Even though the tire is roast, but at least you had fun. Autox yesterday got as low as 16mph! YES 16MPH. I had to downshift the car to get out of the slow corner as I ran out of torque, in a 370Z!!! ARGGG

laying around? these aren't for the Z are they? do tell!

For those of you in the New England area there is an un-paxed event this Sunday run by Track Club USA. See here for info.

Too bad it is not on Saturday, I have to do a local event on Sunday (2 miles from my house instead of 150 miles)

Getting this thread back up top.

The shocks are still not completely on the car. It has been a nightmare trying to make these shocks legal, getting the overall and compression lengths correct. However, we are getting closer and should have them on the car for nats. Whether or not they'll be dialed in correctly is a different story...

I'm in the same boat....shocks finally arrived a couple weeks back, and have been struggling with getting them corrected, had to send the rears back and they needed to replace the cylinder with a longer one to make the length legal. Had to do some tinkering on the fronts as well, but they are all sized correctly now and got them on the car this past weekend finally. I have 2 local events before Nats to try and get them dialed in....assuming they are valved correctly, otherwise its back to stock shocks. Sure woulda been nice to have these back in July though

At least you guys will have the fit and valving figured out by the time I go to order them over the winter! Thanks for being the guinea pigs :tiphat:

Now I just need someone to figure out if 315s will work in the front :)

well then, since we were the guinea pigs for the shocks, i think its only fair for you to be the guinea pig for trying to get 315's working on the front

I'm sure I could make 315's work but they wouldn't be on the stock 9" rim unfortunately. 315 on a 10" works.

i thought I read a thread on sccaforums awhile back where the corvette guys had stuffed them on an even smaller rim......and i think there was something about the tire wear difference between the two sizes...but i cant recall what the results were....but i thought it was an odd conclusion

i imagine a spacer would be needed up front as the 295 even rubs so not sure what the spacer would do to the outside clearance....

don't know why Nissan rolled the rear fenders but not the front

The only reason I'm tempted to try on the 9" wheel is that I've seen C6 Vette guys running 315/30/18 on an 18x8.5" wheel. They said it gripped as well as the 295 but had much better wear characteristics. The Hoosier spec sheet even says they're the same diameter as the 295/30. With a stock legal 5mm spacer, I think there's a good chance they'll clear on the inside.


Fair?!?! Who said anything about fair? When I try it in the spring, you'll be the first to see how it works. It'll probably be with 315s in front and 295s in rear for the first event :eek:

yup, that's what I read!

I ran in the nationals with a C6 2 years ago, we used 295 on the stock 8.5"

I was goona ssay I know the C6's use a 315/19 on a 9 in rim up front. I'm more worried about strut clearance even with a spacer. It depends on how the tire deflects once it's squeezed onto that rim.

anyone using aftermarket sways for autocross? thinking of getting some but i dont know if it will improve anything. Running BSP, so i have really wide front tires as it is. Car feels pretty neutral as is.

For SP it can help a fair bit which quick direction changes as you can run a matched set, although I found it was pointless unless you also had camber arms. I have coilovers, front camber arms and sway bars. The combination of the 3 makes the handling pretty damn good.

Here's a video from yesterday. Unfortunately I didn't have race tires on as they were still sitting in a friends trailer from the previous weekend.

my AX venues are loaded with quick changes and slaloms . I think i get to the top of 2nd maybe once in the entire course, usually stay in mid power band 2nd the entire time. I use 10.5" wheels on all 4 corners and it helps a lot with understeer. My understanding is that a stiffer front sway is just going to make understeer even worse, especially at low speeds. Correct?

curious as to what control arms are you using. I've been in contact with SPL parts for product development and test fitting since im local to them in Austin. They said they will get with me when they need a test fitter, they are working on other projects it seems.

Yes it did make understeer worse at low speed but that was all but eliminated with the increased camber.

I'm using the SPC upper control arms. Not the easiest to make small adjustments with but they get the job done. You do have to torque the lock nut quite tight to prevent it from slipping. Currently running about -3.5 degrees. Wheels are 10" front, 11" rear.

It would be great if SPL comes out with a part as well. It will be more expensive but will be lighter than the steel SPC part, the OEM arm is aluminum.

The stiffer front sway can increase grip if your are running very sticky tires, aka Hoosier's. The front sway will keep the car from rolling further, which can improve the front tire's camber. It can also help with putting down power at the rear by reducing roll and changing the stiffness ration of the car.

SCCA Nationals update pending, getting my videos uploaded, stay tuned.

Had a really good ax this past weekend, but co-driver noticed the wear on the rear tires isn't in the center, but more towards the outside edge. thoughts? more negative rear camber?

First of all, had a great time up in Nebraska meeting all the Z people and chatting it up. Sorry if I seemed alittle stand-offish, just focusing on the competition.

The car ran really well the first day up until me and my co-driver's final runs. I ran wide on the final turn and picked up a bunch of crap on the rear tires which then made the rear start snapping out in the slaloms on the next run. A wild ride, but not the fastest way around the course. After reviewing the video we left maybe a half second out on course and could have turned a 60 flat if everything had gone right.

The second day we just couldn't quite get the course figured out it seemed. We were much further back from the miata's giving up 2 seconds to the leader. It had also started drizzling before my last run, which was my fastest, so who knows what the car really could have done on that course.

When all was said and done I ended up 4th, my co-driver 5th (beat him by 0.021 seconds), behind three of the best drivers in the sport. Very pleased with our result but can't wait to make a few adjustments and take it to the miata's next year.

Here are my fastest raw times from each day, had a cone on my day one fastest run.

Day 1:


Day 2:

so my co-driver took a look at my AX tires after our last event and said that he thinks the rear tires are wearing towards the outside edge versus the center or inside section. He thinks i should try and adjust the rear camber a little.... thoughts? im running 18x10.5" with nismo suspension and a 20mm spacer

anyone else AX NOT is CS? :(

I never had a major problem with rear roll over but grip did improve a little when I increased rear camber to between -1.7 and -1.8 (basically max) in stock configuration. After that the inside and outside were wearing about the same.

Classification Question.
 

Could anyone help me out? My auto-x club, Capital Driving Club, does not use SCCA classifications.

However, I signed up for the October 9, 2010 SCCA event at Fed Ex and I am not sure what class I should be in.

My modifications are:

1. Oil Cooler.
2. Brake Ducts.
3. Carbo Tech Pads.

Thanks in advance.

Pads are free. Oil cooler and brake ducts technically bump you to SP even though they don't enhance your auto-x performance. Given the limited mods you could run stock and nobody would care, I doubt you would get any challenge unless this was a regional event.

dont ask dont tell!

Thanks for the response.

Actually, I had the date wrong. It is the Washington D.C. Region SCCA, Inc.
WDCR Solo Championship Event #7 Autocross/Solo II on Sunday, October 03, 2010.

I am running on street tires (RE-11's) and I doubt that I would be fast enough to bring on any unwanted attention. But I don't want to cause a scene.

What do you think?

you will be fine, just dont say anything

i dont know what your skill level is, but its going to be a uphill battle with no slicks regardless. the re11 can definitely hold its own, but just not against a6s

C Stock it will be!

Thanks for the help.

here is my most recent video... i know not a 370z but i feel at home here so enjoy

went into limp mode with a clutch overheat for 3 secs at 1:45 but still salvaged the run

Was it really a two minute course? Holy $hit.

yeah like 1:45-1:50ishish i think that run was 109 seconds with the limp mode.. my best was a 106 sec but like i said i went on the wrong side of a gate so DNFed....

we do two of those a year.. they are called trialcrosses around here and you can get up to 70ish mph... the others are the usual 30-40-50 sec courses...


a long course like that is hard on the tires and its alot to mentally remember... you can hear my passenger say all the way over as i he was reminding me of a gate that i had missed the run before and i forgot it was there and just made it straight line

I do have to admit. THe course was a typical airstrip course. It had way too many slaloms, not enough of other things. I was getting dizzy rocking left and right watching your video.

Looks to be a similar size to the course we run, except we use 3 runways so we don't have to do double backs. We used to make them really long, about 2m30s, but now we probably average 1:40 to 1:50. It does take it to the next level in terms of car abuse and driver memorization skills. For the first 3 runs you gain 6psi of pressure each run, without a cooler oil temps hit 260F each run. If you co-drive in the same run group you hit limp mode.

You guys are lucky, this is the BS we get here locally.

YouTube - Tom driving the 370z

On a side note, how much camber can you guys get on a stock car? I havent done an alignment, but just curious to see what I will see on the machine.

Holy crap that is tight. That had to be the worlds shortest stop box as well, LOL.

If you have factory suspension you have no adjustment and no way to gain. I think my stock alignment was around -1.0.

yup, that's the kind of BS we have here. It's either make the 2.5 hours drive or do the peanut size lots.

Eibach listed some camber bolts for the 370z? Is that really camber bolts or new camber plates?

Also what is the best front bar for this car, the Hotchikins?

This is the other lot we run, just as small. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csMS72kgoYI

Wow for a while there I thought it was like the Nascar of Auto-x, you only turned left!

I believe the Eibach part is a replacement upper control arm.

As far as best front sway, there is probably some distributed opinion on this. I had the Hotchkis front sway bar with stock suspension but felt it introduced too much understeer, although it works well with coilovers and an adjustable control arm. If I was replacing just the front bar I guess I would lean towards the Stillen or the Whiteline as they aren't quite as stiff. I think the Whiteline may even have 2 adjustment settings.

The understeer is why I wanted to stay away from replacing just the front bar to get rid of the inner rear lift. I understand it is faster, but I just hate to have a car that drives $hitty. My car isn't an autox only car, so it has to drive nice at the track too. I guess a smaller bar would be a good compromise.

Autox Z, what bar did you use on your car?

I believe Hotchikas is 35mm, Cusco is 28mm, Whiteline is 32mm (2 pt adjustment), Nismo 27mm, stock 26mm. Stillen is 32mm I think.

370Z Cleans Up CS In Washington, D.C.
 

I wanted to give Sam Strano and Salvatore Dipompo congratulations for taking 1st and 2nd , respectively, in C Stock at the Washington D.C. Region SCCA, Inc. WDCR Solo Championship Event #7 Autocross/Solo II on Sunday.

Also, for Learic Cramer in blowing the doors off the ladies and the men (she actually ran faster than Salvatore Dipompo).

All three were co-driving a yellow 370Z.

I was pleased in taking 6th place (out of 10) in C Stock on my RE-11’s at my first SCCA event.