I hate to be that guy, and I honestly hope they work for you, but every one of my buddies who tried these contis said it was the worst tire they ever used. From what they were saying they are not consistent lap to lap, tend to only grip a few laps and then fall away quickly as they heat up. The good part is that they do last a long time. Hope your experience is better.

 

That's okay, I appreciate the input. I'm not skilled enough to notice what your buddies experienced with the tires. I got really off track, so to speak, over the past year and a half, screwing with the cars instead of getting in seat time.

but now that I know there's a consistency problem, I'll be curious to compare these with the 280 TW Advan Apex on the other two cars.

 

I thought I would drop in to see what everyone is doing around here but it's a typical quiet winter. I've had a rash of setbacks with business vans needing service. it's all maintenance wear items but still sucks when several of them demand attention all at once. One of the conties on my Ford Transit connect just came apart. 7 years old but tons of tread left and for a freeway only tire, it looked fine. then the tread came off, detaching from the steel belts. am I surprised that this POS has shitty tires? not at all. This van is the worst vehicle I've ever owned. I'm going back to Toyota Siennas. specifically the 11-17 model years. I have one with almost 500k and two others with over 300k. and minimal failures. The usual alternators, AC compressors, water pumps. but this POS Ford just broke 100K and I've already dumped $4,000 into it. so I'm not surprised that Ford discontinued this model. I might trade it in over one of the high mileage Toyota's. That's how sick of it I am. Even with all those miles those Toyota's are likely to cost me less than this Transit.

and the 2011 5.0 needed a new alternator. Ford quality came up again here. The mechanic said the alternator was smoking when I brought it in and it likely would have caught fire if I had driven it much longer. this really pisses me off because my girlfriend has been borrowing the car. imagine my horror if the car caught fire while she was driving it? God damn Fords.

so on the track build, everything's been on hold this winter because of these distractions. My next step is to do the drivetrain swap. everything south of the engine block is being swapped. I need to get the '03 put together and get it registered, street legal, so I can sell it. probably to some drifter who will trash it but that's fine. I decided I didn't want to keep the engine after all because they're only about $2,500 and if I have a failure in my '04, I'll just rebuild it. but it's fine at 90k. I'm not worried about it. still have a lot of fun parts to go on it but it's on hold a bit. I'm not going to the track on March 5. I'm going to miss out on Sonoma but I hate going out there when it's still winter. it's too damn cold. so I'll wait for April. unfortunately that's taking place at the shitty thunderhill east track. when NASA runs on that track, I give my money to one of the other racing clubs.

lastly, what's been on my mind a lot lately is that I enjoy the build more than going to the track. I use track events to test the latest work I've done on a car. I guess that's where I'm headed with this hobby. I don't imagine putting the money into TT when I don't give a **** about my lap times. except in terms of how the car performs versus the last hardware change. I am doing everything as planned to the 350Z and Z3, and still planning to buy a trailer, but I'm changing my focus from TT and will be spending more time on street legal projects than strictly track cars.

I do like that track events are a great opportunity to test a car after making changes to it. it's also very satisfying that I haven't had a mechanical failure yet. The Canyon runs are fun but I need a off-road track car that I can do whatever the hell I want to without the DMV, and I like having a couple project cars that are limited to smog rules.

I kind of see it as a spec class limitation. keeping a car street legal. it's a lot like a spec build. spent a lot of time over the last 6 months studying spec 3. I was considering buying a 325i and decided not to because my Z3 is almost the exact same car underneath and I'm never planning to get a comp license so the spec build would just be for fun. to see if I can do it. and then sell that car. but I decided not to go through with it. I did tell the local spec 3 NASA guy that I'm using a lot of the spec 3 community tips in my Z3. he doesn't really get that but the suspension, brakes, engine, it's all the same stuff.

anyway, I'll be getting some legit wrenching done in the next couple months. but I'm probably not going to do a full season with NASA again. My reason for renewing and participating is that the community is really fun and I enjoy seeing old friends at track events, but NASA spends way too much time at thunderhill. I can do the west track for like $250 with another club. why would I spend $400 on that shitty East track with NASA? and the other clubs are at Sonoma as well. No tech inspection is required. it's just not worth the hassle if you're not moving toward DE4/tt/comp.

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I feel what you're saying quite deeply. I'm the same way, I'm not driven enough to do racing or time trials. All those things mean to me is that I'd be spending more $ on wear items to make sure my car is competitive and I would feel obligated to compete, which would quickly feel like a job. Like you I like working on cars and seeing the results on the track. That's where my sweet spot is, that's where I'm most happy. Nothing wrong with that. Do what you enjoy and as often as you feel like it.
Myself, I'm looking forward to this spring to try out the new headers and tune, see if the gains are noticeable. I'm planning to do a test day at Summit in March to shake down the car before heading to Watkins Glen in April for a full 2 day event. It's been years since I've driven WGI and it's about time to re-acquaint myself with it again.

 

That sounds amazing. I've only driven on those tracks in Forza. I'm sure iRacing would be much better. after going to Sonoma about 12 times, I tried out that track in Forza again (Xbox) and it was a terrible representation. The track is modeled at about 2/3 actual size and the car physics is terrible. One of my long-term goals is to visit several tracks out of state. and one good thing about not going comp is an HPDE car doesn't need constant service. just a check over before or after an event.

I'm also eager to get all of the parts installed. I'm looking forward to hearing about your results with that tune.

 

I've had a very distracted winter and haven't done anything with the cars. lots of other fun things going on. but i just got an offer for an ALL DAY OPEN TRACK at Thunderhill on 4/22. it's my least favorite raceway but with an open track day, I could use that to finally get the Z3 out and work on my skills. I won't be taking the 350Z but the Z3 should be a lot of fun. it's a little faster than a Miata. the I6 2.8L has about 200 hp. I think perhaps driving on a track that I do not like will force me to work on my skills and the two turns that I hate so much on this track. it's more of a motorcycle track. it's really not a road racing grip track in my opinion. but more importantly, I think getting the little Z3 out there will give me the motivation to work on the 350Z. I just haven't been in the mood all winter. I haven't really even properly stripped the Z3. the AC is still hooked up. I have done pretty well at stripping everything else. I have not removed the heater. but I think I could get away with this current state of the car for its first time out. I've put on new calipers, pads, and a roll bar, and I've got racing pads this time. that should be fun. DTC 60s. the tires are Yoko Advan Apex 280s. mounted to the OEM 17s. so really all it needs is an oil change at this point and going to the track will compel me to dig into it again as well as the 350z. sometimes just having a deadline is required.

 

track day is a track day. Get out there and have some fun!

 

Missed your thread somehow, subbed now.
Def right about the quiet winter. I'm only now getting around to working on the track car. Just ordered goodies from Radium to resolve fuel starvation issues on track and compiling all the parts needed for an LS swap. Hope I can get it done around summer time and get a couple of track days in, but we'll see. Same as you I find track time to be most useful for actually testing the changes to the car. That and of course chasing down Porsches is way more fun in a car that is well outclassed compared to modern machines
Given you are ripping apart the drivetrain I'm surprised you are sticking with the VQ, there are so many nice options available now including multiple companies that do nearly plug and play swap kits. That's the route I'm taking after the VQ gave up the ghost.

 

heh, I'm going to have to drop down to slow intermediate / group 3 after not getting on the track for so long. but I'm sure it'll come back to me quickly.

 

hi Row. nice to meet you!
I wanted to explore different options so I bought an old Cayman and a Z3 and had so much fun with those that the Z was neglected for a couple years. if I don't care about lap times, etc, the Z3 is way more fun than the 350Z. mine is a 2.8 with only about 200 hp but it started off at only 2,800 lb before I stripped it. and it's probably about 2, 450 now. the Cayman is equal to the heavily modded 350Z without any upgrades. but I don't want to screw it up.

I'm only pulling the clutch, transmission, diff, but not the engine. it's still going strong. that whole first year I tracked it NASA 1/2, it had a bad sensor and was pulling timing, and I didn't even know it. these engines are awesome when running properly. I thought it was good even with pulled timing then when I fixed that and hit 6K for the first time, I was shocked at how hard it pulls.

I'll follow your thread to see how your LS swap goes. I'm very interested in that. it's cool that you can get adapters to just bolt it right up. or are you going to swap the transmission also?

goal right now is to get the 03 put together and out of the garage so I can get the Z3 in there. I'm going to leave the JWT clutch on it and just pull the cd000a transmission out. then put the good diff and cd0009 on that car and ship the broken one to Z1 for a rebuild. and I've got OEM cats and air intake for it. just get that car street legal and sellable.

 

Signed up for Thunderhill East 5/09-10, Thunderhill West 5/26, Sonoma 6/21-22. Prob take the Z3.

NASA NorCal has the best offerings this year with the lowest price and 5 sessions per day. they outbid OnGrid, TrackTime, and SpeedSF which I have used for the last 2 years for those reasons.

then july/august are off and two more Sonoma events in September / October, one more THE in November. as much as I dislike that track, seat time is seat time. I'm just going to slow down and work on the line. two turns still cause me trouble so I will work on those.

the biggest problem with NASA is people signing up in two groups on the same day and running in slower groups. I have run into this every single time I've gone out to a NASA event including my very first time ever at THE where a bunch of TT miatas we're on the track with us and no one kicked them out. damn it. I'm still pissed about that after all these years. time to move on though. that kind of **** always happens with NASA though.

hopefully I'll have the 350Z put together by September.

 

Prepping the Z3 for THE tomorrow. This car has 27 year old bushings that still hold up pretty well.But I'll be digging into it in a big way this summer after getting the Nissan done and sorted. For track I've got the Fortune Auto coilovers, 200 class tires, new calipers, new lines, new fluid, DTC 60 pads. And I'm not recording video or tracking my lap times at all. My goal is to master this track, which has always been a pain in my ***.

Here's the full five-mile course, which is rarely configured, but I wish it was kept this way all the time because the east track sucks. (The portion on top.)




I hate it because of two turns in particular.4E Is a blind hill that lands at the apex of 5E. So you basically have to hit the pavement with your steering wheel to the right.This is a ******** bike turn.

And because that's not enough, they did the same thing at 9E.Close your eyes at the top of 4E and 9E, and that's the same experience with your eyes open.Who knows WTF is on the other side of the hill. Most of the comp drivers hit the dirt after 9E.But I'm a one-man shop and I'll be damned if I'm going to damage my car on f'ing T-H-E.

Not that it makes any difference, but I sent the administrators an email pointing out that there's a reason they don't have corporate sponsorship and why none of Pro Racing Orgs use the track. I told them they should put the track on hold and redo those two Shitty Turns. Shave them and get rid of the ******** reverse camber on 5e.But no, it'll continue to be an Amateur track. And if I didn't need the seat time, I wouldn't be going, and I'll probably regret it.

All that bitching aside, I'm gonna try to have a fun weekend and damn the line and group pacing. I'm coasting those two turns.

One of the smaller organizations is running the five mile version in July but hell with that, it's 110 degrees.

 

Taking video is the best way to learn short of actual driving imo. Things happen quickly on the track and it's easy to get stuck in making the same mistakes over and over as sometimes there just isn't enough time for proper retrospective on what's happening while next turn comes up. Reviewing the videos gives me a new perspective on my driving, especially if the video also captures driver actions. You can take your time reviewing each turn, see where your inputs were, where you were looking and what the car ended up doing. I've learned a lot from viewing my own videos in the evenings after the track goes cold and was usually able to come back the next day with a list of new things to try is some of the more difficult areas.

While I have no experience with this particular track, it does remind me a lot of the local Shenandoah track, relatively new construction specifically designed to be technical with a lot of different turns and elevation changes. Not very fast and not really designed for heavy cars, but can be a blast in a nimble vehicle, even though the top speeds are fairly low. For the turns you describe my gut reaction would be to take them later, drive in deeper so the car has time to fully rotate before you hit the next apex. Those kinds of blind turns can be intimidating, but they can also be very rewarding once you can feel where the track is and can hit them just right. And I'll agree that some tracks are just not designed for actual racing, you won't find any racing series on the Shenandoah circuit as it's designed to be a learning tool and doesn't have the safety aspects required for racing.

Either way, go out there and have fun, day at the track is still better than day at home.

 

This was my first track day in 2021. You can see the first problem turn 4E at 10:10. And then 9E is at 11:10. At the time I didn't know how much I would grow to hate those turns at speed. I was going so slow that this instructor, who is a Miata driver, became really impatient with me. And I told him, look, I'm not going to wreck my GT500 over this goddamn track day just because I'm not going fast enough for you. Yeah, we ended up not being friends.

 

Thanks for the advice. When you say go deep, do you mean cut in sooner or later?When I go toward the outside of turn four, I always get close to the dirt, so I would rather Turn in near the apex.Maybe that's what you meant.

 

Can't make out much from outside the car unfortunately. This is the issue with 99% of car dvrs, they are super wide lens, designed to go on the windshield and when you mount them inside the car all you get is the inside of the car without everything outside being washed out. One of my old roadhawk cameras died recently and I was looking for a replacement. I wanted something that had 1) built in GPS 2) external mic input 3) non-fisheye lens of max 120 degrees 3) ability to set white levels based on the center of the screen, not the whole screen. In the end I ended up buying another old roadhawk from ebay because I couldn't find anything newer that was even close to it. Too bad the brand is now defunct.

Anywho, I'm not one to critique other instructors but I'll say I'd never tell a beginner student to go faster. That's not constructive at all imo. I save that for when I'm doing a ride with an advanced student who just needs a few tips and pointers. A beginner or even intermediate student needs to know how to improve their line and technique at a pace that's comfortable to them, and if I do my job their pace will increase automatically. Telling them "Go! Go!" is just gonna stress them out and reduce their confidence level.

 

I mean turn in later, you'll need to scrub off more speed, but it will open up the exit of the turn so you can straighten out faster and get back on the throttle earlier. Depending on the design of the turn you might even need to sacrifice a foot or two of the edge of the pavement initialy so you can go in deeper without having to turn in too early. What I mean is don't necessarily follow the edge of the pavement going in, set a reference point where your turn in should be and go into the turn further away from the edge so that when the pavement starts to turn in you can continue straight to the turn in point before you start to move the wheel. Your goal should be to be near the outside edge at the turn in point, not all the way to it.

 

This is a good overview of the line for this track.

ffw to 4:50

He calls it turn 5, but it's turn 4 that I'm talking about where you go into the hill and then you hit 5 over the hill.But yeah, technically it is 5. I don't like hitting it in the middle.

I don't mind 6-8. Those are the funnest turns of the track. If you time it right, that becomes a straight.

 

yup, definitely a technical section. You want the car neutral as you crest the hill and get light, if you're still turning at this point and getting tossed sideways then my initial suggestion on turning in later for the previous turn (4?) stands.

 

Hauling the car was fun. I got in one good session and the OEM bmw seat belt Retractor died (Locked up) so I could not do anymore sessions for the day.. Took it apart at the track and didn't see anything broken inside but it just would not release. I'm home now, deciding what to do for tomorrow. I really enjoyed how the Z3 performed, and I made progress on turn 5.

During the group orientation, the group leader had several people ask about that turn, so he spent quite some time discussing it. His solution worked well for the 7 laps I got in today. Heading up to the peak of that hill, straighten the wheel and turn slightly to the right to shift some weight on the left wheels, and go neutral throttle. Coming over the peak with the steering wheel in that position allows the car to settle nicely and hit the apex of turn 5.

I also made progress on turn 9, which was hella fun in the Z3. I was able to do almost an entire lap in fourth gear, and would shift from fifth to fourth after the straights and then only drop into third at turn 4/5. So I consider it a successful day even though I only had one session, and I'm really bummed that I couldn't do the other four sessions to continue to improve.

So I was tempted to put the Cayman on the trailer, but I really want to spend more time with the Z3 out there, so I'm trying to decide what to do this afternoon about the seat. I can put the 350z seat and harness in the z3 and drill for the 5th belt.