phile

My buddy just got an 04 EVO8, so he's been dying to find a parking lot and practice for autoX. We find one and make a course around it. It's a small course, but kind of tough. It wasn't just an oval. The first turn was really sharp. I stayed in second gear the whole time (to give you an idea of how small it is). I think my top speed was maybe 46. I have no track experience at all and I must say RWD is kind of tricky at first! Alot harder it seems than AWD. I've taken many spirited country drives in my Z, but they hardly compared to this (and this was coparitively MUCH slower). We did 5 laps around the small course and had one hotlap. I didn't take full advantage of the hotlap until later runs. I realized how crucial it was. We took two practice runs and two legitimate runs. My lap times really improved when I basically learned (on my third try) that I needed to drift my Z around turn 3 and 4! Below is our comparative runs:

350z---------EVO8
p: 1:26:21------1:18:26
p: 1:20:38------1:17:42
1: 1:18:50------1:16:13
2: 1:18:50---------*

My buddy's last run got stopped prematurely because someone pulled into the lot :P He was on par for a sub 1:16 run.

I think I improved alot. Right off the bat I noticed that my breaks were garbage. I have a performance so it's just like a track minus the brembo and the blows stereo. I also noticed that on this small track it felt as though the lsd hindered my drifting through turn 3 and 4. My memory is kind of foggy (because I was concentrating so much), but the lsd kicked in inconsistently. Probably because of my inconsistent driving. Anyhow, my mini track experience has changed my mod list I think. Now i'm thinking of breaks, suspension, lsd, etc, before I go with a turbo or something like that. First and foremost it helped me realize that I should probably learn how to drive my car in stock form properly before I mod at all! So does anyone have advice? Should I upgrade now instead of later? Any track tips before I go to autoX? Sorry this was so long, but I had to get it all out.

Thanks
Phile

P.s. I put this post in this forum partly because I grinded 2nd gear twice today worse than I ever have before, and would like some reassurance that I didn't kill my car. It was violently loud. What kind of damage occurs when gears are being grinded?

shopdog

The gears are constant mesh, it is the synchro rings that you're grinding. Those *parts* aren't expensive, but the labor to tear down the transmission and install them is. As long as you didn't break a tooth off the synchro, you only took a few thousand shifts off of it by grinding. :-(

You'll know if you broke a tooth, because it will ******** when engaging now. If it isn't doing that, don't worry too much.

Gary

DavesZ#3

iTrader: (26)

There is an Forum here devoted to AutoX:

https://my350z.com/forum/forumdispla...s=&forumid=305

You can learn a lot there and get your AutoX specific questions answered by those who have been there before.

A member of this board also has a site devoted to AutoX:

http://solo2.org

Check it out. He's done a lot to his Z.

Before you start doing mods to your Z, you need to learn a lot more about AutoX and the classes of cars. If you stay stock, you'll run against a set of "equal" cars. If you start modding, you will bump up to higher classes. You could easily find yourself out-gunned by better handling, more powerful cars.

BTW, from what I've heard our stock brakes do suck but they're not really that bad for AutoX. Brembos are great for track racing where you run for 20 minutes and heating and fade are an issue. For Autox, Brembos won't make much difference. Getting some good brake pads will help.

phile

I made a post to the autoX/road forum. Thanks

Shopdog, thanks for the info. The car doesn't ****** into gear so I should be fine. It was a 1st to 2nd grind at like ~30mph