ms_350Z

Agreed....great Pics!
James/Commasense, thanks a bunch for getting these up here.


Great meeting you all out there...look forward to seeing the gang next time out. What do you all say we hook up before then?

Matt
Silverstone Touring

John

iTrader: (17)

Wait, is Noahbuddy's plate say Zeee Ya or something? I saw her a few weeks back crossing the Memorial Bridge and we chased each other for a bit 395...

Well, I'm quite envious of you all. While you were out having fun, I was incarcerated in my dinky cubicle... *sigh*

gaseous

Yup, that's her. She's a great driver, she was in my group and I was able to watch her since we were running pretty close throughout most of the sessions.

John

iTrader: (17)

LOL, it seems that it's a small world, isn't it?

I'm sure James got lots of great photos as his camera is top-notch. James and I have driven at Summit Point, Mid-Ohio, and Watkins Glen together, and without fail he's offered me something to learn each time. Occassionally I've been able to get a ride along with him, and he definitely provides an exciting ride around the track. In fact, at Summit Point in June, he even gave a ride to my father for a session, and one for my mother (who doesn't even like rollercoasters)... my parents were simply out there to visit and they got more than they bargained for.

If any of you have the opportunity, ask an instructor for a ride-along. Some are more thrilling than others, but there's ALWAYS something to learn. Plus it affords you the chance to ride in some very interesting cars...

Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to drive in the same group as James, so then I have a marque to chase around the track.

commasense

The rest of you may not know that John is a diplomat in training, so let me translate his post: He sees all the stupid things I do on the track, and tries not to repeat them.

He can't believe that someone can drive so badly and not have already wrecked the car.
They were in fear for their lives every second.

Be that as it may, I hope you can get into Group 2 soon, too, because I've never run with another 350Z in my group. You just have to drive a FATT or two so they okay you for solo. Then you'll be eligible for Seat Time days, too, which are great because they have five or six sessions instead of just four.

Jim's instructor last Friday offered to let him solo on his first day! He had never driven a track event before. I think it took me several FATTs before I moved up to Group 2.

Noahbuddy's license is "Zee Ya" and Jim D's license is "Z Yah," both in Virginia. I didn't realize that until I was looking at the pictures.

See you at the track!

gaseous

You guys are hilarious.

I'm hoping I don't go solo anytime soon. I like having the instructor tell me what I just did wrong and what I could do to improve. It's pretty amazing how fast you can improve when there's someone that knows what they're doing telling you simple things.

"You turned too early." <-- I got this a few times.

"Don't break twice, just break once."

"Get all your breaking done, then turn."

"Watch the next cone."

"Don't look at the car in front of you." <--- But they're so close!

"What the hell is that other instructor telling that driver to do!"

"You can pass when he signals.... why isn't he signaling?"

"Your foot hovers over the break a bit too often."

Yeah, good times.

noahbuddy

ok, here's my contributions with the video camera... I'll do more as time (work) permits...
my apologies to those in group 1b... Christine took absolutely no video; the BUM.

what a blast!!!!

noahbuddy and zee ya combined... turn 10 - turn 1

fatt-3-8-15_zeeya.wmv

noahbuddy

here's one for Matt in his Silverstone... same turn 10 - turn 1



fatt-3-8-15_cs.wmv

noahbuddy

and one for the brickyard, gaseous same turn 10 - turn 1

fatt-3-8-15_by.wmv

noahbuddy

and finally, Lemans. Jim's I think. Pit out - same turn 10 - turn 1


fatt-3-8-15_ls.wmv

gaseous

Thanks for the videos!

Man, video always makes cars look slow! I coulda sworn I was scared outta my mind and mashed to the left of the car taking turn 1.

noahbuddy

btw, during the second session I took a long multi lap video... you can time the lemans @ 1 min 49 sec and the silverstone at 2 min flat. not bad guys for the first time out, considering the track record was 1 min 9 seconds. A little more practice on turns 4-9 and we'll easily be in the low 1' 20's.

again, what a blast!!!! can't wait to get out there again.
(as soon as I can afford a new set of tires and breaks).

FBlade1

Great writeups and awesome pics! Sounded like a blast.

John

iTrader: (17)

That's a huge stretch... with a lot of work you could dive into the low 1:30s and high 1:20s, but anything faster will require a lot of skill, R-compounds, open track, and a lot of *****.

commasense

Umm... that may be a little optimistic, Steve. I've been driving Summit Point for almost four years, and my best time so far is 1:31 point something. My best time Friday was 1:34.4 with my dying tires.

Now, I'm not saying that a Z can't get to the low 1:20's. I'm hoping that a better set of tires (next spring) will get me an extra 5 seconds. But IMHO, getting a stock Z to 1:20 would take a really ballsy driver.

----

[I wrote the message above before seeing on preview that John had come to the same conclusion.]

noahbuddy

Yeah, I know. Just my wierd sence of humor. I was being... shall we say... "eagerly optimistic"... I'd be lucky to shave 5-10 seconds off my time.

My wife took a ride with commasence in the advanced group, I wonder what kind of times he was getting. She said it felt like she was going twice as fast around the course.

John

iTrader: (17)

Noahbuddy, check your PM...

commasense

Let me just check the log book here... My best time in the third session was 1:34.99, about 0.5 - 0.6 slower than my best times in the other sessions. (I suspect that if I were a better driver, hauling a passenger would have a bigger effect on my times.)

Oh, and now that I look, I see that my previous best time was 1:36.15, not 1:31. So I beat my previous record on Friday by almost 2 seconds!?! Wow. The way the tires were sliding around, it didn't feel like I was doing that well.

So I'll be very happy to get below 1:30 some day with good tires and conditions.

John

iTrader: (17)

James, have you looked at your rear tires? I looked at mine today, and I'll tell you what, the things are wearing VERY quickly. It also looks like I may have mine over-inflated as the centers are wearing quicker than the edges. Looks like I won't be running 2 psi higher bias in the rear anymore... but this makes me wonder, when the RE040s heat up on the track to over 40psi, is our contact patch going to be smaller? It sure looks like it...

commasense

My rears look pretty evenly worn, edge to center. I made a point on Friday of bleeding all four down to 40 psi at the end of each session. They were a lot higher at the end of the first stint, which is probably why the car was sliding like crazy. It was noticeably better in the later sessions.

I think you're right: 40 psi is the limit for the RE040s.

But these tires are on their last legs, and I'm not sure I want to run another couple of events on them this fall. They've got almost 11,000 miles, 1,264 on the track at 12 track days. Maybe if it's significantly cooler....