Drove from Orange county early in the am and it looked to be a great day until I got to the top of the Grapevine and it was SNOWING. All I could see north was gray clouds but I held out hope that it would clear by the time I got to the track. No such luck. Just had time to check in and get my transponder before the drivers meeting and then was only left with 10 min. to unload the car, tape on my numbers,and get teched while it was raining. By the time I got on the track I only got one lap behind the pace car (because of a spinout) before the session ended. At the drivers meeting as I looked at the rain coming down I seriosly considered packing up and going back home because I thought "this isn't going to be any fun". Never the less I stayed and ran the next session on a half wet/half dry track and to my surprise it was still fun. Then came lunch break and the sun started breaking out and the track dried making the two afternoon sessions a blast.
I was trying out the ST43 Raybestos pads from Porterfield that daveh suggested and they are excellent. I have Stoptech 13'' front and Non-Brembo OEM rear and they really hauled the car down fast. There was a Hertz Mustang some guy had rented and I could see he was slowly catching me because of the horsepower he had in the straights but he couldn't match my cars handling or brakes in the turns. I pulled away in the esses he caught up in the short straight and then I braked hard into the 90 degree Sunset turn and did my usual drift thru the turn ( running street tires) and as I looked in my rear view mirror I saw the Mustang sliding off the track into the dirt.
All in all it turned out to be a great day, I got more comfortable on the track, I never totally blew a turn, and I beat my best time from my last visit to the track of 2:27 with a 2:20:577 on config.13 CW.

 

wow. glad you had a safe and fun experience, Rick... and what a big improvement there man you shaved off 7 seconds on streets. the guys at porterfield know their stuff

I definitely will hit up BW this summer. Im making some more changes to the car such as 18s and 275/35 all around azenis and a new suspension setup.

Im also glad that the sun started showing up on your event, that gives me hope on my event tomorrow since it is forecast to rain tomorrow @ Willow springs.

So you were able to drive to the track and back home ok with the same brakes on huh. thats cool. At least I dont have to rent a UHaul or somethin to tow big bird Z over there when I hit up BW or Spring Mountain this year

Oh and re: the mustang, thats great. that means you are definitely faster than the mustang despite its crazy acceleration in the straightaway.

 

Glad you liked the brakes I should get some commission for all the people I've converted..

 

Buttonwillow was good fun. I really enjoyed driving in the rain. I was one of three Zs there that I saw. By the way...I was closing on the Mustang when he went off at Sunset about 50 yards ahead of me.

 

I have yet to do Buttonwillow on the Z. I really like that track...


Quick question regarding the brakes. Do you think ST43 F and ST41 R would be too much with 14" stoptech on all four wheels and Falken 615's?

 

Couple of things I want to add.
Those ST43 pads really spoiled me. They make the car feel liike you would expect a BBK to feel like after installation. I noticed no rotor wear driving the car around the day before and to and from the track. I asked Tim at Porterfield if it could be used for a street pad and he said "as long as the rotor wear is acceptable to me". Would have to get some kind of backing plate because they don't come with any and they do squeal.
Another point I would like some opinions on is, I had two week old Michelin PS2 275/18/40 on the rear and 255/18/40 S03s with only 1/8th" tread left to the wear bars. I never experienced any push even in the tight Off-Ramp/Buttonhook turn. I could easily drift the car thru the tight turns with throttle modulation although I kept it to the mimimum because it is not the fast way thru a turn. I don't have the room to store a set of track wheels and R compoumd tires so if I went up to a 305 or 315 tire on my 10.5" rims I should be able to reduce the oversteer and be able to hang with the guys with R-compound. Their were two stock C6 vettes in our class with OEM tires that could really take the turns fast with little sliding and I figure the main reason is the large tire size they have. Problem is I can't find a tire that wide that is even close to the 26.7" diameter size of factory specs.
Next event is with NASA May 5th at Willow Springs on the big track. Iv'e driven BW about six times now but never been to WS so it should be fun.

 

Sounds like a great day. Always nice to run well on BW relative to the big HP muscle cars. It is a track in CW#13 that puts a premium on car handling and driver skill, but still has sections that are just barely long enough to let the high hp cars get rolling which is tons of fun when you have the grunt.

Big Willow is going to be quite different. Very fast, only 9 turns compared to 23. The one to be VERY careful about is corner 9. It is fast and is a surprisingly fast tightening radius. Be respectful of that one and you should have a fun day.