I have an 05 350z roadster with an automatic transmission. Its a daily driver with occasional track use. Im curious if any auto trans guys out there have cometed on autocross or road courses and I have some questions. 1. Do you shift manually or leave it in D and let the car shift? 2. Do you have paddle shifting, or do you think paddle shifting would be beneficial? 3. Do you have VDC (traction control) on or off?

I took the car out to an autocross type course and found myself not sure of the best way to handle the transmission. I love the left foot braking and downshifting thats easier to do with an auto trans.

For those of you who want to tell me to get a 6 speed, try to resist the temptation.

 

How serious do you want to get?

 

Turn the VDC off and shift manually and add an external cooler

 

At any Z track day here in Colorado, the guys with automatic trannys were having trouble shifting after ONE session on track. The heat buildup would cause the tranny to stick in gear and put the car in limp mode until it cooled off. Never did hear of a tranny cooler that solved this problem, although several were tried.

 

I'm at the track 15 to 20 weekends a year and have never had problem since adding a cooler

 

From what I recall, our Z track days in Colorado (where autos had heat buildup issues) included Pueblo Motorsports Park's 2.2 mile road course, which is a high desert circuit. The ZR in my class had heat related problems both before and after he installed a cooler. Maybe yours is better?

Might be helpful to add what kind of tranny cooler you added to your Z33 and where it's located. Which racetracks do you run in your area?

 

Depending on who is sanctioning a given track event you may not be able to run your roadster.

 

Thanks for the responses..quite helpful. I used to race years ago, and havent autocrossed or roadraced in a few years. My plan is to use my Track edition rims for track use and then get some Nismo rims for the track (or vice versa). I thought about some autocross events and maybe an occasional road course. On Tuesday I took the car to Adams Motorway in Riverside, CA. Nearby is Autoclub Speedway, and then further away is Willow Springs and Button Willow. The focus of the car is DD, but occasional track use and spirited street driving too.

 

In my experience every time I have raced autocross I am in 2nd the entire time. I launch, shift to 2nd, and do the entire run in 2nd. I am sure that is even more the case in an auto since the gearing is longer. So for autocross I would just put it in "manual" so the car doesn't shift by itself at some points where maybe you are at low speed. The Z has plenty of torque to pull you out of those turns in 2nd.

As others have said, you might not be able to do road course without a roll cage.

 

elevation. a GTR even goes into limp mode after one hotlap around HPR with a proper driver

 

tsuchiya driving an auto Z

 

a buddy here has an auto that he auto crosses with.... he was the second fastest z here for a long time

 

I run a Setrab 25 Row Oil Cooler - Series 6 ,Dimensions: 13" Width x 2" Depth x 7-1/2" Height and have a Transgo valvebody upgrade and I'm in the Pacfic Northwest. I never had issues with Auto X but first time at the track it did overheat very early on but since adding the cooler has not been an issue. After each session I don't shut it off right away and let it idle for 5 min and let the fluid to continue to run through the cooler for a while and a couple of time the air temp has been over 100 so I spray down the cooler also while idling.

 

Would the trans cooler sold by Stillen be a good item? Also, I wonder if my front body damper would interfere with a transmission cooler?

 

Not sure what you mean by body damper but I would get a bigger cooler than the one from Stillen if your just auto-x ing then you don't even need one. If your going to the track get as big as will fit.

 

The Nismo 350z came with body dampers front and rear. Up front it is a long thin shock absorber looking device that attaches to the frame rails in front of the radiator and I have those dampers on my car