As the 2015 AutoX season starts, I thought it would be a good idea to start a journal of my achievements, failures, and things I learned along the way in order to become a better, faster, safer, more knowledgeable racer.

Goals of this journal:
Become more competitive
Become a better driver
Become a more active member of the forum
Learn more about the Z car and general automotive modification
Develop relationships with those who share the same passions that I have

A little background:
I live in the Lehigh Valley, about an hour north of Philadelphia, PA. This will be my first full season of Autocross. I started last year around July after my first HPDE and was hooked immediately. The Z was my first sports car, my first full time standard shift car, and the first car I raced with. I am a member of Philly SCCA however race with all the local clubs depending on distance from me, entry price, expected number of runs... These clubs include Philly, Susq, NEPA, and MSNE. I currently race in STU.

The car & modifications:
06 350z Touring
Drilled/slotted rotors from Z1
Stoptech pads
Motul 5.1 brake fluid
SS lines
BC Racing BR coilovers, damping set to 17/15 F/R
Motordyne TDX-2 catback
XXR 521 18x10 wheels
Dunlop Direzza ZII Starspec 275/35/18 square
Whiteline sway bar endlinks
Quaife LSD with Motul diff fluid

Alignment specs (L/R):
Front caster 9.0/8.9
Front camber -1.4/-2.0
Front toe out 0.05/0.00
Rear camber -2.4/-2.5
Rear toe in 0.10/0.10

I plan to include the following items from each AutoX session:
Location
Weather
Race surface
Sketch of course
Tire pressures
Times
Video of fastest lap using Harry's Lap Time and an iPhone 6 Plus

Please feel free to give constructive feedback on my car setup, driving style (once I post videos), etc... Let me know if there is other information I should include from race days. This is meant to be a learning tool for myself and others.

This Sunday I will be racing with NEPA in Frackville, PA. Currently only 19 drivers signed up (it is a smaller club and I chose to race with them for that reason) so hopefully a lot of runs! It will be the first weekend I will run the car with the Quaife, new alignment since I put the coilovers on last fall, front adjustable endlinks (no I don't plan to notice those), and no rear sway bar connected.

Here is the car as she sits now.




Thanks and happy reading!

Manny

 

Had a very good day yesterday and got a lot of runs in. I won STU by 2.194 seconds, finished 10th in raw times and 8th in PAX times. Watching the video of my last run I feel I could have been a bit harder on the throttle in the last sweeper up to the finish and could have tracked out a bit more. It was my first time out with the Quaife and second time on the Direzza ZII Starspecs and wow does the combination of the two make a difference. Also the first time I ran without a rear sway bar. I think I'll run this way for a few more events and eventually might connect the rear sway just to see how the car feels and which I like better. Let me know your comments and anything I can do better on!

Location: Schuylkill Mall, Frackville, PA
Weather: Sunny and dry, high of 75 F
Race surface: Asphalt, lots of stones
Course map: See uploaded pictures
Tire pressures: 37/33 F/R (cold)
Times: 45.583 +1
44.842
43.302
44.298 +1
43.724
44.103
42.904
42.782
42.873
42.755 +1
42.380
42.083

Video of fastest lap.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dKaQHzGRyFg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

It's been many, many years since I ran a full season of autocross, and you're approaching this the right way. Your fastest run looked and sounded pretty good. The Z flowed through the course as you modulated both throttle and brakes smoothly. There's certainly more expert soloists on here who can provide more detailed feedback, though.

My start in autocrossing came in a friend's Mustang Mach I back in 1973. It was a great time and my learning curve was steep. That start (with plenty of stops in between) continues some 42 years later, as I remain an active SCCA racer who campaigns a T3 350Z in Majors and Rocky Mountain Division competition. Our season opener also came this past weekend and the Z finished second overall (in three races) behind a 580-hp GT1/ITE Porsche. Clean passes and laps are at least partially the result of what I learned in solo competition all those years ago...

 

Thanks so much for the feedback . You must have had quite a wild ride autocrossing in that Mach I, I can only imagine the body roll! Also glad to hear your're still at it and that the Z is doing well! Can't complain at all about coming in second to a 580 hp GT1! As you said, my focus right now is on pushing the car to a reasonable limit while maintaining clean, smooth, tight runs.

 

DUDE! sweet!! I am apart of the philly SCCA! autox on brother!!! I have had about 4 years exp with my dads mazdaspeed miata, cant wait to start with my fairlady

 

Glad to see there's another local guy around here, always nice to see Zs out at autocross! Do you race with any other clubs? I'm sure the Z will be quite a change from the Miata that you're used to running, let us know how you like it!

 

actually I dont. scca is the only club I know of. we usually race in warminister and the eagles' stadium in philly. allentown is a bit far for me tho! what other clubs are in the area?

 

Most autocross events will always be through SCCA. What I mean is if you race in other locations. For me, it's just about always an hour drive no matter where I race. A lot of the Philly guys will come up and race with Susquehanna at Hershey and the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg. It's a little cheaper than racing with Philly and occasionally you get more than 4 runs.

 

good to see another Z being prepped for STU and on the right track. I am a novice myself having only done 8 events to date but I am also codriving with an 8yr veteran, national champion, and experienced setup man. My learning curve has been exponential with the support I have. Kudos on the driving above. If your improving each run that means your learning from your mistakes. One thing I will make comment on is that rear sway bar. On my car we are having problems with inside wheel spin with the torsein type quaife diff. A rear bar will only make inside wheel spin worse. Also for the direzza Z11 are you using a pyrometer? Those pressures seem on the high side.

cheers

 

This was probably about my 8th event as well. It must be something else to ride along with an 8 year veteran and national champion! I mainly try and compete against myself at each event; get smoother, smarter, and tighter with each run.

That's good to know about the rear sway bar, I wish there were more in-depth discussions on the use of a rear sway on these forums. I noticed a significant improvement with how the car dug out of turns with this setup (but then again I am comparing to a VLSD, and having run all my events except for the last two on all-season tires). I meant to take a little handheld pyrometer but forgot it for this past event. I was mainly adjusting tire pressures off of the little roll-over arrows on the sidewall of the Direzzas. I still haven't touched the tires since last weekend so will edit my post with cold pressures once I get home. Thanks for the good feedback and information

 

ya this has been a complete engineering project for us to really understand the car and make changes accordingly. There is no cookie cutter setup to make these cars fast in autox. that is part of the fun tho for me. If it was an easy car to set up and drive that takes away some of the reward when u get it right.

i have the ZIIs myself on a 10.5in enkei and we were bleeding off pressure to stay at 35lbs the one event we used them (mainly were focusing on the shock settings that day). If you ever go over to the Bridgestones its a completely different tire at 27lbs for the sweet spot. Confirmed this with the STR guys throughout the first day we used them. how much camber are you running?

 

I couldn't agree more that it is very rewarding to find the sweet spots and have everything come together.

Good to know about the Bridgestones. I assume you're talking about RE-11s?

I added my alignment specs in the first post. I could probably really benefit from some front control arms to give me more camber, but one thing at a time... I also added tire pressures in my second post. I was running around 37/33 F/R cold

 

Cross camber up front seems a bit much if you are running stock A-arms. (And level left to right)

 

Bridgestone re71r I was referring to

I would 100% throw some kinetix camber arms in there for your next mod. U really need closer to 3deg up front. Transforms the car completely. Super cheap mod too and easy to install. You will need to modify those arms where the ball joint screws in to get more camber as they were originally intended to correct camber more so than add additional :thumb-up

 

Your car must be pulling to the left with that front camber variance. Kinetix arms is a good choice.

 

They are the stock A-arms. Can you elaborate on what you mean "level left to right"?

Hmm don't know about the re71r... I'll have to do some research, always thought the RE-11s were the tire-to-have from Bridgestone. Hopefully I won't have to go buying tires anytime soon though as I just got my Direzzas!

Regarding camber, I need to find a nice balance between an aggressive alignment and a streetable alignment that isn't going to kill my tires since I drive my car to work on sunny days as well as drive to AutoX events on the same tires I race on. I was thinking more along the lines of -2.0 to -2.5 up front. Will have to do more reading on the forums here when the time comes... I was hoping to stop throwing money at the car for a little, you guys are killing me!

Will have to double check just to be 100% sure, but I'm 95% sure the car is straight as an arrow on flat roads!

 

A couple shots from this past weekend's event.

 

i mean ya the Re71r is probably the fastest tire but I also wouldnt recommend it that you even drive on it at all on the street as it wears incredibly fast. I take them off immediately after racing and only have been testing on them to be used for the Pro Solo only. They are probably good for a few tenths over the ZII but didnt get to test. The great thing about the ZII is the stiff sidewall, shorter tire height and bigger contact patch. The RE71r is only faster by virtue that its noticeably "sticky" in comparison. Also with your car only halfway prepped for STU I think your on the right tire. Also you need more camber Kinetix arms are like 250$ plus the cost of modifying them if you cant do it yourself.

PS - i run 3deg up front and i will probably put 6-8k miles on my car this year street driving. I still have my stock wheels I roll around with if I plan to drive a lot in between racing. Even still i wouldnt be too scared of running that much. The toe setting is what wears the tire faster. If your running zero toe up front i wouldnt worry about it. Just rotate tires often.

 

Coil-overs allow you to change the way the car sits. It's possible to have one corner more compressed and thus alter the alignment. (Not that you would do this on purpose of course)

If your car is level and you have that much cross-camber, I would check the bushings up front. (A less-likely culprit is a bent control arm or something)

 

What data logger are you using in your video?