We've been hard at work on the car after our opening round at Sonoma Raceway. Results and data from the first event showed the suspension and chassis was pretty well sorted out thanks to our new JRZ's, and full SPL bearings and control arm setup. Running at about 10.2:1 weight/hp adjusted out of a class allowed 9:1, we needed less weight, and more power!

Enter Seibon Carbon and Motordyne Engineering. Both companies were consulted on the details and specs of their respective products, some math was done, and deals were made!

Our biggest hurdle was weight. Class comparable cars are running 2600-2800 lbs w/driver, we were a long way off. Seibon makes some really amazing dry carbon products, and we choose to go with the hood and the doors for the best bang for the buck. We also went with their standard carbon deck lid which still saved us about 60 lbs. Weight savings in total for those three pieces was over 100 lbs!!! The car now sits on the scales w/ driver at around 2900 lbs. With roughly another 50 lbs to save with aluminum hat rotors, clutch, and some odds and ends, I think we will make out target weight of 2850 w/driver.

Our dyno results from our initial setup of our JWT cams and intake, PPE headers, and rev up oil pump allowing a few more revs, yielded pretty nice results, but it was pretty clear that the engine was struggling with airflow at higher RPM. Motordyne provided their 1/2" plenum spacer and isothermal gasket, and we changed out to a rev up style lower plenum. The results were exactly what we hoped for with a 10 HP increase at 7000 RPM and no drop off after 5800 like there was before. Now our HP curve is almost dead flat from 5800 up to our shift point of 7200. Pretty nice considering the ST/TT rules don't account for area under the curve in determining power to weight, just peak numbers.

All that done we are now racing at an adjusted power to weight of closer to 9.3:1. Almost to our class limit with plenty of options left on how to get there, mainly more weight reduction.

We race at Thunderhill this weekend. The track should favor the car, can't wait to see if we have a chance at the track record!















A whole lot of support from some great companies right here.

 

14" rear mounts?

Ugh my car is fat. Too poor for all the carbon goodies for now .

 

Yeah 350z's need a crash diet for sure, luckily we partnered with Seibon to make all this possible. Huge thanks to them for their support of the car and our goals with it.

The mounts are actually 17". They put the wing right about even with the roof line, maybe a touch above.

 

It's only about 14" to the top of the roof line, but being a bit above won't hurt. What is the span on the aeromotions wing?

 

3" is a touch right .

If memory serves I believe this is a 72" span. It puts it really close to even with the outside of the rear fenders. The goal was clean air and a big wing to allow lower angle of attack for efficient downforce.

 

Yeah, I went for a bit more chord and 68" span. Hope for same effect, just different method of getting to the same result.

 

I still think a cool business plan would be to make an affordable wind tunnel for all the club and pro racers in CA. I would kill to flow visualize my cars. Best chance I get is a rainy day which is pretty rare nowadays in CA.

 

I'll switch with you. Maryland is a rain forest this time of the year....

 

Brian, what are the holes directly above the splitter for, is that where you are getting brake cooling air from?

 

I absolutely love your build. Your front splitter looks awsome and able to take alot of abuse. Great build.

 

Yes that is a 2.5" opening ovaled to fit in the damn area. Tubing runs very cleanly on top of the splitter and out to the calipers. Still need to get some nice shrouds on the caliper end of the system.

 

Thanks very much! So happy with being able to put a little more character into the car now that the rule set isn't so restrictive.

The splitter should be pretty strong, weighs only 8 lbs. The only down side of alumalite is that once the honeycomb creases or crushes it looses all strength. I would love to do a carbon fiber w/honeycomb core splitter, just need more money, and time, but mostly money .

 

I plan to V1 of the front splitter out of the thicker 6mm DiBond.....we'll see how it holds up.

 

Very nice build. Love the Splitter for the v3. I have been toying with the idea of scrapping the V3 wing and doing something like this.

Good luck this year.

Chris

 

I want that front bumper setup. I've been wondering how I would incorporate ducts for cooling but never thought of building a splitter like that

 

Video will be up shortly, but the new splitter and brake ducts were fantastic this weekend! I think we have hit a very nice balance in terms of aero, so when I do the eventual diffuser, I am going to have to add some canards or something to keep the balance.

I was also able to abuse the brakes for a 30 minute race with zero fad. My concern of the opening not being quite big enough seems to be unwarranted.

 

curious how a 350z is @ that weight with driver. Thats crazy.

 

Dry Carbon....

....the struggle is real for anyone to get below 3000 with driver if you go out with enough fuel and don't weigh 95lbs.

 

After some fuel calcs this weekend, we need 10 gallons of fuel to safely complete a 30 minute race. Right now because we have not addressed the fuel starve issue, we go out with a full tank of 20 gallons. I was about 2915 or so coming off track this weekend. So lets do some more bench racing...

10 gallons less fuel = 60 lbs
Aasco Motorsports/Tilon flywheel/clutch = 20 lbs
PFC front rotors = 10 lbs
Z1 Motor mounts = 4 lbs

2915 - 94 more lbs = 2821 w/driver at the end of a race! Lets see if we can duplicate that in real life now.

 

Ugh...

I already have all that stuff sans the fuel...still rolling around 3040, but I have full doors, with glass etc for now. No front doors (roll bar, no cage) and open trailer.