Thank you sir, I'll take that event as my first national event win considering I beat the multi-time national champ of Mr. McHugh! And too bad I couldn't go deaper in the super challenge, we had so much OPR by the challenge time, the car became a handful to drive. My co-driver spun on one of his runs due to OPR, and when I was in the challenge against Mr. Thomason in the challenge, I saved a spin at the cost of taking out some cones at the finish (I've never spun a car!)

Goodluck 370Z guys! Don't be like me always coning, go get em!

I went autocrossing a few weeks ago....all I can say is.....******* FUN!!!

It's something everyone should try at least once.

Looks like yall had a bit of a rough time up at finger lakes. Looking at the course map it didn't seem to really suit the Z at all but any other feedback from that event?

Day 1 was just plain tight with a lot of thread the needle type stuff and I was driving terrible and my hands weren't fast enough sawing the wheel back and forth....or my mind was delayed, one of the two...or both

Day 2 was much improved course wise. Actually, they changed the course in two spots after initial walks and took away a great straight in the beginning that would have played very well for the Z....the other change didn't kill the second fast section but required you to be very tidy at the exit of the slalom leading into it in order to carry the speed through the offsets.

Having not been in the mix for the past couple years, I'm still trying to clear the cobwebs and learn to drive a car with HP, but I'm getting closer to figuring out the right way to "drive" this beast.

The results don't say much....Daddio is well...Daddio, and the only reason he wasn't further ahead of us on Day 2 was he wasn't driving his best admittedly, but he was in a well prep'd RX8 with big $ Motons and sticker Hoosiers on it....and us Z folks were running only a bigger front bar and approaching mid life Hoosiers on front and past mid life hoosiers on the rear

With a better opinion on my driving after Day 2 and pulling my head out my arss.....looking forward to a Pro next weekend on sticker tires :driving:

I had an OK day on Sat (would have been a lot better if I hadn't coned away a .7 pick up). On Sunday I just made a ton of mistakes on every run. One day I'll be able to have two good days in a row. If I didn't choke on Sunday I could have had the last Trophy, but there was no way I was catching Collins (and given my skill level I wouldn't expect to). I did fairly well at Toledo last year, and I think Sam is setting the course again, so I'm optimistic that I'll have better luck this weekend.

The course didn't favor the Z, but it didn't penalize it either (well, maybe the 7 cone slalom on Sunday did). The only time the Z seems to get an advantage is when there are acceleration zones after slow sections, and there were no slow sections either day.

My only other feedback about the event is that I won't be camping again at an event. Lot's of rain Friday night, together with the chirping birds waking me up just past 5am on both days sort of set the stage for problems. </excuses>

Is Daddio going to Lincoln this September?

When Daddio drove my car, he said the car is still lacking a real diff. to be a super competitive car. He did like the short wheelbase and length compare to the RX8, the key is how to put the power down

Shocks, shocks, shocks. If the 370 is anything like the 350, a set of shocks will really help with putting power down with the lack of a quality diff the Z gets. The front bar should be helping too. Goodluck guys at the next events, and wish me luck in the Solstice, it's been a good year on stock shocks so far :p

I can say shocks helped my car tremendously. Actually they are replacement coilovers (BC Racing ER type) as my car is currently built for STX.

The difference I noticed between my 08 350 and 09 370 was that, stock for stock, the suspension was softer and chassis definitely not as stiff because when pushing the 350z the suspension and body roll would cause me to slow down more than anything but in the 370z the tires would give before I felt I was pushing the suspension too far. Only not fair part of that comparo. is the 350 has a VLSD and the 370 was base non sport so small tires and no diff. The OS Giken LSD I put in my car made a HUGE difference along with the KW's. If someone wants an OS Giken diff let me know and I know a shop in Texas that has one a customer backed out on and they need/want to sell for a damn good price !

the 370 isn't legal for STX...

I expect shocks to help tremendously if they low speed damping can be set right to help the car in transitions. It has a tendancy to roll gently and then the damping completely goes away and the car flops over on the suspension. The shocking thing (pun not intended) is that the sudden weight shift never seems to overload the tires, it's the weirdest handling car I've ever autox'd

I dont think we go fast enough in the local autox to feel anything, it sucks when most of the courses are 40 secs long and average 35mph.

Where does a modified 370Z fall then? My last event I ran in STR, but they weren't sure it was kosher. I have HFC, CBE, and F/R sways. This would be very helpful to know for the rest of the season.

Bsp?

Do you run stock tires /wheels?

Yeah, stock tires/wheels

Unless you're local region has some special classes the 370 goes straight from CS to BSP to SM. Unfortunately at this point there is no national street-tire class for the 370 or other high power 2-seater cars. I do think the 370 would be a blast in full BSP trim though and probably very competitive. 335's square, 310 whp, 3000 lbs.....:drool:

its alot of fun. I only have about 100 lbs of weight reduction but use a square 10.5" wheel setup. It's like night and day compared to when i would auto cross stock.

I only wish they would force people to use street tires in "stock" classes

Hmmm, I'll have to figure out a tow hitch setup for the Z if I start playing the wheel/tire game. At this point, I'll get my a$$ handed to me in BSP.

You should be able to use the 350Z setup using the rear fog light as the hitch point. I do highly recommend reinfocing your rear bumper with a longer screw so the rear bumper won't get ripped off one day.

I was just looking at it yesterday under the car

Here's a video from a few weeks back at the first SW Divisional. Car was great the first day, did some experimenting with tire pressures and learned alot. Second day we corded the fronts after our first runs and the car just fell of a cliff and we each lost 2 seconds a run the rest of the day. So when in doubt flip your tires!



PS watch it in HD, the camera position makes it hard to see what's happening in SD.
PPS: It was a dirty run, so 10 points to whoever can figure out which cone I hit. (hint, it's on the passenger side)

too bad I couldn't make it out there that weekend. I'm usually out at most of the Texas A&M events, woulda been nice to see another 370

I'll be up in Dallas this weekend for the second divisional if you wanna try and make it up for that event.

sadly my weekends are booked through most of august :(

You sure grow them big down there in TX huh! Nice wide open course!! Wish we had ones like there up here in the northeast!!!

So what did you learn with tire pressures?

i did two events this weekend, i dont think i cleared 55mph in either ome

At the event on Saturday I hit 80mph in 3rd gear, the rest of the course was mostly 40-60mph. On my last run I was flagged down and got a re-run, had to re-grid with oil temp at 260, and hit limp mode 2/3 through the 100 second course after the oil temp soared to 290. It's a weird feeling when the car revs to 5000 rpm and just sits there.

Oops. I don't do SCCA so I was just guessing by what little I knew of the classing.

We're still experimenting so we haven't quite got it yet but basically keeping the rears higher than the fronts has helped with rotation a lot.

How are your AST's doing?

yup rub it in, I drove a mini cooper s and hit a top speed of 46mph last weekend, that was consider a good course.

Of course it is either doing that, or nothing, or wake up at 5AM and drive 150 miles to an autox.

Running CS at the moment. What class would I be when I get an oil cooler installed?

They're not.....ordered 1st week in Feb, still waiting :shakes head:

When I dropped my front pressures to anything below 37, i really crush that outside edge and that's when I corded my last set. I did have about 40 runs on them though, but I've kept my pressures up above 36 ever since in front...

Haven't tried the high rear pressure though...but having run on concrete for the first time in this car last week in Toledo, the car will need help rotating in Lincoln. There was NO rotation at all on the concrete...heck, only slightly recall any wheel spin so with the BIG grib on concrete, all the tail wagging under throttle disappeared, not much inside wheel spin...but also NO rotation

People regularly drive 150 miles to run at our events just because they are so much more fun. Good speed, long course, lots of runs, no PAXing. We occasionally get people from NY/NJ drive 4 hours! Ever run into Lee Shelton and his yellow Z06?

yes, he showed up a couple times here, havent seen him in 2 years or so?

Guess he likes the fast courses :)

He's been up here twice this year. Both times he has won but only just. The last event he attended he was behind by a few tenths and then pulls out a spectacular drive for his last run getting the win by a tenth and blowing his diff seals out in the process. He's always breaking something, he just pushes his car that hard.

i dont blamehim, i still havent cleared 65mph yet.

I'll be in CSP. :/

No, BSP.

BSP is correct

Ran the second divisional event in Dallas last weekend. The car was crazy loose the whole time and no matter what we did in terms of tire pressures, spraying, driving style, did any good. All around very frustrating and very very slow. Got back to Houston and took the tires of the car and discovered this:
http://i26.tinypic.com/2ziu9gx.jpg

Also found this laying around....
http://i27.tinypic.com/1q2yhh.jpg