Yeah, I can second Evolution Driving School. First year I did it I started with the 2-day phase 1 & 2, my times dropped dramatically as a result. It's all about car placement and being as early as possible. This year I did the phase 3, it wasn't as rewarding as it was more about data analysis than driving and the instructors couldn't find anything wrong with my technique. It's not cheap, but it is a good investment if you are serious about the sport.

+1 for evo schools. did ph1 and ph2 this summer; the ph1 was more about seat time than anything for me, but having a previous DS ITR nat champ show me the ropes definitely got me thinking about how i could be doing things differently. ph2 was very beneficial for me, though. the mental course walks coupled with "instructing the instructor" really force you to think ahead all the time, and to be cognizant of what cones are really important.

i'll be doing ph3 next year. i've got the maxqdata quantum/video setup already, so having a day to spend doing analysis should reinforce/open new doors in that aspect.

seat time, seat time, seat time!!!

I'm pretty serious about attending the school. I have autocrossed since late 07 and I love it. Used to race an SRT4 with many mods, a set of A6s in S-Mod but the competition was too tough and the lil Neon made too much torque steer even at low boost settings with the big turbo.

Saw the Z sitting at the dealer one day..fell in love and enjoy it more than the SRT4 when auto-x. I even got Curtis to drive it during fun runs. I was just amazed. With both of us in the car he knocked off three seconds from my best run on his first lap.

That's when told myself to hold off on any mods, stay in BS and work on the driver mod. :)

Has anyone mounted up some R compounds yet? What size? 295/315 A6 fit ok?

Anyone at Lincoln check out the 370 in BSL to see what she was running? I know she had a good number of interested people helping her....as in National Champion caliber folks....

Any knowledge of an adjustable front bar...or just a bigger static bar?

I've been anxiously waiting out this season, but chomping at the bit to get some R compounds and start the development.....sure wish I live in the south with a whole winter of test and tunes ahead of me... :stirthepot:

Of course.....the always painful wait for Koni to get something out. Spent many seasons waiting out tentative delivery schedules from them so elected to not even try this year....but still no word :mad:

learic was on 295 A6's square on sport wheels w/ the 35mm hotchkis FSB and stock shocks. i've spoken with strano, and he has no plans to fab up an adjustable FSB similar to the one he made for the 350Z; he mentioned that the hotchkis bar he sold learic was working well. in any case, i've got a question into a higher up @ cobb, but haven't heard anything back yet.

lee mentioned shock development for the 370Z in the works, but told me not to expect anything until 2010. vorshlag is hoping to have some AST's to sell before the end of the year.

as an aside, ruff and i were sitting behind junior and learic at the banquet. ruff joked with junior about running the 370Z in 2010, to which he responded with something to the effect of "hell yeah!". :icon14:
he looked drunk (we definitely were), i hope he was joking!

I've heard that from Lee in the past, promising june, then july, then before Nats, only to be left empty handed so have little confidence in his tentative dates...

I was gonna call terry and ask about the AST as he has been getting them for everything the past couple years so that will be THE choice...so that's good news...

And Jr has enough rides at his disposal....keep him outta the Z

Based on what you saw with the 295s on the rear, any concern about stuffing a 315 in there?

Trying to get me some used Corvette rubber from Aquilante down the road to mount up for a couple local event in Oct

I hope Jr was joking, considering on tuesday he was talking about how slow c-5 vettes fealt compared to the c6 he was driving. So with his rational, the 370 should be too slow for him. :icon17:

I didn't have a close look at Learic's car, but it sounds like 315s should fit. The only downside I see is if the 370 is anything like the 350, it sucks having staggered tires for auto-x. Square setup ftw. But since you are going to be running local events and getting used rubber, all the more power for you to try! And please post up your feedback, results, etc!

Why does having staggered tires suck? Is it just the ability to rotate the tires or is it a handling thing?

Looks like the AST solution Boardkat mentions won't fly as they are only developing a coilover, not something that will use stock springs so that"s out for stock class.

I guess we're just at the mercy of Koni at this point for any adjustable dampers. I wonder how different they are from the 350 dampers...

****, maybe that's why i haven't heard back from terry yet. i'm gonna give him a call. i've got questions out to pen$ke and moton in the meantime. SOMEBODY is gonna want to take the money i'm willing to throw at them, lol.

heard back from moton - they've got a motorsport DA coilover setup w/ custom mounts ready to go, but no shock drop-in :( i'm waiting to hear back from the US rep about a possible stock fitament (he's at the petit le mans this week), but i'm not holding my breath.
on the other hand, i had a very productive conversation with terry this morning. no promises yet, but i'll keep you updated as we move along. keep your fingers crossed!

Handling, skinnier front tires causes more understeer (built in safety feature for the Z). Since we are already going wider in the rear, linear traction will be very good. But keeping a stagger makes the car prone to understeer, so the square setup, in my opinion from autoxing 2 different 350's, is the best route.

i think you meant understeer ;)
but yeah, i WANT to run 315's in the rear, but will probably just try and find some used 'vette rubber to test on. especially when i'll have a pesky co-driver constantly reminding me of my decision if we don't go square and can't tune out the understeer with shocks/FSB :p

LOL FML...

anyway, with already going to a 295 rear I think we'll have ample linear grip. And lateral grip in the rear will be more then enough, its the front that needs the help. But I guess we'll figure it out next year :tup:

texas 370Z autox guys, take note. straight from vorshlag, in a follow-up from a phone call i made earlier today:

"Thanks again for the interest. I talked to the founder of AST today (he's here from Holland for the week) and mentioned your (and others') desire for 370Z shocks. He and Brian of AST-USA agreed that these should be farily easy to make, since the 370Z shares some geometry with the 350Z, which they've already made.

I will post on SCCA Forums when we have found a local 370Z tester (we have our own vendor subforum there)."

get in touch with terry asap!! let's get these shocks fab'd up :D

Yea I was thinking about getting into their test program but I'm kinda far away down in houston for that plus its still a big investment on my end. Hopefully someone else will step up though so they're a quality product out there in a year or so.

a year or so? i need somebody to step up before march, lol. i'm even considering taking delivery of my Z in dallas if nobody is willing!! c'mon, i drive 2.5 hours each way every second weekend to autox at my "local" event ;)
but yeah, i can't imagine it'll be cheap like a koni yellow, even converted to DA, would be. it'll be worth it though :D

Yea its bout 4 hours each way from houston to dallas, texas is big. If I was in dallas and had the money to burn I would be all over it though. The Z needs alot more damping to help through the quick transitions.

i live in oregon :ugh2:
maybe i take my parking lot racing too seriously, eh? :icon17:
beers are on me all week in lincoln next year if you take the plunge!!

Good news on the AST front....and pricing will be a concern considering everything that is needed with wheels and COSTLY hoosiers, but I'm just hoping someone has a SA or DA available early next year at the latest. It's not long from when the local season starts to when the first Tour or Pro event is in the Northeast so we don't have a lot of development time, maybe 4 to 6 events of you want to run every weekend and travel to neighboring regions. It sure will help to have everything in place for the 1st of April so we can concentrate on setting the car up.

Keep the pressure on....anyone have contact in for Lee so I can put in a poke or two as well

Its good we have some good dialogue going from the autox folks, thanks!

So earlier in the week, I get an email from Vorshlag stating there was no damper in development, just coilovers....

Well, wouldn't you know, I get a follow up response today stating...

"over the past few days, we have gotten interest from people in using our shocks for a B Stock 370z. We are looking more seriously into this and we'll get back to you"

hmmmm, I wonder who those interested people were :tup:

yeah, i've already started adding everything up.. 3-5k for shocks, 2k for two sets of wheels, 1.5k for drys, 1k for wets, 1.5k for exhaust, .35k for FSB... and all the miscellaneous stuff like fluids/pads/alignment/dyno/etc... at least i'll have a co-driver to split tires with.. yeah :ugh2:
BUT IT'S GOING TO BE FUN!!!! :rofl2:

i wish we had 4-6 decent events to get ready. it'll be cold and wet for our first 2-3, then we're off to san diego/el toro for the tour/pro. i doubt we'll be the ones to unseat the RX-8's there, lol. but at least it'll be warm, and the people there are always a blast to hang out with!

i'll PM you lee's email addy, don't want the spambots to pick it up on here! i haven't heard back yet, but i only sent him something yesterday. a follow-up call will be in order next week if i still haven't heard back.

:tup::tup::tup:
that's why it's good to be pounding pavement NOW. the last thing i want is a brand new car, ready to go, sitting on stock shocks for a season! 2010 or bust!! :D
.. oh, and sometimes a phone call goes a long way, too. terry got a good sense of where i'm coming from and what i want to accomplish, and i got a good sense of why he was reluctant to put something together for the stock crowd (not just us). felt we met in the middle by the time we were finished, and it seems as though i was right on the mark. still keeping my fingers crossed!!

The initial year always hurts...at least I don't have to justify it to a nagging wife anymore:happydance:

Rather not get into the 3-5k for shocks though....that's full coilover money. I'm also looking at moving into a tow vehicle and trailer as well so every bit of savings here and there will help. My co-driver doesn't come with any funds however, but I'll have an official tire changer and gofer....my 16y/o son. Been running a FJA kart last couple years, will have license in Jan so need to bring him up to speed asap on driving a big rig. He's got course walks, picking lines, seeing the course,etc down though!

yup. check your PM for lee's addy. i'm sure the yellows will work best for your situation. doubt you'll be losing too much in terms of competitiveness, if you convert 'em to DA. i just really wanna see how the "other half lives" for once :D
on another note, are any of you guys planning on hitting up your local shops to see if anybody can fab up a hitch? the 350 guys did it a few years ago, looked like this:
http://members.cox.net/jsetzer/2378.JPG http://members.cox.net/jsetzer/2388.JPG
http://members.cox.net/jsetzer/2381.JPG http://members.cox.net/jsetzer/2389.JPG

if we could get something like that fab'd up, hidden and with no bumper cutting, i think we'd be in business!

This looks like the ticket! I was gonna see about getting a hitch fab'd up for it as I have the tire trailer and that would really be the easy way out. I was looking at photos on here of one of the guys cars that were stripped and thought it wouldn"t be tough to use that main beam on the rear...although I was thinking about routing the receiver out where the rear fog is....

But certainly is an easier and cheaper solution than the towing route so I plan to check into it

x2
then, you could just pop the fog light delete cover off, insert the receiver as needed, and replace when not in use. let me know if you find anybody that could make something like this, and i'll do the same. in any case, sounds like a potential group buy for whoever can get it done!

^ So that's the secret to set up a 370z...

reported Buy tamiflu as

Digesting a cone - Burp
 

This car WILL be in the mix next year, regardless of the BS/CS merger if it goes. I'm in a talented SCCA region, with several nat champs and very capable drivers. I haven't autoxed at all this season (12 yr vet). Sunday was my first outing in the Z....runway, fast course. No real competition in BS to speak of, but looking at AS times, specifically 3 top national competitive drivers, 50 second course, was 2 secs off the top A6 equipped S2K CR and 1.5 secs off top Soltice GXP also on A6s. I of course was on stock street tires, no bar, no shock, just bone stock Z. So....give me some real seat time, A6ers, a bar and shocks and I'll be reserving my room in Lincoln for 2010! Is it spring time yet???

I LIKE you gusto!! Man Up Game On Baby!!!

Haha that's one nice thing of moving back to Texas, there is no off season.

Texas....go hound Terry for those needed AST dampers!

AST dampers ? Texas ftw.

Vorshlag is working with AST on developing some SCCA Stock Class shocks for us....nothing for sure, sounded promising, but the more interest we have, the better the odds....

reported oreboathe as

Oh I was so close in the last event. I could feel it, confidence growing stronger, the overwhelming urge/desire to beat out that RX-8 running A6s.

http://www.sccahawaii.org/2009results/10-04-09.pdf

We have a test and tune this Sunday,followed by our next run (my last event before deployment) on Nov 1st.

http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._3029707_n.jpg

Sadly I won't be in a 370Z next year as planned. And still pissed I coned away a nats trophy in a 350. Best of luck to anyone who seriously campaigns one next year, the 370 WILL BE the class car.

What happened to change your mind?

I wasn't the one buying the 370, my local co-driver was. He ended up buying a Solstice GXP Z0K, so I'll be running in AS. If I could afford to buy a 370 right now, I would. But I graduated college a year ago, and have student loans coupled with a commissioned based career.

But if I can't get a grasp for driving the solstice, I'd love to co-drive someone's prepped 370z! And I can't guarentee I don't beat their time :p