Yesterday my tubeframe GT3 350Z made it's SCCA debut at PMP. After weeks of getting the engine management system worked out, the car was packed into the trailer. The drive down on Friday afternoon was sunny and I reached the track in time to meet GaryM05 at the track. The plan was to have Gary run the ITA 200SX Se-R, but we discovered that the racing brake pads I had packed were primarily for the 350Z! Doh!

Gary very graciously offered to just help crew on the GT3 car and he and his better half Joanne were the biggest help the next day. Saturday found us back at the track and unloading the car from the 24' enclosed trailer. It didn't help that the top box of my tool box had broken loose and scattered tools around. I got these picked up and we moved stuff around for the day. After putting the nose on, topping off the gearbox and other assorted tasks, the SR20VE fired up fine and warmed up to 140 degrees (water temp) in the pits.

We had time to talk about the goals of the first session: do an installation lap (first time this engine was being run in anger) and then (if Gary gave me the thumbs up) start pacing the car up to speed. As I put my helmet and HANS device on, I thought about how much time and effort had gone into reaching this point. First onto the grid, I could see this was a small, but fast group, with Z06, V-8 powered (fiero?914?) and Porsche lined up behind me. As I led the cars onto the track, I waved two on by as I kept the revs to about 7K and felt what the car was doing.

Good news: the SR20VE was running well and the latest fuel curve seemed to be adequate for the stock cams. The Quaife gearbox was stiff, but the dogring engagement was positive as I ran up through all five speeds. The bad news was the steering reamined incredibly heavy at low speeds and only gradually got better. The car, which had understeered like a pig at the CSP test in '06, was set up with worn rear tires to let me see if that helped. Now it seemed to "come around" without much warning. As much as I wanted to keep going, I pulled into the pits and followed Gary's hand signals to the hot pit lane.

He walked around the car and then gave me the 'cut' signal. There were two small streaks of a leak showing on the rear of the fiberglass bodywork. I
told him it most likely overfilling the gearbox slightly and nothing to be too concerned about. Refiring the engine, I waited until the pit official gave me the OK signal before pulling back onto the track. Entering T1, I noticed how easily the rear would come around on corner exit. As the rest of the lap unfolded, it was clear the car was a oversteering ("loose" in NASCAR parlance) beast. I hadn't driven a car with this much oversteer in a long, long time.

As I came around the first lap, I briefly thought of stopping to put on fresh rear tires and reset the sway bar, but decided I could control it. Big mistake. The SR20VE was pulling hard down the front straight and easily hit fifth gear halfway down it. Uh oh- I didn't have a taller quick change ratio for the rear, so put that on the mental check list. Through T2-5, the tail would come out so quickly, I needed fast hands to catch all the little slides. I played it cooly up through the uphill section of T6A and 6B and came though T6 with another big slide that almost came around. But after recovering, I set up for T8 and dabbed the brakes before turning it.

The car over rotated past the apex, so I countersteered to catch the slide. But I overcorrected and went off just past the entrance road to the track. At this point I wasn't too worried about hitting anything and was actually steering back to the pavement when I hit a hidden bump in the weeds. POW! The GT3 car got light for a second and there was a big BANG from the rear as I came down. Ah crap! That's gonna leave a mark! Nothing to do but throttle back, check the mirrors and avoid dragging anymore dirt onto the line as I headed back to the pits.

Dust everywhere, I arrived back and asked Gary to check over the car. I was thinking I'd got away with one until we noticed the left rear was hanging down too low. Shutting down, we took the conservative route and had the tow truck come over and give us a line back to our pit. As I dusted myself off, it was clear something had broken on the left rear. The good thing about a tubeframe car is that it took us about 10 minutes to pull the rear bodywork off and inspect the suspension. The impact had gone to the weakest attachment point and broken the upper shock mount. Not a showstopper, but I had no spare, either. Worse yet, the spring was missing from the coilover and the threads on the top of the shock itself were damaged. After considering the options, only a replacement would do.

One advantage to this car was the extensive use of Afco suspension pieces, including double adjustable coilovers. Readliy available to oval track racers nationwide, I figured something would be available. Apparently not in Pueblo, nor in Co Spgs either. I even stood up in the SCCA driver's meeting before the races and asked if anyone had a spare shock I could use. But it wasn't to be- nobody had anything I could even substitute and get the car back onto the track. I eventually went back to T8 and found the 2 5/8" hyperco spring out in the weeds. The only other apparent damage is some mounting hardware that pulled and twisted out of the rear fiberglass.

Gary and Joanne were invaluable in helping me get the crippled car winched back into the trailer. A big wind had come up in advance of the winter storm we are getting today. They stuck with me until we left around 3 PM ( my race hadn't even started by that time) and I really appreciated their help! Got back easily and after waking up to a wicked snowstorm this morning, considered myself lucky. But luck was anything but this weekend. Next time I'll keep my feet (and wheels) planted firmly on the ground!

 

Excellent article Dave, I enjoyed it a great deal. I'm glad you're ok and it seems like you learned alot from this test day. Keep us updated. Also, if you ever need help with a track day, just holler and if I'm off from work, I'll gladly join you.

 

The video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj2sYg3CKi4

 

I taught him everything he knows.




What lies beneath, at least 2 times that I have seen or heard of someone going off road at pueblo and launching their car? One more reason to back HPR when you can.

Hopefully Pueblo will look into taking a closer look at their track so there won't be this many mishaps in the future. It would be nice to have at least 2 safe tracks in Colorado.

 

How i do love the old Z's. You know that thing is a monster on the track!

 

Man, you can easily see how squirrely the car was!

 

Dude, I'm sure you get this all the time. But, who's the chick in your avitar? What's the rest of her body look like?

End of thread hijacking!

 

LOL! I DO get that all the time. I usually joke and say it's my g/f while I was doing her from behind, but actually I just found it online. Somone in another thread actually knew who she was (a **** star of course).

 

Although im not flying, here are some of my videos from PMI that day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17iQQehxG3Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeKFgk9oCY8

 

i can safely assume that the reason for the erupt ending of the video tape is because you drop the camera and ran to assist David.

 

Probably dropped the camera when he cracked up laughing!

 

No, i think its the quick motion of you going off screen since we cant see anymore of the track! Oh and half of my footage from that day got destroyed, i had more of everyones cars but a lot of it just didnt make it.

 

Bump...

Nice recap in Nissan Sport (Winter 2008) with photo (making GaryM05 famous as seen from behind). I assume this pic was before the flying incident?

So David, how are repairs going? Will you be at the top of GT3 in '08?

Joel

 

Hi Joel- Thanks for asking and noticing the article and pic in the Winter issue! You're correct in assuming the photo was taken just before I took the Z out for its flying lesson. The sad news is that the GT3 Z remains in the trailer while I get two other 350Z T2 cars prepped for the coming SCCA/ NASA season. I'll try to get the GT3 car fixed once we get the other 350Zs qualified for the Runoffs, but I couldn't turn down this race opportunity.

 

I hope my issues make it before i have to call circulation.

 

I don't recall if I renewed my subscribition. >:l

 

The last 2 or 3 issues never made it to me so i had to call Art. I renewed for a 2 yr subscription starting with this issue.

 

Race prep for TWO 350Z cars?! What's going on over there at Illusion Motor Sports!

J