how much of a pain in the a** was it to install those aerocatches?

 

Sorry for the lack of updates, I have been sidetracked by another project (Porsche 944 street car that after 7 years finally went to the body shop) that has taken up a bunch of time, and because I don't expect to run the car this year any more, the 350Z has taken a bit of a back seat.

For the splitter, I plan on adding 4 rods out front and reinforcing where I have it bolted to the bumper cover. I used 1/2" thick furniture grade plywood, which seems to be adequate. The 2 large fasteners were bolted to the radiator core support, and actually pulled through the core support, which is why I had to remove it. I felt it happening on track, so the only damage to the splitter iteself was minor rubbing against the ground. I also had 2 tabs welded to the subframe that the splitter basically rested on, and had it bolted through there (you can see them in the brake duct routing pic).

The exhaust is stock headers, gutted cats, stock Y-pipe, and a small muffler. The piping is all custom. It's loud enough that I got a lot of compliments on the sound, but quiet enough that I probably could have gotten away with running it during the muffled portion of the day I ran at Lime Rock, where they had an 89 db limit.

The Aerocatches were definitely a PITA to install, but I have installed them on other cars previously, so I knew what I was getting inot. It probably took me ~3 hours to get them right. I also used existing holes in the core support to run the pins through, though I did have to shorten the left side pin for clearance to the intake.

And Bronzee, I have a lot of prior track experience in other cars, so it's a bit frustrating to know that I am still looking to gain seconds rather than fractions of seconds, especially at tracks that I have hundreds or thousands of laps....but then I remind myself that's why I bought the car and sold the Miata I had for the prior 10 years. I'm definitely not bored with the 350 like I was with the Miata.

 

Per request, here are a few blurry pics of the cage. The cage was in the car when I bought it.

 

Update: I have been waiting for my checkbook to recover, but I have been picking away at the car, cleaning some little things up. Here are the pics of the projects that are photo-worthy:

Rear window braces installed:


AEM intake installed: