross-link it with this journal thread, probably sometime a little later today. I'd like to try to find it a good home here in the community if there's a quick easy sale, before I go posting it elsewhere on other track-specific forums and such.

Happy holidays everyone

JARblue · 12-27-2019, 11:07 AM

Happy Holidays dude

Good to see you posting again. Sounds like life is going full speed ahead

Short-rise lift? May I ask what you have? May be interested in other stuff, too, although my parts list is pretty well covered at this point.

cv129 · 12-27-2019, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JARblue

Happy Holidays dude

Good to see you posting again. Sounds like life is going full speed ahead

Short-rise lift? May I ask what you have? May be interested in other stuff, too, although my parts list is pretty well covered at this point.

Get his AP BBK!!!!

I was actually writing a reply right after wstar posted, but was logged out and too lazy to retype....and I mentioned you knowing you would be tempted to add more stuff to your list haha

09-13-2014, 03:47 PM	#1 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3596	Had an incredibly fun weekend w/ Driver's Edge @ Texas World Speedway (a week ago; I finally got around to uploading video today!). I swapped back to the stock rear sway and tightened up my damper adjustments a bit. After a couple sessions re-adjusting dampers and tire pressures I found a setting I was happy with and then maintained for the weekend. I have some uprated springs (900 front 700 rear) to put on and try at the next track weekend, and I still feel like those are a good idea at this point. Video of various stuff: ( Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6BJpqH1js8 ) guru, Rusty, critical and 2 others like this. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details Last edited by wstar; 09-13-2014 at 04:18 PM.

09-13-2014, 05:52 PM	#2 (permalink)
Rusty A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Fayettenam,Pennsyltucky Age: 70 Posts: 35,575 Drives: 2011 Nismo GM 6M Rep Power: 2684440	How did it feel with the stock rear bar? __________________ 浪人 - 殺し屋 "The Difficult Anytime, The Impossible By Appointment Only" http://www.the370z.com/members-370z-...o-journal.html

02-28-2015, 01:24 PM	#5 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3596	Holy lack of updates for 5 months or so The TL;DR recap is: Back in late October I had a drivetrain failure on-track again. I knew the torque convertor was basically destroyed from how it felt/acted. My worst-case assumption was that the vibration from the incident had probably damaged my crank bearings (again), and that bits from the convertor had probably flowed into the main transmission and caused it to need a rebuild as well. On top of that, both of my sets of tires were on their last legs and various maintenance was all due before the next event as well, and my wallet had already been screaming "Please, stop the hemorrhaging, it's just a hobby!" for months. Also, I was already kinda mentally preparing for possibly switching to an SRF car anyways, so I decided it was time to shut this hobby down for a bit and contemplate my situation thoroughly. So I basically just left the car in the trailer broken down for a few months and focused on catching up on the rest of my life and finances for a while, and endlessly dithered back and forth in my head the whole time about whether to try to fix the car and drive it, or part it out and work on an SRF, or perhaps fix it, drive it a few times, sell it whole, then go for the SRF. I did show up for a local Z event at MSR-Houston to do some instructing stuff, but other than that I've been off-track the whole time. Eventually, in early February I had still come to jack-all of a conclusion, and Guru happened to be getting some work done at JTran here in town at the time, so I dropped by their shop with him to check the place out. I ended up deciding to drop my car off with them and at least have them pull the trans out of the car and diagnose the drivetrain so I'd have more information to go on. As it turns out (a) JTran is awesome to work with and (b) aside from the destroyed convertor, the rest of the drivetrain seems to have miraculously escaped with relatively-little damage. The car's still with them while they wait on the rebuilt convertor, and I'm having them take over and finish up a few of my other random projects on the car while it's there. I expect to have the car back on-track sometime in March at this point. -------------------------- Suspension stuff: Prior to the drivetrain incident on the same weekend, I did get to test the car with the new springs (900 front 700 rear on true-type JRZ RS1's). With that setup plus the stock rear sway, the car was too loose and tail-happy for me, so I pulled out the rear sway completely to cut rear springrate and get back to closer balance. With the rear sway gone, the car was still just a little more oversteery than I wanted, but was totally safe, driveable, and fun. With stiffer springs the car was much happier and so was I. I expected to have traction issues in the bumpy spots on the track and/or when running my inside wheels over low kerbing from the stiffer springs, but I was completely wrong about that. With stiffer springs the car stays glued down even better in those situations, I suppose owing to the spring pushing the tire back into the pavement faster/harder. I've ordered some 1100 lb front springs to try out when I get the car back, so that I kill more front body roll and get the car closer to neutral at the limit than it is now. I suspect with 1100/700 springs and no rear sway the car may actually understeer, but if so I can stick the stock rear sway back on to compensate and I bet it will work out fine that way. Tires I also have a couple sets of sticker slicks coming in. Track junkies take note of Hoosier's Winter Discontinued Stuff Sale: they have lots of sticker Conti GT-I slicks in 285/645R18 for $200/tire right now (second from the bottom of the page), which fit great on 18x10s! The meaning of the GT-x codes seems to evolve every year, but I think these will be a bit softer than the GT-O Oval compound I had last year, but may not be quite as soft as even an R6. Still will probably be a great tire for DE stuff. ENT-Z, Mike, sig11 and 1 others like this. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details Last edited by wstar; 02-28-2015 at 01:32 PM.

03-07-2015, 07:57 PM	#6 (permalink)
Rusty A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Fayettenam,Pennsyltucky Age: 70 Posts: 35,575 Drives: 2011 Nismo GM 6M Rep Power: 2684440	Welcome back. Thought you had done went with the SRF. Glad you didn't. __________________ 浪人 - 殺し屋 "The Difficult Anytime, The Impossible By Appointment Only" http://www.the370z.com/members-370z-...o-journal.html

07-19-2016, 11:45 PM	#7 (permalink)
Orestp Base Member Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Edmonton, Alberta Posts: 43 Drives: 2010 370Z Rep Power: 15	It looks like you've had the JRZ RS1's on for a while now - given that the rears are true type, have you had any issues / concerns with the rear shock tower - some people think it might need reinforcing if you go with true type coil overs. Did you change any bushings when you installed the JRZ RS1's? Thanks for all the info you've posted. __________________ GTM Twin Supercharger / GTM Large Capacity Oil Pan / GTM Valve Body Upgrade / Setrab 34 row oil cooler <- Deleted, Replaced with Laminova water to oil oil cooler / MotorDyne ART pipes / Cusco RS LSD / Tuned by Specialty Z / 15mm Ichiba spacers front & rear

09-15-2014, 07:32 AM	#4 (permalink)
carlitos_370z A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: Puerto Rico Posts: 7,157 Drives: 13 Nissan 370Z SP M6 Rep Power: 7587	nice run dude!! can wait to track my Z... hope to run in October

04-30-2015, 10:47 AM	#9 (permalink)
teknoprep Base Member Join Date: Jul 2014 Location: PA, USA Posts: 15 Drives: 13 Nissan 370z PW A7 Rep Power: 12	If you are going to upgrade the 7AT i would reccomend these guys Level 10 Performance Transmission Systems Bulletproof Transmissions,Supercharger I have a fully rebuilt TC and AT and its amazing. We have a great tune right now on the torque map using UpREV as the one everyone uses on the stock 7AT just doesn't work well with this trans upgrade.

09-09-2015, 11:31 PM	#10 (permalink)
conor1123 Base Member Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Arizona Posts: 155 Drives: 2010 MT 370z Rep Power: 15	How is the Z doing out there? I feel like it is being outclassed in most events. I'm still trying to decide if I want to put some money into the Z and track it or just buy an S2000 and track it out. What do you guys think? I'm just worried because any 370z (depending on mods) would be like TT/ST 1-3. Seems like it is falling behind and maybe needs a base class change lol. __________________ 309WHP/255TQ ~ UpRev ~ F.I. CBE/12" Res + HFC ~ Stillen G3 ~ CZP ~ Eibach Sways ~ SPL ~ Project Mu Last edited by conor1123; 09-10-2015 at 12:05 AM.

09-10-2015, 08:42 AM	#11 (permalink)
DR_ Track Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Dallas Posts: 981 Drives: Touring/Sport M6 PG Rep Power: 18	We have some of the fastest TT3 (Mustang GT) and TTB (S2000) cars in the country here in NASA Texas. You will need aero and Hoosier A7 to be competitive with either. IMO the 370z is a tweener as it isn't fast enough for TT3 but gets to many points to fit into TTB with the needed aero and tires. Probably the best way to be competitive in the Z is to supercharge but detune to fit into TT3. sig11 likes this.

12-27-2019, 10:30 AM	#13 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3596	Hi again! Blast from the past time, logging in for the first time in a few years and re-upping my premium membership, also cleared out my overfilled PM inbox. Since my last posts here back in ~2015 (!!), the car did see a few more minor updates (the transmission swap from JTran worked out fine, they also cut hood venting for me, and I upped the spring rates further) and made it through a few more track events, but my event pace really slowed to a crawl, and I'm pretty sure the last time the car was on-track anywhere was around late 2017. None of the final events ever made it into the forums or youtube (I pulled out the data system a while back and never replaced it with something better). Since then it's just been in maintenance mode sitting on the lift in my garage for the past ~2 years with the slicks stored indoors, and it gets fired up once in a while to do oil changes to keep everything a little fresh. Life changed dramatically a few years back (TL;DR - I got married and gained a couple of kids!), and the racing hobby just wasn't a priority for my time or cash anymore, as much as I loved it while it lasted. Now more changes are coming, as I'm about to sell my house out here and move a few miles, and the time has finally come to sell the Z itself (and all the random takeoffs and extra bits and the short-rise lift from the garage, etc). I took some recent pics of the thing and I'll make a for-sale post over in the appropriate classifieds in a little bit and cross-link it with this journal thread, probably sometime a little later today. I'd like to try to find it a good home here in the community if there's a quick easy sale, before I go posting it elsewhere on other track-specific forums and such. Happy holidays everyone JARblue, cv129, Rusty and 3 others like this. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

12-27-2019, 11:07 AM	#14 (permalink)
JARblue A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Austin, TX Age: 45 Posts: 36,450 Drives: 11 Z34, 98 E36 M3 Rep Power: 2684442	Happy Holidays dude Good to see you posting again. Sounds like life is going full speed ahead Short-rise lift? May I ask what you have? May be interested in other stuff, too, although my parts list is pretty well covered at this point. Rusty and Hotrodz like this. __________________ 2011 370Z 6MT Sport Gun Metallic \| ARC \| CJM \| Ecutek \| FI \| Fujimura \| R2C \| SPL \| Stillen \| TWM \| Z1 \| ZSpeed \|

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Switch to Linear Mode Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
TravisJB Journal	travisjb	Member's 370Z Gallery	1977	11-03-2017 09:39 AM
DannyGT's Journal/Progress	DannyGT	Member's 370Z Gallery	174	10-17-2017 10:25 AM
RCZ's 370Z Journal.	RCZ	Member's 370Z Gallery	1743	08-09-2013 11:55 PM
Edmonton Journal Review of the 370Z	BanningZ	Nissan 370Z General Discussions	13	08-09-2009 05:44 PM
LiquidZ's Journal	LiquidZ	Member's 370Z Gallery	22	05-22-2009 11:42 PM