350z's at ViR (road course in VA) **Video inside**
 

There were 4 of us.
We had a great weekend at the track, i found out first hand how crappy the non-brembos are comparred to the brembos, they held up great for most of the weekend, but by the last few laps on sunday i had NO BRAKES and had to head for the pits. when i checked, i had ZERO rear brake pads left. luckily i had brought an extra set.
I have some great in car footage a well as some out of car footage.

here is a teaser video that bhobson333 took(he was there too)
http://extremespeedonline.com/mig/al...R/MOV03167.MPG

Once i get all mine digitized ill post more

why cant i go on to see the video thingy???

Geesh, you guys were hauling ass. What's the average speed around that course?

Awesome but needs to be longer

VIR is a great track, but it's not worth the drive for me to do the South course. North is much more fun, and the Full course is of epic proportions. This was with THSCC, right?

Edit: I hear from some of the Honda and Miata guys that the weather was absolutely perfect though...

minh, you need to have the new media player or Apples Quicktime.

Weather was perfect, and we had a friggin blast.

There will be more video soon, just keep watching, i have over an hour of footage, some is better than others(the out of car is pretty bad the person using the camera didnt have autofocus on)

But there is some good stuff, ill put together a nice video.

Yeah! Right there at the top we were doing ~110mph. Eric, great to meet you, I look forward to the video!

VIR summary
 

That's funny, I think the videos make it look slower than it really was!

At the end of the straight I was usually doing around 115. Of course, looking at the speedometer was way down on the priority list!

It was a great weekend, sunny with temps in the mid-70's. We had four 350Zs there (me, Eric1h,mcclaskz and a Canadian visitor who may not be a member). All of the 350Zs were in the beginners group, none of us had been to this kind of thing before. Even so, I think we really impressed the crowd with the capabilities of the car. These are experienced track junkies and they were WOW'ed by what they saw.

Flyingscot (who is a regular in that crowd and an instructor) said that, prior to this weekend, the BMW guys were giving him sh*t about the 350Z. He has a DB Track but doesn't run it because he has a dedicated track car. After the BMW guys saw us running, I think the sh*t has stopped. One of my main disapointments of the weekend is that there were no BMWs in our run class.

Here is my summary of the cars that I remember in our run class (beginner) and how we did against them. Remember, this is opinion based on my memory from when I was high on adrenalin!

1) Silver Corvette Z06 This car was fast and, although he may have struggled early, by the end of the weekend he was doing good. I'm pretty sure he had after-market wheels and brakes. He pulled away from me on the straights and was very close in the corners. My best guess is that in the corners the cars were even and the driver (of the Z06) was better. This is the only car that passed me all weekend.

2) Yellow Mini-Cooper - I did not get a chance to seriously play with this car, mainly because we were so evenly matched; we never caught up with each other. I think these cars are very close in performance, both in the straights and in the curves. (All other things being equal, though, which one would you rather be in in an accident?) :) I did see it go straight off-track in a hairpin (last run of the weekend) and I don't think I saw it after that, so its brakes may be a little lacking.

3) Black WRX - Again, I didn't seriously play with this car because we never caught each other. I think they're a close match, although the WRX driver did report that we pulled on him slightly in both the straights and the curves.

4) Silver RX-7 3rd generation - I never played with him at all but the reports I got were that he tried real hard but the car just wasn't up to beng a serious competitor to the 350Z.

5) Other Zs - we had a 280 ZX & several 300ZXs though I don't think there were any Turbos. Overall they were just obviously not quite able to compete, in straight-line pulls or in the corners. There were no 240Zs in our run group. One exception to this was a 280 that was track-prepared; built engine, stripped car with roll-cage. He was very fast and a strong competitor. I didn't play with him, though Eric1h did.

6) Fairly new Yellow Mustang, not SVT - he was somewhat competitive in the pure straights but he fell way behind in the curves.

7) Honda CRX - It tried real hard but, although it had good straight-line pull it just couldn't hang in the corners.

8) Blue Corvette - bone stock, driven poorly. I wanted to confront the guy and say "You must surrender the keys to that sports car immediately. Please go buy yourself an SUV".

9) Yellow Ford Focus - some kinda boxy mini-SUV-looking thing. The driver was willing but the machine was weak.

10) White Cavalier - Poor. That car got at least one white flag (meaning "there's a car ahead of you that's running signifigantly slower than the rest of traffic") when it had no mechanical difficulties!

Finally, 350Z vs. 350Z

I had the only Track model, all others were 6MT Tourings. (OK, technically one was a Canadian Performance, but my understanding is that this is basically the same as a US 6MT Touring)

In the straight line and in the corners the cars were all very much the same (of course); an obvious driver's race. To a large extent, except for the thrill of several 350Zs running together, I think we had more fun running against other cars; we were just too closely matched. One thing that caused me some frustration is that the braking difference is signifigant. When I was following another 350Z I was forced to brake earlier than I normally needed to, which hurt my speed. When a non-Track 350Z allowed me to pass I gained ground on them in the curves, but it was sometimes hard to get that wave-by. Except for the fact that I could brake later and harder there was no difference; I had to be very bumper-aggressive through the curves to prove that I should be allowed to pass.

Here's a nice pic; we should have a link to hosted pics & video soon:

These were taken with my digital camera; it takes 5 second movies by default. Here's links to a couple more:

http://extremespeedonline.com/mig/al...R/MOV03160.MPG

http://extremespeedonline.com/mig/al...R/MOV03163.MPG

he yellow cooper was a Cooper S and not stock. And yes he was fast!

) Silver RX-7 3rd generation - I never played with him at all but the reports I got were that he tried real hard but the car just wasn't up to beng a serious competitor to the 350Z.

NO contest, i lap'd him twice, he couldnt believe how quickly i gaine don him, he came up afterwards and was like, WOW, youre FAST! hehehe

Cool. Thanks for the video.

Are any of you guys going to BeaveRun in May for the NASA HPDE? I'm probably going, and SunsetZ is going. Would be great to hook up with some more My350Z.com'ers at the track.

Doubt it. That's a long drive for a track event, especially with VIR an hour or two away, and so soon after this last weekend. It would be neat to meet more my350z'ers and I'm sure I would enjoy the sh*t out of the event, but I just can't see it.

Brian

Attack of the Zs :)

Nice video.

Hopefully I'll be able to do VIR on my bike. The track is awesome for bikers.

Re: 350z's at ViR (road course in VA) **Video inside**
 

That's what happens when you run stock pads on a road course all weekend :D Have you read the StopTech article about the stoptech upgrades and the track brembos? If not you should, its really good.

Re: Re: 350z's at ViR (road course in VA) **Video inside**
 

I read the long version a few months ago, here's a link to a short summary I just found:

http://www.stoptech.com/docs/350Zstopping.htm

In brief, for only $5000 you can make any 350Z stop just about as well as a Track. OK maybe a LITTLE better.

It's interesting, they only post stopping distances for the front-only configuration, not their four-wheel replacement. We found this past weekend that this car (for some odd reason) wears rear brakes faster than front brakes.

I also question their numbers. According to them, the stopping distance 100-0 of the Track averaged only 5 feet better than the Performance. I was up against Tourings, and we never came to a complete stop on the track, but I think the differential was better than that.

I don't intend here to be hyper-critical of Stoptech, I just think they're maybe not telling the whole truth and maybe not as dollar-effective as other available solutions.

Re: Re: Re: 350z's at ViR (road course in VA) **Video inside**
 

i keep forgetting to check the track times for VIR. i've been way to busy lately to get away from work for a day to get down there. if i go i won't bring my Z as i have a semi-track prepared CRX that i would bring instead. we'll see. next time you guys get ready to go make a post in the regional forums or hit me up and i'll see if i can make it. we are about the same distance from the track cept i'm north of it and you are south.

VIR
 

Hi everyone. I'm the "old" guy who ran with those young bucks at VIR. I made the 800 mile trip home OK but now I really have no brakes and the rotors are scored a bit. What a fantastic place to put an awesome car through its paces. I'm sure there were a lot of 350Z wannabees there and I'm still buzzin' ! Anyone who has a 350 owes it to themselves to do this high performance track thing at least once. You will be even more surprised at how great this car really is when you hang it over the edge. Ah, the smell of premium and brakes in the morning!
Cheers
Dave

Wow! I must applaud you for making the drive down to VIR! You should meet up with me at Watkins Glen later this year in early July; it should be a much shorter drive for you. :)

VIR
 

Thanks for the info, any idea who I would contact for details of the Glen school? For those of you who are interested, go to trianglezclub.com. They have pictures, videos and a cool panarama of the weekend event at VIR.
Cheers

Dave, it was great to meet you and thanks for the pics! Check out trackschedule.com it is the definitive calendar for all things track. Be safe!