So a couple weeks ago I had a bit of an off at Summit. I went to test out the new softer rear springs and in the morning it was wet and the track was very slippery. I should've waited but I thought, I'll just go out there for a few laps, warm up the engine, etc. Well, I was careless and I on exit of turn 10 I took it a bit wide, got on the painted stripes and that was pretty much it. The rest of the way across the track, the grass and into the tire wall I was merely a passenger. Fortuntely the damage was mostly cosmetic, I was able to drive away from it with only a leaking oil cooler (it got whapped on the bottom corner). The resulting mess



Since then I got a junkyard fender and door, made a new headlight cover (the LED fortunately survived) and polished out most of the scratches. Got a cheap fiberglass replacement bumper that I'm in the process of fitting right now. The fender paint was pretty far gone on top so I covered it with some vinyl for now. I might do a whole car wrap or a repaint over the winter. So as it sits right now, like nothing ever happened (almost)



Funny thing about the replacement door. I picked it up from a parts reseller in Fredericksburg and it wasn't until I got home that I realize the door had full driver controls for both windows and mirrors as well as a keyhole. Turns out it's a JDM right hand drive door. Once I was able to pull up the window I got my second clue as to the origin of the door


And no, two driver door controls do not work well together. I had to swap the wiring harness and the controls from my old door to make it work, swapped the tinted glass while at it. But somewhere out there there will always be a key that opens my passenger door :P

I still need to take the wheels off and inspect the mechanicals for any hidden damage, but should be good to go for November VIR event.

 

Cleaned up and ready to go back to the track. I checked the alignment and it's exactly as it was before the accident, I also inspected whole suspension and everything looks good. A few scratches on the rims and the rear bumper that I can live with.
Since the aluminum bolt of the aftermarket tow hook sheered right off I went back to the OEM tow hook that's made of steel and much less likely to fail.

 

Good to see you are Ok and you could get the car sorted quickly. I know how it feels.. The next rain day on track might be a bit more tense than usual.

 

Just got back from VIR, it was an excellent weekend and great weather. With softer rear springs the car initially felt floaty, but tightening the rear strut adjustment got that under control. By Sunday morning it was feeling decent and I was getting more comfortable behind the wheel. There still is an issue of too much front camber, there is rubber buildup on the inside third of the front tires that starts to accumulate about half way thru the session as the insides of the tires overheat and get slimy. It was noticeable from behind the wheel, the grip would get progressively worse towards the end of the sessions. I ended up dropping the hot pressures to 34 psi to delay the overheating but that only did so much. I'll need to remove the struts and adjust the upper control arms on the back side to get more range out of them and get the camber down to 3.5 degrees.

I only managed to get down to 2.18 lap time, but I think with proper camber and if I can do corner balance over the winter I can shave off another few second from that easily. Here's a few laps from a Sunday session

 

I was at Summit the beginning of this month. I too went off at turn 10. I hugged the curb on the inside and the car didn't like that all and the back end came around. I ended up hitting the tire wall as well. The only damage was scrape the bumper, fender smashed in a little, small scrapes on the door, and dented rear quarter panel.

 

Yes, there has been a rush of accidents at Summit lately. My buddy went off turn 9 into the tire wall during the recent PCA event, he ended up with fractured back due to the car getting shot over the tire wall and back down. That was in the wet as well.

 

It's hard to believe that it's been over THREE decades since I started racing at Summit Point Raceway back in '84. I ran the EMRA TT program and also got to run at Pocono and Lime Rock, but Summit was my "home" track. I've been back to the circuit once since then, and seen the new layout, but always remember the classic (Jeffeson?) track. Since I've been racing with SCCA after moving back west, I've raced on a lot of other tracks, but only a few that are similar.

But they all BITE if you're not careful out there...

 

Summit Main was the first track to open in 1970 iirc, that's the one we still use. Jefferson and Shenandoah didn't come into existance until late 90s and early 00s. Besides repaving, clearcutting at runout of turn 3, adding deer fencing and additional dirt mounds and tire walls in key areas the track is basically same as it ever was.

 

Ah, so the traditional circuit is called "Summit Main"? That's the only layout I'm familiar with, and assumed it's where you run your track events. Back in the day, I remember some pretty big shunts on the Main track, but also how well it responded to rhythm and flow. Never had a chance to drive a Z there, but I imagine how much of a treat it must be!

 

Summit can be fun but it's hard on brakes and limited on variety. For pure giggles I like to get out on Shenandoah once in a while, it's a very technical track, packed with corners and elevation changes as well as a carousel, a la nordschleife (having driven both it's not really that close, but still fun and makes good photo ops), It's not for high power heavy cars, but can be a joy in a nimble car. But for pure blasting thru the landscape you can't really beat VIR.

 

More pics 4 clicks

 

Finally pulled the car out of storage and did the first corner weight. This is with 230lbs of me in the driver seat and about 15 gallons or 90 lbs of fuel in the tank, so dry weight is around 2980lbs.



Based on this looks like I need to raise the RR wheel to transfer more weight to that corner. I was going to raise the rear a bit anyways, currently it's at 25.25" LF and 25.5" RF, both rear wheels are at 25" (floor to top of fender opening). I'm thinking of raising RR to 26" and LR to 25.5" and re-weighing to see the results.

 

Spent today adjusting the front ride height and camber. I checked the camber with a new digital gauge and it showed 3.9 degrees FL and 3.4 degrees FR. My old bubble gauge was widely inaccurate, showing over 5 degrees of camber. If you have one of those crappy bubble gauges do yourself a favor and toss it in the trash. At 0 degrees looks ok


At 2.8 degrees it shows 4 degrees

at 3.3 degrees it shows 5 degrees


Anyways, I had to remove the front struts to add more adjustment range to the upper control arms, since the ball join mount was already at max. After I added 10mm to the inside mounts I was finally able to get both FL and FR to 3 degrees camber. While at it I adjusted ride height to 25" both sides. I'm sure that'll throw off the corner weights, so tomorrow I'll be adjusting the rear ride heights to compensate.

 

My final setup after corner balance. Lowered front right a bit and raised rear left to achieve balance within 0.09%, or as close as one rotation of the strut body would allow.

 

since the hood was scratched up from the tire wall incident last fall I decided to do a bit more vinyl to cover up the damage. I sanded down the obvious damage areas and laid down matte black. Good enough for a track car. I'm planning to redo the front fenders next, need to sand down the old peeling paint on the donor fender, the current vinyl was just a temporary solution.

 

another Saturday, another vinyl wrap, this time both front fenders. The passenger fender finally got proper sand down and now it's nice and smooth


With practice I'm getting better at this, these came out pretty close to perfect. I still have over 5 ft of vinyl left. Trying to decide if I want to tackle the roof, the doors or the rear quarter panels next

 

Nice work- but I liked your previous graphic scheme much better. I'm so tired with the old matte black look on track cars.

 

It's not everyone's tea, I get that. I did the doors down to the crease today. That's not the final look and no, I'm not going to do the whole car matt black. I have a certain look in mind that'll take a few more weekends to achieve. Honestly the main reason I went with matt black for the front is because it saves me from having to paint the front bumper. It takes a lot of abuse on the track and I'd rather leave it in black frp than have to worry about touching up paint of worse, having to re-wrap it yearly. The large door numbers had to go too, not sure where the new numbers will be yet.

 

Another weekend, another bit of vinyl. At this rate I might be done by spring. Wrapped rocker panels and lower bit of the doors in blue.

 

Side vinyl is finally finished. I've got one more step to complete before I can call this done.