Awesome, well I have wheels/tires but I'm not sure if they're good for autox.

CCW wheels:
Front: 19" x 9.5" - 255/35/19
Rear: 19" x 10.5" - 285/35/19
Continental Sport Contact 2 tyres

22 lbs i think, maybe a little more for the rears

 

sorry for the nood question but could someone elaborate? TIA

ChiShi

 

He's probably referring to the relative cost of autocrossing:

BS = $

BSP = $²

SM2 = $³

To be competitive in those higher classes, it's going to cost you more and more than running in B Stock.

The term "cubic dollars" gets thrown around in racing circles. When you talk about adding power, just as you can add cubic inches to an engine, you will spend cubic dollars to pay for it.

 

The old saying goes

"Speed cost money, how fast do you want to go?"

or simply,

How much speed are you willing to buy?

 

2 super mods on my thread. not bad!

 

Given the right course and some good luck, the stock Z can be competitive at the regional level. Of course at the bigger stage, competition steps up and you will need more driver and car to compenstate for it.

 

Anything bigger than 18 inches will not be good -- the bigger the wheel the slower the acceleration and the more expensive the tires.

 

Would you suggest I run the stock 06 enthusiast 18" wheels for the autox until i get track wheels? They're considerably thinner tires so much less grip, though more power than the heavier wheels i have on now.

 

That's what I did last year. I had my original stock 18" wheels that I would autocross on while saving my 19" Volks for street use. That way the Volks didn't get scuffed up. Now I have a set of Rays track wheels with Falken RT-615 tires which are better suited to autocrossing.

 

I say you race your car as stock as possible first, and learn hor to drive. Modding just to mod is never helpful in racing.


lol @ Dave.

 

^ that's debatable. Good brakes, lines, and pads are a must before you race. Sway bars are also great for beginners. I agree with your modding just to mod is never helpful, but there are some mods that are pretty much a necessity.

 

a few years ago i went to quite a few performance driving schools and also scca autocross events so i know how to drive, i just have yet to do it in a Z or within the last 3-4 years ;p

will be fun, a bit nervous as i only have 6k mi on the Z and though shes a feisty girl i can handle her.

 

in autoX, no mod is a necessity, only a nice to have. And if you mod before you ever run, you never know if the mod helped or hurt.

 

^ wow! I just realized how idiotic that sounded. Sorry, for track days, not necessarily autox, good brakes are rather critical. (i have stock non-brembo brakes.. nearly wrecked myself first time out when they gave out)

 

no sway bar doesn't help, leaving it stock would be your best bet. I am on my 5th FTD with a stock car. At 35K miles with worn out RA-1, that's not such a bad thing.

 

Why? Keep in mind that all the guys that competed on the national level had aftermarket sways.

 

For track days on '03-'05 Zs without the Brembo brakes, the tiny standard brakes that come on the car are barely adequate if you start really pushing it. The *only* reason that the Brembos are better is heat dissipation due to the larger size. I believe that the '06 and later standard brakes are larger, providing more mass for heat dissipation, but you pay the price in slightly slower acceleration due to more rotating mass, and the price for more unsprung mass.

The stock suspension is really quite capable, I drove mine on the stock suspension before I installed the Koni Sports and Eibach FSB. The shocks and FSB helped a bit, but more in the ability to adjust the suspension to handle different surfaces better.

 

You expect that to help someone who is pretty new at it and not running on the national circuit?

 

For someone at that level, they can use the sways to helpo tune the feel of the car to their liking, but someone needs to know what works best for them before they do that.

 

You made the blanket statement that "sway bar doesn't help". I asked why. I mentioned drivers at the national level but it's a pretty common mod among a lot of autocrossers of the Z. Being somewhat common, I'm just trying to figure out what we all did wrong by changing the front swaybar.

Sorry if I was unclear in my original question. I was asking outside of the context of mods a newbie should be undertaking.