Hello everyone,

First off I would like to disclaim that I am no expert and do not consider myself the source on anything racing, be it NASA, TA, SCCA or other. This is just my journey in the automotive sport and the build of my car. I have a ton to learn still and am very excited to take myself and my car to the next level.

Background:

Car:
2003 Nissan 350z base
Owned the car since it had 12k miles - currently 60k miles on body, 30k miles on motor

Mods:
Coil-overs, sways, camber arms, ss lines, carbotech brakes, intake, exhaust, oe vlsd, etc...
17in ccw classics with 275 hoosier r6's

Driver:
4 years SCCA Solo2 Autocross
3 years (6 track days) HPDE/PDX

Goals:
Heavy PDX/HPDE use, perhaps some modification to do a TimeAttack or two if the series comes near my area. Eventually I would enjoy getting an amateur racing license. I do not think I will ever race professionally, however at this point it is still a hobby, and comes a few levels down in line as far as priority in my life. But you never know!


On to the build. Up to this point I have done everything myself to the car. The car now is at my cage builder for an 8pt NASA PT/SCCA Touring legal cage. I will be updating this as I get pics from the builder, and as my build progresses over the winter!













New rubber for 2011 Hoosier Koni Challenge take-offs






New racing seat, FIA approved, OMP RS-PT2







more work, reveals some sound deadening.







**** coming out. This stuff is like nasty *** tar roofing.










Froze the crap with dry ice then chipped it off, left behind nasty glue and tar that I will buzz off with a rotary tool probably since it will be repainted. My stuff did not come off near as easy as some others I have seen.











More progress.. 80% of it is out, next will be removing the residue/glue, which I am not looking forward to.









Progress:

Door skins off
Headliner out
Passenger shitty sound material out
Driver shitty sound material mostly out

To do:

Rest of driver shitty stuff out
Back hatch shitty stuff 80% out, need to get rest out
Fit racing seat position for cage attached seat frame
Clean up a few wires here and there

Car goes in on Saturday for cage, going to be close

 

Big update.

Lots and lots of work since I am doing it all myself. Spent all day working on getting the rest of the sound stuff out, and the rest of the interior and wires out. It is ready.

Car goes in tomorrow morning for the 8pt SCCA T2/NASA PT legal cage. Should take about two weeks.

Started the morning workin hard




Hours and hours later


Driver side clean and mocking up racing seat to mark positioning. My seat will be attached to the cage and not the floor. This is a much safer solution so that if your car's body flexes you will not flex with it. You will stay in place with the cage.






Rear hatch area sound material clean. A bit more work was done to clean up seam sealer after pic





Driver side sound stuff clean. Seam sealer was cleaned up a bit more after pic








Looking good.





Rear wires and things mostly cleaned up.




Bag almost totally full of sound tar **** and seam sealer. Probably weighs around 20lbs.

 

looks like this is going to be a fun build for you....what are you plans for suspension and the motor?

 

Suspension will stay the same (cusco zero2 coil-overs, cusco sways, cusco arms) for now unless they start acting like they are getting tired. On my wish list is a real LSD with some 4.10 gears and some better end links.

Motor? Motor is staying as is for now. The budget after the cage, safety gear, and other things will be pretty slim. I will probably drive this motor until it is tired and by then have the funds to do a N/A build. Something along the lines of what SGMotorsports (Sasha Anis) and ThreeFiveZero Z are doing on here.

 

I'll keep an eye on this. I keep thinking more 350Z's will get Race builds now that the prices are really good.

 

Looks good man! Check out my racecar build thread in my sig. In my build, you will see we cut out the rear glove box thing and added our own rear strut brace. I would build for NASA, its a much more laid back group and it is growing and moving forward...unlike the SCCA. Have fun!

 

congrats on the effort, hopefully it takes you where you are looking to go. I hope to be in the same boat as you in 2012. I have started my fund already to build and prep a newer 240SX with an LS1. I just couldnt bring myself to do it in the G35, not to mention selling the G35 will be a big part of the funding source when it is time.

I figure one more fun summer with the G35 and some additional track time with it and then winter 2012 the fun begins.

 

Awesome! You'll have to come visit us in Colorado! We have guy racing a T2 350z here. I'm sure he'll post here soon. I would definitely include an oil cooler and oil temp gauge (or pull from OBD2). I was hitting 280F regularly in 20-30 HPDE sessions. I'm driving a mostly stock 08 Nismo w/ some basic track goodies.

 

My wife and I are actually in the process of trying to find jobs in Denver. We would love to move there!

I do have an oil cooler (albeit a bit small, but it is effective for my mostly stock motor). Here is a pic:

 

I recommend trying to hide part of the oil cooler behind the front bumper support if possible. All it takes is some small debris from another car or an off road excursion to damage it, and you wont it until it leaks. We had ours out in the open and noticed several nicks on the elbow fittings that could of lead to leaks had we not moved it to protect it better.

 

Wow nice build, can't wait to start tearing into mine this winter. Time to buy me some dry ice.

ThreeFiveZero Z , what do you think about saddle mounting the oil cooler in the pass side where the washer reservior was, then running one of these in front of it http://www.pegasusautoracing.com/big...asp?RecID=1157 and of course venting some of the inner fender away to pull extra air thru it.

 

Thanks for the tip, will look into that or perhaps a small shroud as well.

 

Cool! Feel free to holler at me if you find that you need any advice during your build. I may have come across it in my build.

 

awesome!! subscribed

Was actually thinking of selling the Z for a spec miata but this is making me want to keep it and tear into it in a few years when my driving skills improve

 

PM sent...

 

sweeet!! please update regularly... and love the wheels!

actually... can you please PM me the size and weight specs on those wheels and how much they cost you (if you dont mind of course)?

 

Looks awesome. Looking forward to seeing how your build progresses--this is among my long-term plans for my own Z. That way I can justify never getting rid of it

 

Beautiful; subscribed =D.

 

The sound deadener is demonic. I spent a day with dry ice, but I found it to be slow and only worked on flat parts. Heat helped, but as you know leaves the glue. I take it a bucket of goo-gone and a grinder helped yours out? Either way very good job! Look forward to seeing the car come along.

 

Looks good - about the same status as my gutted car (still with Kirk 4-point, but about ready for a cage). I love the CCWs, I just can't stomach tracking such an expensive wheel (especially after busting one in an off-track experience at Laguna last Monday). I love the feeling of tracking the lightly-modded (270rwhp) and lightened 350Z, but have a hard time getting past the mantra of Vettes that have infiltrated the HPDEs that I attend. It takes laps of riding them in the turns to get them to lift off the throttle to allow the safe pass. An extra 50whp would work wonders.