Sorry it took so long to post these, but I left for Vegas the next day and the results were not up yet. Let me once again congratulate Speedventures on putting on a well organized, safe, and all around excellent track day. The only thing keeping it from being perfect was the heat, around 100 degrees.

The Streets of Willow is a very tight twisting track that really favors lightweight tossable cars. It was the first time for me running the Z there so I was really wondering how it would compare the the Stooks in their element.

I'll start out with my excuses. I was acting as a chauffer all day giving my brother, and anyone else that wanted one, track rides. It was hot as hell so the Z required really low starting tire pressures (about 27lbs). It would always take about 3 laps to get the pressures up, but then they would stay perfect. I only ran 5 laps total sans passenger and I never even came close to getting all the car had to offer under the hot conditions. To top it off, I had to leave early and it was cooling considerably with a nice cloud cover. I feel there was at least another second in the car with the better conditions and a bit more familiarity with the car's performance without a co pilot if I could have run the 4th and final session. Next time I just need to run all the sessions, but the numbers are the numbers so I'll quit my bitchin' and post them here:

June 6th Streets of Willow track day results.

I am bummed because I am sure I could have won my class had I had time to run the last session of the day (I know, still whining!!!), but instead I was barely pipped. I fineshed 5th of 13 in my class and the difference between 1st and 5th was .8 seconds. Also notice the heavy hardware there like the 911 GT2, still only 1.6 seconds faster, and the late model 911 that was also easy prey.

Overall I am pleased with how well the car performed. Not a hiccup. The sound of the AEM combined with the Borla Dual is intoxicating on a track. There is still room for improvement though. The car still suffered from some understeer on this very tight track. The understeer is front camber related judging by the wear pattern of the front tires. I need some adjustable front A arms. 3rd to 2nd downshifts were also pretty damn nothchy. Even heal and toeing, it still felt bad.

Everyone keeps talking about the EVO 8 and I mentioned before that I would never buy another Mits car after all the things that went wrong with our last one. The EVO is following right in that path as a brand new car sheared a bottom strut bolt clean off. That is just damn scary and I am convinced that the way they make those cars so damn cheap is their cheap metals and poor metalurgy. Just look at the cracking engine block scandal they tried to cover up a year ago. You can keep it.

Hope to see more of you guys out there soon.

 

Steve,
Thanks you very much for your detailed writeups on your track days. I really enjoy reading your thoughts on mods and how they are working on the Z. We had four 350s on Saturday here at Sebring this past weekend (two left on Sunday). So were slowly getting more guys out on the track. Had a blast! SV runs a cool event. I gained a few seconds with better brake pads and Eibach springs. I should have sway bars on by next event.

I'm looking for better tires for the street/track, Can't decide to go with S03 or the Toyos T1s, any reason you went with Bridgestones? How much better were they than the stock RE040s?

Thanks!
- Jeff

 

Cool to see that some people on this form go to track event. Well I a good friend of that guy with the evo. Was it red? This control arm bolt came off right. Well here the story. He took it to an alignment shop and they forgot to tighten the bolt after the alignment, so that why it came off, very dangerous. I think he should take them to court. The crazy thing was that he live in the bay area, he zip tide the control arm and drove it from L.A to the bay like that. Crazy! I normally attend track event with him every chance I get but that weekend I was busy doing some video shoots so I did get a chance to go with him. I’ll let him know about this form so he can explain his story.

here a video of him at buttonwillow
http://www.samuraifiles.com/vids/evo...ttonwillow.wmv

 

Yup, it was the Red one. John Wurth helped him get it into limp home mode so he wouldn't have had to have it towed. I wouldn't be so sure about the alignment shop forgetting to tighten the bolt. Mitsus have all kinds of problem like that. On my wife's old 2000 Galant V6, I was rotating the tires and simply had a lug just sheer off!!!! Weird.

 

If I was buying tires again, I would actually go with the BFG G-Force TA or go with R compounds. I was supposed to have R comps at this event, but it didn't work out. Next time.

If I was going to go with just one set of tires for street and track, it would be the BFG's. If you are going to go with a street and a track set, then the Toyo's or the SO3's should be just fine for your street tires. I never really intended to use the S03's on the track, it just worked out that way. The 040's, with their larger tread blocks, are probably better track tires than the S03's.

 

I am the driver of that red Evo. VIII. That day wasn't too much fun for me. I drove all the way from SF to attend, and missed my morning sessions due to a "check engine" light which appeared due to a misfire. Went to Mitsu. and they gave me the all clear. I went out around noon to the track, and pressured my tires. I was asked to instruct that day, so I wanted to get a feel for the track since I'd never driven it before, and was on brand new tires. -PS Toyo T1-S sucks for the Evo, incredible understeer, so I switched to the Pirelli PZero Neros, and was looking forward to testing out my third set of tires.- I decided to go out in the lower group to take a few laps prior to lunch. When I got on the track, the car wouldn't turn left, and there was a grinding sound... this not being a good sign, I pitted and jacked up my car. My front right tire cambered to like 50 degrees. It turns out that the alignment shop I'd just gone to had failed to secure the nuts on the control arm bolts properly, so I lost one on the track, almost both. We eventually found it, so I rigged it up with duct tape and zip ties to hold it in place to drive to Mitsu. My gratitude to John Wurth and Aaron Bitterman for their valuable assistance over that day, as they really did help me out with everything. Anyways, don't think that Mitsubishi has faulty equipment in any regard. I've done so far 13 track events on the Evo, with dealer plates due to my street-racing excursions, and have not experienced a single problem except for brake fade, and some shimmying under heavy braking, which better pads are good for. Understeer due to bad tires, as mentioned above, killed my lap times at Infineon, but so far the car has been really sweet. However, I do look forward to seeing you out on the track in your Z, as that is one of my personal favorites as well.

 

Just had my second track day on Monday. Having never raced a street car before, I had a lot of learning to do.

The instructor suggested 40 psi front and 42 rear, so I ran these pressures, and the car actually felt better planted than last time when I ran 38/36.

I ran with the traction control on, but it didn't intrude a lot -- I must not have been pushing it that hard, but I was fastest in my group (2-350Z Track, 1-350Z 6MT, 1-300Z 5MT).

This time out it was all Nissan products, but last time there were a lot of S2000s, and I had no trouble keeping up, except for the one with a blower. BMW 3 series (modded with 3.2L) no problem either, but I couldn't keep up with the Porsche turbos, Ferrari 355, or Lambo Countach. Track has 2 long straights, one where I could pull 205-210. My Track version brakes hauled it down with no fade, lap after lap.

Quick question for you fellow racers out there about the RE-040s: did they get really noisy after about 5,000 miles? Mine did, and Nissan is replacing all 4 tires next week. Any troubles with the S-03s or other tires getting noisy or wearing unevenly?

 

I get the same problem after I took my z to my 1st track event. It's like a whining noise rite?