Local to the Rocky Mountain region: Rocky Mountain Solo Series Rules Page

soooo, i have had the 370z for almost 2 weeks now and today was the first day i got to auto x with her. i have auto x'ed before with my rx8 and my evo x, but i was just so nervous because i had to learn a new car and the track was a 70-80 sec track, depending on driver, which is a good size track. i was running in BS againt 5 other cars today, (2 s2000's, 1 350z, and 2 rx-8's) which are all good drivers. so i had my hands full today. the 370z ran very well and really impressed me as well as some of the other drivers. first run i ran stock tire pressure, which was 36psi (i know its kinda high) but i need a place to start correcting where needed be. at the end of the run my tire pressure was up to 40 psi all around. the front was planted but the rear kept kicking out, so i went back to 36psi in the front and 31psi in the rear, and still the z was tail happy, not as much, but still very tail happy. i left it alone for the other 2 runs just to see what would happen. i ended up in 2nd place running a 75.3 behind one of the s2000's which got a 74.9 with better tires. (i forgot what he was running) overall i was really happy with the new z, but i need to plant that back end to be a little quicker. here are some pix...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...2win/077-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...2win/054-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...2win/051-2.jpg
the results are not posted yet, of course, but when they are posted ill post them on here

good run

PENOR X10shun spotted at 1:19!
hhaha

Haha yeah Jason is still killing it with the ZO6. He does have some funny jokes throughout the day. :rofl2:

i remember when they printed the results in the newspaper they didnt edit his race name haha

I never noticed. Good idea about turning it off.

Had an awesome auto-x this past Saturday. This particular club is one that runs a long course, a little over 100 seconds this week (actually short for them). This is also an anything goes club as far as mods go. There are 2 classes, cars with tires of 140 treadwear rating or above, and everything else.

There were 4 Corvette Z06's, a Viper, a supercharged Exige, supercharged Miata, twin turbo Miata, turboed MR2, and a bunch of other machinery there.

I pulled off a win in the "street tire" class with a 1.5 second gap to 2nd. Got 5th overall (0.2 seconds away from 3rd).

For this event I ran camber control arms and dialed in -2.6 degrees in front and -1.6 in the rear, as well as the Hotchkis sway bars. The car was very responsive and handling was excellent!

I haven't searched yet but I have been wondering how much the car would benefit with more negative camber. Is that the max you could get out of it? Just wondering what made you choose that particular setting.

:driving:

Nice result. Were you running the stock B'stones?

The car would benefit greatly from some more negative camber in the front. Unfortunately because of the way the suspension is designed, front camber is non-adjustable. The only way to change it is to get some adjustable arms like chris has

might try my first autox in two weeks in Brooksville, FL!

How difficult is it to dial in an adjustable suspension? Any special alignment equipment needed?

I wanted something aggressive, but still streetable. Normally -1.5 degrees is considered the max for street, but I set the front toe to 0.0 and set some more camber. These camber arms are set up to be almost all negative, as my mechanic said when we were installing them, "There's an oh my god amount more left there". I think I could hit 5 degrees pretty easily. Usually in auto-x the more camber you can get the better but it can start to hurt your straight line braking performance. The turn-in is very nice and hard now so I'm leaving it this way for a while.

We used a calibrated alignment rack (Hunter), but they do sell home alignment kits now. There's also a string method that is reasonably accurate just fiddly and time consuming.

I was running the Bridgestone RE-11's in oversized width. 275/30 front, 305/30 rear. I had to water the tires at the end of every run to prevent them from overheating, they fall off quickly when hot.

100 sec run is long. I can see the need for cooling the tires. Any rubbing issues?

We've had courses with 140 second runs, it all depends on how many cones they feel like laying down.

Happy to say no rubbing issues with the camber arms. Only negative about them is that they are heavy (about 2 pounds each) due to being fabricated out of steel, vs the ultra lightweight stock aluminum which are light as a feather. Probably about 50% of the weight is considered unsprung. Very easy to install, 3 bolts. Easy to adjust as long as you don't want to change the caster. I stayed with stock caster so installation was less than 30 minutes per side.

Hmm very tempting. I might look into this when I get back from deployment. I was trying to go a whole year in B Stock without any mods just to get a good feel for the car. In three events I went from 5th place (out of five) to 2nd at the most recent.

The car has much more of an advantage in B stock. I would have won the last SCCA event if I had race tires on, as it was I came 2nd on street tires against race tired cars.

By installing the camber arms you are automatically in BSP which is a very hotly contended class. In BSP people are going to have crazy sized wheels, suspension mods and more. The other catch is that even in a prepared class you aren't supposed to use an alignment setting beyond stock range, which is quoted as -1.41 degrees max.

Where does it say in the rules you have to use stock alignment settings? It says you can only adjust it using stock capabilities but you can make it whatever you want.

And yes the Z doesn't really stand a chance in bsp against the boost buggies.

In stock you can make it whatever you want within the stock capabilities, but for prepared you are allowed to add camber devices. I read the following the rules but I think I misinterpreted. You are correct that in Prepared you can go outside of factory specifications using the methods spelled out in section 15.8.

From the 2009 Solo Rules section 15.1 F.
"F. On all forms of suspension, camber/caster adjustment within
factory specifications may be achieved by the use of shims or
eccentric bushings. The intent of this allowance is to permit cars
to be restored to within factory-allowed specification ranges, not
to provide an additional method beyond those permitted in Section
15.8 to obtain alignment settings beyond the factory specifications."

As for the boost buggies, I think we can beat them but it will take some work.

how much toe are you running in the rear?

Yea the way I read that rule it allows you to shim the suspension ONLY if you're trying to get it back to the stock range because something else you did got it out of whack, like over-lowering. It still allows the use of crash bolts, camber plates, adjustable arms, etc. to do whatever you want but you can't use shims for the same purpose as all those other allowed items.

Yeah BSP here in Hawaii is a no go for me. There's a family lead by Curtis Lee...that man has some insane skills. I think they just competed in the Nationals this week. Great guy, gave me a lot of tips after he drove my car. It helps that he also has a 370Z but he races his 240Z in BSP.

Another Auto-x on Saturday, this one was wet the whole day. It made for some challenging driving conditions as there were different levels of grip on different parts of the course.

The car did great though, and I not only won my class, I pulled out my first FTD ever. The top 3 was tightly contended but in the end I was able to stop hitting cones and lay down some fast times.

the way the rule is officially interpreted in stock classes depends on the car and what the FSM/TSB's say. i don't have the helm's for the 370Z yet, and i haven't been monitoring the TSB's, but if there is an allowance for shims to get camber/caster back within spec, then it would be legal. usually, it just says replace suspension parts, unfortunately. all moot if nissan had put eccentric bolts up front to dial in something b/w -1.5 and -2.0 for camber :crying:

The FSM states the the front camber is not adjustable, if it is out of spec then basically they want you to replace parts because something must be bent. There are no eccentric bolts in front, only in the rear.

This is basically the only reason that the 370Z is in B stock and not A stock.

well, that and the VLSD of course ;)
i know what a 350Z handles like under power on corner exit... an exercise in patience and precision, that's for sure!!

I've had no problems with the VLSD at the auto-x. It gives you another way to rotate the car that can come in very handy, certainly far better than an open diff, and better than a BMW electronic (fake) diff. It's not a Torsen, but at the auto-x I don't think it would make enough of a difference. In the wet it was a challenge in precise throttle control on corner exit, squeezing on the power too early was costly.

are you running A6's, or a sticky street compound (i seem to recall you saying you were running 275/305 re-11's)? it's the former i'm most interested in. the 350Z went from frustrating with *much* patience required on re-01r's, to manageable and fun as hell on V710's. and the guy who's car i've run said the A6's were even better, when he had a chance for a fly 'n drive with somebody else in lincoln last week. so if you're running streets and having fun in a 370Z..... :woot:

Come to nats or even a tour and say that...

I'm the said 350z boardkat is referring to. I would love to drive someone's 370 but I guess it will have to wait until someone local buys one.

In a 350Z, the stock vlsd is junk for auto-x, street tires or r-comps. And the lack of camber is junk to. Fix one or both, and no doubt in my mind would I have easily trophied (i blew my trophy because the damn hoosiers would overheat on the nastly west course and I couldn't keep the car tidy, and coned each run).

I can't imagine the 370 is going to much better in terms of front camber and quality vlsd (if you can even call a vlsd a quality diff)

The diff seems better to what was in the 350Z and the G35 if you ask me. It is much more eager to lock up rather than spin the inside wheel like the previous revision did. Not saying it is top notch, and I have no idea what it will be like on r-comps as I haven't got there yet.

The car is downright brilliant with the camber issues fixed, it's just sad that doing so takes it out of stock class. The stock alignment was right around -1.0 up front with no adjustment available.

I'll be getting some V710's for our long courses, not sure yet if I will get A6's as that will depend on whether I want to go back to SCCA.

Good to hear about the diff, hopefully it is a better unit.

No doubt in my mind would adjustable a-arms significally help a Z, it's just a shame Nissan couldn't put some camber adjustment in the car stock.

Got 18" wheels for the v710s? No 19"s yet...

I'm so tempted to get some A6's but I just cant justify the 3 grand it would take to get an extra set of stock wheels and the tires. Also as it is right now I'm winning BS by over a second consistently and PAXing top 10. Maybe next year for divisionals...

don't do it!! if you're just running locally and don't know what you're missing, you'll save yourself a tonne of cash in the long run!!! :icon17:
.. and with vorshlag so damn close....... one conversation with terry and you'll be trying to figure out how to come up with *another* 3k+ for a set of AST 5200's :eek:

Yea its a slippery slippery slope. Im thinking my plan is to hang out till the national tour comes to town next season and use that to get a better perspective on where my driving is at. After thats over I can start spending the big bucks.

you've got a great benchmark in eric jones. if you can run with him consistently, you're on the right track.

Sounds like the 370 is quite a bit better then the 350. Doesn't look like Eric Jones run your events, shame.

Not dogging on your local club...but after scanning through your list I don't see many drivers who ran nats...and probably not nationally competitive. Rob Snider, your top paxer at the last event came in 17th out of 21 in CM. I see Jim Kritzler, he took 10th in BSP at Nats with a 117.838

Lol, if you consider my run clean (cheating I know :tup:) I ran a 119.297 so he got me by a little under 1.5 seconds over the two days. He only had you by 2 seconds at your guys last event. Was he running Hoosiers then? If so, I'd have to say goodjob to you, and makes me think the 370 is going to be a very potent car. Looks like Brianne Corn is a hell of a driver as well.

Its hard to benchmark on paper with me only looking at an event or two. But if you want to benchmark against good drivers, it would seem they are the best you have locally. Keep up the good work, can't wait to get my hands on a 370!

I want A6's on the stock sport wheels but yeah $3K+ a little too much to spend especially since I'm deploying soon.

Man I wish I could place top 10 in PAX or FTD but that is highly unlikely unless I transform myself into the Stig. Not with these drivers

http://www.sccahawaii.org/2009results/08-16-09.pdf

After deployment I'm looking at possibly attending some sort of race school just for shoots and giggles...maybe I'll learn something or just waste money.

Evoschool ftw if you want an auto-x orriented school. Chris, Diana, and Curtis are helluva benchmark for you.

Best of luck to all 370 and 350 drivers! Sorry if I sounded like a jerk the past few days. I want to see all Z cars do well since the recent ones get a bad rap for autox. Let's just not get the 370 bumped from BS!