I've got 295 A6's mounted with one event on them. Would have PAX'd 3rd at the last event if I hadn't hit a cone on every single run (I need to adjust my turn in point to the new tires). Still ended up winning my class by 2 seconds on the coned run, so really 4 seconds.

I've been trying to get a cusco or whiteline bar for a while now without much luck because nobody stocks them in the US but I'm still working on it.

:confused:
You sure about that?
I'm pretty sure I've seen both on the forums.

Good move on the 295 square! Goodluck at the TX NT, you're going to have your hands full if/when Daniel Pedroza registers.

The whitelines are pre-order only with no solid delivery date and the cuscos are direct order from japan so they take a while to get here aswell.

And yes the TX NT should be pretty stacked.

With another 10" of snow here in PA, the season continues to look further and further away! Nothing is on the car yet, but I have been gathering goodies. Have my wheels and A6's ready, been waiting on swaybar options but as mentioned, whiteline and cusco are not happening fast enough....so I'll be ordering a Hotchkis set this week....and if its too stiff, I'm sure a little extension can be welded on to make it adjustable in the softer direction. Exhaust is in a box and hope to install it today....and I have one other go fast goodie in the works but my lips are sealed :drool:

Since I'm making the move to towing this year, I've also been chasing down stuff needed for that, got a tow vehicle last month, looking at a trailer this afternoon, need brake controller, weight dist and sway control, straps, etc. I had tentatively thought about sneaking down to the Dixie NT but it just doesn't look like that's gonna be able to happen at this point.

Local season doesn't start til late March up here and aside for Dixie NT, the next big event on the east coast isn't until NE Divisionals in May

Awesome, glad you guys are getting some prep done! What size A6s did you go with? You say go fast googies, usually go fast means power mods so an air filter is all thats left, but in autoxing, shocks in stock class make you go lotttttsss faster then an airfilter, so please tell me you are getting shocks!

;)

I went 295 square on the hoosiers

You guys think I would still be in B stock if I went back to stock airboxes but used COBB post-MAF tubes instead? Right now having Stillen G3 bumps me to BSP, correct?

<-- still an AutoX newbie.

can't touch the intake at all.....only change the drop in filters.....like a K&N or HKS

Shocks are free to play with, as long as you use stock springs, and the mounts and perches must be of factory specs

CBE is free...with some gothcha's such as messing with hangers, body work, etc

brake pads are free to play with, but no SS line upgrades...or calipers

no changes outside of factory adjustments for camber/caster....but you can loosen up all bolts and tug and pull whatever camber you can get before locking things into place....

air filters....drop in type....with no modifications to the airbox of any kind

no electronics, mass air flow or anything along that line...

and front swaybar with endlinks are free to play with...but cant touch rear bar...

That's the baseline of stock class allowances....

And don't forget any DOT approved tire you want, aka Hoosier A6's.

hey guys,
Sorry it's 3 am here in east coast and I am too exhausted to look through every post. So i'm just going to go ahead and ask the question

What would you tell a novice autox'er who's autox'ing their 370Z for the first time? Things like Tire pressure (front rear) , looking ahead, tips, tricks etc.

thanks

On stock suspension with stock tires I think I ran pressures of 38F 35R hot.

General setup tips:
If you like having a shiny car put some painters tape in the "conage" areas.
Recheck wheel torque at the track
Give the car a check a day or two before at minimum, check brake pads, brake fluid and oil level.
Remove everything from the car including floor mats
Wear comfortable running shoes that don't have a lip that is going to get caught up on the edge of the pedals
Bring lots of water

Technique:
Walk the track with a friendly veteran, they will talk you through car placement, braking zones etc.
Try to visualize the course you just walked in your head.
Take it easy on the first couple of runs and try to be smooth especially with throttle inputs.
You're far better off braking a little early and giving up a tenth vs running out of room and plowing around the corner.

Thanks a lot man. I didn't post here but I did check it the day before the event.

I did the track walk and kept an instructor as a passenger in the very first run. Your last sentence is VERY true. I am far better off braking and losing a small time than knocking a cone over and lose two seconds. :tup:


BTW, if anyone interested, here's the thread: http://www.the370z.com/track-autocro...eo-inside.html

So question for those with experience running Hoosiers on 350's.

Right now I have 10 runs on my tires with the TX NT coming up at the end of the month. With a co-driver and practice/reruns I'm planning on racking up another 15 or so runs at the tour. My tires do not need to be flipped right now but I can't really tell if they'll last through the Tour without having issues. So for those with experience on 350's about how many runs could you get out of the fronts before hitting the cords?

You might want to post the question on my350z.com

I only co-drove a car on Hoosiers, and never ran my own on hoosiers. After the two days at Nats, they had already taken a beating and were needing to be flipped in my opinion.

If you can get them flipped for cheap or free, then I'd say go ahead and do it now.

care to share what pressures are you running in the A6's??? baseline?:tup:

IIRC 35-36 front and 32-33 rear. Just make sure you aren't rolling over on the sides or you'll destroy the tires really quick.

Update from the Texas NT:

The course was ridiculously fast. I was at the top of second for the majority of the course. I finished the day ~1.5 seconds behind dan pedroza in his MSR and left alot of time out on course. So in all I'm pretty happy with my times considering the competition and stock shocks just need to really try and take advantage of my three runs.

Nice Trophy spot! Looks like you had a tough time on day 2 with no clean runs, but your raw time without the cone was 6/10 behind so nice job.

Had my first event on the Hoosiers yesterday, although it was cold and damp, temps in the 40/50s at best...but the car felt great in the slaloms and the sweepers so was real happy with the first real outing! Anxious for warmer temps so I can actually get some good grip out of the tires!

Yea I feel like I drove 10x better on day 2 but my fastest run was still very sloppy. If I'd been completely on my game I feel I could have beat Pedroza but still I'm very happy with the results. If you can use your shocks to loosen up the back-end alittle bit the car should be very unstoppable.

Congrats Daniel, goodluck at the future events!

I don't know Pedroza....but he placed 3rd in PAX.....so considering you weren't too far off on raw time, and the lack of development or shocks on the car....it looks good for the Z this season! .....and congrats on the contingency Hoosier!

He kicked butt in CS last year, took 2nd to Buetzer...but Buetzer kinda dominated and I don't think was fully pushed lol

Pedroza has placed 2nd in CS the past 2 years and if I hadn't coned the 2nd day I would have PAX'd 17th so I know I didn't drive terribly but there was alot of sloppiness going on. Here are my best runs from each day:

Damn those courses are awesome. Those are the type's I love and thrive on. I wish we could re-wind time and I'd co-drive with you at that event ahhhh! Pretty good driving man, glad you got second at least! Anyway, fun the limited amount of car I could see I think you need to work on your speed maintence in sweepers, granted I haven't driven the 370 yet, but the 350 will hang on like no other in sweepers, I just couldn't get it to dance in slaloms and tight transitions well. And you were late in some of the slaloms I saw, but over all pretty damn good man!

I agree, looks like there was lots of time out there in the sweepers....definitely better driving on day 2...much closer on the cones, as you appeared to be way off them on day 1. I was quite impressed this past sunday with the Z in the sweepers....and is where I picked up the time on each run. Get it hunkered down on the entry...get it turned in, and then I was on the gas for the entire sweeper. The Z just stuck and kept turning so no signs of push, just a little inside wheel spin, but nothing major and could easily be modulated with the gas peddle, but I was able to get on the power early on every sweeper and keep the line really nice, with a little sliding of the rear around the final cone of the sweeper as my foot planted solidly on the floor. I took last season off, didn't race much the year before, but looking forward to a full season this year....and after the 1st event, I am chomping at the bit to get back out there! Two weeks away and hopefully warmer weather. This is gonna be FUN!!!

Nice Job!

Nice course and nice job.

I'm surprised though that you were getting inside wheel spin. I don't experience that on an auto-x course, but it's probably because you're running A6's with stock suspension.

I get it even with DA Koni's... what's your setup Chris? It's mainly the crappy stock diff's fault

Stock struts and springs, Hotchkis swaybars, stock diff (for now). Probably the main difference is I'm only running RE-11's ATM. I'll be getting some different tires as the season warms up.

And you get you inside tire spin? I cook my re01rs when i run them.

No I very rarely get inside wheel spin, usually I can spin both rear tires if I want (and I'm in the power band) so this would indicate that my stock diff is still working ok. If any of you are co-driving perhaps you are overheating the diff?

Lol, I think mine is just fried period.

I never noticed inside wheel spin on street tires but the moment I started running on A6's it was everywhere. I've got a hotchkis front bar now and it's made a world of difference. I was able to get on the power much earlier and more confidently however I was still getting alot of push through the sweepers combined with some horrible lines cause I missed my braking points, hence the slowness.

I think the inside wheel spin on A6's is partially caused by them being much shorter then stock. So bad understeer eh? Iirc the Hotchkis is a pretty big bar for the 370 over stock, that might cause some understeer, but I'm betting still a worthwhile mod. Without shocks you're just going to have to drive around it. But one important factor is what tire pressures were you running? I noticed a feelable and drivable change on just a few pounds of difference.

The Hotchkis front bar will cause pretty bad push as it reduces the body roll generated camber. Unfortunately I don't think there is much you can do to add static camber up front in stock class.

I've driven with the hotchkis bar on street tires and its undrivable with that amount of push. However with the A6's on the car become MUCH more neutral.

I'm willing to bet that my tire pressures are still way too high but I had enough to focus on at the NT and didn't feel like opening up that can of worms so I just set them at 37 and tried not to think too much about it. I'll definitely start doing some more experimentation with that back at the local events.

Try around 36-38 front, and 32-34 rear, around a 3-4lb stagger. That'll help your push a little.

If I am hard on the gas, the diff locks and the rear drifts, its when I'm rolling on the gas coming off corners that the inside wheel spin becomes evident. With street tires, the few times I ran it last year, I didn't feel much inside spin, but with the reduced grip, any throttle input would cause the tail slide so it was kinda masked. Coming from BMW's with open diffs (330i ZHP), it's nice to have even the weak diff in the Z....comparatively speaking.

As far as push goes, I too have the Hotchkis bar up front, and imagine if I charged into a corner, I'd see the push come out, but I guess maybe my driving style has adapted over the years, having been in FWD camber challenged cars, or RWD front heavy camber challenged pigs...where you're forced to drive around the issues.....and part of that has been getting the car slowed down getting into a corner, and then rolling on the gas through a turn, increasingly so as the steering wheel comes unwound. So I did not notice any push, and was quite impressed with how it stuck in the sweepers and accepted my throttle.

Hopefully some shocks will be out by mid season and we can start tinkering in more earnest, and I have yet to mess with the alignment....

As far as pressures go, having only been on the A6's once, in cool temps, I ran 38F and 35R....and dropped the rear to 34 for my last two runs. The rear still had lots of tread untouched on the outside edge so I will likely bleed more pressure off at the next event (hopefully with warmer temps) and see how it goes. I would expect to settle somewhere in the 32-34 range on the back. Not sure how much lower you'd want to go up front though as even in the cool, I used up ever bit of treadwidth up front at 38lbs...

Heading to San Diego, talk to everyone later!

need opinions on an AutoX wheel/tire setup. My AX events I attend are 1-2 hours away and i want to get a 2nd set of tires and wheels for autocross itself. My Z is not my daily driver, but I do drive it on the weekends on the street. Being in Texas, this means the car will still see 10k miles a year easy. I want to use the stock wheels with cheaper tires for road trips and street driving.

Saying all that, I gather the best setup for dedicated AX use is a square setup in the 18" 275/285 width range? Any suggestions on affordable wheels? I don't really care what they look like. I care much more about function than looks. Also, i personally don't think I'm ready for R compound tires yet as I'm still pretty new and would rather just get another set of good street tires and learn to drive better. I do want wheels that wont have a problem fitting Hoosiers in the future.

Thanks!