wstar's Journal

Rusty · 08-15-2014, 04:09 PM

DAMN YOU! Now I got the wheels turning in my head. I gave up racing because of the costs. I just wanted the "need for speed" to be taken care of by doing trackdays (lower cost). I'm getting too close to retirement to jump back into this. That SRF I would do in a heart beat IF I was younger. You FCCKER, Now I'm going to be spending the rest of my shift googling SRF.

wstar · 08-15-2014, 04:27 PM

There's a fair number of retired guys racing in SRF. Once you get over the initial hump of getting a car and a towing setup*, it's a pretty cheap series to run

* - On towing - the car as-loaded is going to be in the ballpark of 1500 lbs. Some forums report guys squeezing them (just barely) into 7x14 trailers. Even if you went with an 8.5x18 to make it easy to load and have room for tires and tools, you're talking a grand total of about 5000lbs for the whole loaded rolling trailer, which makes even a 1/2-ton truck a reasonable towing option if you stick a Class IV hitch on it...

Rusty · 08-15-2014, 04:32 PM

I could use my 41ft diesel pusher motorhome to pull it.

sig11 · 08-16-2014, 11:41 AM

Ah. When I saw the picture I was thinking they were more like the size of a DSR. Those guys can be really hard to see and they come up on you FAST.

BGTV8 · 08-16-2014, 06:21 PM

Which is why we don't run with Radical's, Wests and the like in Production SportsCars here in OZ ... with aero, they have higher mid-corner and brake substantially deeper and the thought of the consequences of a collison between a 600kg car and a Viper don't bear thinking about. This category suns in its own class for that reason and does not get mixed with produciton oriented sports cars.

wstar · 08-16-2014, 07:52 PM

Yeah, I hear ya. Even the SFR is a bit mismatched for sportscars at DEs and such too, but no more-so than running GT-Rs and Miatas on the same track.

My Z-vs-SFR comparison so far (which is very limited: just specs and seeing one on-track with me for 4x sessions, but no idea what kind of driver was at the wheel) is that the SFR has a lower top speed and doesn't accelerate nearly as well in a straight line, but would have higher min speeds in the corners and less aero drag (neither car has real downforce), and comparable braking (modulo differences in top speed to begin with). You probably end up on a little smoother line than the Z as a natural consequence (have to preserve momentum a little more, instead of making it up by braking very late and hard). I saw on-track that in fast sections the SFR takes a tighter line sometimes because they might as well shorten the distance when they're out of oomph to do anything with a wider track at that point.

It would probably be a big upgrade in tire-feel for me as a driver too, switching to an SFR being so low and rigid, kinda like what I experienced when I first put the cage + solid seat mounts in the Z. I think in slower and twistier sections of a track, I could easily be much faster in an SFR than the Z, but the Z's going to clock superior overall lap times just from the huge straight-line accel advantage. Going back to true-manual shifting will be annoying, but not annoying enough to care about. I'll have to learn to heel-toe decently. The bigger issue than that for transitioning is probably getting used to a brake system with no ABS at all that can easily lock up its tires before you completely get the pedal down.

Mike · 08-18-2014, 06:59 PM

check into the spec E30 also. A couple of my friends who had high dollar, high power sports cars switched to the E30 series and love it.

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.

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.

08-15-2014, 04:09 PM	#841 (permalink)
Rusty Ronin Samurai - Assassin Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Fayettenam,Pennsyltucky Age: 68 Posts: 34,863 Drives: 2011 Nismo GM 6M Rep Power: 2684436	DAMN YOU! Now I got the wheels turning in my head. I gave up racing because of the costs. I just wanted the "need for speed" to be taken care of by doing trackdays (lower cost). I'm getting too close to retirement to jump back into this. That SRF I would do in a heart beat IF I was younger. You FCCKER, Now I'm going to be spending the rest of my shift googling SRF. __________________ 浪人 - 殺し屋 "The Difficult Anytime, The Impossible By Appointment Only" http://www.the370z.com/members-370z-...o-journal.html

08-15-2014, 04:27 PM	#842 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3594	There's a fair number of retired guys racing in SRF. Once you get over the initial hump of getting a car and a towing setup, it's a pretty cheap series to run - On towing - the car as-loaded is going to be in the ballpark of 1500 lbs. Some forums report guys squeezing them (just barely) into 7x14 trailers. Even if you went with an 8.5x18 to make it easy to load and have room for tires and tools, you're talking a grand total of about 5000lbs for the whole loaded rolling trailer, which makes even a 1/2-ton truck a reasonable towing option if you stick a Class IV hitch on it... __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

08-15-2014, 04:32 PM	#843 (permalink)
Rusty Ronin Samurai - Assassin Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Fayettenam,Pennsyltucky Age: 68 Posts: 34,863 Drives: 2011 Nismo GM 6M Rep Power: 2684436	I could use my 41ft diesel pusher motorhome to pull it. sig11 likes this. __________________ 浪人 - 殺し屋 "The Difficult Anytime, The Impossible By Appointment Only" http://www.the370z.com/members-370z-...o-journal.html

08-16-2014, 06:21 PM	#845 (permalink)
BGTV8 A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: 03350 Australia Posts: 1,503 Drives: 09 Nissan 370Z M6 Rep Power: 29907	Which is why we don't run with Radical's, Wests and the like in Production SportsCars here in OZ ... with aero, they have higher mid-corner and brake substantially deeper and the thought of the consequences of a collison between a 600kg car and a Viper don't bear thinking about. This category suns in its own class for that reason and does not get mixed with produciton oriented sports cars. sig11 likes this.

08-16-2014, 07:52 PM	#846 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3594	Yeah, I hear ya. Even the SFR is a bit mismatched for sportscars at DEs and such too, but no more-so than running GT-Rs and Miatas on the same track. My Z-vs-SFR comparison so far (which is very limited: just specs and seeing one on-track with me for 4x sessions, but no idea what kind of driver was at the wheel) is that the SFR has a lower top speed and doesn't accelerate nearly as well in a straight line, but would have higher min speeds in the corners and less aero drag (neither car has real downforce), and comparable braking (modulo differences in top speed to begin with). You probably end up on a little smoother line than the Z as a natural consequence (have to preserve momentum a little more, instead of making it up by braking very late and hard). I saw on-track that in fast sections the SFR takes a tighter line sometimes because they might as well shorten the distance when they're out of oomph to do anything with a wider track at that point. It would probably be a big upgrade in tire-feel for me as a driver too, switching to an SFR being so low and rigid, kinda like what I experienced when I first put the cage + solid seat mounts in the Z. I think in slower and twistier sections of a track, I could easily be much faster in an SFR than the Z, but the Z's going to clock superior overall lap times just from the huge straight-line accel advantage. Going back to true-manual shifting will be annoying, but not annoying enough to care about. I'll have to learn to heel-toe decently. The bigger issue than that for transitioning is probably getting used to a brake system with no ABS at all that can easily lock up its tires before you completely get the pedal down. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details Last edited by wstar; 08-16-2014 at 07:55 PM.

08-16-2014, 11:41 AM	#844 (permalink)
sig11 A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Detroit Posts: 1,294 Drives: 09 370Z Red Sport-MT Rep Power: 17	Ah. When I saw the picture I was thinking they were more like the size of a DSR. Those guys can be really hard to see and they come up on you FAST.

08-18-2014, 06:59 PM	#847 (permalink)
Mike The370Z.com Sponsor Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Loganville, GA Posts: 5,944 Drives: 370z Rep Power: 2185	check into the spec E30 also. A couple of my friends who had high dollar, high power sports cars switched to the E30 series and love it. __________________ NISSAN: 75 280Z / 86 300ZX GLL /87 Sentra SE / 03 350Z / 23 Z Porsche: 93 968 / 23 Macan GTS / 93 968

09-13-2014, 03:47 PM	#848 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3594	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	#849 (permalink)
Rusty Ronin Samurai - Assassin Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Fayettenam,Pennsyltucky Age: 68 Posts: 34,863 Drives: 2011 Nismo GM 6M Rep Power: 2684436	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

09-15-2014, 07:32 AM	#851 (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: 7585	nice run dude!! can wait to track my Z... hope to run in October

02-28-2015, 01:24 PM	#852 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3594	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	#853 (permalink)
Rusty Ronin Samurai - Assassin Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Fayettenam,Pennsyltucky Age: 68 Posts: 34,863 Drives: 2011 Nismo GM 6M Rep Power: 2684436	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

04-30-2015, 10:47 AM	#854 (permalink)
teknoprep Base Member Join Date: Jul 2014 Location: PA, USA Posts: 15 Drives: 13 Nissan 370z PW A7 Rep Power: 10	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	#855 (permalink)
conor1123 Base Member Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Arizona Posts: 155 Drives: 2010 MT 370z Rep Power: 13	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.

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