Track Review:
This past weekend I did a one-day event at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway road course. The event was fun, but unfortunately some car troubles didn't allow for much track time in the 370Z. Basically after my 2nd session, the car would not start at all. The starter would just wind up but it wasn't engaging. Upon further inspection, one of the starter mounting bolts was gone, the other was loose, and the starter was dis-engaged. Luckily Paladin Advanced Automotive here in Vegas has kick a** customer service and sent one of their techs out to the track with a bolt and fixed it for me! Unfortunately, I only had one more session after that to go back out before day's end. Here's a quick review of some of the new parts and key points on the car...
AE Performance Oil Cooler - WAY better than anything else I have seen for this car. Ambient temp was around 85 degrees, which means track surface temps were probably around 100 degrees. The track was basically made up of straights & hairpins meaning there wasn't a whole lot of air flow going to the oil cooler as the speeds were relatively low and to add to that, I was in lap traffic pretty much the whole time. Pretty bad conditions as far as keeping temps down. For the first two sessions in the morning I had no issues with oil temp whatsoever, it peaked around 245 after about 15-20 minutes of tracking. The third session at the end of the day, around 4pm when air temp was at its hottest, I did get to around 260 degrees after about 20 minutes, again in tons of lap traffic. My consensus is that 95% of the time this oil cooler will take care of any oil temp issues, and what this oil cooler doesn't take care of, none will.
NST Pulley Kit + Fidanza Flywheel - On a track with so many slow corners it was really helpful to have the quicker acceleration that these parts gave the car.
Brakes - For the first time, I finally experienced the "ice mode" that everyone has been talking about. Definitely didn't like it. This track is also harder on brakes than any other track I have taken the car too.
Nitto NT05 Tires - Although they have plenty of tread left, they definitely are nowhere near as fast as they are when they're new. I have had this particular set on the car since September 2009 and this was my 7th track day on them and they feel like crap if I am being brutally honest. They are best when they are brand new, within the first 2-3 heat cycles.
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