Rangerz's Jornal (Video heavy)

[Rangerz]

I think this is overdue for me. Primarily this will be a video log on my progress as a HPDE driver I guess and to document some of the stuff I have done with my Z. I have taken allot of Ideas from the community and tried to apply them whether it be mods or driving suggestion and setup.

I purchased my 2012 PW Nismo when I turned 48 last June. When I bought it I had never heard of HPDE or autocross until I found this site. I think it was Rusty's Journal and some of his videos that got me thinking about finding something to do with the car other than drive around town. Miller Motor Sports Park (MMP) runs an event during the summer called W.O.W or Wide open Wednesday. So in i think Aug or Sept of 2013 I went to the my first WOW event and had a great time. The flag girl that day said a HPDE event was coming up so I got the info and signed up. Started reading all the threads I could find etc..

Well I had a blast and was hooked. I used to jump out of airplanes for a living and I think I was missing a little bit of the thrill I got before I retired from the Army.

My aim is to continually improve my skill and understanding of the car when pushing it within my comfort zone.

My car as it is now:

Fast Intentions CBE & HFC
Tuned by Seb@Specialty Z
NST Pulley's
Stillen Gen 3's
SPL Upper control Arms
SPL Front traverse link solid bushings
SPL Rear camber links
Whiteline F&R sway's F= Hardest R= Softest
Z1 Premium SS Break Lines
Motul RBF 600
€EBC YellowStuff€ Carbotech XP8 & XP 10
Setreb Series 9 oil cooler custom setup, Stock cooler delete
RJM clutch pedal
CJM Roadrace fuel pump
SZ Street Max clutch, Flywheel & Tilton CSC
RE-11's 265/35/19 & 305/30/19

2-3-15 Scaled weight

[Rangerz]

Here are some of the Track and Autocross video's from new to old.

MMP West 4-27-14 HPDE


AutoCross 4-13-14


MMP Outer 3-22-14


Autocross 11-7-13


First HPDE 11-6-13

[Rangerz]

Here is a pretty cheap way to protect your radiator and oil cooler cores on Nismos. The last track day I was getting a huge amount of track debris coming at me and also caught a small sparrow that came in through the front air scoop and ended up with his head sticking out my front passenger wheel liner.

I got all the supplies form Custom car grill.com for about $60. I ordered the large hex screen powder coated gloss black.

I took the front off the car to this but I think you could do it with it on ramps as long as the front was higher than the rear of the car.

With the screen you order a rubber border which I used when I was laying it up for the patteren so it wouldn't scratch the paint.






The to horizontal 1/4 inch masking tape was used to mark the edge for the cut. I did one side at a time fitting and trimming until I got what I wanted..



And a couple of shots of the finished product. This looks pretty good but, is mainly for track use for radiator protection. For 60 bucks not to bad.

[Luciano13]

great videos!!!!

[Rangerz]

HPDE the 24th, 25th at MMP this weekend at Miller Motorsports Park. We ran the East track which I have never run on before. A bit more technical than the West track. The best I could get on Sat was a 1:54:29. Sunday was much better weather and the best I got was 1:52:30. I did have a 1:51:9 but, all I had running was Harry's lap timer. Was in a rush for the first session so no video proof.

Pretty interesting, I had my best lap and my worst lap back to back. It's on the video "A little misstep on my part". All the debris is from a Porch that lost all his engine oil during the Thunder and Lightning race prior to our session. It was dry sweep and it sure makes a mess. I'm not sure if it was all me or oil/debris on the track for the spin I had. Looks like the line I was on was like the previous lines through that section.

I also ran into 2 problems with the car. The fuel starvation is a big problem now; looks like any .7G or higher right hand turn and I'm starving if I start the session with anything 3/4 or below. So I have to start with minimum of 2 dots from full. Need the CJM fuel system fix for sure.

Problem #2 was the power steering fluid boiling over. Post session the bottle was too hot to touch and had some fluid that was or had leaked out. Z1 PS cooler on the way soon.

All in all had a great time hung out with some of the Spec Z guys who are all great guys. A couple of them gave me some pointers

A bit of cheezy intro but what the heck

[Rangerz]

So a quick run down on my attempt at break ducts similar to the RC break ducts out of Carbon Fiber.

I asked Rusty.. Probably 8-9 months ago now to measure up his ducts so I had an idea on the size of these things.


I got the measurements and went to work. The original intent was to design them in solid works then have them 3D printed as a finished mold or a mold that I could use to make a master mold. Well I got them designed and just never followed up so that slowly died off.

Well I started back at it Tuesday and this time I am casting the molds in bondo then I will make the finial master plug mold out of that.

Here is a photo run down of what I have done so far.

First up was sculpting something out of clay so I could see potential + daft points and get a general idea of what I was shooting for.




After that I knew for a perfect fit on the bezel portion of the ducts I would need to take an impression of the front air damn where the ducts mount. This area has some subtle complex curving going on so well worth the effort. I cast these in fiberglass. I used 4 coats of mold release wax and 4 more coats of PVA no way were these going to mess the paint up.





Next I made some 1/8 plywood blanks to serve as the opening face and to carry the mold (Bondo), this also serves as the outline to file/sand the mold during shaping. I also got some foam paperboard/display board to use as the side when I poured the Bondo. A few pics of that.




Then you need to locate your duct outlet. That is the wood dowel and 3" plug in the photo above. The angle of this is critical so you really need to take your time as this sets up the shaping route you will take and will have a large affect on the finial look is.

These last few pics are kinda where I'm at now with the drivers side duct. I have it roughed out and probably closer to a final sand. I decided to leave it at this stage while I cast out the passenger side "Curing Now" that way I have a little wiggle room if some of my angles are off when I try to duplicate the other side. This one will be the hardest because you being the fabricator will always know it's just a little off You just need to know when is enough.

[Rusty]

Good job!

[Rangerz]

Good day today. Installed the front lower control arms after upgrading the stock bushing to SPL, did the lower front and the big compression bushing on the rear. My work has a press and I was able to get everything off and pressed back on in about 2 hours. Install was an hour or so per side. I went pretty slow and made sure everything was torqued correctly. All in all pretty easy.

I took it for a quick drive and you can definitively feel and hear the difference in the front. It's not a whole lot louder than stock just a more solid sound when you hit a crease in the road and the steering feels a bit tighter because the car seems to react a little quicker.

I also installed SPL rear camber links and the SPL eccentric lock out.

Anyway I give this install





Next project finish the CF air Ducts and thinking about fabing my own Robispec like bar. Anyone know if anybody makes 4130 in 3" OD? The biggest I could find was 2.5". I can go with DOM and it's cheaper...Still thinking about that one.

[Hotrodz]

Nice job Rangerz, I will be tackling the front and rear bushing and traction arms Superbowl weekend!

[Rangerz]

You will be amazed at how much tension the stock bushings have on them. After I got everthing released the tension actually rotated the arm up on it own. Also I used the 10 ton cylinder on the press and that was enough to get er done...it did sound like it was close to be maxed on a couple of pushes.

Mark the rear compression bearing keeper for the correct orientation and mind the 7/16 distance outlined in the included instructions. A 32 mm socket fit just right if you need to drift that bearing in a little to get the holes to line up. I had one that was perfect and one that I had to adjust about a 1/16.

if you have any questions let me know and I'll help if I can.

[Hotrodz]

Thanks for the information...I will be in contact if I have any questions.

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by Hotrodz

Thanks for the information...I will be in contact if I have any questions.

If you have any questions, I'm here too.

[gbrettin]

Nice, I was just looking into how to make CF ducts this morning for my brakes!

[Rangerz]

Originally Posted by gbrettin

Nice, I was just looking into how to make CF ducts this morning for my brakes!

I actually have both of the molds about 90% done. Im going to get back at them this week and see if I can get them to a finished sand and prepped for a fiberglass test casting, hopefully this weekend.

The plan after that is to vacuum bag them with the CF. Ill lay out a detailed diy if it works out and looks good good enough to chop a hole in the bumper

[Rangerz]

Originally Posted by Rusty

If you have any questions, I'm here too.

Once again Rusty your "the complete spl front end" diy was very helpful