Ultimate Street Car Challenge 2008
10-07-2008, 12:25 AM
#25
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Ya ya youre famous your car is going to win blah blah.... What transformer are you going to be this year?
JK Cheston, VERY PROUD! You deserve it Sir! Good Luck!
Really though, what transformer?
JK Cheston, VERY PROUD! You deserve it Sir! Good Luck!
Really though, what transformer?
10-19-2008, 11:06 PM
#31
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I have this issue right next to my bed, and i am sure to look at the picture every time before I go to sleep so I have good dreams, lol.
Its ALMOST better looking than my gf... almost.
Its ALMOST better looking than my gf... almost.
10-22-2008, 09:00 AM
#33
Just got my issue yesterday, I just wanted to congratulate Cheston on the great showing! You represented the Z community EXTREMELY well. Like you said, the car really was a jack of all trades and did well in all of the events, and you WHOOPED their *** on the road course! 
Your Z is beautiful and fast, god damn I hate you.
Your Z is beautiful and fast, god damn I hate you.
10-22-2008, 12:57 PM
#34
Only 10 points separated first and second place. You did very well, Cheston. I think you got screwed with the base cost points, since your mods could be done with a Base Z for only 27k and not 34k, which would have given you the win overall. The drag times were also costly. Either way you did well overall, and owned the road course event, which I think is the most important test.
I can't wait to hear your account of the event!
Will (has to now go and see if his two child seats fit in the back of an EvoX, and consider a new daily driver)
I can't wait to hear your account of the event!
Will (has to now go and see if his two child seats fit in the back of an EvoX, and consider a new daily driver)
10-22-2008, 01:49 PM
#35
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Great 2nd place finish! Being runner up by only 10pts is something to be very proud of! Came in 1st on the road course, which is the most important test of them all. 2nd place by 7ft. on the braking test is great, too. Came in 2nd on the dyno, only 8hp shy of the R32 GT-R. If only you'd upped the boost just a little bit more for that test. 
10-22-2008, 02:24 PM
#37
Update 10/22
Well the Results issue is finally out! You can get it now at newsstands everywhere...
I guess i'd like to reflect back on the event.. put down some of my thoughts..
Day 0, Getting to K&N
I had dropped off the car at Steve Mitchell's M-Workz the prior to the event to get the car corner balanced and aligned aggressively for the road course. Steve sorta threw a wrench (ha. pun) into my plans when he said, "hey, KW wants to use their Clubsport Coilovers on the Z.. do you want to try it? but its not going to be here for another couple of days" I said. well, let's give it a try because i was afraid the Zeals i had previously wouldnt give me enough travel and softness required for some of the driveability and comfort tests.. so i said lets do it... well.. Steve also had Formula D cars come in that weekend right before the event for last minute adjustments so my install wasn't completed until literally 1 day prior to drop off day, and wasn't aligned fully yet. So day of the event, i was sweating bullets, since i didnt hear from Steve yet that the car was done (which i was expecting a call around noon), and i went down to the shop to see if i could help.... As i arrived there, it was 330pm and i had to be in Riverside (K&N facility) by 6pm. The car was just finishing up the Tow and rear alignment... we decided to set the dampening for the shocks to the suggested base settings, and top off the fluids inthe car with fresh Motul.. but by then it was 430pm and the clock was ticking.. Howard@ Technosquare graciously came up to Mworkz to ride Shotgun with me in the carpool and we were off.. I highly underestimated 91 Eastbound traffic.. i tried speeding whenever it was clear.. but that damn Toll road!!@$!@ traffic killed it all.. It took literally 1 hour 28+ minutes to get to the freeway exit that i needed to be at for K&N and i was running low on gas.. should i stop? or just roll in.. when i saw that it was 5:59 on my watch.. and i decided to just risk it and rolled into the K&N facility.. they were just about to close the gate (literally) and they graciously let me in just before the cut off time.. Just behind me was the silver Evo8. haha. i guess he was late too... howard and i looked at each other and thought "What did we get ourselves into?"
Day 1
First day started hella early.. like. 6 something at K&N. once I arrived with Howard@ Technosquare, immediately went and started prepping the car. Cleaning everything off, waxing and putting on more stickers. (woot) I got kind of nervous that I was going to fail everything.. all the cars & teams there seemed way more prepared. Like the AMS Evo X had as serious full on race/support team for the car.. so did the BMW, the Mazda3 and pretty much everyone except me.. yikes.
I volunteered to go first on the engineering panel and they had the car up on the lift. The panel was pretty nice bunch of guys and I just basically went through the mods that I did to the engine, all the hidden GTspec bars that they couldn’t see, and all the custom 1off stuff that Technosquare did. They really liked the custom parts and the finish of the turbo kit and the additions to the exhaust system..
I wanted to do the Dyno & Emissions test as soon as I could due to the colder weather… mind you all this was done in Mid August and Riverside gets hot.. really fast..
Most of the cars had already pulled and I got three tries..
Had I known it was peak power, instead of power and torque. I would have beaten the R32, but I thought it was best of both #s so I picked my torque # which was highest, but slightly lower HP..
Click to see the dyno:
http://www.z33driver.com/images/USCC/USCC_Dyno.jpg
Immediately following dyno was Emissions test.. so for those with the test pipes in there, they traded off power for emissions.. good thing I had cats.. my readings were fairly good, thanks to the custom cats I made from the magnaflow center-spun metal substrates…and I tied for 3rd.
SCC Editor Andy Hope took my car for the Drivability test.. maybe I shouldn’t have said anything about the long nose because he knocked me on the score since he was afraid of ripping off my front bumper.. doh.. But he said the AC sucked.. hmm.. I did have my EVC5 blocking the AC vent. But I never had any issues.. oh well.
Next up was the GF test.. which I was pretty stoked… Steve Mitchell had suggested I bring a rose to the event, he was telling me that Jacqueline was impress that last year’s contestant let her drive the car.. so I thought I’d take it one step further and burn her a Mix CD!!YESSSS.. (and my wife was like.. get her a bouquet of roses) So I went out to Ralphs and got her these ‘Princess roses’ and burned her a CD of like 80s/90s/now music.. (i.e. “Take my Breath away” by Berlin, Ice Cube “Today was a Good Day”, “Make love in the club” Usher, “Magic Stick” 50-Cent.. etc) haha.. she really liked it and we listened to the mix cd in the car as we drove.. Turns out she has way more cars than she knows what to do with. Heh. Awesome girl… too bad I’m married.
The last event of the day was the fuel economy test… that was killer.. it was basically a 70+ mile trek through riverside surface streets and back country roads, which then put us back onto the fwy and right outside Irwindale. I took off my wing and pumped up the tires to get the least amount of drag
And a lot of people were putting a 2nd navigator (read: 200lb dead weight) into the car since the directions were hard to read. You simply couldn’t put it into the GPS Navigation and say 'go'. You had to follow the turn by turn directions that SCC gave us.. Howard, since he used to Rally back in the day and was navigator decided to do the best thing that we could have done… put the distance in mileage between each turn, so I could count down to my next turn.. I didn’t want him to ride with me since I wanted the car as light as possible… so off I went.. AC OFF, windows up at anything > than 40mph. and 3 bottles of water. It was basically a train of modified cars cruising on the right lane and some of the cars on the down hill turned OFF the engine and coasted… I just put it in neutral and drafted everything and anything possible. Trick is not to bogg the engine with such a high gear and keep the revs under 3k. (out of boost)
When it came time to the freeway, I decided to change up my strategy. Everyone was hugging the slow lane, and in open air.. I decided to speed up slightly and suck myself behind anything bigger than me… which happened to be a 14foot short bed moving truck going 75mph.. score! For a majority of the freeway ride, I was behind this truck, until it exited and then I found myself.. in the open.. then I spotted the EvoX and sucked up behind him who was basically sucked up behind an 18wheeler semi-trailer truck. Then all of a sudden I saw the evo swerve and I had to do a mad brake, another truck infront of the semi, popped a tire and the trailer the evo was following kicked up the tire and struck the front end of the bumper and I ran over it.. no damage to me, but the evo had a slight scuff mark on their front bumper.. scary. But luckily only minor damage..
We rolled into the Jack in the box, next to the speedway and topped off our fuels for measurement.. I had seriously sweated out most the water I took in the 3 bottles and then some due to the heat.. I was happy it was over. We were told to be prepared for CA speedway and the track events the next day. I felt like I did well but was nervous none-the-less for the track day events..… yikes
Well the Results issue is finally out! You can get it now at newsstands everywhere...
I guess i'd like to reflect back on the event.. put down some of my thoughts..
Day 0, Getting to K&N
I had dropped off the car at Steve Mitchell's M-Workz the prior to the event to get the car corner balanced and aligned aggressively for the road course. Steve sorta threw a wrench (ha. pun) into my plans when he said, "hey, KW wants to use their Clubsport Coilovers on the Z.. do you want to try it? but its not going to be here for another couple of days" I said. well, let's give it a try because i was afraid the Zeals i had previously wouldnt give me enough travel and softness required for some of the driveability and comfort tests.. so i said lets do it... well.. Steve also had Formula D cars come in that weekend right before the event for last minute adjustments so my install wasn't completed until literally 1 day prior to drop off day, and wasn't aligned fully yet. So day of the event, i was sweating bullets, since i didnt hear from Steve yet that the car was done (which i was expecting a call around noon), and i went down to the shop to see if i could help.... As i arrived there, it was 330pm and i had to be in Riverside (K&N facility) by 6pm. The car was just finishing up the Tow and rear alignment... we decided to set the dampening for the shocks to the suggested base settings, and top off the fluids inthe car with fresh Motul.. but by then it was 430pm and the clock was ticking.. Howard@ Technosquare graciously came up to Mworkz to ride Shotgun with me in the carpool and we were off.. I highly underestimated 91 Eastbound traffic.. i tried speeding whenever it was clear.. but that damn Toll road!!@$!@ traffic killed it all.. It took literally 1 hour 28+ minutes to get to the freeway exit that i needed to be at for K&N and i was running low on gas.. should i stop? or just roll in.. when i saw that it was 5:59 on my watch.. and i decided to just risk it and rolled into the K&N facility.. they were just about to close the gate (literally) and they graciously let me in just before the cut off time.. Just behind me was the silver Evo8. haha. i guess he was late too... howard and i looked at each other and thought "What did we get ourselves into?"
Day 1
First day started hella early.. like. 6 something at K&N. once I arrived with Howard@ Technosquare, immediately went and started prepping the car. Cleaning everything off, waxing and putting on more stickers. (woot) I got kind of nervous that I was going to fail everything.. all the cars & teams there seemed way more prepared. Like the AMS Evo X had as serious full on race/support team for the car.. so did the BMW, the Mazda3 and pretty much everyone except me.. yikes.
I volunteered to go first on the engineering panel and they had the car up on the lift. The panel was pretty nice bunch of guys and I just basically went through the mods that I did to the engine, all the hidden GTspec bars that they couldn’t see, and all the custom 1off stuff that Technosquare did. They really liked the custom parts and the finish of the turbo kit and the additions to the exhaust system..
I wanted to do the Dyno & Emissions test as soon as I could due to the colder weather… mind you all this was done in Mid August and Riverside gets hot.. really fast..
Most of the cars had already pulled and I got three tries..
Had I known it was peak power, instead of power and torque. I would have beaten the R32, but I thought it was best of both #s so I picked my torque # which was highest, but slightly lower HP..
Click to see the dyno:
http://www.z33driver.com/images/USCC/USCC_Dyno.jpg
Immediately following dyno was Emissions test.. so for those with the test pipes in there, they traded off power for emissions.. good thing I had cats.. my readings were fairly good, thanks to the custom cats I made from the magnaflow center-spun metal substrates…and I tied for 3rd.
SCC Editor Andy Hope took my car for the Drivability test.. maybe I shouldn’t have said anything about the long nose because he knocked me on the score since he was afraid of ripping off my front bumper.. doh.. But he said the AC sucked.. hmm.. I did have my EVC5 blocking the AC vent. But I never had any issues.. oh well.
Next up was the GF test.. which I was pretty stoked… Steve Mitchell had suggested I bring a rose to the event, he was telling me that Jacqueline was impress that last year’s contestant let her drive the car.. so I thought I’d take it one step further and burn her a Mix CD!!YESSSS.. (and my wife was like.. get her a bouquet of roses) So I went out to Ralphs and got her these ‘Princess roses’ and burned her a CD of like 80s/90s/now music.. (i.e. “Take my Breath away” by Berlin, Ice Cube “Today was a Good Day”, “Make love in the club” Usher, “Magic Stick” 50-Cent.. etc) haha.. she really liked it and we listened to the mix cd in the car as we drove.. Turns out she has way more cars than she knows what to do with. Heh. Awesome girl… too bad I’m married.
The last event of the day was the fuel economy test… that was killer.. it was basically a 70+ mile trek through riverside surface streets and back country roads, which then put us back onto the fwy and right outside Irwindale. I took off my wing and pumped up the tires to get the least amount of drag
And a lot of people were putting a 2nd navigator (read: 200lb dead weight) into the car since the directions were hard to read. You simply couldn’t put it into the GPS Navigation and say 'go'. You had to follow the turn by turn directions that SCC gave us.. Howard, since he used to Rally back in the day and was navigator decided to do the best thing that we could have done… put the distance in mileage between each turn, so I could count down to my next turn.. I didn’t want him to ride with me since I wanted the car as light as possible… so off I went.. AC OFF, windows up at anything > than 40mph. and 3 bottles of water. It was basically a train of modified cars cruising on the right lane and some of the cars on the down hill turned OFF the engine and coasted… I just put it in neutral and drafted everything and anything possible. Trick is not to bogg the engine with such a high gear and keep the revs under 3k. (out of boost)
When it came time to the freeway, I decided to change up my strategy. Everyone was hugging the slow lane, and in open air.. I decided to speed up slightly and suck myself behind anything bigger than me… which happened to be a 14foot short bed moving truck going 75mph.. score! For a majority of the freeway ride, I was behind this truck, until it exited and then I found myself.. in the open.. then I spotted the EvoX and sucked up behind him who was basically sucked up behind an 18wheeler semi-trailer truck. Then all of a sudden I saw the evo swerve and I had to do a mad brake, another truck infront of the semi, popped a tire and the trailer the evo was following kicked up the tire and struck the front end of the bumper and I ran over it.. no damage to me, but the evo had a slight scuff mark on their front bumper.. scary. But luckily only minor damage..
We rolled into the Jack in the box, next to the speedway and topped off our fuels for measurement.. I had seriously sweated out most the water I took in the 3 bottles and then some due to the heat.. I was happy it was over. We were told to be prepared for CA speedway and the track events the next day. I felt like I did well but was nervous none-the-less for the track day events..… yikes
Last edited by Chebosto; 10-22-2008 at 02:41 PM.
10-22-2008, 02:25 PM
#38
Day 2.
Day 2 started with a briefing by the editors. To my amazement.. They said that I was in the lead with about 100 points above 2nd.. and it was pretty much up to me to lose it. (yikes) The EvoX in 2nd, and the Mazda3 in 3rd…
The day started off with the Skidpad.. Billy Johnson, my driver is used to running slightly lower PSI in the tires and likes it to be a little bit rolly.. unfortunately Andy, who was doing the skid pad tests.. didn’t give it a little bit more gas for the rear to rotate over.. and my skid pad score suffered a little bit.. doh. The EvoX was amazing. That thing was seriously sticking like glue… maybe if I had setup the suspension dampening a little bit better and adjusted the toe settings prior, we would have been ok. So the X got closer..
After skidpad was Quarter mile and Braking test, which was back to back. In the field of 9 cars.. only 3 were non-AWD!! (me, the bmw, and the Mazda3). I wanted low drag configuration so I took off the wing (heh)
Billy couldn’t launch the Z w/o serious wheel spin, so as a result our quarter times were pretty bad. (plus it didn’t help that 2->3rd gear shift wasn’t happening .. could it be the grind issue just so wanted to start happening during a competition? TEH LOSE.) Braking on the other hand was pretty nice.. the super sticky R888, my 6 pot ST-60 Stoptechs and Hawk brake pads helped me with some pretty good 80-0 stops…the driver (mag editor) said it felt pretty good. We kept ABS on for this test and the results show’d. The Evo X got 2nd and I got 2nd to last on the quarter… for braking, even though I got 2nd, the X was right behind me..
After the brake test, everyone boned out to Willow Springs for the track event.. by the time we got there, it was high heat and blaring sun.. We’d only have 30 minutes of testing, and the only thing holding us back was Billy had about.. oh.. 15 minutes of seat time in the Z… So after 2 laps of practice, he pulled into the pits saying “it understeers too much” so we jacked up the car, messed with the dampening settings and off he went… another lap later he comes in, and says “its still understeering” so we adjust the sway bar settings.. but I noticed that my rear wheels theres all this aluminum shavings everywhere.. turns out a rock got jammed between the caliper and wheel and started shaving off the metal. Yikes.. we did a walk around and found out three of the 4 wheels had rocks stuck between the calipers and wheel barrel.. damn. So much for my RE30s..
We had to take the wheels off and reseat them.. all the whiles still adjusting the dampening/rebound settings and toe settings for the car.. by the time we had everything done, time for practice was up, and we weren’t allowed back onto the track. %@#%
So in a sense.. Billy only had 3 laps in the Z before we had to run for score. When it was time for us to run. We were given 5 total laps to get best times.. Billy cranked out a 1:25.7 his first time out, and did a cool down 2nd lap, then for the third lap, really did his best and got a 1:25.3. Again he did a cool down lap, and for the 5th and final lap, he went back up slightly and I had timed him at a 1:25.5.. I guess some where after the two turns, he slightly went wide and my under panel got stuck and folded over backward. So we lost the smooth airflow under the car.. did it affect the time? I dunno. But he didn’t beat his 3rd lap time… 2nd to go up was the Evo X.. on the 5th and final lap, he pulled a 1:25.5, and we happy we had won the track battle…
Last event of the day, was the gross display of hp. The BMW guys were pretty much in last place all day, so they went for broke. Even after the time was called, they kept going.. at one point, driving sideways with the steeringwheel and quick-release off .. ahahah. Billy did a GREAT wide drift with crazy smoke off the R888s for a close 2nd place..
(SAVE TARGET AS)
http://www.z33driver.com/images/USCC...sDisplayHP.wmv
When it came down to the judging.. I was just hoping that I’d be close…in the end, I lost just by 10 points to the EvoX.. It was the quarter mile, acceleration and my skid pad that really did it in for me.. dammit. We did the trophy Ceremony and the final shots for the cover and spread…
Oh well. I did my best. If we had a little bit better setup time for the suspension. I really did think we would have won it all… but thanks so much to all my friends and sponsors that helped pull it all together… I guess the bright side is.. yes I did beat an R35GTR.. heh..
Billy Johnson (driver)
Thanks for Reading..
Video coverage / web details should be on SCC website as well at GTChannel
Day 2 started with a briefing by the editors. To my amazement.. They said that I was in the lead with about 100 points above 2nd.. and it was pretty much up to me to lose it. (yikes) The EvoX in 2nd, and the Mazda3 in 3rd…
The day started off with the Skidpad.. Billy Johnson, my driver is used to running slightly lower PSI in the tires and likes it to be a little bit rolly.. unfortunately Andy, who was doing the skid pad tests.. didn’t give it a little bit more gas for the rear to rotate over.. and my skid pad score suffered a little bit.. doh. The EvoX was amazing. That thing was seriously sticking like glue… maybe if I had setup the suspension dampening a little bit better and adjusted the toe settings prior, we would have been ok. So the X got closer..
After skidpad was Quarter mile and Braking test, which was back to back. In the field of 9 cars.. only 3 were non-AWD!! (me, the bmw, and the Mazda3). I wanted low drag configuration so I took off the wing (heh)
Billy couldn’t launch the Z w/o serious wheel spin, so as a result our quarter times were pretty bad. (plus it didn’t help that 2->3rd gear shift wasn’t happening .. could it be the grind issue just so wanted to start happening during a competition? TEH LOSE.) Braking on the other hand was pretty nice.. the super sticky R888, my 6 pot ST-60 Stoptechs and Hawk brake pads helped me with some pretty good 80-0 stops…the driver (mag editor) said it felt pretty good. We kept ABS on for this test and the results show’d. The Evo X got 2nd and I got 2nd to last on the quarter… for braking, even though I got 2nd, the X was right behind me..
After the brake test, everyone boned out to Willow Springs for the track event.. by the time we got there, it was high heat and blaring sun.. We’d only have 30 minutes of testing, and the only thing holding us back was Billy had about.. oh.. 15 minutes of seat time in the Z… So after 2 laps of practice, he pulled into the pits saying “it understeers too much” so we jacked up the car, messed with the dampening settings and off he went… another lap later he comes in, and says “its still understeering” so we adjust the sway bar settings.. but I noticed that my rear wheels theres all this aluminum shavings everywhere.. turns out a rock got jammed between the caliper and wheel and started shaving off the metal. Yikes.. we did a walk around and found out three of the 4 wheels had rocks stuck between the calipers and wheel barrel.. damn. So much for my RE30s..
We had to take the wheels off and reseat them.. all the whiles still adjusting the dampening/rebound settings and toe settings for the car.. by the time we had everything done, time for practice was up, and we weren’t allowed back onto the track. %@#%
So in a sense.. Billy only had 3 laps in the Z before we had to run for score. When it was time for us to run. We were given 5 total laps to get best times.. Billy cranked out a 1:25.7 his first time out, and did a cool down 2nd lap, then for the third lap, really did his best and got a 1:25.3. Again he did a cool down lap, and for the 5th and final lap, he went back up slightly and I had timed him at a 1:25.5.. I guess some where after the two turns, he slightly went wide and my under panel got stuck and folded over backward. So we lost the smooth airflow under the car.. did it affect the time? I dunno. But he didn’t beat his 3rd lap time… 2nd to go up was the Evo X.. on the 5th and final lap, he pulled a 1:25.5, and we happy we had won the track battle…
Last event of the day, was the gross display of hp. The BMW guys were pretty much in last place all day, so they went for broke. Even after the time was called, they kept going.. at one point, driving sideways with the steeringwheel and quick-release off .. ahahah. Billy did a GREAT wide drift with crazy smoke off the R888s for a close 2nd place..
(SAVE TARGET AS)
http://www.z33driver.com/images/USCC...sDisplayHP.wmv
When it came down to the judging.. I was just hoping that I’d be close…in the end, I lost just by 10 points to the EvoX.. It was the quarter mile, acceleration and my skid pad that really did it in for me.. dammit. We did the trophy Ceremony and the final shots for the cover and spread…
Oh well. I did my best. If we had a little bit better setup time for the suspension. I really did think we would have won it all… but thanks so much to all my friends and sponsors that helped pull it all together… I guess the bright side is.. yes I did beat an R35GTR.. heh..
Billy Johnson (driver)
Thanks for Reading..
Video coverage / web details should be on SCC website as well at GTChannel
Last edited by Chebosto; 10-22-2008 at 02:41 PM.
