Yet another first time track day impression/suggestion
 

Get an oil cooler. That is all.

Well, there is a little more... The car is a bone stock 2011 touring sport coupe. The track is the Great Plains Raceway near Denver, about 2.50 miles in length with elevation, undulation, off camber turns, decreasing radius turns and blind turns. Basically a newbie's nightmare. Once you learn the track layout it becomes quite fun and challenging to then learn the line. Temp was mid 80's I think.

The Z held up remarkably well in braking and cornering and sucked azz in the rev department due to oil heat issues. I hit about 120mph on the long straight once, but usually would only do 80 in 6th to cool things off so I could spend the bulk of the track in 2nd/3rd for power. It was really disconcerting to deal with rev issues/watching the oil temps, when on a new track trying to learn. Thanks Nissan for building a sports car and not addressing this fundamental issue.

I was impressed with the handling of the car which has the impression of being nervous and twitchy to the uninitiated but once you strap on some sack and attack a corner the thing just sticks. Braking on stock pads was fine but I can see that at a minimum I'll need upgraded pads and fluid once I install an oil cooler and can maintain more aggressive engine speeds.

There was another coupe/sport outfitted with a stillen SC - pretty damn sweet!

Time to search the forums for oil coolers!

Good to hear it turned out well. Yea Nissan messed up with the oil temp issues but its an easy fix.

Stock pads are decent, but Nismo pads are superb.

Though the car handles very well stock, I feel like Nissan left a lot on the table as far as tightening things up.

She felt pretty dam tight when I took her on the Dragon. I could only imagine what she will be like with better tires brakes and some suspension mods.

First time I've heard of Nismo pads being superb? I feel there's plenty of other options they are far superb to the Nismo's. Especially for the price that Nismo's run.

what oil temps were you hitting? I'm in Texas, ambient temps have been consistently in the mid 90's and my oil temp hovers around 220, but I am an aggressive driver. I am hoping I can at least keep the temps below 250 at the track until I invest in an oil cooler.

shift at 5 or 6K rpm is probably your only way

I was pushing 280. I wasn't driving that aggressively on my first run since I didn't know the track and it still cut out due to heat by my 3rd lap.

Hmm, so limp mode comes in at 280-degrees then?

Yes it does. Very weird feeling.

I can imagine. It happened in my Maxima once 7 years ago...MAF failed. I had to putter at 30MPH to the dealership, car wouldn't rev past 3K RPM.

I was hitting 265 today at Road Atlanta in 92 degree weather with a tru-cool 24 row core. Might be time to move up to bigger soon.

Did you hit limp mode?

You think a 34R is big going to be big enough?

GTM has a dual setup. But I don't like having that many lines. http://www.gtmotorsports.com/product...cat=266&page=1

But Sebtrab makes 44 and 50 row coolers. http://www.bakerprecision.com/setrab.htm

no limp mode, thats at 280, I think. Just a little bigger should be better. I've run this setup for two years now, and nothing bad has happened, although I'm driving a bit harder now that I have learned the feel of the car, and we have become one, its almost Zenlike ;)

That's funny