Texas World Speedway

DR_

With The Drivers Edge it is $315 for the weekend with an instructor. Once you graduate to solo (without a assigned instructor) your price goes down to $295. The next TWS event with them is in September 28-29 and they sell out very quickly.
You can piece yourself together a pretty good oil cooler setup for under $300 or just by a whole kit from Z1 for a little more. Make sure you get one with a thermostatic oil sandwich plate adapter.

YzGyz

Kool beans. I don't think I will be tracking or will be doing any mods soon. My first mod will be a sound system if I can find a super deal on it. If not, I will just live with the stock.

Thanks

Merlinshawn

I am looking at doing the drivers edge event at Texas Motor speedway on Setember 28-29th with the Z Club of Texas. It will be my first ever track event.

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2011 370Z Base Sport
Fast Intentions High Flow Cats, Fast Intentions Cat Back Exhaust, Stillen Gen 3 Intake,Z1 Stainless Steel Brake Lines

traderbully

Hello all first post to this site. Just got my Z less than a week ago and am loving it! Never have had a car like this before (fast) let alone something that can handle like this thing does. So I found TWS as I was looking for a driving school that might be able to help me safely find out what this car can do.

I was one of those annoying kids with the Prelude, no exhaust, and was most certainly raising hell zipping around town along with the rest of my rice burner buddies. Well now that I've gotten to be a big boy I'd like to have those same experiences but now having the proper tool (the Z) and place to facilitate it.

And for my questions...
I am wondering how ever how much wear does this cause to your car? As far as pushing your car beyond or too close to its mechanical limits is this something that is advised by the instructors? Are there and times for the lower level drivers to come out during the week? How long does one typically stay in the lower, non-solo levels?

2011 370Z GM Touring/ Sport no mods.

ltullos

Did my first Drivers Edge event this weekend at MSR. While I've previously done a few one day events in my Z32, the instruction I got with DE and 2 day format was by far much better. The 3.1 course was likewise much more challenging than the TMS infield and roval or the MSR 1.7 courses I previously ran.

My car ran flawlessly through the weekend. I wasn't trying to be the fastest guy there, but pushed it hard. The track mods included the Z1 34 row oil cooler, SS brake lines, StopTech brake pads, and RBF600. It was a cold weekend so oil temp stayed in 150-170 range. I will attest to the need to have block-off plate for daily driving. With it installed, it takes 10-15 min to reach 160 on cold mornings and stays in 165-170 range after warm-up. Without, it barely comes off the 140 peg even after 20 min (outside air temp 30-40 deg).

Finally, I filled the tank before 1st session each day, but did not refill in between because I was only down to 3/4. I experienced no fuel starvation issues.

In summary this event gave me a new standard for 'a good weekend' and can't wait to get back to MSR in March.

Sh0velMan

Glad you had a good weekend!

Question for you tho.

You say without a block off plate in place you don't get much above 140 on oil temp.. this is with a thermostatic sandwich plate for the cooler?

If so, your thermostat may be stuck open. You should at least be able to get it up into the 160 range in normal driving with the thermostat. Especially on the track man, I don't care how good your cooler is or how cold it is outside, you should be able to hover right at your t-stat opening threshold (180 is the most common temp), not this 150-170 stuff.


For me personally, I have an enormous cooler, but it is physically touching my radiator, so it has the benefit of being able to sap heat from the radiator in low speed daily driving type stuff to get the oil up to a reasonable temp (like when it was in the 30's a few weeks ago and I drove the damned thing to work, oil temps got up to 160 no problem but never went above that). This is of course with the thermostatic sandwich plate.

All that said, if you are not running a thermostatic plate, that would explain all of this a lot better and I'd highly recommend you swap one in for the health of your engine.




Sorry for going so far off topic there DR.

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ltullos

I am running the thermostatic plate. It may have gotten to 180 or so during track sessions as I wasn't paying close attention to it; but was certainly running on the cooler side. For certain though driving from North of TMS in Ft Worth down to Cresson, it never reached 180.

What's the best way to test the thermostatic plate to make sure it's closing? Actually if I understand correctly, it never closes completely, just reduces flow right?

DR_

You should do it but make sign up the day registration opens (7/29) as the spots fill up in one or two days.

wstar

World, not Motor. And most likely I'll see you there!

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YzGyz

How does your break handle the tracking? Any need to add break air vent?

wstar

I'm using Home | Race-Keeper - the Black unit with their standard high-res GPS and a single windshield-mounted camera, and their OBD-II interface. I haven't yet upgraded to the multi-cam HD export thing or to their Predictive iDash unit to get realtime lap data while out, but both are on my list eventually. RK also logs some other data that doesn't show up in the Youtube videos, like Coolant Temp, MAF readings, etc.

Brake upgrades always help. You *can* run bone-stock brakes at most of these HPDE events running in the first-timer run-group, but you will experience fade and tear up pads. So long as you're aware of it and take it a little easy and/or cut a session short when necessary you can live with it. If it were me though, even for the first event I'd at least upgrade fluid and pads.

Swap your fluid to Motul RBF-600, and upgrade the pads to something that will stand up to the abuse a little better but aren't *too* aggressive. A lot of people like Carbotech with the XP10 front and XP8 rear pads as a decent starter option. They will be a little more "grabby" than you're used to, but you'll get the hang of it when you're bedding them in on the street. Personally I'm now a fan of Carbon Lorraine's pads, which you can order through Essex - Home page . In those, something like RC-6 front and RC-5+ rear works nicely. They're a little less grabby-feeling under light braking, they have nice modulation and release, and they're relatively maintenance free when it comes to bedding/break-in. They're also more expensive, fewer options for purchase than the CT pads, and sometimes take longer to order, etc.

The very next thing on my brakes list would definitely be, as you originally asked, front brake ducts. Stillen's kit is pretty decent and helps a lot, or if you're used to do working on this kind of stuff you could fabricate your own using some quality high-temp aircraft ducting and flanges, etc. The main value in the Stillen kit (over DIY) is they've built nice flanges for the the hot side that bolt to our hubs. While you're in there you could upgrade your brake lines to some stainless ones as well.

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Sh0velMan

+1 for the CL brakes. RC6's on mine, once you get past the noise, you'll be in love.

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Sh0velMan

REALLY need to get a passenger seat in my car so I can go to one of these events soon...

MONEY MONEY MONEY.

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Chuck33079

Cool, thanks. That's definitely going on my wishlist for the track car.

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wstar

FWIW I'm running RC-6E at all 4 corners now with no ice-mode or anything and it's pretty nice, but that's on the Stillen/AP kit, which is a completely different animal. If/when these ever wear down, I may try 6+6E, or even 8+6 or something like that, we'll see.

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