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]

Nats 2014: It's all lead up to this.

Where we last left off, I'd landed in Lincoln Saturday night and watched a bit of Prosolo.

Saturday morning rolls around, and I opt to take it a bit slow. I've got time until the TnT runs I purchased a week ago at 11am start, so I slept in a bit and grabbed breakfast, rolling onto site around 9:30-10.

It's not a sunny day in Lincoln. The clouds are low, but it's not raining and there's only about 30% chance in the forecast. But that was enough to screw me.

I unpacked the car, and headed over to the TnT course with just my air tank and pressure gauge. Just as I roll up to my grid spot... it starts to sprinkle. Shit.

There's practically no one here right now though, so the grid worker gives me the blessing to run as soon as I feel ready. in a mad rush I adjust the pressures, belt up, and roll up to the line. The starter drops his arm, and the sky opens up to a deluge. hydroplaning through a slalom is a new experience, but I'm pleasantly surprised I can control the car as well as I can in the wet. It's no Subaru, that's for sure, but I could actually get around the course decently. The TnT course is also stellar, easily the best one yet. Lots of high speed elements that are far more reminiscent of proper nats courses than we've ever seen before. Elements that will definitely generate a pucker factor when driven in the wet like this.

[caption id="attachment_209" align="aligncenter" width="300"] At the line at the practice course, just before the dump happened. Photo Credit David Salas[/caption]

Immediately upon returning to grid, lightning started, and so the whole shebang had to be shut down for about 20 minutes. I spent a bit of time thinking through the run I just made and trying to visualize the course.

[caption id="attachment_210" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Thinking...
Photo Credit: Dave Salas[/caption]

Once the 20 min brake was done, the rain had actually stopped entirely. But alas, the course was now soaked to the bone, and it appears that fast slalom had been in the drainage ditch. It was holding water fairly well. I decided to take one run immediately to get a feel where the course was, and get a bit more wet practice. Yeah.. Still wet.

There’s about 35 minutes left in my hour and I’ve got 3 runs left to take.. I decided to keep waiting. The course was drying and that was helping things a lot. While that slalom was still under water it’s puddles were quickly fading. The Duality of being in a drainage ditch at work.

I wrapped up my last few runs with the course still being wet, but significantly better than before. I packed up and dismissed the runs. It was helpful data, but without any rain in the forecast for the next 3 days I wasn’t terribly worried about having to make wet runs. I’m a little disappointed that the first runs I’m going to get at full tilt in the dry since the reconfiguration will be my first runs in competition.

The rest of Sunday is spent getting the car teched, and  watching the ProSolo challenge rounds and the CAM invitational. Watching these behemoth power muscle cars on street tires try to put down power on pro courses that were still damp was fairly comical. Color me impressed though, there are some downright fast times and a few really talented drivers in the group.

Monday is pretty much a time to kill day. There isn’t enough data to support tuning the car any further, so I just focused on getting my course walks in. I started on the East course and my does it feel fast. lots of wide open sections.. but looking at them there are a few very pinchy points. Good braking will be an important factor on this course.

After grabbing lunch and chilling at little Minnesota a bit, a few of the new arrivals begin to ask me how the TnT runs went. I responded disappointing.. and they snapped me out of my funk. “Go buy some more damn runs” I think were the words Jody uttered to me. What the hell.. and trekked down to the TnT course to see if they had any more walk up spots available. They had a few left for the last hour of the day. I snapped one up and returned to Lil’ MN a little happier. I won’t really have any time to correct and test if I find something utterly fucked with the setup, but at least I’ll know how I can push it on the surface.

Fast forward a few hours later, and I’ve made my runs played with pressures a bit, and left smiling. The car feels really good. All the settings changes I did appeared to have paid off, as the car can now plant and roll on the gas coming out of a corner without trying to murder me. This will be very useful. The whole concept is summed up in a Facebook post I made right after finishing the runs: “Holy shit. The car works.”

A few minutes later I’m chowing down on some excellent BBQ provided by the SCCA as part of their Monday night welcome dinner.  An old tradition has been revived, the talent show! J.G. Pasterjack of GRM handles MC duty  through a few fun “gameshows” and couple of brave souls who actually appear to have some legitimate talent.



It’s now Tuesday morning. I landed a cool gig as an announcer assistant, so I don’t have to wake up to work first heat. A little extra sleep is appreciated, and I’m not rushing around as I don’t run until third heat. grab a quick bite from the hotel breakfast bar and head over and wash the car. Pick up a little detailing spray and some towels and get it shiny. Turns out you can polish a turd.. it just looks like a shiny turd… But the cameras are far enough away the little things shouldn’t show.

it’s now time for the lunch course walk. Usually I skip these, as they don’t seem particularly useful being there’s so many people on course you really can’t look at the line. For some reason I decided to take this one, and I’m glad did. Sure, maaayyybe I was eaves dropping a bit, but I heard more than a few drivers who had run in heats one and two giving excellent feedback about just giving it up for the pinch points, and that earlier thoughts regarding trying to drive a smooth arc through a few of them was a flawed premise. Give up the speed and cut the distance. I revised my plans accordingly.

Time had come to run. Interestingly, almost all the Zs were gridded together with myself in the middle, JG Pasterjack of GRM to my left, and Brian Peters and his co-driver to my right. There’s one more way at the end. I’ve been shooting the shit with JG back and forth a bit over the weekend about GRM’s Z build and getting to watch Brian run is a real treat.

The first run didn’t go so well.. Feeling confident after my practice runs the previous night, I went out in full force. Andddd spun it. Damn. In all my course walks, I wasn’t paying enough attention to the changes in surface, and in the left hander right in the middle of the course there was a crest. Not a big crest mind you, but enough to unsettle the car if it’s loaded up and going flat out. Whoops. Well, I know exactly where I have to watch my ass on the following runs.

One of the down sides to single driving is that you have a ton of time on your hands, but this gave me a chance to watch a few other drivers from the heat make runs without feeling rushed.

When my turn for my second run came back around, I gambled on going flat out again. I know my brain would force me to be tentative in that section this time, so making up the time on the rest of the course was going to be critical if I was going to finish decently. It worked, and I wound up with a 65.964. Not a terrible place to be, landing me .014 seconds behind JG on the same run. and sticking me in 11th.

Finally, the last run came around and I tried to push even harder, but I got off my game knowing I had a safety and screwed up multiple places leaving me a half second slower. No good, no good.

In the end I finished the day a hair behind JG in his Z in 11th place. It’s a close fight and JG is a fun dude to have a battle with.

It’s time for some beer walks. Those unfamiliar with this practice, it’s fairly simple: Obtain beer, perform course walk. Rinse and repeat until course is memorized or further memorization is not possible. One of the perks of having a big crew from MN is that there’s plenty of input after day one. Being one of the only drivers from the group who ran the east course, a rather large group of people appeared appreciative of my offer to lead a group course walk and provide insights to things that may not have stood out otherwise… like the crest..

After leading the east course walk, a few people who ran the west course offered to lead a walk with me and provide their insights. A helpful scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours situation.. with beer.

The west course appears more technical, but the information gleamed from drivers like Steve Garnjobst and Preston Jordan is that the course actually flows better than it looks at first glance,  and how it opens up or gives you room that may not have been initially apparent. This course should prove to be very fun.

The sun comes around again on Lincoln, and it’s time for day two. The west course awaits. The car still being clean from yesterday requires no attention, and gives me a chance to relax and watch people run on the west course. Oh look, another crest! glad I got to see a few runs before taking mine, because that probably could have been a larger problem. My car being over sprung and under dampened doesn't take well to significantly unsettling things like crests.

[caption id="attachment_213" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Photo Credit: Perry Bennet[/caption]

The first run I crack off is a 62.545.. I definitely felt like left some on the table there though. The deceptive elements still have me spooked, but now I’ve got my head around just how much room and speed there actually is.

Run two, it’s time to go push. More gas in more places, and it paid off. Pulled a 62.094.. dropped nearly a half second on that one and really feeling good. I got more aggressive on the launch, and it felt like it helped, so I’ll probably try to do that again.

[caption id="attachment_212" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Photo Credit: Perry Bennet[/caption]

Run Three… it’s time for death or glory. Last run, got my safety, and there’s nothing to loose. Lets do this. I line up and launch like a bat out of hell, reach down and grab second. Shit. The car wasn’t settled from the launch yet and it started to fish tail. I managed to catch it, only to find myself on the wrong side of a cone. the 3rd cone on course. damn it I’m not even 2 seconds out the gate on my last run and I’ve pissed it away. DNF. I start to slow.. and a thought hits me: “Now, I truly have nothing left to loose.”

[caption id="attachment_211" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Photo Credit: Perry Bennet[/caption]

 

Any pressure to try to execute perfectly is gone, there’s absolutely no way that this run can be faster because it won’t count anyway. I’ve reached autocross peace. I’m truly free. “Fuck it.” and gun it. Time to find out just how much grip this damn thing actually has, what slip angles it likes, and just how late can I brake. It’s all on the table now, and I’m just driven by pure hatred. I have one last pass at what may be the best autocross course I've ever driven on, on one of the best surfaces in the country. It's go time.

I hammered that run for all it's worth, and had an absolute riot doing it. When it was all over, I pulled the data logger out and looked at the times. It looks like the overall run time was a match for the previous fastest run... but if I hadn't slowed down after that DNF, if I'd have kept my foot in it, it was almost a second dropped. I wish I'd been driving like that for the last two days.

With that run, the story of my competition at nats closes. I managed to pull ahead of JG who was having a really rough day two, and land in 10th place. My highest nationals finish to date.  I got some feedback and setup discussion from Brian Peters who I finally got to meet in person, and overall was really happy with how things went.

In 151 days I took a car that was fairly stanced out and abused, and turned it into a pretty decent race car. I'm not at at all displeased with this result, and am looking forward to the upcoming off-season to build something even better.

Now, with all that pesky driving out of the way, the REAL drinking could commence.

MOWOG 5 and The Road Leading up to Nats

I apologize for the delay in this posting.. The last few weeks have been absolutely insane after I made the fun little discovery on my way back from Milwaukee.

Shortly after the last post I made, I had a change of heart. I've gotta get this damn clutch done sometime, might as well be now. I ordered a new flywheel from Nissan and an OEM clutch from a rebuilder. Those were both about a week out, so in the mean time I kept that appointment with Jeff to reconfigure the suspension.

Upon rolling it onto the rack, and taking a few measurements I decided to take a half inch of ride height out of the front, 1.25 inches out of the rear (going for a level setup) Take a scoche of camber out of the front, and set the rear to the point where I know can get to zero toe.

This landed me -3.3 camber in the front, -2.8 camber in the rear. Definitely more camber than I want in the back, but unfortunately it's the best I can do until I can get some offset bushings made for the rear lower control arms that will give me more toe.

[caption id="attachment_196" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Jeff, once again elbow deep in Nissan.[/caption]

The car now officially looks 10x more bad ass, and just driving it a bit on the street feels more planted.. But, you never know until you get on course.

Now, the question comes down to do I go in cold to nats, or head down to MOWOG 5 and try to test the car at this great new site but risk needing to be trailered back should my clutch fail?

Fuck it. A few of the MNAutox family offered to tow my gimped ass home should it come down to it, so I packed up and headed down.

I hit the road early Sunday morning, dismissing my earlier plans to head down the night before. I figured should I wind up gimped on the side of the road, I wouldn't mind knowing some fellow autoxers would be driving by shortly behind me.

I made it to Winnebago fine, and started the event. Big sweepers and a giant slalom greeted me, and I thought I had hit the jackpot for testing. The only unknown variable to me at that point was the surface, but one run in I'd probably know enough.

Wow. Talk about a surprise. The surface was ROUGH. What seems flat enough to the naked eye can be a hell of a disruptive force when you're traveling at 50mph. The surface hasn't been tended too in a fairly long period of time that there's a unique situation. The oil leaking from the workers cars, always in the same spot created little bulges in the pavement. Pair that with the fact these bulges are always right between two heavy points that created divots and you've got for a hell of a washboard effect.

Some drivers weren't as disrupted by this as I was, and for that I blame my stock bushings and terrible shocks that did absolutely NOTHING to try and control the wheels.

And these washboards were everywhere. Absolutely impossible to avoid, and they ran the big slalom right down the middle of two of them.

Data Invalidated, and not a good day.

Now Monday, I have a 5 Days until I head out for nats on Saturday. This was also the day I had scheduled to drop the 350 off for it's clutch job. But guess what hasn't shown up? The damn flywheel. I had called Nissan 2-3 times the week before having ordered the flywheel on Monday I was expecting it Friday. I didn't get a shipping notification until about 4pm on Friday, with tracking numbers saying it would show up wed.

I called the shop, and lined up my appointment for Wed morning to drop the car off, figuring they can at least yank the transmission and get the old flywheel and clutch off, and as soon as I got the notification the flywheel had been delivered, tear ass out and pick it up. The shop was a-ok with this arrangement, as it was planned to be a multi day task anyway.

Right around noon, the shop called me while I was eating, and asked if I had forgotten to drop off the slave cylinder. The Wha..?

Unfortunately, I got some bad info from a forum that the slave did not need to be replaced. This is accurate to the OLDER 350z, pre HR engine. The HR cars the slave is actually inside the bell housing, wrapped around the output shaft.. and to top it off is integrated with the throwout bearing. Crap. No way I can get one from Nissan in time, I immediately start checking auto parts stores to see if anyone carries one. NAPA lists it on their website, but it's a "Call for Availability" part. Shit.

I called the Napa in St. Louis Park (which is the area warehouse) and they confirmed, no, it was not in stock.. But I was informed I could get one in 3 days. So, it's in stock somewhere else, and it's a matter of shipping. "What will it take to get me that slave cylinder tomorrow morning?". I think he heard the desperation in my voice. "let me make a few calls, and call you back"

I practically stared at my phone with baited breath. I still may be able to get this done in time. It's not going to get alot of break in miles on that new clutch before heading out of town, but it'll be a new clutch.

about 30 min later, I got the call from Napa. Overnight shipping is a very real possibility, but it may be kinda expensive. short of yelling "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY." I told him that's fine, and to call me the moment it gets in tomorrow.

When the flywheel finally showed up, and I dropped it off at the shop the mechanic pointed out the slave cylinder. Yeah, that bearing is a bit on the noisy side, and would probably destroy the new clutch.

Skip ahead to Thursday afternoon, and I get the call that the slave cylinder has arrived around 2pm. Flying out of work almost as fast as I can drive, I pick up the slave and drop it off at the shop. I was hoping to have seen a bit more progress than I did when I was there, but I'm assured that it would all be put together and ready to rock tomorrow afternoon.

The next afternoon, I get the call I'd so desperately been waiting for: "The car is done. Come pick it up." Sadly, my schedule for that day was quite full, being that i'm leaving for a week. I paid the shop over the phone and told them to lock the keys in it, as I'd have to pick it up after they closed at 5pm.

The time rolled around, and I got a lift to the car from my dad. Fired it up, and.. wow.. it's heavy and grabby as hell. But it's fresh, so I've got to throw some break in miles on it. I fill up the tank, and head out. I drove about 50 miles, from Hopkins to Minneapolis to St. Paul and back to Minneapolis, never touching a freeway. They recommended stop and go driving for fastest break in and that's what it would get. About 2-3 hours later, it felt much better, and I can pretty easily modulate it off the line. It's not a full break in, but it's got some miles and actuations on it before I head out for Lincoln in it not 12 hours from then.

It was now Saturday morning and getting to be time to leave. I'd spent so much time trying to break the clutch in the night before, I wound up not getting the laundry done I'd needed to pack for the week. Oh well. I'll get a little later start, and it gave me more of a chance to be detailed in packing the car.

Finally about 1pm I topped off the gas and hit the road for Lincoln. The drive was thankfully fairly uneventful. After the long haul to Milwaukee a few weeks prior, I decided to try my Bose noise canceling headphones. HOLY CRAP. I know it's not quite legal to wear headphones while driving but, damn. These practically annihilated the drone from the exhaust. Flip on a podcast, and I was in a pretty nice place. To the point that when I took them off about 3 hours later to get food and gas, I thought something was broken. Everything was just so much louder it blew my mind.

After a little more than 6hrs behind the wheel, I landed in Lincoln and actually saw the end of the first day's ProSolo runs. Little MN was almost entirely vacant, with only the handful of ProSolo guys around the site. It's amazing to see a site this large, this empty. I had arrived, and all the work of the prior week feels like it's paid off.

Mission Report: TnT 3 and the Tri-Pod Challenge

With the diff in the car and the test miles on, the day I'd been looking forward too had finally come: the TnT.

I actually wasn't the first person to take it out with the new diff. It was actually Steve M, who had driven the car a few weeks prior at MOWOG 4. Steve started the day on a down note when his FMod car wouldn't move under it's own power so I offered him a drive to make sure it wasn't a wasted day.

He came back with a grin. "it's better. But.. weird" To sum up his description, it now has everywhere oversteer. Lift off? yup. On power? yup. Off power? yup. It'll pretty much rotate everywhere. Hmm.. sounds tricky.

I took it out myself, and agreed. it does want to oversteer just about everywhere. It's fun, but definitely a handful. I found if you drive it on throttle or on brakes.. as little costing as possible it's fairly controllable.

A few other people took it for some runs, and all came back with a smile. Even with the handling difficulties, it's a crazy fun car to drive.

Then, just this last weekend is Milwaukee's not-at-all-famous Tri-Pod challenge. A two day event at Miller park, a gorgeous site with surface conditions very similar to Lincoln and higher speed elements than we generally see in MN.



A few runs in and it was clear, the car was too loose now to effectively put power down. The sentiment of a few was that the rake in the suspension setup may be leading to the instabilities of the rear. We'd discussed lowering the car, but being I'd have to put about 350 miles on it getting back home to Minneapolis, I didn't want to risk getting the settings wrong and destroying what's left of the Z2s, tires that are not at all obtainable anymore.



So after day one, I was emailing Jeff about available shop time this week. It's time to revise things again and fingers crossed that I don't make it worse with only one event and no adjustment time left before nats.

One interesting thing Mike brought up co-driving the car was that he kept hitting the rev limiter. Huh? this thing is geared so it shouldn't be possible on this site or just about any autox site out there. Looking at the data logs it was easily confirmed he definitely wasn't getting to the 67mph top speed of the car.. but I had a suspicion.

Neal on his last run at the TnT mentioned that he thought the clutch was slipping. The ol' 6th gear pull still held strong so I thought it was just a restrictor pill slowing the clutch out causing some slippage. After both complaints, I ran another test.

Heading home from Milwaukee, I found a good straight on ramp and laid into it. Damn. it is hitting the rev limiter around 60mph. I found a similar on ramp after a dinner stop, and decided this time I was going to feather it more. it got to 65 before hitting the rev limiter. The clutch is definitely slipping. Not enough that it won't hold the power in the lower RPMs, but when it hit's it's power peak it just lets go.

There's no time to even think about swapping it before nats, so I'll just have to settle this year with being at roughly the same output and top speed as the DE guys with a weight penalty. Chock another one onto the "winter projects" list. Damn.

Downtime Update - New Mods

First, I want to get this out of the way:

[caption id="attachment_178" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Finally, I have a good picture of this thing going fast! Photo credit to Johnathan Gohde[/caption]

Now that that's out of the way, let's get into what's been going on since that photo was taken.

That picture was taken Sunday at MOWOG 4. Monday after work, put the car back up on the jack stands and went to work.

The first thing to come out was the exhaust. Slip fit joints suck when they've been together for awhile. Some love taps with the dead blow hammer, some heat, and a little more prying than i should have done and that whole mess of a system came out around sundown. So.. many.. fucking.. pipes.

[caption id="attachment_179" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The Borla True-Dual Exhaust. Final weight, 52 Lbs.[/caption]

With that mess out, I had free access to the driveshaft and differential. I started with the ones i knew were going to suck, the halfshaft bolts. I picked up a set of extra-long wrenches to give me more torque, but alas, they were still not enough on their own. Time to bust out the torch. A little heat and i managed to break them free. With the axles now dangling in my face, i moved onto some of the smaller stuff. I had to unhook the vehicle speed sensors and the breather tube. Lastly, it was time for the main driveshaft. This was pretty easy as it had already came out when i did the subframe swap earlier, and used anti-seize on the bolts. a little leaning and they popped right out.

At this point, the diff is only attached to the car by the front two ears and the cover. Unfortunately, I didn't have a hand to help stabilize, so i took a swing at it with my trusty harbor freight floor jack. Held it tight, and freed it.. then tried to gently lower it and... got about about 6" down and free when it rolled off the jack. A quick inspection showed no real damage, so fuck it. it's out. It's now 10:30 PM, and the primal brain has somewhat taken over. I drag the differential out from under the car like so much deer carcass, lay a foot upon it and declare victory and supreme manliness. Before I trudged off to sleep, I snapped a picture of my trophy:

 

[caption id="attachment_181" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Gotcha, bitch.[/caption]

A Few days later the final bits from Nissan arrived and i had all i needed to get this thing together.

I threw all the pieces in a Rubbermaid container, and headed over to a local transmission re-builder who was all to excited to work on something more interesting than the auto trans out of an F-150 work truck. A few hours later i got the call back that it was done and ready to go, and swung by after work to pick up the assembled product.

[caption id="attachment_183" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The finished product, and the old open diff in it's coffin.[/caption]

Fighting every urge i have to immediately slide back under the car and begin efforts to try to replace said differential, it's time for the office summer party.

The very next day though, i start by running some errands. I know i'll need new gear oil, and Nismo recommends 75-w140 instead of the stock 75-w90 when using this diff.. but wavetrac themselves specifically state to avoid using limited slip additive. Yeah, only one thing i can find that has both of those qualities is Redline NS, which isn't quite stocked locally. I opted for some valvoline non-syn and figured i can run out the season on that before i drain and refill with the really good stuff. I also picked up a transmission jack to help me put the diff in, as this lil' pumpkin is heavy, and that new wavetrac all full of gears didn't make it any lighter. While i was at harbor freight i also grabbed a sawzall, side cutting drill bits, and some chisels/punches. Remember when i did the subframe replacement? i skipped over doing the diff bushings then, knowing it would be coming back out. Well back out it came, and it was time to drive those bastards out.

I think the process of driving the bushings out got the cops called on me. My drill died, so i couldn't get the rubber guts out to give me access to go at them properly with the sawzall. So much chiseling and hammering ensued. The cops rolled by my open garage real slow like, me with new ballpeen hammer over head, lined up to take another death blow at the rubber bastard. Good news is they didn't stop, and I finished the process.

With the bushings replaced, there was nothing left to stop me from putting the diff back in it's home. And i did so.. twice. Damn bushing instructions. Thick and a thin one.. which one goes up. Oh, newer or out of date instructions that don't clearly say which way? thanks. After installing it i realized with the thinner ones on top, the pinion angle was too high. Great. Pull it back out, drive the bushings back out, and install 'em the right way.

Regardless of that idiocy, the diff is now in the car. I went about re attaching the axles, once again applying copious amounts of anti-seize in the reassembly.

After re-attaching all the little bits, i skipped filling the diff to avoid gear oil drips on myself as I installed the new exhaust.

Said new exhaust consisting of a Stillen Y-pipe and a Momentum performance y-pipe back. This basically eliminated any flex joints or unnecessary bends the whole way back on the exhaust. The new system also weighs in at about 27 Lbs, shaving some good weight off the borla. The "Muffler" (muffler is in quotes, because it doesn't muffle shit.) is also very much a straight through. With the right incline, i'm pretty sure you could roll something down my exhaust all the way to the cats.

With all this installed, i took the final steps of the night, and refilled the diff. It was time to get it off the stands and go for a spin.

Immediately upon start up, my initial thoughts are confirmed. Exhaust = Loud as shit. I hope it passes sound, but that's honestly questionable. I back out and head for a drive. Okay, it's loud.. but it does sound pretty cool. Unfortunately, there really isn't anywhere i can give the diff a proper viscous thrashing to see if it's as great as i hope, but from the roll-ons i did getting on the freeway at various points, it is noticeable.



So I spent a few days days tossing around in that until Monday night rolled around, and the next couple of parts showed up.

The driver's seat bracket (Buddy Club Super Low) landed on my doorstep, and it was time to throw the new Corbra Imola 2 seats in.. well.. seat. At that point i was still waiting on the passenger side bracket. That went in with a little bit of fight, as the seat is still slightly too wide to use the lowest mounting points. The next ones up fit, and it feels like it landed at about stock ride height.

At the same time, I installed the Schroth rallye-3 harness I also obtained for the driver's side. I love these harnesses.. the 2" belts are just so much more comfortable than big 3", and are easily enough for autox use.

[caption id="attachment_185" align="aligncenter" width="225"] New seat and harness[/caption]

Once again, it's test drive time.
While it's not the easiest thing to get in and out of, it does hold you in quite well. It's also amazing how much more feedback you get through your ass when you're truly strapped in.

Since then, I've been daily driving the car for the week making sure to put some miles on the diff before the next event, and while it's quickly becoming a bit too obnoxious for regular street use, it's still a riot of a car to drive.

Mission Report: TnT 2 & MOWOG 4

A little late coming, but not a ton of new info about the events.

A two day weekend, with Saturday being the first day I actually had the car at a test n' tune. This gave me a great chance to really get a feel for the new settings, and get some feedback.

The car felt good, and I managed to get a great feel of just how much grip it actually has through the large slalom we always run, as well as some of the short course stuff on the east side.

I also handed over the keys to a few people.. and I think i'm on to something here, as everyone came back grinning ear to ear. And they all came back with the same complaint: Wheelspin city.

That's okay, because 3 days before the TnT my new diff showed up on the doorstep. Unfortunately, the rest of the parts needed to install it didn't. Instead of crossing my fingers and yanking it hoping they would show, i opted to take it easy this weekend, and just enjoy the car.

On Sunday at MOWOG 4, Steve Meschke had asked if he could co-drive (would 3 emails be counted as begging?) as the FMOD car wasn't quite up to snuff at the time. We had a good time last year, so why the hell not?

With a little finesse, Steve managed to out drive me by a good margin (about 7/10ths). But  he put the car within 1 second of Alex Bahl who took the win. Without a diff.

Even if i was defeated, that made my day. That diff is going to easily be worth more than a second.

Going back over the data logs I saw that i botched the pin turn more than a few times, and Steve frequently had more faith in the car so carried more speed. I'll get there eventually.

It was a good day.

Mission Report: CVSCC 1

So, remember how the car didn't work, and I had plans to do a bunch of stuff to try to fix it?
Yeah, those tasks worked.

I spent the week daily driving the car to run the gas down, and managed to get an alignment from jeff on thursday.

The first thing done was to attack the ride heights. One corner was off, and it was that right rear corner. I decided it looked like the fronts were in the right place, and that i wanted to replicate the factory stagger of 3/4" front to rear. Turns out, height wise that only puts the car about an inch lower all around than stock. In the future, I'll probably take another inch out of it, but i wanted to get a baseline that worked.

Next, being as tall as it was, i took some more camber out of the rear. I'm now down to -2 in the back, and toe is in factory specs, with room to toe out much more than it's set to currently. Again, in the future, I'll probably dial some more toe out into the rear end both in favor of saving tires and loosening things up a bit, just more evenly.

lastly, we ran with corner weighting. With 160 lbs of ballast in the driver's seat, the numbers were almost spot on. I don't have the numbers of exactly right now, but they were good enough we skipped chasing any further adjustment.

And I'm not going to lie, but the car looks a touch goofy right now after all this work, and this rake, and those small tires.

But you know what? I don't really care. The car works.
The previous issue with the right rear wheel is gone, and it sticks much, much better.

I took the car out to CVSCC's event in Eau Claire, WI as their site is fantastic, if not a bit... lumpy. I've run sites that were off-camber on a few corners, but this is safely the only site that I can accurately describe as "downhill". It has a crest.

So, I spun it over the crest once.. Whoops. Every once in a while I have to give myself the ol' slap on the wrist and remind myself that this isn't AWD and it won't self rectify like the WRX will when you lean back on the gas. Coming around will happen.

After I got that out of my system, and a few more runs (we got 8 all day) I finally felt confident enough in the car to really start hammering on it more and dropping times. The results finally started to be apparent. I managed a run that was 1 tenth slower than the leader.

As a bit of a change, i also had an experienced autocrosser drive it too. Steve Garnjobst had a discussion with a deer on the way over that morning that left his car in a less than favorable situation. Steve has a bit of a history with some higher power RWD vehicles, so I did what any autocrosser would do, and threw him the keys.

He beat me. Well, sucks for him. Guess he won't get to drive the final product :)
But he did put up this nice quote on the forums a few days later:
"I co-drove the 350Z at the CVSCC event last weekend (thanks Shane!).
The car was a lot of fun to drive. Very well balanced, a lot of power, plenty of grip.
Ergonomics of the 350Z's are excellent. The driving position was perfect and visibility for autocross is great. (note- the rear visibility is likely pretty bad for street driving)
Even though Shane still has the cheap coilovers on the car, it felt pretty darned good.

Th primary weakness of the car in its current stage of development is power delivery. The car REALLY needs two upgrades:
1. a limited slip differential. With that much power, the lack of a LSD is really limiting the car's potential.
2. a louder exhaust. Combined with item #1, it's really difficult to modulate the throttle to maximize acceleration.

Should be a beast when fully developed!

-Steve"

The car was one-wheel-wondering all over the course, and Steve was right.. it was very hard to know where the car was spinning the tires by ear.

So, a few days later i looked at the budget numbers.. said "fuck it" and started ordering parts. Right off the bat I stumbled upon a y-pipe back single exit exhaust from the now defunct Momentum Motorsports that was almost half off. it's damn near a straight pipe with two gentle radius bends. Perfect. It feels pretty light too, but i won't know for sure until i start weighing parts. Next up, i needed a y-pipe. After a few minutes of searching for a higher end used one.. i said "fuck it" again and ordered one directly from Stillen. It's a cheap unit, but i like that it doesn't have any flex pipes and merges down into a nice 3" collector, which will mate up perfectly with the new y-pipe back exhaust i have obtained. Plus, it's cheap enough in the y-pipe market that i won't be too upset when i have to start cutting into it for later catalytic converter plans.

I got both of these on order, and that was going to be the temporary fix.. until I called Nismo, and started pricing diffs. Okay... that WaveTrac... hmm.. well.. yeah.. that is a good price... and hung up, and started digging back into the functionality of the WaveTrac units. It looks like it's a torsen that can lock. Sounds like a plan. Again "Fuck it", and called Nismo back to order the diff and the necessary parts for install (bolts, bearings).

All these parts should be arriving this week, and if i had a tracking number to know exactly when that diff would show up, I'd probably start that project and jam through getting it installed for this weekend. Sadly, I don't so I'll just have to start ripping into things come Monday after the next MOWOG event.

Now if someone would just take a picture of the damn thing on course...