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06-28-2010, 12:07 PM
#41
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haha nice vid. I think you should get that old guy at the end on board with SG, maybe your new crew chief?
A vendor of ours is throwing me some Honda Indy tickets. Should I expect to see you guys Sunday morning tearing up the CTCC?
A vendor of ours is throwing me some Honda Indy tickets. Should I expect to see you guys Sunday morning tearing up the CTCC?
10-03-2010, 06:49 PM
#42
Sorry that I haven't updated this thread in so long. The other threads have led me to forget about this one a little bit. But no more!
To catch up on recent blog posts you can go straight to the SG blog here:
SG-Motorsport Blog
But for now I'll post our CSCS Time Attack blog. It was a fun day, and the car ended up going rather quickly. The video has surprisingly good sound too, so enjoy it!
Well it’s been a week or so since the last round of CSCS for the season. While the CSCS stuff is amature, specifically the time attack and drifting, it brings out more fans than many pro events, and it certainly is fun to watch the up and coming talent from across Ontario. I like going to these events with the Z because of course it helps promote SG, and because it brings me back to my roots. There are always a few old familiar faces I haven’t seen in a while, and watching the drifting and being around so many people passionate about racing and motorsports just makes my heart happy. On some level, grassroots racing is more fun and more “real” than some higher echelon racing, which often becomes more of a politics game than a game of speed.
In time attack, there’s nothing to be gained by sandbagging or pretending. You give it your all, both in building the car and in running it. That’s what I love. Everyone built their own cars, for the most part anyways, and drives their own cars. It wouldn’t feel right to rent a ride for a CSCS time attack, or to bring out a pro team that built a car for you. But since I still do the wrenching on my Z, at least most of it, I don’t feel so wrong by coming out and running. Even if it is a “pro” racecar. Besides, maybe it inspires some guys out there who want to learn the difference between a modified street car and a real racecar.
Anyways, this is how the day went down. I got up super early, which in itself pisses me off, and then went to the shop, got the trailer and headed to TMP. Luckily we beat the rush into the entrance and got a good spot to put up the tent and SG banner. Gotta promote! Unloaded the car and did a quick checkover on it and relaxed for a little. All I was really planning on were a few laps to set the car up, feel the new Dunlop tires, and then park it until the Time Attack. I helped Marco with setup and driving with his S14, Elijah had his MR2 out and was enjoying that as well, so there was lots to do.
There were a few neat cars at the track, but nothing came that looked too frightening. Jim’s FD was out, an open wheel kit car of sorts, Will and John of ENMO racing with their twin-charged civic that we tuned a few months ago – although it was running on street tires so it wouldn’t be a contender, and a few sweet BMWs. I figured we had this one in the bag – which also meant a feature in Performance Auto & Sound magazine for the lap record holder 2010. Cool.
First session out and the car felt amazingly terrible. Absolutely zero grip, maybe less than zero, and the dampers were just way too stiff. Shuddering and bucking over every little bump (and there are a LOT of little bumps at TMP. And big bumps. Lots of bumps.), sliding around everywhere, refusing to build grip and honestly – being a little bit scary!
Now, this is normal any time I’ve just been at Mosport. The mind gets accustomed to 1.6 G’s and average corner speeds approaching 200km/h, you just feel like you’re crawling going any slower. And the result is overdriving the car. The aero isn’t working (much) at these speeds, and in the low gears you have an abundance of power to spin the tires without any real effort. Add the bumps into the equation and you find it very hard to feel like any setup is “good.” The bright side is however, it always gets better, and by the end of the day the car always seems to have found itself. Of course it’s likely more myself doing the finding – with my driving.
With more laps the tires start to come in, I start to slow it down a bit, the tire pressures get corrected, along with the high and low speed dampers (for you nerds: too much low speed everything, not enough high speed bump. Car was crashing over upsets everywhere, but skittering and refusing to bite), and some brake balance tuning. Car started to come together. With all the traffic out there it’s hard to get an idea of the car’s speed, but it didn’t seem like I was going to do a 1:15. I’d be lucky to match my old time. The traction control though. It was to die for. Knowing that it would limit slip just let me be sooo much more aggressive. I could stay in it, just check countersteer at it until the car stopped sliding, and basically stay exactly on line, never having to lift, but being slightly (and ever so) sideways the whole time. And it sounds so badass. It’s like a burbling popping crackle interrupting the smooth screaming high pitched exhaust that reminds me far too much of an F1 car. And I know that’s a big comparison to make. But it really did sound the part. Just half the pitch or so.
So the Time Attack comes around. I do some stupid little ****. Nerdy **** mostly. Add 3 Litres of fuel. Just incase. Tape off the bumper. Wait that’s too much. A little less. Ok. That should be alright. Tape the gaps to the headlights and fenders, give the car a wipe down, you know, clean the wheels. There are so many cracks in the front rotors it’s starting to get scary.
And then it’s time to go out with Marco. I know he can go faster, he just needs to be yelled at. He hasn’t got the lines down here 100%, but on the warm up lap I quickly show him where he wants to put the car in some of the techncial bits. The first lap I give him firm and loud instruction, but I’m not too intrusive. On the second and third lap though, I start screaming at him to floor it, to brake, to turn in, basically any movement short of breathing. And it works, we go a second faster than he’s ever gone there, and there were still a few spots we could have easily hashed out had we had more time. He’s happy, and for only having 240whp, he did really well.
My turn. I warm the engine up, then let it sit to get as much heat out of the oil and rad as possible. The bumper is pretty taped up. Nascar style taped up. I knew the engine would overheat, I just didn’t know exactly when. I figured the colder the rad and the oil the safer I’d be.
The key to this time attack was to get the heat into the tires as fast as possible. I only have 3 hot laps, and with each lap lasting little over a minute, with all relatively slow speed corners, it wouldn’t happen on the warm up lap alone. The goal was to have them fully up to temp by the finish of the 1st lap, so I had 2 hot laps to make it count. And that’s more or less how it went down. The warm up lap was spent upsetting the car and making it spend as much time sliding as possible. Either spinning rear tires, or understeering, throwing the car around, and of course heating the brakes. Brake heat is important to make sure the brake balance and feel remains consistent – and at a track like TMP, with 3 difficult and hard brake zones, there is a LOT of time to be made up by consistent sharp braking.
The first lap was pretty much a write off. I bombed the first corner way wide, I guess I braked too late, but either way I lost a few tenths there, and the tires were still far from totally in. Still amazing how long slicks take. It was still a good time though, matching my best effort from the last time attack. Anyways, second lap was a flyer. I just messed up the second corner, clipped the apex too much and dropped into the dirt and upon landing heard a big BANG. I figured I broke something. It startled me. Everything else was more or less on point, and I put down a 1:16.1. See, that’s the **** off. Being so close to the next lower integer but not quite being there. I knew that I could do a 1:15 if I didn’t **** up. But knowing that would certainly make me **** up. The pressure was on. And I did. I did **** up, on the 3rd last corner I came in a little too hot, braked a little too late and was wide by about 4 feet from the apex. Because it was a hairpin rather than a kink it didn’t matter so much, but I still figured I had thrown it away right there. I kept it clean for the rest of the lap and to my amazement, a 1:15.95 lit up on the dash! So good. Maybe the tires were still getting better, or maybe I was just that little bit more aggressive everywhere else without realizing it. Either way, I was ecstatic.
Then, to make things more awesome, as I started slowing for the first corner just after passing the start finish, my warning light came on. OIL HOT. How hot? 152 degrees C, or 305 degrees F. That’s frigging hot. Water was about to boil over too. Cool. Perfect Nascar timing. So I cruised around and cooled her down and parked the old girl. Fun. Watch the video below, words just don’t do it justice!
To Be Continued (Max Post Length)
To catch up on recent blog posts you can go straight to the SG blog here:
SG-Motorsport Blog
But for now I'll post our CSCS Time Attack blog. It was a fun day, and the car ended up going rather quickly. The video has surprisingly good sound too, so enjoy it!
Well it’s been a week or so since the last round of CSCS for the season. While the CSCS stuff is amature, specifically the time attack and drifting, it brings out more fans than many pro events, and it certainly is fun to watch the up and coming talent from across Ontario. I like going to these events with the Z because of course it helps promote SG, and because it brings me back to my roots. There are always a few old familiar faces I haven’t seen in a while, and watching the drifting and being around so many people passionate about racing and motorsports just makes my heart happy. On some level, grassroots racing is more fun and more “real” than some higher echelon racing, which often becomes more of a politics game than a game of speed.
In time attack, there’s nothing to be gained by sandbagging or pretending. You give it your all, both in building the car and in running it. That’s what I love. Everyone built their own cars, for the most part anyways, and drives their own cars. It wouldn’t feel right to rent a ride for a CSCS time attack, or to bring out a pro team that built a car for you. But since I still do the wrenching on my Z, at least most of it, I don’t feel so wrong by coming out and running. Even if it is a “pro” racecar. Besides, maybe it inspires some guys out there who want to learn the difference between a modified street car and a real racecar.
Anyways, this is how the day went down. I got up super early, which in itself pisses me off, and then went to the shop, got the trailer and headed to TMP. Luckily we beat the rush into the entrance and got a good spot to put up the tent and SG banner. Gotta promote! Unloaded the car and did a quick checkover on it and relaxed for a little. All I was really planning on were a few laps to set the car up, feel the new Dunlop tires, and then park it until the Time Attack. I helped Marco with setup and driving with his S14, Elijah had his MR2 out and was enjoying that as well, so there was lots to do.
There were a few neat cars at the track, but nothing came that looked too frightening. Jim’s FD was out, an open wheel kit car of sorts, Will and John of ENMO racing with their twin-charged civic that we tuned a few months ago – although it was running on street tires so it wouldn’t be a contender, and a few sweet BMWs. I figured we had this one in the bag – which also meant a feature in Performance Auto & Sound magazine for the lap record holder 2010. Cool.
First session out and the car felt amazingly terrible. Absolutely zero grip, maybe less than zero, and the dampers were just way too stiff. Shuddering and bucking over every little bump (and there are a LOT of little bumps at TMP. And big bumps. Lots of bumps.), sliding around everywhere, refusing to build grip and honestly – being a little bit scary!
Now, this is normal any time I’ve just been at Mosport. The mind gets accustomed to 1.6 G’s and average corner speeds approaching 200km/h, you just feel like you’re crawling going any slower. And the result is overdriving the car. The aero isn’t working (much) at these speeds, and in the low gears you have an abundance of power to spin the tires without any real effort. Add the bumps into the equation and you find it very hard to feel like any setup is “good.” The bright side is however, it always gets better, and by the end of the day the car always seems to have found itself. Of course it’s likely more myself doing the finding – with my driving.
With more laps the tires start to come in, I start to slow it down a bit, the tire pressures get corrected, along with the high and low speed dampers (for you nerds: too much low speed everything, not enough high speed bump. Car was crashing over upsets everywhere, but skittering and refusing to bite), and some brake balance tuning. Car started to come together. With all the traffic out there it’s hard to get an idea of the car’s speed, but it didn’t seem like I was going to do a 1:15. I’d be lucky to match my old time. The traction control though. It was to die for. Knowing that it would limit slip just let me be sooo much more aggressive. I could stay in it, just check countersteer at it until the car stopped sliding, and basically stay exactly on line, never having to lift, but being slightly (and ever so) sideways the whole time. And it sounds so badass. It’s like a burbling popping crackle interrupting the smooth screaming high pitched exhaust that reminds me far too much of an F1 car. And I know that’s a big comparison to make. But it really did sound the part. Just half the pitch or so.
So the Time Attack comes around. I do some stupid little ****. Nerdy **** mostly. Add 3 Litres of fuel. Just incase. Tape off the bumper. Wait that’s too much. A little less. Ok. That should be alright. Tape the gaps to the headlights and fenders, give the car a wipe down, you know, clean the wheels. There are so many cracks in the front rotors it’s starting to get scary.
And then it’s time to go out with Marco. I know he can go faster, he just needs to be yelled at. He hasn’t got the lines down here 100%, but on the warm up lap I quickly show him where he wants to put the car in some of the techncial bits. The first lap I give him firm and loud instruction, but I’m not too intrusive. On the second and third lap though, I start screaming at him to floor it, to brake, to turn in, basically any movement short of breathing. And it works, we go a second faster than he’s ever gone there, and there were still a few spots we could have easily hashed out had we had more time. He’s happy, and for only having 240whp, he did really well.
My turn. I warm the engine up, then let it sit to get as much heat out of the oil and rad as possible. The bumper is pretty taped up. Nascar style taped up. I knew the engine would overheat, I just didn’t know exactly when. I figured the colder the rad and the oil the safer I’d be.
The key to this time attack was to get the heat into the tires as fast as possible. I only have 3 hot laps, and with each lap lasting little over a minute, with all relatively slow speed corners, it wouldn’t happen on the warm up lap alone. The goal was to have them fully up to temp by the finish of the 1st lap, so I had 2 hot laps to make it count. And that’s more or less how it went down. The warm up lap was spent upsetting the car and making it spend as much time sliding as possible. Either spinning rear tires, or understeering, throwing the car around, and of course heating the brakes. Brake heat is important to make sure the brake balance and feel remains consistent – and at a track like TMP, with 3 difficult and hard brake zones, there is a LOT of time to be made up by consistent sharp braking.
The first lap was pretty much a write off. I bombed the first corner way wide, I guess I braked too late, but either way I lost a few tenths there, and the tires were still far from totally in. Still amazing how long slicks take. It was still a good time though, matching my best effort from the last time attack. Anyways, second lap was a flyer. I just messed up the second corner, clipped the apex too much and dropped into the dirt and upon landing heard a big BANG. I figured I broke something. It startled me. Everything else was more or less on point, and I put down a 1:16.1. See, that’s the **** off. Being so close to the next lower integer but not quite being there. I knew that I could do a 1:15 if I didn’t **** up. But knowing that would certainly make me **** up. The pressure was on. And I did. I did **** up, on the 3rd last corner I came in a little too hot, braked a little too late and was wide by about 4 feet from the apex. Because it was a hairpin rather than a kink it didn’t matter so much, but I still figured I had thrown it away right there. I kept it clean for the rest of the lap and to my amazement, a 1:15.95 lit up on the dash! So good. Maybe the tires were still getting better, or maybe I was just that little bit more aggressive everywhere else without realizing it. Either way, I was ecstatic.
Then, to make things more awesome, as I started slowing for the first corner just after passing the start finish, my warning light came on. OIL HOT. How hot? 152 degrees C, or 305 degrees F. That’s frigging hot. Water was about to boil over too. Cool. Perfect Nascar timing. So I cruised around and cooled her down and parked the old girl. Fun. Watch the video below, words just don’t do it justice!
To Be Continued (Max Post Length)
10-03-2010, 06:49 PM
#43
There is certainly something to be said about time attack. I mean, I’ve already said about 1600 words about it, but the fact that it all comes down to one lap. It’s so much more intense than a race, where a few mistakes won’t kill you. In time attack (just like in qualifying) you really push for every last bit of time, hiding in so many fun and interesting places. But it’s a doubled edged sword. You have to know when to stop. Or you’ll make one mistake that throws away all of your small gains. So it’s as much mental as long distance racing, because you need to meter your aggression very carefully. It’s also fun because you can setup the car so aggressive. You only need to deal with it for a few laps, so the brain can handle it. If I were to race my car the way it was for this time attack, there’s no way I would be able to keep a low 1:16 pace. It’s just too knife edged. But I’ve always loved qualifying. I’ve always loved going as fast as I possibly can, even if it’s just for one lap.
http://vimeo.com/15514743
10-18-2010, 07:58 AM
#44
Just ripped Shannonville on Saturday, and put down a new best time of a 1:49.895. If you've been on Shannonville's Long Track you know the average time of lapping day cars is 2:05-2:20, here's a video!
http://vimeo.com/15926780
http://vimeo.com/15926780
10-18-2010, 08:10 AM
#45
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Holy moly that is a lot of revs! Beautiful. So is there any big plans for the Z over the winter?... flat underbody? Rear diffuser? More power, somehow some way?
10-18-2010, 09:40 AM
#46
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Thats is a quick time! I have a solid 25seconds or so to make up haha.
Is there more power to be made? Stroker? FI?
I would love to see some wind tunnel testing on the car, but only if you share
haha
Is there more power to be made? Stroker? FI?
I would love to see some wind tunnel testing on the car, but only if you share
haha
10-18-2010, 01:09 PM
#48
1,49 is quite impressive for an NA 350z 
While I had my 350z HR roadster the best time I did was high 2:05
then only got low 2;05 with my new 370z with some mod 270whp
I only did about 1 hour with the 370z at shannonville before doing a mistake and slipping off
congratz again Sasha !!!
While I had my 350z HR roadster the best time I did was high 2:05
then only got low 2;05 with my new 370z with some mod 270whp
I only did about 1 hour with the 370z at shannonville before doing a mistake and slipping off
congratz again Sasha !!!
10-19-2010, 05:18 AM
#49
Thanks guys!
Just before going to Shannonville I put in a revup lower plenum, which made more peak power but lost a significant amount of mid-range torque. Basically the car would be faster, but only if I revved the **** out of it. So this was my first time revving to 8000rpm, sounds pretty wild! Previously I was only going to 7600 or so, because that's when the non-revup intake ran out of steam.
I'll scan a dyno plot and post it up here soon. Can't wait to get larger cams in the engine and see what happens
Plans for next year are more aero and less weight for sure. The car can still gain a huge amount with downforce and I can't wait to start working on it
Andy, yup 24.
Just before going to Shannonville I put in a revup lower plenum, which made more peak power but lost a significant amount of mid-range torque. Basically the car would be faster, but only if I revved the **** out of it. So this was my first time revving to 8000rpm, sounds pretty wild! Previously I was only going to 7600 or so, because that's when the non-revup intake ran out of steam.
I'll scan a dyno plot and post it up here soon. Can't wait to get larger cams in the engine and see what happens
Plans for next year are more aero and less weight for sure. The car can still gain a huge amount with downforce and I can't wait to start working on it
Andy, yup 24.
10-19-2010, 08:56 AM
#50
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Wow 8000RPM 
! I never would have guessed that. I'm excited to see what you develop as far as extra aero for next year, and then hopefully we can buy your trick parts for our own cars. As for reducing weight, have you got any ideas of where to start? Your car seems to have all the obvious things covered in that department.
Just throwing this out there, but I work as a mechanical designer as a day job, if you ever need any parts modeled, reverse engineered, designed or engineering drawings made I'd be willing to lend you a helping hand. Watching you go fast is exciting, helping you go fast would be even more exciting so don't hesitate to PM me if you have any requests. I have a bunch of software I can use here at work after hours including some rather conservative CFD (computational fluid dynamics).
! I never would have guessed that. I'm excited to see what you develop as far as extra aero for next year, and then hopefully we can buy your trick parts for our own cars. As for reducing weight, have you got any ideas of where to start? Your car seems to have all the obvious things covered in that department.Just throwing this out there, but I work as a mechanical designer as a day job, if you ever need any parts modeled, reverse engineered, designed or engineering drawings made I'd be willing to lend you a helping hand. Watching you go fast is exciting, helping you go fast would be even more exciting so don't hesitate to PM me if you have any requests. I have a bunch of software I can use here at work after hours including some rather conservative CFD (computational fluid dynamics)
.
10-19-2010, 06:23 PM
#51
Thanks Parker! I just might take you up on that offer
The CFD in Solidworks is a joke!
As far as removing weight, I had the car down to basically the shell last winter and the most I could get out of it was 67lbs. I'll try again this year. I still have all the stock glass and panels, but at the same time I'll be adding a lot of weight with all of the aero that's going to go on the car. It's a sad situation!
The CFD in Solidworks is a joke!
As far as removing weight, I had the car down to basically the shell last winter and the most I could get out of it was 67lbs. I'll try again this year. I still have all the stock glass and panels, but at the same time I'll be adding a lot of weight with all of the aero that's going to go on the car. It's a sad situation!
04-01-2011, 04:56 AM
#52
Apologize for the lack of updates to this thread!
But I thought I would revive it with a quick feature PAS Mag did on the Z:
http://www.pasmag.com/performance/in...attack-monster
But I thought I would revive it with a quick feature PAS Mag did on the Z:
http://www.pasmag.com/performance/in...attack-monster
04-01-2011, 08:03 AM
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lol no need to appologize, we are sure you have bigger fish to fry then write blogs lol, but thanks for update! any major changes to the car this season?
04-01-2011, 08:27 AM
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Apologize for the lack of updates to this thread!
But I thought I would revive it with a quick feature PAS Mag did on the Z:
http://www.pasmag.com/performance/in...attack-monster
But I thought I would revive it with a quick feature PAS Mag did on the Z:
http://www.pasmag.com/performance/in...attack-monster
04-02-2011, 03:56 AM
#55
To be honest with you - we've been so busy on the Genesis coupe's that I haven't had a chance to even touch my car. Yesterday we did pull it out, but only to take the seat out of it to put into the Gen 
I did purchase a Tilton pedalbox for the car, it's getting to the point where the stock pedals just aren't close enough together to be dancing around on with this much grip. So a pedalbox should make a huge difference, especially as the car continues to get faster.
We still have to do the camshaft swap on the car and dyno it with the bigger exhaust cams, hopefully we don't totally destroy the lower RPM power. As you can see from the Shannonville video - the gears are pretty far apart.
Going forward from there the plans are to dry sump the engine, add more aero and put in a sequential gearbox. I was originally planning to just buy the Quaife 60G, but the more I think about it the more I want to design a custom rear subframe, with a transaxle 6spd sequential gearbox. That would be so badass. It's a project for the future - stock tranny for now!
I did purchase a Tilton pedalbox for the car, it's getting to the point where the stock pedals just aren't close enough together to be dancing around on with this much grip. So a pedalbox should make a huge difference, especially as the car continues to get faster.
We still have to do the camshaft swap on the car and dyno it with the bigger exhaust cams, hopefully we don't totally destroy the lower RPM power. As you can see from the Shannonville video - the gears are pretty far apart.
Going forward from there the plans are to dry sump the engine, add more aero and put in a sequential gearbox. I was originally planning to just buy the Quaife 60G, but the more I think about it the more I want to design a custom rear subframe, with a transaxle 6spd sequential gearbox. That would be so badass. It's a project for the future - stock tranny for now!
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