Man wish I saw this sooner, you know those whiteline bushings for the diff fail over time with track use? Theres a bunch of posts about that. Keep an eye on it.

 

Flier, could you post a pic of your max hight spring setting in the back? The one pic looks like full-low and it also looks like you did not use the rubber spring seat on the bottom, which would make it lower too.

 

Car will see limited track use, mostly autox and DD. What other choices do I have to stay STU compliant? I can't go with a solid bushing option.

I'll snap some pics tonight, but I did use the rubber spring seat on the bottom. What I didn't like is the plastic adapter I had available to use between the helper and primary spring. I feel like that thin piece of plastic will break over time/wear.

edit: It's worth mentioning the first pic was when the rear read ~ 24 1/4-1/2", I raised it over an inch afterwards. I posted it for *****-n-gigs

 

SPL makes solid non-metal bushings: https://www.z1motorsports.com/suspen...gs-p-5096.html

Those are what I plan to go with, or maybe Energy Suspension.

 

Those are aluminum. "T6061 billet aluminum".

FWIW, my whiteline bushings had no issues in ~2 years.

 

That's encouraging!

Sooo..... how the hell am I suppose to adjust the rear shocks? Drill bigass holes at the rear strut tower "brace" ?

 

My shocks had slots on the side of the shock body that were near the top of the shock. (accessible by reaching between the tire and the fender...after you jacked the car up enough to create fender gap)

 

Well, damnit, suppose I should read better... I made the assumption that they were urethane due to the color. Could've sworn they made Al bushings that weren't black, but I see now I'm mistaken.

Good to hear about the WL bushings lasting... I'm not sure which will hold up to track use better, WL or ES.

 

Back from the first autox since the recent mods, which includes:
OS Giken
Koni yellows w/ 550f/450r and coilover sleeves
275 RE71Rs

It's a completely different car! Big adjustments to get use to.....I picked up 2 seconds from my first run to my second. Still way off pace for STU(~2 seconds), but I still managed mid-pack in pro street-tire and a top 30 pax out of ~160. I'll take that for now.

No video.... SD card was full on the gopro Got one pic though!


The car transitions SOOO much better and having a functioning diff is simply amazing. I'm fighting quite a bit of steady state understeer and I'd to have more on-throttle over-steer. I might stiffen up the rear bar next event, but I'm going to chalk the rest up to not knowing how to drive it properly. I feel like I'm using wayyyy too much brake pedal. I'm hoping once I put the DTC60s on that will resolve most of that issue.


Funny story..... for some reason I always have an odd thing happen to my car(s) at zMax. One time the miata wouldn't start, starter had a dead spot. Another time the nut on the alt main wire came loose on the miata. Last time I got a nail in my tire in the Z. Well this time.... the Z wouldn't start at all when I got in it to move it to grid. No power.... dead battery? Check my lights, not on, nothing was on. No idea what it was, but I borrowed a jump-box and all was well. Though, I was scared to turn it off so I left it running in grid lol.

 

Good results! Just changing the shocks on mine made a huge difference. With stock springs, I don't even have to jack up the car to adjust the rear koni shocks.

 

Thanks!

So I see the +/- adjustment on the rear Koni, but how do you unlock it to turn it?

 

I. Want. Your. LSD. That is all. :P

I really want to experience first-hand how much an actual LSD transforms a base Z with an open diff...

I, too, ran today, and was ~0.5-0.6 off the winning STU run. Pesky STI wagons!

Dude, funny that yours died in grid, as mine did today, too! Knowing you I'm sure you checked, but were your cables on the terminals tight? Somehow my rear J hook on the battery tie-down made a successful bid for freedom, and the tech inspectors. As I said "I'll fix it in paddock..." the car died. -_- Turns out the positive cable had come loose and needed to be tightened down. I managed to rig up something with zip ties that worked for today, but I need the rear J-hook to keep the battery properly secured. Leave it to Nissan to use such a short-*** hook...

 

I used a small allen wrench that fit into the holes. (Don't remember the exact size)

 

What he said, but you'll definitely need to jack the car up to do it. You'll be better off doing it before you put the tires on, if you're changing at the event.

I just put my off the shelf Konis back on the rear myself, so I will know that pain going forward as well, but hopefully they will be much better than what I took off.

 

Would you guys believe me if I told you that after having my car on the charger today, when attempting to start, the started turned once, but then went completely dead, nothing, no radio, no buzzer.

Went back under the hood, and the positive terminal won't fully tighten down on the battery. Was able to get it snugged up a little, starts up fine, but I'll have to figure some way out to make it better.

 

The Shorai I have is the same way....positive never wants to stay as tight as it should.

 

Lol! It was death to 350z batteries this weekend I guess.

I'm going to redo my ground terminal along with a new(lightweight) battery. Could I do an EXT14 with the Z or is that too small? It's a DD, so no tender charger required. I ran as small as a ETX6 on the miata without issues.

 

To adjust the Koni rears I use a small allen wrench and you stick it in the hole and there is a slot cutout that alows a 1/4 turn at a time. I think there is something like 8, 1/4 turns so in total it should be 2 full sweeps. But super easy to remember in 1/4 turn increments.

FWIW, I'm running full soft in the rear and full stiff up front on my stock springs. The shocks added some under steer for me. I think I need to go down in stiffness on my front sway bar to get some adjustability back into the shocks.

 

I threw the battery back in last night. Man, the battery the PO installed in mine is about 1/4" shorter in depth than the battery bracket, so the fit isn't perfect. May have to stick some cardboard or something on one side for better fitment.

When I looked at the ground cable, I laughed. It's quite sad, really. Hell, I probably have some 4-gauge lying around that'd be an improvement!

 

Went down to Atlanta Dragway for a quick event with a good friend of mine. He use to own a Z and is a great driver so I knew I'd learn a few things with him co-driving the Z with me. As expected I did..... I still have several miata habits to break with the Z and learn how to drive a "power" car better.

Car is pretty balanced right now, rotates maybe a little too much on transitions, but I'll chalk that up to really ****ing hot rear tires. Overall, it's a blast! I need to learn the dimensions better, I coned A LOT at this event. I put the DTC60s on and it's soooo much better.... my ABS actually engages! But holy **** the dust is atrocious. I'll have to figure out a consistent method for getting that off the wheels. I usually don't give a **** about XP8/10 or DTC60 dust on the miata.... well because the wheels are ~$500 new, but the big RPF1s are pretty and expensive(in comparison) so I'd like to keep them decent.

Anyways onto video. One of my runs, but not the fastest, 58.5xx with a passenger. I have to start getting on the throttle sooner to rotate it around the tight stuff, that's one of the key points I took from this event.


And my co-driver with an entertaining 57.3xx