Were you granny shifting and not double clutching like you should?

As you go down the rabbit hole, you will need to keep notes on alignment and data like tire temp, brake temp, maybe even notes on what instructors said or where you think you can improve on, etc.

Your alignment may fit your need today, but may not as your skill goes up. You will need to keep track of the before and after numbers, and you impression of each, your lap times, the difference in tire wear....

why are you ruining this man

so much thought went into this....you had me until "are you sad" hahaha

thanks man lol

https://i.imgur.com/cX5s8Yrl.jpg

this is how she sits right now ready for tomorrow!

Things in your notebook.
1. Alignment spec's.
2. Tire pressure. Cold and right after you come off the track.
3. Track temp.
4. Weather conditions. Air temp, humidity, wind, cloud's- no cloud's, rain.
5. Track, is it ccw or cc.
6. Track condition. Smooth or bumpy. Where's the bumps, dry, damp, wet, dusty, marbles on the track.
7. How you feeling.
8. Number of sessions run. At what time of day. Length of each session.
9. Maintenance done before track day.
10. Etc.

:roflpuke2: sorry

it's probably not an issue for most turns, but:
What gear to be in for each turn

That's under #10. Etc. :tup:

Besides all the car prep, one of the biggest components to my track day planning is food. If I don't eat a decent meal every 2-2.5 hours, my brain starts to fade, harder to make decisions. Worse when you are burning ~4000 calories during a track day.

I can't make it on breakfast and concession stand pizza at lunch time. Breakfast at home or hotel, get to track, register, unpack, pre-track prep, Eat (sometimes during driver meeting), Track, check stuff/rest, Eat, Track, check stuff/rest, repeat.. all day. And hydrate, of course.

3 Pre-packed sandwiches in a small cooler, a cold meal like a bean salad or something, nuts/trail-mix, protein bars for a supplement if needed.. if it'll fit some fruit.

heh.. that's not just track days, thats doing 'whatever' away from home for more than a few hours. Kind of a pain in the ***..

As we get into peak summer, water and keeping cool are important too!
I try and bring a gallon or more of cold drinks, plus ice and frozen towels (great for cooling off with).

I'd bring a change of clothes too, considering you're gonna be sweating like hell

This is where a buddy with a van helps out SO much

One of the things I noticed is my breathing. If I'm breathing slow, relaxed, and things seem to be happening in slow mo. I'm ahead of the car. I'm fast. If I'm breathing fast, labored, and everything seems to be happening really quick. Feels like I'm playing catch up with the car. I'm slow.

And since its ridiculously hot, keep yourself as cool as possible. The calmer and more alert you are, the less mistake you'll make. I brought my company car filled with water, ice and tools... and when it would get hot, Id jump in and cool myself :happydance:
But of course that's not ideal. Also, talk to the guys that know the track, ask them for tips and tricks. I learned a lot from asking.

Guys thank you for all of the help! all of the pointers made my day much better...here is a 2 min clip pf me driving

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LGI2-FyqVc&t=18s

Nice, that's the way your first HPDE should be, smooth driving, no drama. Looks like oil temps were def up there, probably in the 250 - 260 range. How'd you like it?

oil temps were definitely high, and thats with a 34 row oil cooler lol. I absolutely loved it! it gave me a complete new respect for my car and also for high performance driving in general. one thing i realized is that street driving or even canyon driving does not translate to track driving at all. But all in all, it was super fun

even made me take the build way more in a track direction

it's the G-forces that you experience on a track, both in acceleration/deceleration and in turns, that are unlikely to be replicated on the street/canyon.

Also, depending on the track . . . elevation changes.

you should check out sears point/infineon/sonoma raceway, whatever its called now. Multiple, blind turns at the beginning of the track as you climb uphill.

First time was mindblowing, trusting the instructor that you can in fact hit the apex when you can't see whats coming up next

That's great to hear and that's what i'd wish more street/canyon drivers would acknowledge and understand if they gave driving at the track a chance. I used to drive our canyons a lot, been on basically every So Cal canyon from Ojai down to Palomar Mountain. I still go from time to time but after my first track day, the canyons just weren't as rewarding and liberating as the race track is.

Also the 370z doesn't get the respect it deserves as a track car/sports car. You have the miata/s2k/frs crowd who say it's too heavy, then you have the Porsche/BMW/Mustang/Camaro/Corvette crowd who say it doesnt have enough power. They're not completely wrong, but that's not an excuse to dismiss the car and ditch it. If you love the car, get the seat time with it at the track and it will reward you and surprise some people along the way.

As you develop with the car, you are going to find there's a lot it has to offer in it's stock form and even more so as you start to tune the handling with coil overs, brakes, sway bars and tires.

1st track day my 370z had cold air intakes and a front sway bar at Streets of Willow CW, the rest came down to me...I had an amazing time, a day i'll never forget.

If you're interested in tracking with a dedicated group of Nissan enthusiasts, hope you might consider coming out to a Nissan Challenge event. We are scheduled to resume our 2020 season in September if COVID conditions permit it.

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...e2&oe=5F362BD4

I didn’t see sebring

It's all Cali tracks.

Would love for us to expand eastward and start running Nissan challenge at all the big tracks. Phoenix Intl Raceway, Circuit of the Americas, Lime Rock, Road America, Road Atlanta, Watkins Glen, VIR and of course Sebring. Maybe some day :)

I need to move to CA! Or get a 370Z movement going out East.

thats exactly what it is, the g force...its insane how it throws you around the car... thats why i ordered all those parts as soon as i got home (oh and ordered bride vios 3's)

the instructors really get in your head....i'm like i dont think i got this and they're like no you got this!

I will definitely look into that!! loos so exciting... is it only nissans? my friend loves to come to whatever event he can with his subie

it kinda sucks because the canyons dont give me much satisfaction anymnore. I live down the hill right by topanga canyon and 10 min from malibu canyon, so it was a couple times a week thing for me. I want sway bars but I heard the install is up to 8 hours front and back?!?

that doesn't sound right

thats for engine crap when you have to remove a buncha of difficult to reach bolts

sway bars aren't that involved

That’s the same thing I thought....ima just email Seb at specialty

Sway bars should not take you longer than 2 hours if you're decently able to work on cars. The fronts are exposed by simply removing the front plastic aero pan, and the rears you need to remove the rearmost portion of the exhaust (possibly also mid pipe - I can't remember). It sucks to do without a lift, but it's entirely possible. I did mine in about that time a few years ago.

We have a great time driving, competing, talking shop, exchanging knowledge, tips, we offer ride alongs and offer instruction as well.

So I have some good news for you and your friend. Nissan Challenge is held on open track days, so we are intermingled with drivers who are not necessarily competing in a timed time-attack event if that makes sense. He's more than welcome to join in on the fun and be included in Subie Challenge which typically runs on the same days as us.

https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...27&oe=5F3C813C

You and him can still most likely run in the same session if your experience levels are on the same level (Beginner, intermediate, Advanced...etc) and compare lap times amongst yourselves, but your lap times and points will count to your respective series...yours will count for Nissan Challenge and his for Subie Challenge.

Also regarding the sway bars, highly recommend you only replace the front sway bar, many have reported that changing the rear bar and leaving at it's softest setting causes the car to have a sudden snap oversteer characteristic. Hotchkis pretty much makes the best bar on the market for our cars. Changing out the front bar shouldn't take more than a couple hours although at times it's tough loosening the nuts on the end links, so you might need a breaker bar and some good wrenches

Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!! so much info


I will for sure look into that event, also thanks for the advice on sway bars. I was about to buy front and rear but what you told me convinced me to stay with only front. Also everyone is sold out and backordered for the time being

Keep your eyes and ears open for a used one. You will also want to get SPL front end links as well if you don't have them already.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

is it a good idea to use a 35mm up front and keep the rear stock? I will def be getting the endlinks. do i also need bushings while im at it?

I'm running the Hotchkis bar which is pretty much the strongest/stiffest bar out of the box you can buy. I like it a lot and noticed a big difference in handling after i installed it.

I'd recommend you leave the stock rear bar on for now, but when it comes time for coilovers you're going to want to either disconnect it or remove altogether.

^^^Agreed! I don't know if you are still running OEM staggered setup or have moved to a square setup as that too will impact your suspension setup.

As for the bushing they are a good investment but if you are going to upgraded the front end get SPL front upper A arms. They are spendy but totally worth it in setting up and maintaining, caster, camber and tow!

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I hope I was in US, so I can join these events :yum: looks fun with other fellow Nissan drivers.

Remove the rear? Any reasoning behind that? I would imagine the rear end would be a little too wild in hard turns. My current setup is whiteline front and oem rear.

So with the OEM suspension the spring rates and rebound/damping are soft enough to allow the rear suspension to transition smoothly over bumps and undulations in the road while under load. So you can keep the stock rear bar and everything works fine.

When you change to coil overs with higher spring rates and stiffer rebound/damping and keep the rear bar, it doesn't translate very well over the road at speed anymore. It sort of skips around and causes the rear end to snap.

So an easy way to combat that is to soften the rear bar to your comfort, but in general the bar gets disconnected or removed because even the stock bar introduces too much snap oversteer, which you then have to try and dial out with your coilovers. Which is why i've never mounted my Hotchkis rear sway bar to this day. If you do a little research on the forum here, you'll find similar feedback from other fairly experienced drivers.

It's easier to remove the snap oversteer and then control that rotation with refined adjustments to the coilovers by increasing the stiffness one click at a time.

To illustrate, this is what it looks like with coilovers set to full soft settings, hotchkis front bar installed and the OEM rear sway bar on.

In the end it really all comes down to preference, this was excessive rotation for me so I changed my setup accordingly.

Interesting. I may have to unbolt mine and test it out on the next track day.

Its worth a try, one of my buddies did it and he didnt like it very much because he felt like the car was understeering too much. Now keep in mind he's drifter so what's normal rotation for him is probably fairly different than for most people. I think he ended up being a bit faster or he put down a similar lap time to his previous PB at Laguna Seca prior to making the change though. So sometimes it can be really subjective as to which one is better or not.

If it is too understeery you can dial out some of that understeer by playing around with your coilovers and stiffening the rear.