Brakes @ Summit Point this weekend ...
 

... well I didn't tear the car up so that's good. But had my day cut short on account of the brakes.

I had put some EBC slotted rotors and NDX Blue Stuf pads on ... did not get a chance to put RBF-600 in or do the SS lines but was going to take it easy like last time anyway,

Anyhoo...all of a sudden the pedal got really stiff, like driving an old car without power brakes. I had to push like incredibly hard to get it to slow down. Didn't happen in a bad spot, thank goodness so I just made it the rest of the way around and hit the pits.

The pads smelled pretty bad when I came in. But after they cooled down they seem fine. Drove it to work a few times this week and it still seems fine.

I am guessing because the pedal did not go to the floor and got stiff, that my issue was not with boiling fluid. I am thinking the rotors and pads were better than stock, but because they are better they got hotter. Or I may have run the brake booster out of vacuum maybe ?

Either way I am going to do the booster canister thing, and get some cooling ducts on the calipers.

Any thoughts or input appreciated.

http://www.the370z.com/members/sixpa...4317-370z5.jpg

ice mode

thanks ... am I correct in assuming that means it was vacuum related and not heat related ? I was too worried about keeping the car on the asphalt scrubbing off speed, so did not look at the dash to see if the ABS light was on ... by the time I looked at the dash I was coasting into the pits and did not see on but that was about 2 minutes later ...

It's cause by the weird programming in the ABS computer. People have claimed to be able to fix it by messing with the vacuum system. I have had success just driving around it.

Pads too aggressive, ABS doesnt like it. It is not a fault, it's just program that way

Also could have been pad fade. If you overheat the surface of the pad then they will glaze and you'll get significantly reduced braking performance. SP Main has 2 hard braking zones the front straight being the worst, 130mph -> 40mph.

Look Ma, No Clutch!
 

It was good seeing you up at the Point last weekend. Add some brake ducts and sign up for a full weekend next time.

My second day was quite memorable. While on the track, my clutch slave cylinder began to fail (meaning I was finding it harder and harder to disengage the clutch). I had to make a quick decision and just leave it in fourth gear for the whole session. After pit in, I needed a push to get back into the paddock.

Then it hit me… I have no ability to engage the clutch and I drove here with my tire trailer. I want to thank the guy from Nissan Motorsports who stayed with me until 7:00 p.m. trying to fix the problem. However, it soon became clear that the problem could not be fixed.

I was sitting in the now empty paddock in a driving rain storm. I had a decision to make. Call my wife and let her know that I am going to need a tow because I broke my car. Or…

I turned the car off, disengaged the parking brake, and pushed the gear lever into first gear. Then I hit the starter button. The car lurched forward and fired to life in first gear. I drove about twenty feet and pulled the gear lever into neutral. A firm push on the shifter fell neatly into second gear. I could do this!

I was able to drive the 60 miles home without the use of my clutch!

And for everyone (not in this track section) who flamed me last year for my thread on how to drive the 370Z without the clutch. Screw you!:driving:

CSC failure?

Yup.

And SixPax, EBC make great pads but every pad reacts differently to each car. Why don’t you just use Carbo Tech XP/10’s? We know that the CarboTech’s work great on our cars. Why experiment with other pads?

Remember, I tried to use a set of Porterfield R-4’s that morning. Porterfield is a recognized name in brake pads. But the brake judder was so intense I had to pit after 3 laps and swap my well worn CarboTechs back in for the rest of the weekend.

And if anyone is interested, there is a $500 set of barely used Porterfield R-4’s in the trash can across from the gas pumps.

Sucks to hear about what happened with the brakes. I was looking forward to testing out my XP8's on the main circuit that day. Do you guys know of any other groups that do hyperdrives at Summit Point? NASA screwed me out of this one on the 18th and their next one at SM isn't till November. I don't have the money to do a full day/weekend, but one hyperdrive session for $50 is good enough.

yup same experience with them here. if anyone has he dough to try, get cobalt friction

I hear ya Mike ... I guess it is the pioneer in me, just figured I would try something different in case it was better than what anyone has done thus far. I think when I go back it will indeed be for a full weekend, and I think I am going to try both the XP10's and some EBC Reds and Yellow. I'm not going to be comfortable out there until I can get something I have confidence in. Also will get the brake ducting done ... hopefully I can stay out there longer than 8 laps LOL.

What tires are you running Craig? I've found that with my XP8's, my braking is still limited by my tires and I have RE050A's on mine. I'll probably upgrade to the XP10's the next time I get pads, depending on how much track experience I have by then.

XP10's are a bit overkill for street tires, you're safer with XP8 since the friction level shouldn't overcome traction quite so easily.

Yeah I had a feeling XP10's might be way more than I need. I'm focusing on getting a lot more track experience first starting next spring. Hopefully I'll have a better job by then so I can actually afford to do full HPDE weekends. Gonna buy some better tires then too, probably some RE-11's.

I'm still on the skinny stock advan's 225 front 245 rear ...

ouch^, the car is a complete different beast once u upgrade!!, I currently run 275/35/19 square, might move up to 285...

Might not need super aggressive brakes yet then. Just something to think about. :tiphat:

I'm running the base 18's and am thinking about buying another pair of rears (to put up front) so I can run a square setup on mine with 275/18's all around. Don't have money for a whole new set of wheels + tires, but I think this will work pretty well.

The XP10 definitely feels a lot better than the XP8, pedal is stiffer and it feels a lot more responsive. I just had a feel of near fade with the XP8 for some odd reason, probably due to the less responsive pedal. I didn't run into ice mode quite as easy, which is good.

b1adesofcha0s, if you ever get some 19" rims, i will donate some re11s to you. I am going to swap my front ones probably within two months

Appreciate it! I'll have to see what my job situation is like, since that's the only thing keeping me back right now. I'm working as an intern and I just graduated from school this past Spring. Hoping to get a job as a full time engineer soon and I should be good after that. I might look into some wheels after that. Any recommendations for cheap lightweight 19" wheels? I was thinking maybe the sport package or Nismo wheels.

Honestly though, I'm still just a beginner. The only thing I really need is more track time and experience. The less money I spend on mods, the more I can spend on HPDE's.

It's fine. I have a set of tires that are still good for a few more days, but not good enough to sell to make money. I might as well give it to a good home as I will never use them again

Yeah I'd be DD'ing with them anyway so probably better if I get a new set. What do you think about the square set up with the base wheels? Would be a lot cheaper than a whole new set of wheels and tires would be cheaper to replace in 18's vs 19's.

You can do it, you will probably only be able to do 265 or something. I have a feeling 265/35/18 or 265/40/18 is a hard size to find tires though.

Will 275's not fit up front? I have 265/40/18 on my rears right now with the RE050A's. It's a hard size to find with used tires, but they are available new in those sizes for the RE-11's.

If I understand correctly, this square setup should help dial out understeer and help the car rotate better in the turns, right?

You don't want to put too much tire onto a skinny wheel; ie 275s (275mm=10.8 inches) on the 8" front base wheels. They won't be well supported and will roll over the rim more easily. Best case is terrible camber wear on the outsides.

265/285 on nismo wheels is almost neutral and without a good camber option on the front is the best I could do for wear right now. The primary function of a square setup is to allow you to rotate tires front to rear to even out wear. To do that effectively means using the same size wheels front and back, which then calls for spacers in the rear. In the meantime you are giving up potential grip by not running larger rears. The Z is blessed with an excellent capacity for MOAR TIRE. With stock weight distribution and plenty of power to put down I don't see the major appeal of matching front to back.

tldr Beef up the fronts, but keeping a stagger will see the best performance.

I think you misunderstood what I was saying. I'd be running a set of 4 base rear wheels, which are 18x9 and 275's fit just fine on them. I had 275's on my last set of rears and they were fine. I could also do the same wheel setup with 265 F and 275 R for a little bit of stagger without fitment issues (assuming I can't just fit 275's up front).

Also, sorry for hijacking your thread Craig. You could probably make use of all this information too since you're also running the base wheels. I can start a separate thread for this discussion if you like.

Isn't Nismo wheels 9.5/10.5? If I can run 285 all around on my 9/10, you can easily do 295 all around on yours. I am getting better wear on my 285F than my 265F, but I think it has to do with the fact the car understeers a lot less and I am not using so much steering to compensate. The 370 is front heavy to start, the bigger the front tires, the better the car will turn and drive. I do 285 because 275/30 and 295/30 puts the car too low and 295/35 is too high and it is a stretch on a 9" front rim. It has nothing to do with rotation, but I did keep the 285 from my first set as spares.

I don't have a direct comparison of the two tires in terms of lap times since I haven't done the same tracks with the two different setup. There are too many variables in autox to say, but my gut feeling tells me the car feels better (probably adds up to like .2 sec in terms of times). My average finish position also went slightly higher too, but that probably has more to do with competition than anything else. I got 200 runs on my 265/285, I am approaching 170 runs on my 285 and they look like they got about 40-50 runs left.

275 on a 9 is fine, I wouldn't do it on a 8.

Alright then, looks like this is the route I will go. I'll find another pair of rears from someone locally and then just get 275's all around when I buy tires in the spring.

18x9 has a lot of cheap wheels available. I don't know how much base wheels are going from, but you can find some cheapies at Discount Tire for $150 a pop

Any reccomendations for wheels that are light weight and 18x9 or maybe even 18x10? I think base wheels go for like $500-600 for a full set so probably around the same, but that's with tires.

MB motoring weapon is like 21lbs. there is a new wheel that is 19lbs for 600 for the set. I forgot the name, but same company makes the fallen wheels

Looked at those wheels and I'm not really interested. Don't really like the look.

No worries ! I am learning stuff :tup:

I wonder if 245/275 setup on the base 18 wheels would be any good ?

It works pretty well, that's what I was running my first time out on the track. Of course those were all season tires, but there was definitely an improvement in grip over stock sizes. Those are the widest sizes you can fit on the base wheels and I would definitely recommend it. :tup:

Edit: I had all seasons in stock sizes and then moved to all seasons with 245/275 and felt more grip with the wider tires.

they all work. just a matter of how fast you want to go and how much u want to spend

I just want to make it around Summit in 1:39 or less before I perish ... I don't care how fat my tires are as long as it gets done. :tup: