Back in September the crew from Dallas headed up to Hallett for their annual event and since this year it was a 2 day event I decided to make the 9 hour trek up to Oklahoma from Austin. A few friends of mine (z32 owners) really love this track so I wanted to check it out. Very laid back atmosphere and tons of track time as the run groups were very small. I ran in the instructors group and it took a couple sessions to learn the track. After that I was having a blast and attacking the course. Only one car/driver there had an ego issue with giving a pass signal-a pretty fast and well prepped yellow c5 vette. Tough track on brakes and has a couple tricky turns-one of them a blind left hander turning into a tight uphill right hand turn(i think it's called the b!tch). It's a fun turn when you get to know it though.

Track has a different layout where the only way to enter the infield is to cross the actual track, so you have to wait for sessions to end to enter and exit the track. The track is in the middle of nowhere though and 93 octane was impossible to find-bring a few jugs if you ever decide to go there. They did have 89 and some 102 that I was mixing, but it wasn't cheap that's for sure.

Was fun to be on the track with so many Z cars-240's, 280's, z31's, z32's, z33's and some 240sx's. It was like a mini ZCON. I ran the hoosiers on the FN01RC's and the car ran flawlessly. The SPL camber/caster arms worked great as always-I can't wait for the rear arms to be released! The 9 hour drive wasn't bad at all with the new CF race seat either.

Unfortunately after one of the run sessions I had the hood opened to let the engine cool and a gust of wind blew the hood off the prop and into the windshield smashing it on both sides. I've since replaced the windshield and SPL sourced me some Tein hood dampers.

Aerial shot of the track


Here are some pics from Saturday


That's Kuah from SPL with his amazing z32 behind me









Chasing down Renee in her track model.









Chasing Damon (one of the owner/admins) of twinturbo.net in Z-Lab





The C5 Z06 that refused to give a pass signal. I almost punted him off the track in this particular turn a few times. With the help of the Stoptechs I was braking much later into the turns than he would.











This boosted Miata was pretty quick!




And here is some in car video chasing my buddy Chuck in his modded C6 vette. He used to own a black track model 350z till he got carjacked at gun point. This was his first time at Hallett also but he's a very fast driver-one of the fastest at every event I've seen him at. I held him off for several laps till I made a few mistakes while paying too much attention to my rear view mirror. I pointed him by and chased him for a few laps till his brakes boiled on him while keeping me at bay.
Chasing C6Vette
Sorry for the shaky video-I borrowed a suction cup mount from a friend of mine and it's not quite as stable as the other mount I've used before.

On Sunday it poured rain unfortunately and I decided to only run one session and get an early start on the long drive home. Here are a few pics. The photographer had some pretty cool camera angles so I decided to buy the picture CD for only $40.

 

Great write-up and pics! Looks like a fun track, with a high-quality surface. I'd like to make it down there some day.

You mentioned the SPL front control arms...are you seeing any slip on those at the track? I'm considering the possibility of picking some up, but I need to know that they'll stand up to track use. Are you running r-comps with these?

 

Track surface was pretty good for the most part. There were a few rough patches but they were in the straights mostly so not really a factor.

As for the SPL arms, absolutely no slip whatsoever. That's the beauty of the threaded rod design-they simply will not slip. That was the whole purpose of going with a threaded adjuster instead of using 2 sliding plates held in place by friction and "hoping" they don't slip.

Also the use of all spherical bearings on these arms made the front end feel very responsive. For track use these arms are awesome, I have been running the prototype since Feb of this year and have done 5-6 track weekends so far with no issues.

I've run these with a 275/40/17 kumho/falken combo in the past and my last 3 events I've run Hoosier r3so3's in the same size. I definitely put the car though the paces to test these out thoroughly. I'm considered a pretty aggressive driver-it's rare that I ever get passed. I have the utmost confidence in the strength, durability and quality of these arms and honestly wouldn't feel as safe running any other design.

 

Great write up, and fantastic pictures. Thanks for the time and effort it took to get that posted.

I always enjoy your write ups and videos

 

God I wish I was there.

 

Thanks skidmarq. I need to writeup my post from Texas Motor Speedway I attended a week later. That track was a blast to run on and pretty challenging to run the infield section in the dark.

 

Thanks for the pictures. I especially like the ones with my yellow 350Z included. Was that the 2nd session on Saturday? Maybe trying to stay in front of you and not succeeding was part of the reason my brakes gave up towards the end of that session. LOL

 

Nice pictures and video. Track looks like fun too.

Are you running the same size tires all around?

 

Hey Renee, not sure what session that was but must have been one of the first two as I can't see the transponder on the grille. I think I only had it set up for the last 3 sessions of the day. How has your car been running? I'm hoping to make the TWS clockwise event next month as I've never run it that direction. Just need to scrape together some funds.

I still need to post some of the video you gave me from ZCON-thanks again for it.

 

Yup, running some older 275/40/17 hoosier r3s03's on 17x9 5Zigen FN01RC's.