First Day Tracking the Z
 

*Edit - better videos from Sunday in post 17*

Yesterday was my first day with the Z on any track or autocross. Also my first HPDE at Carolina Motorsports Park (I have previously only driven at VIR).

It was lots of fun, and this course is pretty hard on brakes. I put myself into novice class, but have had a few HPDEs in the past. In class there's an M3 and RX8 that i'm mostly on pace with, and some slow guys that keep not giving a pass :shakes head: The car is mostly stock with an OEM Nismo exhaust and OEM nismo suspension. Very impressed with PFC 08 pads and PFC 665 brake fluid, Z1 motorsports cheap slotted rotors I was skeptical of but are holding up great *knocks on wood*.

Yesterday the first 30 min run was in a thunderstorm, which was a bit intense. I did keep VDC on yesterday and as you can tell by the video, coming out of most sweepers or even tight turns the VDC is KILLING my throttle on the straights. (you can watch that little light blinking nonstop coming out of carousel). Any thoughts of VDC - I think off is the way to go

Today will be a VDC off day, although we are supposed to get thunderstorms again this evening.

Video (complete with RX8 popping a few flames out the back):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMHHcCRb2Z0

Gopro Hero3, framerate and resolution turned down for battery life and because my laptop can't handle it. Mounted on the rear glass.

And yes I am a novice, but thanks for everyone's critique haha

I had the same problem last weekend at VIR. I think mine was from tires. 305 S-04's in back, the soft side wall and the over sized tire on stock Rays was rolling over a bit more than the OEM Potenza's. I will run with VDC off next time. And hopefully have a more suited tire. What tires are you running? I'm curious to here how it goes for you with it off.

Your on the right track. VDC off for tracking. I did leave mine on when we had a soaked trackday.

If the tarmac is shinny from the rain be cautious VDC on. If the tarmac is grey from slight rain I take it off and ease into the sission until I feel comfotable.

Then to add one more deminsion you can do the YAW sensor mod to have zero traction control.

just make sure your comfortable with the traction of the car before you cut out VDC or YAW:tiphat:

Today went with traction control off. WORLD of difference! No only are you able to actually give it throttle out of the corners, but it feels much more planted in the corners since I wasn't fighting with the ECU the whole time. I got a little tail happy once on a low speed very tight turn (turn 14) but it was no big deal at all. If you go to a track, it might be good to learn the track with VDC on, but once you're familiar with the course TURN IT OFF.

That said, it was thunderstorming for the second half of the day. VDC went back on for that, seeing as I had to drive my Z to work this week.

I will upload videos to youtube and post more here. MUCH better than yesterday's video I posted in post #1. Last run of the day they combined green/yellow run groups and I went solo, it started thunderstorming halfway through.

TIRES: Kumho XS 275/35/18 on all corners Great tire for the money, gobs of grip when dry and did very well in the wet too. They did overheat on me some the first day, but I ended up changing pressures to ~36 cold all around and did well wet and dry.

wheels are Forgestar F14 18x10, forgot the offset but square.

FUEL STARVE!!!

Forgot to mention, this sucks and cut one of my sessions short. CMP has one long right hand carousel, and one long complex of 3 right turns (taken as a sweeper). I had added a splash of fuel to the tank before one of my runs and the gas gauge was reading 1 dot above 1/4 tank. Coming out of both of those turns, the car starved and throttle died. I pitted in, and even though it was reading over 1/4 tank, my car still took over 7 gallons of fuel. Afterwards no worries. This totally freaked me out and sucks.

Fuel starve sucks. :shakes head: Been there and fixed it wirh "phunks" kit. :tup: I run with the VDC off. With it on. It kills your drive coming out of the turns. :shakes head: Just wait until you're in a turn with the back just starting to come out, and the othe nanny kicks in and applies a brake for you to keep the car straight. :eek: I'm putting in a switch for the YAW sensor.

Have fun. :driving: :tup:

Subscribed for cool vids

I'll have vids up soon. If anyone has any tips with GoPro I could use some. If I import the clip into CineForm studio, I have to convert the file from .mp4 to .avi to edit it. I like editing it so I can crop/frame the image, zoom in whats in the windshield, and turn up contrast/down exposure so you can see out of the car and not just interior. When I do convert from .mp4 to .avi, I lose a ton of sharpness and the image looks washed out. Any tips? I'm not a computer guy. I work on pets and cars.

Brakes
Also a HUGE shout out to PFC brakes. The classroom instructor was kind of a brake guru and was talking about Hawk a good bit, but mentioned hands down the best pads in his opinion were PFC. I ran PFC 08 (endurance sportscar /SCCA racing compound) on all corners and was amazed with the feel and stopping power these provided. They are a little loud until warmed up or in the paddock. Also ran PFC 665 fluid and had no concerns there.

Note that I did get a few sets of pads and 2L of the fluid for almost nothing, but I'm trying to be impartial here.

Not sure if this will work, but one of my friends who's an instructor shot this video with Harry's Lap Timer. It shows the course layout well.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10203194590539566

have you downloaded gopro studio from their website? Its free, and allows you to do the above mentioned

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

Nice! how were your oil temps?

I have downloaded the cineform studio. It makes you convert the .mp4 to .mov before editing and due to that you lose a lot of the image quality. You lose just as much when you upload to youtube like I did anyways. The videos I have on my desktop are crystal clear compared to the ones I'm going to post in the next few minutes