camera hides all the bug guts and filth from the drive out:yum:

Action shots came through,

https://i.imgur.com/7wwEjYI.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ZvxW0Og.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/YrM6Flp.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/fJE0Mru.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/u0AS0ux.jpg

The only thing I am looking to change on the car at this time is a fixed seat. Once I have that in I can better asses things like if I need more spring in the back. Sitting in a Z with a fixed seat was eye opening. While the stock seat wasn't bad, its getting obvious that the higher limits the car is capable of now require a more secure driving position.

:tup:

:driving:

Yeah, a better seat will keep you from moving around.

Video and photos from the last event of my local season. The car drove really well with the new stiffer rear springs. I cant wait to make some more improvements next season.



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...999752bf_c.jpgSolo92819 631 by Jay Bonvouloir, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...d544458b_c.jpgSolo92819 529 by Jay Bonvouloir, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e2ce3450_c.jpgSolo92819 405 by Jay Bonvouloir, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...db282a37_c.jpgSolo92819 023 by Jay Bonvouloir, on Flickr

Made one of the first changes for the 2020 season.

The car drove great on the 16k rear but I ran to an issue with not being able to get as low as I would have liked. I had to run my rear coilovers on the maximum low setting just to get the car to sit slightly lower than stock. This was due to the fact that the stiffer springs did not compress as much at rest as the softer ones I started out with.

The solution? Helper springs. I went with the 3k kit from swift along with a set of 5 inch long main springs in the same rate as the 7 inch springs I had before. The result was the ability to set the car lower while not giving up any travel. In fact I gained about 2 inches of down travel after installing the kit. The additional down travel has the added benefit of making the car much more comfortable on the street since the wheels stay in contact with the ground for a longer period of time.

https://i.imgur.com/pAJTfNR.jpg
kit installed

https://i.imgur.com/yoDL02w.jpg
side with kit installed with over 5 inches down travel

https://i.imgur.com/VnjTNDv.jpg
side with the old setup with a little over 3 inches

Got the seat and installed it over the weekend. It as actually a pretty fun project. I went with a Recaro RS-GK which is their Japanese market fixed back seat, and a sliding mount from PCI. I'm 6'2" and now have more headroom than stock which was a major concern when I was researching seats and mounts. Anyways, here some pictures of the car in its most recent state with the seat in.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...0b4dc37a_c.jpg_BES6722 by brendan sobers, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8e3ecd80_c.jpg_BES6753 by brendan sobers, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ac14b49a_c.jpg_BES6748 by brendan sobers, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...79c8a333_c.jpg_BES6735 by brendan sobers, on Flickr

Got the helpers installed on the front to go along with the pair I added in the rear. Huge difference in the amount of down travel. The vehicle is noticeably more composed over high frequency bumps now, and just look at all that down travel.:yum:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Ef...A=w417-h625-no

photo below of the difference in travel gained with helpers

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0

Practice event over the weekend. This is the first drive with the seat, longer travel suspension, and a few other minor changes to ride height and alignment. The seat made a huge difference in my ability to drive the car (duh) to the point that I think I'm ready to run a rear bar again. We have another event next weekend so I'll get to test it soon.

The seat is easily my favorite mod in that it's allowing me to take advantage of all the extra grip the car has. Now that I'm no longer fighting my own weight moving I can apply steering, throttle, and brake input much more precisely allowing better control entering and through a corner.

This was just practice but I had one of the fastest runs that day against some local drivers that would have dusted me in the past. Looking forward to competing more in the season.

Got my first local win with the car. Still decided to make some changes. The seat is allowing a much better level of control so I decided to try out the stock rear sway bar again. If I die I die.



Check out this rear tire lift. I softened up the dampers for more front grip so now I think its time to stiffen then the rear to turn this lift into rotation.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0

love to see people doing STU build with their Z34

No real updates aside from the fact that the car may possibly go to a much wider tire next year due to rule changes. If everything works out we will be able to run a square 315 set-up which will be insane. If it passes all my energy will go into figuring out what it will take to fit that tire on all four corners. The grip will be insane. Here go some recent action shots I took from some events over the summer.

https://i.imgur.com/UFkUI0Q.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Ih6qHyf.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/guElTeK.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Ii7Ndx7.jpg

I need to do this on my rear 7in. 10k Swift springs with SPL midlinks. My front springs are longer, 10in. I think. Who did you contact to help you get the right stuff from Swift?

I did it myself. You just need to match the the inner diameter of the helper springs to the main springs(ie 60mm helper with 60mm main springs). The kit from swift comes with a plastic coupler you can see in the photos. Once I had the kit I adjusted the length of the damper to the maximum length and then set the ride height with the perches.

I ordered from evasive. They have all the spring specs listed like free and compressed lengths.

So if I call Evasive they can tell me what helper spring and swift spring to buy to keep my 10k- 7in Swift spring rate. I think they are 60mm springs. Ugg, this will mean I have to redo
my corner balancing again. No fun but I beat it will be worth it.

I didn't re corner or align when I did my springs. I just adjusted the height exactly where it was when I started. When I checked the corner balance at the end of the season it was where I had set it prior.

Regarding evasive, I just measured what I needed and ordered. Not sure if they consult on the phone.

I can't see the pictures from yesterday!

Thats weird. I'll try to repost them later.

Update.

Over the offseason they updated the rules to allow up to a 315 tire for naturally aspirated front engine rwd platforms. Tires got here last week so I spent the weekend working on the car to get them to fit. Now running 315/30r18 Advan AO52 square.


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...6e866fd8_c.jpg_BES6507 by brendan sobers, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...303703c5_c.jpg_BES6502 by brendan sobers, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...5362ba2e_c.jpg_BES6498 by brendan sobers, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...4fc437c1_c.jpg_BES6490 by brendan sobers, on Flickr

Biggest change was having to give up the lower ride height. A worthwhile sacrifice for nearly 2 more inches of rubber front and rear. Cant wait to see what it does on course.

Jeeezus that’s a lot of tire haha

Car still drives surprisingly well in the street. I was expecting it to be a tram-lining mess

It looks too tired!
Certainly where the rubber meets the road, only multiplied!
:-)

Go big or go home!

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

You see mine from the rear with the 345's. :tup:

:iagree:

Also thanks to all the people who helped me out by answering questions and sending me pics to study to see if it was even possible to fit this wide a tire up front.

Small update. One of the most frustrating rules regarding building a car for this class is the one regarding suspension bushings. Due to this rule we cant run nice arms like spl or voodoo and a means we are stuck using arms that are more difficult to work with.

I had a set of z1 arms which don't allow for even or easy adjustment as you have to take apart the front suspension to make any changes.

The z1 arms were durable so I would recommend them to anyone looking for affordable arms if they dont plan on adjusting the car often.

I decided to "make" a set of arms that were easy to adjust but also legal for competition. I started with a set of upper control arms from gk tech. These arms are new on the market but the company makes stuff for the 350z and other Nissan cars.

The control arms from gktech work very similar the spl arms but are like a 3rd of the cost. These arms have spherical inner rod ends but the bearing is a standard type that you can get from most stores that stock suspension parts. What I decided to do was replace the rod ends with a type that would be legal for racing. I was able to find a set of rod ends from a 4wd parts company of all places. The dimension and type were perfect for the 370z. I ended up having to swap over the guts from the bushing on the z1 arms to make the rod ends work but someone might be able to put together a set by just having a set of inner sleeves made for the rod end bushings.

Anyways, now I have a set of arms that are easy to make adjustments on and are legal for racing. The only drawback so far is that they gave up some caster. I haven't measured yet so I can say how much, but it was around +8 with the z1 arms. These seem to be more in the range of the stock upper control arms. They do allow for a much larger range of camber which is very nice. Even with the new rod ends I was able to get around -4 and there seemed to be enough threads left to get even more.

Fyi it seems like it would totally be possible to convert a set of spl arms the way I did these GKTech, I didnt want to spend $1000+ finding this out if I wasn't sure.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...764f893c_c.jpgPXL_20210319_222049350 by brendan sobers, on Flickr

Got some shots of the 315 in action.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...960e82c0_c.jpg_BES8231 by brendan sobers, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...2bccdd17_c.jpg_BES8233 by brendan sobers, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a7190631_c.jpg_BES8240 by brendan sobers, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...2687a8d2_c.jpg_BES8215 by brendan sobers, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...57de544b_c.jpg_BES8222 by brendan sobers, on Flickr

Great photos, per usual!

Tires look monstrous! I love it!

Did your times and traction improve?

She looks very composed!

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

Definitely. These tires still hate to get hot so on a long course with two drivers, staying fast from lap to lap is still a challenge. On my own it should be less if an issue

I shot an event at the track this weekend and took a break between run groups to take photos of the car with it's new sexy stance. I'm much happier with how it looks now and it drives well on the street too. I just hope it doesn't push too much. Still not too pretty to send it.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...03392ab5_c.jpg_BES4687 by brendan sobers, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8f44df45_c.jpg_BES4684-2 by brendan sobers, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...20d23d54_c.jpg_BES4677 by brendan sobers, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...509b7052_c.jpg_BES2633-2 by brendan sobers, on Flickr

My buddy took photos of the car in action. It's cool to see the suspension working under load. The car is driving well to where I think I can leave it alone and just focus on fixing bad habits with my driving. The new bump stops are doing a good job of limiting the wheel travel to where I don't have to worry about rubbing and they don't make the car push at all which was a big concern. Cant wait to drive this car again.

Seems to be using all the tire even at -4 degrees of camber. I'll need to get out the pyrometer next time we have an event with less downtime and warmer weather.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0

Would be quite a task to induce under steer with 315 up front tho :rofl2:

I still chuckle with joy seeing the 315’s up front

Nice pictures!

Thanks dude. I suppose it doesn't matter now but my bump stops are active, meaning the car is always on them. If I got the packing wrong the rate would go infinite too soon and make the car push but so far it's pretty great. Feels and looks like dramatically more roll resistance and grip for $15. Most importantly, it goes low and rides good. :yum:

Did you go to Nationals? How'd it go? I see Bill Zerr didn't do as well as he normally does.

This thing is so beautiful yet such a beast!

Do you have any recent updates on this build?

Small update. I made some small setup changes after nationals. Now running the oem nismo front sway bar and the car is much easier to drive at the limit. I did win my class at our local winter event yesterday which isn't much but it's progress. Hopefully plan to finish the build with intakes, tune, 2p brake rotors and some 18x11 wheels all next season.

Man, this is very helpful and so close to exactly what I need. I am trying to do the same thing but using the SPL arm. The SPL rod end is a 5/8-18 RH thread, which barnes4wd.com doesn't seem to have. I will email them to see if they can custom make the exact mount with a different thread size.:tup:

I know Speedway sells one that has the 5/8-18 thread, but their bushing mounting width is only 1.3" which is too short and the housing ID is only about 1" which is a little small.

Do you happen to know the width of the forged housing without the bushing?

With some shims (think precise thickness washers) you can use the Speedway rod ends without too much difficulty. That's what I've been doing on mine for a number of years now.

Wow! Very cool build. Its great to see your driving skills progress. Have you ever considered doing an HPDE?