Congrats on finally making that leap of faith and tracking your car. What track is it? The bare minimum, I would swap out your brake fluid. It will boil and you may lose brake pressure if it gets too hot(which it will with oem fluid). I definitely do not recommend racing without DOT4 or higher brake fluid (higher boiling point). The next thing you need is pads (this can probably wait till your next event but would suggest getting racing compound pads ASAP). Your sport brake pads will disintegrate quickly. They may melt unevenly and ultimately cause the car to shake.

First time out. Pads and brake fluid.
Next time out. You can start to add more stuff. Once bitten. It becomes a deep rabbit hole.

Couple of tips.
Don't drive over your head.
Be smooth with your inputs. Steering, braking, and gas pedal. Don't go stomping on the pedals.
Ask questions, listen to what is said.
Take notes.
Bring a chair, food and water for in between sessions.
Don't be hard on yourself. There will be someone always faster then you, in a slower car.
Enjoy yourself.

This one

https://www.tracknightinamerica.com/locations/1984324

Supposed to be about 90 degrees tomorrow there. Might be a silly question but do you run AC while driving? This not racing, just driving in Novice group at Track Night (mostly during the day though?) in America. Not looking for 10th of a second improvements or anything lol, just having fun.

I have run with the A/C on.

You all still have A/C in your cars?! ;)

As long as I'm not struggling with temps, I might run with AC. If I see temps get high, I'll switch to heat.

AutoX, I pretty much always run A/C.

Not sweating my *** off=having more fun.

maaaaan you're crazy lol. I'll take every last ounce of power out of my car which means I don't mind sweating profusely to get more powahhh

Me A/C on all the time, rather be a bit cool and slower, but then again I am slow....

What's everyone running for Tire & Alignment settings? I'm looking to pickup some front upper control arms to add some more camber up front. I'm maxed out at -2, looking to potentially go closer to -3.

Pure track, or some street too?

Pure track

I am running Nexen sur4g, 275/40/18 square, with -2.9 front camber rear -2, 0.03 front toe out, 0.10 rear toe in, as much caster as I can.

All SPL arms.

:iagree:
Front -2.5 to -3 camber, +7 caster if you can get it with SPL arms. Zero toe.

Rear -2 camber. No more then that. The Z has a strange camber curve in the rear. The more it squats, the more camber it gets. Toe 0.10 in.

Your camber settings front and rear should be based on your track requirements.

I agree with Rusty, 0 front toe, I run a hair toe out to have better steering response.

Front: -2.75 Camber; +.05 Toe with Total Toe = +.12

Rear: -2.5 Camber; +.15 Toe with Total Toe = +.35
SPL Upper Control Arms

AlWakRa...How are your NEXEN's holding up? I only got 4 track days out of mine before the outside edges wore down to secondary rubber.

bringing this chat back to life.

Just picked up some nexen Sur4G's 275/40/18 all around. Need to upgrade my front upper control arms. I've been reading, a lot of people have been having issues with SPC and Z1 UCA's due to them rubbing against the strut tower. I think this issue is more-so for stancey boy cars.

Anyone run Z1's "race" Upper Control Arms on their track car?

Just get get SPL and be done!

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I really can’t justify paying that much for upper control arms. I don’t need an extreme amount of camber. So the only benefit I see of the SPL is thicker build material

:iagree:

They are stronger, easier to adjust and stay put after adjusting. The are less than a set of tires and they will last you until you sale the car.

I gauge the cost, value and benefits of permanent parts such as this base on the cost of tires.

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Benefit over what? Other upper arm options? SPL is the only one that isn't prone to breaking on the track.

If you just need the adjustability, then you can get just about any of them. But if you drive hard, you will want the SPL. Not worth the risk of a weaker one breaking on you.

I think OP drives hard.

SPC FUCA (the original version) slips under high load, alignment won’t hold unless you use a homemade solution to hold that nut in place. One OG member did that long time ago. Have to remove arms for adjustment, PITA for the alignment technician.

SPC XAxis FUCA....haven’t heard anybody uses it here, seems like SPC copied SPL design. Unsure about ease of adjustment.

There is a reason why we like the SPL's. That's because they work with no issues. And are the easiest to adjust.

damn all of you....Looks like I'm getting SPL's.... :shakes head:

Car is driven hard. I've got SPL components in the rear but they weren't nearly as expensive as the fronts. Sounds like I'll just have to pony up the cash. The more research I've been doing, the more I've been reading that adjustability on these other models is a nightmare. Several people have stated actually taking the upper control arms off completely to adjust them properly/accurately. That is not something I want to do lol.

On the another note, here's a flyby vid of me at a local track here in Michigan. Turn up the volume for pure eargasm :)



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1R3Mh48XE0

You will think us later! You will be surprise how much better your turn is will be with about -3.3* of camber in the front.

Throw in some +7 caster too. :driving:

I picked up a used set of SPL FUCAs for about $500 :twocents:

People that keep saying "they can't justify the price for SPL" need to recalibrate their ******* mindset

bulletproof
full adjustability
easy adjustment of camber and caster
customer support
unlimited wheel fitment options

:iagree:

I’m not the type of person to jump on the bandwagon of whatever everyone else is buying just because it’s the product that everyone buys. So when I say “I can’t justify...” I don’t mean this in the sense of me being cheap, what I mean is “is this triple-priced product going to provide more for me than the $300 product.” In some cases, you could argue that Z1 or SPC will work just fine (ie. daily driving, weekend driving, etc). If this was the case for me, I would 100% buy z1 over the rest. But after discussions with fellow Z owners and forum members, it seems that SPL is the superior product FOR MY particular use-case (heavy track use).

More expensive doesn’t always mean more better. CSF radiators are perfect examples of this :)

Well......there is a thread on the CSF and Misashitymoto radiators with their problems.

Prices sure seem a lot higher now than I remember a few years ago.

I'm running Voodoo13 FUCAs with zero issues.

This is my first time learning about the SPC xAxis kit.
It could be a go to if their bushing design (looks like a sealed spherical bushing within some more rubber) is legal in some rulebooks where sphericals aren't. Plus, being 300 bucks cheaper is a nice benefit.

Voodoo arms are probably the only ones I would consider for heavy use other than SPL :twocents:

From what I can tell, Z1 does an excellent job at copying other designs for parts and then selling their crappier product at a higher profit margin :ugh:

Sorry for waking this thread up but the info was fantastic!

Anyways, here is a short video of my first track day with the Z. I have very little experience with HPDE so dont mind the horrible lines. Majority of my experience is Sim and watching others drive lol.
So car is stock and so is the alignment. Only grip mods and wheels and tires (RS4) I'm looking into upper control arms and I'm glad I read the comments on Z1...

Oh fyi, my buddy had a $100 bet on who gets the passing flag first... so that's why I'm laughing at him.

doing my first track day this saturday, besides car prep which is completely taken care of, any tips for the streets of willow?

If its gonna be hot, bring water, shade/tarp if you can, folding chairs. Extra brake fluid, open mind, tire gauge, tools, jack and jack stands.

Hope you have an oil cooler and used high temp brake fluid.

............. and a notebook.

Thank you for all that!!! I’ll make sure to do that

Have a fast intentions oil cooler 34 row, also just changed the oil and also replaced brake fluid with rbf600 Castrol if I’m not mistaken

Haha why notebook

he's not joking.

The notebook is for journaling your experiences. How do you feel? Are you happy?
Are you sad? Were other people at the track nice to you? Did the color of the sky cause you to be more energetic? What time did you use the potty? What was the flow strong or weak? Did girls talk to you? Which ones were mean? Was the instructor considerate?

Also, writing poetry is proven to increase cornering speed. A traditional haiku structure of 5-7-5 is sufficient, but if you want to kanye it up thats even better.