Hi guys,
I'm doing some research on how many Z owners do autoX and track events (road courses), and I was hoping you could help me out. I'm trying to get a gauge on the following:

How many days per year do you AutoX?

How many days per year do you drive on a road course (again, this is days...some clubs run multi-day events, so list roughly how many actual days you are on the track per year)?

Who organizes the events that you attend (SCCA, NASA, PCA, etc.)?

What is the biggest problem you typically encounter at the track? (engine overheats, brakes don't hold up, seat moves around, etc.)

Thanks guys. I think some interesting findings could come out of this...I really appreciate the help!

 

Being bashful as I am.......

I've done 7 HSDE's, 8 days. A few were rain shortened though. 1 with the local Lotus Club, 2 with the local Alfa Romeo club, 3 with the PCA, and 1 with SpeedTrials. And 1 autocross.

Problems?
Engine ran flawlessly.

Drivetrain never gave any problems.

Brakes........I went with 13.1 StopTechs and CarboTech Panther + pads at all events except my last, where I tried Panther XPs on the rear with good results. I was always able to push my braking points at the end of my last session, so I'll say brakes worked fine other than the rear pads were only good for 2 1/2 days. The fronts have lasted all season without a problem. Cooling ducts are a must, and will be installed before next season.

Seat: OK, but I'll be installing a 6 point harness to hold me in the seat better as my shoulders roll too much. I need to use the steering wheel as a tool to steer, not to hold on to!

Tires: I ran OEM 040's all year, and while far from being the best, they held up well....OK, a bit of chunks came off, and they are a little greasy when really hot. And they are VERY noisy! But a good tire to learn the Z's limits. BUT, they WILL be replaced for next year. Not sure with what yet.

You didn't ask, but I strongly recommend stiffer sway bars. I ran Cusco's with VERY good results!


All in all, an AWESOME track car!

Out accelerating Porsches is sure fun!

 

my first year tracking.
about 15 autocrosses, bmw club and scca
2 track days, tracquest and z club

0 problems.

 

I run HPDEs in Texas. Been on Texas World Speedway 9 days and Texas Motor Speedway 1 day. I have two more events (4 days) scheduled for October and November. I try to attend 6 to 8 events a year, so I suppose about 12 to 16 days on the track.

The events are mostly run by The Driver's Edge www.thedriversedge.net Others run by The Motorsports Club at TWS. And, I've been involved with a few other smaller private events as well. PCA events are usually too crowded, so I skip them. NASA/SCCA are geared toward competetive driving not HPDE, so I don't participate in those.

Tire wear is the biggest issue. In 9500 miles I have been through four pairs of front tires. I'm trying to add more front camber to help alleviate that problem.

PeteH

 

Thanks gents...keep em coming!

 

Is this research for an insurance firm?

 

my insurance covers me at HPDEs.... you should check your own policy before attending an event.

Very few retail insurance companies will cover you in a timed or competetive event... you will need to find specific racing insurance for that.

But, for non-timed, non-competetive HPDEs and driving schools your retail insurance is likely to cover you.

PeteH

 

I've done about 18 days at the track this year on my 350Z. 1-2 autocrosses as well.

I (like EnthuZ) have the Stoptech 13" front brakes. I run Performance Friction 01 pads in them on the track. The brakes have been bulletproof in terms of fade, but my rotors are overheating and stress cracking. I'm also planning on installing cooling ducts over the winter. Rear brakes are CarboTech Panther + and have been lasting me around 3-4 track days (plus whatever street mileage is in between events).

I did about 1/2 of my events on old Yokohama A-032R tires (R compound) and half on my Kumho Ecsta MX street tires. The A-032Rs were nice and the car was quite grippy with them.

The car is stock other than that and I have had no problems (other than high fuel consumption that requires a mid-day fillup). I am an instructor and have been driving the car hard and find it to be quite competitive with the other cars I run with (heavily modded M3s in particular).

Jason

 

I've had my car for just over 1 year.

8 AutoX (one of them was SCCA, the rest were private company club)

2 Track Days (Fri, Sat event @ Laguna Seca w/Speedventures)

Comments:
AutoX: everything works very well, although with 265 race tires in front I've noticed the power steering struggles to keep up with quick switchbacks and slaloms.

Track: Brakes are definitely prone to fade. I ran completely stock (OEM Street tires as well) at Laguna, and noticed some fade after a couple laps. I adjusted my braking accordingly and everything was fine, but confidence wasn't comletely there. Rear pads were quite worn after the event, but the front pads were fine.

My driver's seat has had problems with side-to-side movement since the car was new, so I'll probably be bugging the dealer for a replacement seat sometime soon. I notice the seat motion even in everyday driving.

Engine has performed beautifully so far.

-D'oh!

 

Well, let's check the old log book here:

13 track days, 10 events, since last December, a total of 1,374 miles on track (11,300 total miles). (All road course HPDEs, no Autocross.)

I've run with NASA, Car Guys, Viper Days, and BSR (owners of Summit Point, my home track).

My biggest problem by far has been the poor performance of the stock RE040s. Even from the start they weren't great (especially in the wet, and most of my early track days were wet or damp), and after about 8,000 total miles (1,000 track miles) they were pretty much useless. As you'll find in my posts in the Racing forum, they started chunking and got all greasy and slippery, especially if the pressure went over about 43 or 44.

I was going to drive them down to the cords and hope that over the winter Toyo would come out with some RA-1s in our size. (I have been reliably informed there's a good chance of this.) But after my last track day I decided I couldn't wait any longer, especially since I hope to run 2-4 more track days this season. So I've gotten some S-03s that I'll be heating up at Summit Point on Friday. (Stay tuned for a report.)

A considerably less serious problem (although more startling) is that occasionally while on track the front right side of my seat will suddenly drop down (I keep the angle fully up). The dealership looked at it last week and said they fixed it. We'll see.

I used up the stock pads after 5 track days (5,500 miles total), changed all four for Ferodo DS2500s (a combo street-track pad), and got 8 track days out of the fronts (11,100 miles total). But I should have changed them after 7, because one of them wore all the way down to the metal (ouch!) and I had to have the rotors turned to take out the scoring. Now I'm on my second set of DS2500s on the front.

The Ferodos are good, but not amazingly better than the stock pads. However, to be fair to Ferodo, I never put the stock pads to a very hard test because I used them up on mostly cool and wet days. The good thing about the Ferodos is that they don't eat up the rotors (as long as you change them in time!) and they work well in ordinary street driving.

Aggressive track pads will wear the rotors down faster (the Track package rotors cost $400 each, dealer price!!!) and don't work very well unless they're good and hot. For these reasons you should only run track pads on the track, and switch back to stock after you're done. (This is more trouble than I feel like taking.) For my next set I may try another brand.

Otherwise, no problems. The car is great, and I love driving it fast.

EnthuZ: are you driving on track with VDC on? That's the only reason I can think why your rear pads would wear out before the fronts. If you are, try running with it off for a change. BTW: I'm very happy with my Schroth harnesses. See here.

Audito350Z: Four sets of front tires!?!?! Are you running in drifting contests? What tires have you used, and how long did the stocks last? How much tread did you have when you changed them?

Jason: I thought I might be close to a record with 13 track days. 18! Dayam! You da man!

General suggestion: I had airbag on-off switches installed so that if I have a minor incident on track (minor enough that my harnesses will be sufficient protection) I won't have to spend thousands to replace the airbags. See here

 

Well I'm not a gent but...

8th autoX this weekend (all SCCA)
2nd dragstrip this Wednesday if no rain
2nd road course this month if no rain (Speedtrials, Mustang Club)

I've got the Schroth harness and love it.

Trashed the front rotors after Gingerman (2 drivers, 2 sessions). Still running stock pads but have a set of HP+ for the next event.

Have to agree with EnthuZ about the tires. They are good for learning purposes. I bought a set of 17" OEM's to race on and left the Rays in the garage. 18" tires are freaking expensive to replace.

Biggest gripe at this point is understeer. Sways definitely next year.

 

edit. removed, decided didn't want to hijack thread. edit.

No track days yet for me. I eventually will take her out to the track, Thunderhill, Laguna, Infineon, next season. But probably not too much, I'm new to the performance driving scene and I've realized I'm not too comfortable taking a 30k car out on the track too much yet... Probably look into doing more autocross events though, did a BMW Car Control Clinic next, so autocross event not to far off.

 

5 Track days (all at Sebring)
1 Autox

The usual brake issues.

In really hot day in June power sterring seems to have overheated as fluid was all over the outside of the reservoir, not sure if that is the reason Nismo cooler is offerred or a result of running with the grill on and not enough cooling.

 

Are we allowed to make a second post?

James, I have an Enthusiast Z, so no VDC, but I made a red Dymo label that I put at the top of my tach that says: "TCS OFF", and "installed" it before my first event. 93.627% of the time I remembered to turn it off before a session........ But, I did learn to turn it off on the fly. It is WAY too intrusive.....dropping 2000 RPM in the middle of a turn sucks! At my last event, with only 2 flying sessions, I was a good boy, and didn't forget to turn it off. So, my GUESS is that the Panther XP's higher coefficient of friction at high temps was causing better clamping forces on the rotor, causing my rear tire to slip on the rim that day, along with a suspected poor OEM rim bead design.

I forgot, what model Z is yours?

As for the Schroth harnesses, they are currently at the top of my short list.

Joyia, I've retired from the landscaping business!


So, where are all the other "Track Stars"? I know you're out there.....PLEASE post!

Lastly, has a date for the Spring Mid Ohio event been set? Gotta plan ahead!

 

No drifting, just really going fast at the track. There's just not enough camber in the front and I'm cording the outer edges while never wearing the inner tread.

The RE040's were wasted after two weekends at TWS (one weekend included a Friday with me on the track almost all day). Almost 600 track miles just from those 5 days.

Switched to TOYO T1-S and wore the outer edges after about another 400 track miles, but still had enough tread for one more weekend. Had to replace those because one punctured on road debris (crappy Houston streets).

The new set of TI-S front lasted one weekend and one day. The one-day even was VERY hard on the left front... running TWS clockwise makes for a very long right hand sweeper at high speeds. No camber adjustment means you are on the outer tread the whole way around. I replaced the T1-S with SO-2 front and rear.... kept the front T1-S as backups in case I need them as the tread is still pretty good.

PeteH

 

Have you been to the dealership about this? There's no way you should be wearing tires out in a couple of days, even of hard driving. If you could wear the outer edge to the cord in a few days on the track, you would have worn the stock tires in a few weeks or months of street driving.

It's true there's no camber adjustment, but I think there has to be something wrong with your alignment or suspension. You just shouldn't be running through tires like this. Go back to the dealer and have them check it out. And give you some new tires, too!

 

4 track days, 15+ autocrosses, mods as below...
(and also not a gent!)

Driver's seat supports fell apart repeatedly during AX's, dealer finally replaced support bar underneath seat and I've had no further problems.

Toyo T1-S 's chunked first day on the track, probably more air pressure would have helped but I don't think these tires stand up to the track well. Switching to Potenza S-03's next.

No brake fade but I bled the brakes daily. Stock pads lasted through all events but now need to be replaced. Agree that venting is a good idea.

Love the suspension mods.

Just installed the harness bar, which bolts into the stock seat belt mounts in the B pillars. Available from Avalon Racing.

 

Give me your car for one hour and I can guarantee that I'll get rid of all that pesky "tread" for you

It's all about the driving, the dealership can't do anything about track tire wear.

Jason

 

I'm no suspension expert, but based on the uneven wear he was describing, I think there's something wrong, not just hard driving. IMHO. Don't forget, lots of people were reporting toe-in and other alignment problems right off the boat.

Are you using up tires in a couple of days on the track, Jason? What tires?