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Fellow 350 guys we made you proud last weekend. We did a three hour endurance race last weekend which was incredible. A guy named Yuke Taniguchi, from Yuke's video games came over to drive with us. He was an awesome guy, if you've ever played D1GP then you know Yukes, from what i'm told its a fun game. He sponsors the Team Orange guys?
Anyways, it was his first time driving LHD with an H-Pattern shifter so there was a learning curve there, as well as Mosport of course which is a very difficult track to learn because it is all extremely high speed, with most of the corners being somewhat if not entirely blind - some also being off camber and with silly elevation changes.
The car was ****ing FLYING boys. Like Sandra speed again (for those of you that don't know, Sandra is my old S14 race car, 2500lbs / 350whp). Except Sandra had only 7.1lbs per HP to deal with, Kels has to lug 9.7lbs with every horsepower, and don't forget the smaller tire (245/275 17s vs 275/305 18s). On a cool Saturday morning qualifying on my only clean flying lap I did a 1:28.57, hardly braking into most corners where pre-aero and suspension work I was braking like a fiend for. I was coasting so much speed into some corners I thought for sure my front left tire was going to melt and explode underneath me.
Looking at the data the car was making upwards of 1.75g's in the compression of corners 2 and 4 at mosport, and like 1.55+ G's at high speed in flat corners. These aren't spikes either, i've got a big filter on the data so that is the grip the car was actually making. Incredible for a BFG R1 (not even a real slick!!!!!) My goal is to get to 2G's (ALMS GT2 cars apparently create 2G's, that's where the goal comes from), I think with a few hundred pounds off the car and a real slick it will be possible. If not, more downforce is required. Here is a comparison of brake/throttle trends BEFORE aero (1.32s) and NOW (1.28s)
I was running the engine to 7400rpm instead of 7200. This is a bone stock NON-Revup VQ. Not even balanced. Guys are reporting they throw rods at anything above 7000rpm so i'm really pushing my ****ing luck (haha), but the car needed the RPM through a few corners now. I was literally riding the rev-limiter through corner 4 (4th gear) at 120mph (195km/h). Upshifting to 5th wasn't worth it so the limiter it was. Everytime I did that I was waiting for the motor to spill its guts, oil the tires and send me to my fast and hopefully painless death.
So then it came time for the actual race, which if possible actually went better than the qualifying and practice sessions. The pit practice we did really paid off because we had by far the best pit stop in the race (and we're ****ing low budget as you all know). We had the following:
2 small nitrogen tanks with a 250psi regulator
2 air lines with regular 1/2" impact guns. 2 lug nuts taped to each gun as a backup
Grand-am fuel rig I bought used for $900 USD complete with dual dry break hoses and fittings (like 3kUSD new)
2 OTC one pump racing jacks my friend Andrew gave me (only use one, the other was a spare incase of emergency)
2 sets of wheels/tires (one rain, one dry) with 3M weatherstrip adhesive glued to lug nuts on the wheels
3 CP200 radios with one headset, one for in car and one just to chill
An aluminum painters extension pole with a white corrugated plastic sign with some numbers and stickers on it as a lollipop
A ghetto folding white table and a few camping chairs.
A broken blue tent that looked like it was fabricated by a retarded monkey.
Some paper and a half chewed pencil for notes.
I pulled the Grand-Am restrictor out of the rig a few days before the event and had the machine shop remove the restrictor, so now we're flowing fuel ultra fast, filled 24 gallons in like 40 seconds or something retarded like that. Then Yuke and I did a quick driver change while the crew were on the tire change, which went surprisingly well considering the lack of practice. And the tire change really was mandatory considering a 3000lb car on 245s with downforce - that **** don't last.
Days Of Thunder
Got out of the pits clean, now with myself driving (Yuke did the first stint and did awesome, we were running 2nd consistently (first for a bit) second to a Viper comp coupe). When I got in the car we were second again of course after the pit stop. I hustled as hard as I could but had to be very conscious of the tires. Yuke ran for 1hr15min until we were about out of fuel, so I actually had a 1hr45min stint. That's a long time to be ripping, and a really long time to be ripping on one set of tires.
The car had a lot of understeer with a full fuel load so I had to really take care of the front left tire specifically. It's very easy and tempting to coast speed into a corner and go fast, but the front left shits the bed after 10-15min normally if you do that, so I was really trying to drive with a shallow slip angle and focusing on jamming out of the corner more than into it. This enduro had 35 or so cars entered, so not one lap would go by without passing 2 or 3 slower cars. Often you'd catch a traffic jam of sorts and have to pass 6 or 7 cars over the course of three or four corners. Being a ***** and waiting for the straight would cost wayy too much time so some silly passing was necessary to keep a good pace going.
We were only running to 6700rpm for the race but I had the limiter set at 7000rpm for when you did need to stretch it. There were a few times when I went through corner 4 way too fast and was on the 7000rpm limiter wasting fuel, but it felt so good I couldn't say no.
After about 1hr05min of running around I had to come in for a splash of fuel to get us to the finish. If we could have one stopped the car we would have surely won the race, and quite frankly it might have been possible, but we weren't about to let yuke run out of fuel out there and make us all look like idiots.
At this point my back is killing me and my mental focus is running out fast. The sun is coming down and you're blind through a few corners as well, so a break was good news as far as I was concerned. I got out and was literally stretching on pit lane while they were refueling (you're not allowed to stay in the car for fuel in regional enduros), finished the fuel and I got back in strapped up and started ripping. Still had something like 30 or so min to go in the race, and my earbuds got disconnected upon getting back in the car. The crew could hear me, but I couldn't hear them.
This doesn't seem like a big deal but really the only thing keeping me focused and hustling was Andrew telling me my lap time every lap so I could pace myself and have a goal to work towards. Not knowing the time, time left, my pace, or where the Viper was at was really killing my motivation and I felt my mind wandering, thinking about trophies and champenge instead of the corner ahead of me. A few times actually I almost rear ended a slower car because I didn't plan on how I was going to pass it, I just bombed up behind it forgetting its cornering speed was a lot lower than mine and I had to scrub speed or I was going to hit some ****. It sounds easy but when you're cornering on the limit and suddenly need to slow down, it's kind of a big deal. A few other cars didn't see me or didn't care that I was coming up behind them and actually cut me off, I almost wrote the car off badly once actually. In this particular instance I was planning to pass a dude on the outside entering corner 4 (downhill, 190km/h corner). I was already close to the edge of the track where the marbles begin, and when the guy kept coming over instead of seeing me I really **** myself. I had to brake hard to not hit him, at this point starting to enter the corner on very slippery surface. Luckilly nothing happened, but you're inches away from the grass and going so fast that if you go off the corner that early, you're going straight into wall.
Getting towards the end of the race the guys had a "GO" sign out at pit lane and were trying to get me to hustle. I had no idea why, I thought maybe somehow we were leading the race and the Viper was going to pass us, as really that was the only car that would pass us. Well it turns out the Viper had lost its clutch or something and was stuck in 4th, and was low on fuel. When we crossed the finish line I was 3 seconds behind it, and ON the cool down lap the thing ran out of gas and had to literally be towed in. ****ing awesome for them. They didn't want to pit because that would hand us over the win, and they just pulled it off.
I was running around screaming 3 seconds all night and then later learned it was actually 1 lap and 3 seconds we were down. So I looked like a bit of a jackass for sure telling everyone we lost by 3 seconds, but **** whatever!
Yuke had a great time and was super stoked, as was I of course. Car was phenomenal and the solid front end + the revalved konis + new BFGR1s made it feel like driving a formula mazda. Of course I've never driven a formula mazda, but i'd imagine that's how it would feel.
So we were first in class (GT2), and second overall. Was a little bummed that we didn't win overall, but very happy considering the competition!
Great race Sasha. The new car looks absolutely awesome. Now start thinking about putting in a HR engine. I will let you know our thoughts on this engine after we get to test the new car in 2 or 3 weeks. We are still waiting on one major part and were almost done with it. We can compare to both the stock 2003 engine and the uprated engine.
Love the licence plate.
Will you be running at VIR this coming weekend? Will you run any IMSA races in 2010?
Great race Sasha. The new car looks absolutely awesome. Now start thinking about putting in a HR engine. I will let you know our thoughts on this engine after we get to test the new car in 2 or 3 weeks. We are still waiting on one major part and were almost done with it. We can compare to both the stock 2003 engine and the uprated engine.
Love the licence plate.
Will you be running at VIR this coming weekend? Will you run any IMSA races in 2010?
Congrats Sasha!
Let me know how testing goes Bob. I am curious what if anything the SCCA will do to give a 350Z a chance at Road America. Even with the HR motor and some more weight reduction (not sure you can actually get anymore weight out of the car) I am not sure it has a chance anymore.....
Nice write up. Is there anyway to get more details on the car. Mods and more pics, especially inside. We are putting a cage in the car next year and just need as much info as I can get. Thanks again
__________________ KJR pulley, motordyne 5/16 spacer, rogue short shifter, all amsoil fluids, JWT popcharger, 350evo rear sway, CT-1 front sway AAM ypipe, helix tps, UTEC, Tokico HP blue, Tein S
__________________ 2005 35th Anniversary Z Racecar // 13:1 NA Build // Powered by E85 // Built by Japtrix/ProsTuning // 2010 & 2011 NASA Florida PTA Champion Follow the build here!
We win a 3hr Enduro at Mosport
