Daily Driver No Longer

Originally Posted by JARblue

Ok, so I finally want to get serious about getting the Z out on the track. I'm going to dump some money into maintenance stuff when I bite the bullet and pay labor for the install of numerous go-fast parts collected over the years. I'm looking for any input from an experienced perspective.

The vehicle has 100K daily driven miles. A lot of highway miles, but there are a number of hard driven miles in there as well. I change fluids frequently and never had any real mechanical issues other than a steering rack replaced under warranty at 80K, a broken fuel top hat, and some recent starter(?) issues.

With the future expectations of track and/or autoX activity, I'd like to go ahead with a few preventative maintenance items as is reasonable for the budget (only ~$5K so no boost). And since I'm not quite to the point where I want to trailer it to location (because I don't currently have a vehicle to tow with) driveability and reliability are the name of the game at this point. I don't mind sacrificing on-track performance and spending that money to make sure the car can drive home after track sessions (obviously that's not always possible and I will need to have a backup plan).

My thought was to assign a 1, 2, or 3 priority level to the item based on performance and risk criteria. A 1 rating would be high priority due to factors such as a high risk of failure due to mileage or cause racecar or high performance value for the cost or just basic maintenance that is due. A 3 rating would be low priority due to low likelihood of failure or cost prohibitions for now or something that has little to no impact on driveability as well as things that are good to keep in mind for the future. A 2 rating would be a medium priority and basically anything that doesn't fall into the other two categories. For example, this might be things that aren't a priority but are much easier to do while some other work is being done.

Maintenance Items
1 Starter issue
1 Clutch + CMAK
1 Fluids (engine, trans, diff, coolant, brake)
1 Spark Plugs
1 Injectors
1 Oil Gallery Gasket. Might as well do the oil pump at the same time since the front of the motor will be apart.

Performance Items
1 Driver Mod (w/ Instructor)
1 Seb re-tune (currently on Ecutek w/o RaceRom)
1 Hotchkis Front Sway Bar
1 SPL FUCAs (purchased)
1 Stillen Brake Duct Kit (purchased)
1 FI 34 Row Oil Cooler (purchased)
1 CJM Billet Top Hat
1 CJM RRP kit (purchased)
1 CJM Engine Mounts
1 Torque Solutions Transmission Mount
1 FI Test Pipes
1 Carbotech XP10/8 Pads
2 ARC Coolant Reservoir w/ Catch Cans (purchased)
2 SPL Differential Bushings (Whiteline poly currently installed)
2 SPL Subframe Bushings
2 Oil Pressure Gauge
2 Fuel Pressure Gauge.
3 Fortune Auto 500 Coilovers + related SPL suspension bits
3 Wavetrac Differential
3 Track Wheels (Enkei 18s likely)
3 Radiator (NOT CJM or miSHITmoto)
3 2-piece rear rotors
3 Billet Oil Pump Gears

I will do some work myself, but there are a number of things I've never done. And as much as I'd like to learn and have full confidence, I simply don't have the time to mess with them. I really just want to drive the car

My estimates with labor (for the priority items) already have me well over budget, but please let me know if you have any questions or any recommendations for go-fast parts or maintenance items to add to the list

Originally Posted by Rusty

Jar, if you want to play the autox game. You have to decide how far you want to go because of the restrictions in each class. Most of everything you want to do will put you at a disadvantage.