The Official 370Z Autocross Thread

[AutoX Z]

So I'm getting everything in order to go ahead and start prepping my car for next season.

At this point I don't think I'm going to have enough money for new dampers but I also don't think there are any quality solutions at the moment so I'm ok waiting on that.

I'm just going to get an extra set of sport rims, nismos are too expensive/hard to find and not worth it for a couple pound savings per rim on a car with this much power.

For Hoosiers I'm looking at the 265/35/19 for the front and 295/30/19. Both are a bit smaller in diameter than stock but its the only options at the moment so hopefully it won't have too great of an effect on the gearing which is about perfect right now for autox. I'll crunch the numbers later to see how much top end I'm losing but like I said its the only option so it doesn't really matter right now.

Which brings us to the swaybar. This is where I need some help from yall picking the right one. My feel of the car is that it flops around like crazy in quick transitions and the steady state balance is understeer. I know alot of the behavior in transitions is better fixed with improved damping but again probably out of the picture for this year so how big of a bar would you recommend without making the steady-state balance even worse. I know in theory a big bar can help reduce understeer in camber-challenged cars such as ours but traditional knowledge also says that in general the stiffer front end will reduce front end grip, so where's the balance? Any input/experience on this would be greatly appreciated.

I want to show what the 370 is capable of, I may not be the perfect driver for the job, but I know the car can win so please help me out.

[boosted180]

Originally Posted by AutoX Z

Which brings us to the swaybar. This is where I need some help from yall picking the right one. My feel of the car is that it flops around like crazy in quick transitions and the steady state balance is understeer. I know alot of the behavior in transitions is better fixed with improved damping but again probably out of the picture for this year so how big of a bar would you recommend without making the steady-state balance even worse. I know in theory a big bar can help reduce understeer in camber-challenged cars such as ours but traditional knowledge also says that in general the stiffer front end will reduce front end grip, so where's the balance? Any input/experience on this would be greatly appreciated.

I want to show what the 370 is capable of, I may not be the perfect driver for the job, but I know the car can win so please help me out.

from my experience, the sway bars definitely help tremendously with quick transitions/ slaloms. my first auto-x was stock except for eibach springs. the next was with springs, sway bars, and spc front camber arms. i have the hotchkis, but if i had to do it over, i would go with the stillen as i feel the hotchkis are a bit TOO stiff in the front, which induces some understeer. but most of it is dialed out in my car with increased front camber. at this point, it feels just right for track use, but on tight auto-x courses, it still understeers a bit more than i'd like. i'm ok with where it is now as i see much more track time than auto-x.

so to answer your question, i think you'll see a huge difference with the addition of sway bars (i'd recommend the full set of stillen) and added front camber. you will be much quicker through the slaloms and the understeer problem will be mostly mitigated by the increased front camber.

[pgrmstr]

we can't mess with camber outside factory adjustments, and all we are allowed from a suspension standpoint is front swaybar and dampers that use factory springs, mounts, height, etc.

so swaybar is a must with camber challenged cars to prevent eating costly hoosiers....although I will likely go with Cusco for the adjustability up front

adjustable dampers - koni is supposedly developing SA units but no word, AST is looking at making some but no word, no idea if SA or DA and cost is unknown

was just looking for options and thought about the Nismo units

[pgrmstr]

for the 350z guys with experience, what was your baseline settings for your shocks...front and back?

[Ruff]

Originally Posted by pgrmstr

for the 350z guys with experience, what was your baseline settings for your shocks...front and back?

You looking for dyno charts or what? On my car I only had ots Koni's. I ran them about 90 % full stiff (rebound) and 50% rear.

Glenn's car drove and felt far superior to mine (the car I drove at Nationals) but he has custom valved koni da's. The shocks are Carter Thompson's old shocks. Not sure what settings Glenn runs them on.

[B1nks]

Originally Posted by Ruff

You looking for dyno charts or what? On my car I only had ots Koni's. I ran them about 90 % full stiff (rebound) and 50% rear.

Glenn's car drove and felt far superior to mine (the car I drove at Nationals) but he has custom valved koni da's. The shocks are Carter Thompson's old shocks. Not sure what settings Glenn runs them on.

Curious to know what his settings are..Really looking at getting some sways also. Also the 350z settings won't match up to 370z settings due to less weight in the rear and shorter wheel base. I used a way different compression rebound setting on my 350 than on my 370 to get similar results.

[Ruff]

Originally Posted by B1nks

Curious to know what his settings are..Really looking at getting some sways also. Also the 350z settings won't match up to 370z settings due to less weight in the rear and shorter wheel base. I used a way different compression rebound setting on my 350 than on my 370 to get similar results.

You already have double adjustables on your 370?

[AutoX Z]

Originally Posted by B1nks

Curious to know what his settings are..Really looking at getting some sways also. Also the 350z settings won't match up to 370z settings due to less weight in the rear and shorter wheel base. I used a way different compression rebound setting on my 350 than on my 370 to get similar results.

Wait a sec, I just say this. Where are you running in Houston? I haven't seen any other 370Z w/ sport pkg. running the SCCA events.