The Winter Months

... or "how big is that stack of parts getting again?"

The off season is perfect for building up, and this is my first one with the car.

I forgot to mention in the last post but before she was tucked away, Kira spent a little time on the rollers down at RSMotors when I crashed the MNSubaru dyno-day with a Nissan.




The result was impressive. 278 HP and 244lb/ft of torque with only only a cat back and some K&N filters. There's a fair bit more to gain by freeing things up, that's become more of a priority. Also, a few upgrades to increase track reliability will probably be in order.

The First batch of gear to pick up was the bushings. 350z bushings are notoriously bad for failing and flexing in the wrong directions. I'd already taken care of the differential and subframe bushings when I dealt with that whole thing, so now I'm down to.. only every other suspension part of the car. I went with Whiteline Bushings as they seemed to be the stiffest ones I could find, and have some of the best durability. On top of that, historically Whiteline has had some of the best customer service I've ever dealt with. Big thanks for the hook-up on these from Race Suit Rentals.

The next round of parts came at thanksgiving. Surprisingly, car part dealers have started doing black Friday deals. An order went out to Stillen for one of their oil coolers and and set of Goodrich brake lines which are a big deal for the z, being the front lines are about the length of my arm.

Also on black Friday, Z1 Motorsports was running some specials of their own. I grabbed a pair of their urethane engine mounts, and a urethane transmission mount. With all these upgrades, shifting and putting power down should be significantly more effective. There's not going to be a whole 'lotta rubber left in this car.

With those sweet dyno numbers coming back, I had a new goal. I wanted to make 300hp at the rear wheels on RS's dyno.. so I had been keeping my eye on the my350z.com forums.. and stumbled upon exactly what I was looking for... a used Osiris Up-Rev with Tuner license. This gives me full tuneability of the stock ECU, lets me add cruise control (after installing a few parts) and does some cool things with launch control and map switching. I'll be able to optimize the ECU for all the modifications i'm doing, as well as utilize higher octanes when it comes to the big show.

With Christmas rolling around, I wound up with a pile of amazon gift cards... and while sure, there's plenty of other smaller things I could have checked off the list.. but screw it.. go big, or go home, right? I grabbed a set of OBX 370z Long Tube Headders. Now, they say 370z on them, and fit them... but they work fine on a 350z according to my research with a little bit of "forceful persuasion" around the steering shaft.




Well, with those puppies in, I'll have to address the catalytic converter situation. When I replaced the exhaust system, I took a critical measurement:



That measurement there is a a critical one, as it's the distance from the flange to the surface of the last catalytic converter. This means from the surface of this flange, I can move the catalytic converter a further 3.5 inches down wind. Well into the y-pipe. So just about any header option can be used, as long as the cats are in the y-pipe.

So, speaking of catalytic converters.. I'll need a pair of 'em. This time, I contacted Ciro Racing, as they have 100-cell metal core race cats that have passed SCCA checks historically (In STU I might add) for not a terrible price.

So with that out of the way, I figured I should free up the intake just a bit. It's been proven that some of the more basic intakes actually cost the HR engines horsepower, as the airbox systems on these are pretty good. But, the pipes connecting those airboxes to the throttle bodies are a little lumpy, and have a few baffles attached. Since the serious upgrade long runner intakes are on the fence legally still (i should really take those pictures, and write that letter..) I opted to just grab a set of silicon intake hoses from Mishimoto to smooth things out a bit.

With all this acquired.. there's really only one big purchase left.. and I'll tell you about that when I do it.

 

The End of the Season

Wow, it's been awhile since I updated this blog. After nats finishes, the steam kind of lets out for the rest of the season, as snow is on the horizion.

I ran the car at MOWOG 6&7 a few weeks after returning from Nats. Both events run at Canterbury Downs, a larger site local to MN that I've liked to run... historically. Despite feeling great at nats, the car was just terrible at Canterbury. This is probably a by-product of what we local Minnesotans have dubbed "Canterberries". Some time in the history of the lot we use it was "resurfaced", where a coat of tar was laid down and layers of small pebbles were laid down and compacted into the tar.



While this works fine to park on, running on this surface introduces annoying challenges. under any kind of load, these pebbles start to come up and it becomes akin to driving on a dirt road.. but a dirt road that gives you a vague sense of confidence before it slaps you in the face and laughs. Historically I've enjoyed the site as I'd run it in AWD cars with a clear advantage. Now, having switched to RWD that advantage is gone and I struggled everywhere to try and put power down. This was unpleasant, and I may find myself avoiding this site next year, or sourcing a co-drive. Who knows..

With that, the autocross season wrapped up. I finished the MOWOG points series in 6th place, and Second in the local Met Council series.. but only attended the minimum number of events to qualify for each in the Z, so as you have read the car was in multiple states of build over that time.. only towards the end has it started shape up as a really good car.

I decided to do one last thing with the car before packing her up, and sticking her in the garage for the long, cold winter months. The SCCA planned a PDX at DCTC, and having never really done any higher speed stuff (only that one night at RS Motors's event), I said "Screw it." and signed up.

I arrived a bit surprised. When I signed up there was a field for experience. I put down a few things i'd done, and how long i'd been autoxing, and showed up to be landed in the fastest run group. A few people I knew were administering aspects of the event, so when I inquired they assured me "Don't worry. you're plenty fast enough." The little warm tingleies from hearing that were pretty awesome, but didn't alleviate my hesitations about passing rules, etc. I opted to skip my first session, and sit in on the novice classroom session.. unfortunately, none of this was covered because novices don't get to pass. Damn.

When it came time to drive, I grabbed Ivan Austin and explained the situation. he was happy to aid in checking mirrors for other vehicles, perform points, and give me some excellent tips. The first session out I was definitely tentative.. especially when some miatas blew by me.. but I was more confident at the end about what I was doing.

[caption id="attachment_225" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Photo Credit: "Crouse"[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_226" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Photo Credit: "Crouse"[/caption]

For the concurrent sessions, I remembered that I had bought a lap timer app (Trackmaster) for my phone long ago, and never really used it. I still had all the gear from solostorm in the car, so quickly set it up so i'd have some numbers to see if I was improving. By the end of the 3rd session, those miatas wern't a problem. My smoking brake pads were a problem, but not miatas. I also came to find out I was running very similar lap times to a more road course experienced driver in a similarly prepped G35. Except he had Hoosiers. All in all, I had some good fun, and it forced me to think a little differently about higher speed lines. I think there will be more of these in the future.

That evening after the PDX, I shuffled things around in the garage, put the car up on stands, and threw the wheels and tires into their little warm spot for the winter. Winter mode is officially engaged, and shopping season begins.

[caption id="attachment_227" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Goodnight sleeping beauty.. I'll awaken you again when spring arrives.[/caption]