I hear you. That line connector could've been about 6 inches further and with perfect access to tighten, but apparently no-one at Dorman ever actually tried to install it. I'll say this, it's not just Ford. My previous track car, an Audi A4 was a total pain to work on, both in terms of accessibility and it terms of how and in what order is was put together. Once I started to tear the Z apart to install the cage I was amazed how much easier and better engineered it was for access and part removal/reinstallation. So people here should count themselves lucky to work on such well designed cars

 

I always thought the Audi TT was a great looking car and I was thinking of getting that before the Z but then I watched Sarah in tuned where every episode with her TT was a nightmare and I thought I just don't want to get into that. you're right, the Nissans are well done.

 

Oh no, you don't want any part of a TT. Trust me. One of my buddies is a true TT lover, He has one as daily and a second one dedicated to track duty. The track car has been a total nightmare for several years now, ever since he and the local tuner decided to build it up. He had the block built and a turbo kit installed and it never ran right since. There just isn't a source for decent aftermarket tuning for such setups for US models. If you are in europe, in UK in particular, there are TT racing series that have support for euro spec engines, but here you are completely SOL. After all this time and sinking thousands into the build (including body, aero, cage, safety, etc.) and talking to anyone that would listen he's now facing parting the car out as no one has been able to get it to run reliably. And this is not a mark against the local tuner shop either, they are well regarded and are VW/Audi experts as well as running a pro Audi racing team for Audi/VW corporate (they are in my neighborhood).

 

Just got back from 2 days of open track at Summit. In a word, it was good. Excellent weather, good track conditions and less than 40 cars total, so planty of track to be had for all. Also, there were a few pros available in the paddock, I managed to get Mike Levitas in my car for a suspension eval. Based on his feedback I softened the front coilovers a few clicks and the laps times tumbled. Went from a best of 1:25.1 in June to 1:23.75 yesterday. Here's some fast laps chasing my buddy in the his 911 race car


The other thing Mike said was to check the rear toe-in, since I have all solid links back there it should be set to zero, but I think I still have some minimal toe-in that's affecting the high speed cornering.

 

If you're wondering how I got that nice crack in the windshield on the right side, that was first session Monday, my buddy in the Cayman went off at turn 3 and spread gravel all over the track, two laps later the bmw I was chasing threw a rock at my windshield

 

One more trying to hang with a bunch of 911s. I was a bit faster in the corners, but didn't have their power on the straights.

 

hey Hoon, just read your whole thread again to mine it for pro tips LOL. it's a lot of good info on here. I found your posts about the Akebono/Powerstop calipers to be very helpful. I might go that route eventually but I'm going to get some mileage out of the brembo's.

 

Having ran the Akebono setup for a while now I can say that overall I'm happy with it. My only complaint is that it's impossible to see the pad wear without taking the wheels off since they are only visible from the top of the caliper. Not a major issue for me as the pads seems to last a while and I tend to replace them once they get thin anyways.

I've got a buddy who has a brake supply business and we did a lot of research into this. I like to run PFC pads for their durability and feel, but they are no longer being made for this fitment. He was able to source last few sets of front PFC pads as they went out of production so I have a supply of a few more sets, but once that's gone I'll have to switch to another brand. There never was a PFC fitment for the rear, so I've been running XPs back there. As I said the wear is good, the fronts last me a whole season, the rears last twice as long. I think I can extend the front pad life with some cooling ducts, I'll be putting something together over the winter, but that's still way better than the setup I had on the Audi. I was going thru pads twice as fast on that car.

I swear by SRF brake fluid, I flush it once in the spring and run it all year without any fade issues. It's expensive but worth it IMO. The only other thing I plan to do is the master cylinder support bracket to eliminate any flex there, might improve pedal feel but this is mostly a just-in-case mod.

 

I've been using Hawk HP+ pads on both cars for comparison while my driving skill slowly gets better. i like the consistency, you know, to be able to better compare cars and braking systems. so far in the Z I've only been using the stock brakes with HP+ pads. the sport brembos are almost identical to the stock Cayman brakes. 1/4" bigger rotors on the Nissans. so running almost identical brake systems and pads and horsepower it's going to be fascinating to compare the two cars next spring. the Cayman in stock form and the Z massively upgraded but not aligned yet. but I'm just nerding out here... minmaxxing... lol

I was literally seconds away from putting in the order to Z1 and just held back... I think it's going to be more enjoyable to run the brembos for a while and then upgrade. I'll enjoy being able to compare them..

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As you get faster the HP+ will likely not be sufficient, they are street/track pads which I equate to all-season tires. Designed for all conditions, not great in any of them lol. You can try to go up to the DTC pads, but I would looks at Carbotech or g-Loc which are like generic brand Carbotechs in that they use exactly the same compounds at slightly cheaper prices.

 

Back from a weekend at VIR, the weather was good but the run groups were packed and there were a lot of incidents. My first 3 sessions on Saturday got cut short after just a few laps by either black or red flags. I was finally able to get a session in Sat afternoon, but I don't think I got a single clean lap all weekend. Consequently I didn't have a chance to push my lap times, the best laps were only in the 2:14 range. Also, my front camera decided to stop working at the end of Sat, so I have no video from Sunday.

Here's a compilation of the first 3 Sat sessions

And most of Sat 4th session before the camera died

 

A video from my buddy in a 911S

 

A few pics from our friends at F&S

 

So it's one week after the last event of the season and it's time to start thinking about winter projects. Since my windshield got cracked at Summit I started looking into lightweight polycarbonate windows. I ended up ordering a polycarbonate windshield from a UK company Plastics4Performance. Since shipping overseas is costing me $200 I went ahead and got the side and rear glass from them as well. The windshield I'll have professionally installed, the side windows I'll swap myself and probably gut the door while at it and the rear window I'll wait until I get a CF hatch, then install both. I went ahead and placed the order now since there is a backlog and these won't ship until end of January, so hopefully they will be here in enough time to install before my first event of next season in March. I'll post up some install writeups when the time comes.

 

I need a new rear window. previous owner riveted the plexi to the CF hatch and there are two cracks that are growing. since I'm transplanting that hatch I was thinking of just taping it but that would be tacky... It would be good to replace it while it's off the car.

 

nice man, lookin forward to getting back to VIR in march. shame there was alot of traffic! checking out plastics 4 performance now, i'll eventually switch to all lexan too.

 

Received tracking info for the windows, should be here next week. Will follow up once I receive them.

 

Really looking forward to your window installs. I'll be ordering the rear soon. $360 shipped 4mm, gray tint. My need is just to replace an old cracked one with some sloppy rivets. this glued on window should take care of that. thanks for the heads up on that company. I searched for 2 hours for a US supplier and they were all riveted.

 

The fun starts this weekend...

 

nice!