Well, it's over. Fun time, great weather, met lots of nice folks there (and one real a-hole in a white STi).

Lots of stiff competion this time, many more cars.

I think I aquitted the normally aspirated 350Z contingency pretty well taking third place in the Street RWD class, behind an incredibly modded turbo MR2 (looked like a JGTC car) and a rocket sled Honda S2000 who won the street class overall (also beating all of the AWD cars). My best lap was something like 1:20.6 (a little hard to hear last night at the awards ceremony). There were some 300ZX TT cars there too - great power (one of them was supposedly making 485+hp), but driver skill was more important at this track than raw power. Some high hp Mustangs in the class also showed that HP isn't everything.

Great to see Mike B. again and his JWT TT 350Z. Mike (350ZNV) had an awesome fast car in the Modified RWD class (but I never got my ride ). Brady Dorhman (also on this forum) took second in the class in his 240SX. Brady really knows how to drive.

Great to meet Feras there - great looking Z (hope you enjoyed the ride!); maybe I'll see at Willow sometime.

It was also great to meet Ed (Eagle1 - what a super nice guy!) and Mike and the VRT contingent. Hope to see you guys at another track event. Never saw so many supercharged or turboed Z's and G's in one place before. If only I had your power, your tires and your brakes!

 

Yeah it was a great event. Here are my cliff's notes...

- Steve (knight_white99) is an awesome driver and his car is set up really well.

- Brady Dohrmann is also a superior driver and nice guy.

- My car needs new rear springs...BAD!

- Driving a turbo car is COMPLETELY different than driving an N/A car.

- Michellin Pilot Sport Cup tires are awesome.

- Cal Speedway's infied course is like an oversized autocross, but still pretty fun.

I have a full report written on my website... http://www.sincity350z.com/report30406.htm

 

I just read your write up. I think you are seeing the tip of the biggest iceberg you will have to negotiate with your new setup. Dealing with the heat load put out by a TT'ed Z on a race track. The cars run hot when naturally aspirated -- adding the heat of the turbos makes the issue far worse.

The problem is packaging. Because our cars were never designed with TT in mind -- there is very little, if any, space to mount the size and type of oil coolers that you will need. I think you find the problem even worse at Big Willow or Buttonwillow in the heat of the summer when you are at WOT for longer periods of time.

I would set to work on dealing with the oil temp issues -- otherwise you will never be able to run more than handful of laps before having to pull off.

Edit: You might want to try contacting James Chen at Axis Wheels. He races a supercharged Z in NASA Unlimited class. As far as I know -- he is the only person actually racing a forced-induction Z. He might have some insights on dealing with the heat. You might also try talking to a real race team that knows these cars -- like Jackson Stewart at Unitech. Although I suspect he has little experience with TT'ed Zs (he sets up the Grand Am Cup cars which are all N/A).

Good luck though.

BTW -- I hate Pilot Sports. They have a very limited heat range and tend to chunk up and wear really unevenly. Try Toyo RA1s -- they are cheaper and (I think) better. If you really want to hit incredible times and money is no object (which I assume since PSCs are $$$) -- just go with a set of Hoosier slicks.

 

As far as the oil temp problem goes, we are going to try adding an AMSOIL pre-oiler to the car. That will bump the oil capacity to 13 quarts, which should alleviate the problem. If that doesn't work then we will re-locate the oil cooler, which for now, sits directly behind the intercooler. The temp wasn't getting anywhere near dangerous for synthetic oil, but it was getting to the point where power loss was evident.

 

^^^

what oil temps were you registering Mike? and are you running a front undertray and fender liners?

 

I would pull off at around 260 deg., but got up to 280 once. Yes I am running full undertray and fender liners.

 

Yup, that was fun! I managed to take 3rd in the RWD Modified Class in my rusty old 1974 260Z with a 1:15.341.

It was good to meet alot of the 350Z guys and I hope to see you all again at the next one!

 

Nice! Thats a good time. I hope they post everybody's Time Attack times as I ran a different boost level during the Time Attack than I did in practice.

 

260-280... hmm.. thats about the temps i saw before i pulled off @ buttonwillow .... where is your oil temp sensor, its its before the oil cooler, it should be ok, then your real oil temps circulating through should be about 20 degrees cooler..

what about relocating your oil cooler higher, maybe infront of your crash beam and cutting a hole in your bumper? that would get great direct air to it..

i did notice your setup last time with the IC->oilcooler->radiator, i thought that it just wasn't enough spacing for adequate airflow....

 

Yeah we were thinking of that, and will probably relocate it if needed once we do the pre-oiler. If we re-locate it I will get a C-West N1 bumper and mount it behind one of the "nostrils"

 

I think 280 is very high. At 270 you can experence breakdown in the oil -- at 290 its definately breaking down.

Also keep in mind -- in hot lapping events you will spend a lot of time in nice clean air as people point you by. In races or even NASA time trials -- you will be stuck for periods of time behind cars as you prepare to make a pass. You won't be getting clean air, and your temps will be affected.

Heat on our cars is a HUGE issue.

I don't track my Z anymore, so I have not been keeping up with what's going on to get temps under control. I have a Nissan Motorsport oil cooler on my car -- which is fine for an N/A (it was designed with the SCCA T2 guys in mind), but I think you will need something huge for your applications.

 

Yea me too; I actually had to leave early so I have no idea what cars I finished behind! I managed a 1:13.4 during practice which was about 4 seconds faster than the next car in the class, so I have no idea how 1:15.XXX was only good for 3rd place! Sandbagging maybe

 

I remember that first place was that S2000 with the black trunk lid and big wing. He ran a 1:13 something.

 

XS Engineering ran a 1:07

 

Yeah that car was crazy....really crazy.

 

Hey, thanks for the props, Mike! I'm sure once you get used to driving your TT and get some rear springs, all I will ever see is your exhaust pipes fading into the distance.

My car still has some issues. Brakes still need work, and I need to get that 3.9 gear and Nismo LSD installed. The camber arms helped noticeably though - that was the first time that I ever had a chance to take advantage of them.

Demon, it was nice to meet you too. I was the silver (with Nismo banner) Z garaged just behind you. And your car is far from a rust bucket! With over 400hp at the wheels and what, maybe 2100 lbs(? or less?), that thing screams.

 

BTW, if anybody knows of any more pics let me know. My camera died after 2 shots and I need some for my website.

 

dont tell you guys dont have any pics

 

IVORY G's pictures are the only ones I have found. Good pics too!

https://my350z.com/forum/southern-california/175945-3-5-06-redline-time-attack-cal-speedway.html

 

That was a fun event. Thanks to Steve for letting me borrow his funnel! It was nice meeting you Mike (sorry if I got the name wrong). I had problems all damn day until there were ten minutes left in the last practice session before the last time attack round.. good thing I got one clean round in!

demon - I was 2nd in Modified RWD with I thought I heard them say, a 1:15.6.

I hope they publish a complete listing of everyone's times.. it was very hard to get a clean lap in practice so I doubt many peoples' times that were posted in the practice sessions were accurate. Plus a lot of people were sandbagging and screwing around.

Too bad there aren't anymore of the Redline events on the west coast until November. In the meantime, some of you should come to Arizona for our time attack events! And ours pay out money!

I've been on just about every forum and these are the pics I've been able to find. It seemed like every one of the 1,000 spectators had a camera, so I thought there would be more by now.

http://www.9and3.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1646

http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1548237

And hopefully soon..

http://forums.evolutionm.net/showthread.php?t=187657