sig11's Journal... not that anyone cares

sig11

I'm going to have to put together a budget and a calendar for next year. So many track days I want to hit and only a few groups have started posting dates.

I have heard the WMHM guys are a good group. I think I'll hit a lot of the 3balls events this coming year. The Grattan track day went really smoothly and soooo much track time. We were running alternating 30 minute sessions which really kept you hopping.

ChrisSlicks

3Balls are the balls. With them it is all about maximum track time.

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Hotchkis ARB | Stillen CAI | Art Pipes | Berk CBE | Stillen AP Racing Brakes | AE Performance Oil Cooler | BC Racing ER Coilovers | Doran Control Arms

THMotorsports

Ive heard the 3balls sessions are awesome from a lot of local guys. Definitely going to check it out next year.

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sig11

hehe Wait a second... Is balls a good thing out east?

ChrisSlicks

"Balls" = bad but "The balls" is good.

Here's an example. As Ken rolled through Big Rock and accelerated over Candy Mountain he thought to himself "This track is the balls!". As he finished his lap and cruised into the pits he felt a cool refreshing liquid squirting onto the back of his neck, followed by a glowing gentle warmth. Realizing at this point that his car was on fire, he rolled up to the fire truck and exclaimed "Balls!" as the crew circled his vehicle with extinguishers.

True story, ask Ken.

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Hotchkis ARB | Stillen CAI | Art Pipes | Berk CBE | Stillen AP Racing Brakes | AE Performance Oil Cooler | BC Racing ER Coilovers | Doran Control Arms

sig11

Bwahahahah I heard about that at Grattan. He had just got the car running again... and it only lasted a couple sessions.

sig11

03/19/2011 - De-winterizing.
Changed the oil and took a quick little road trip to Cabela's. I forgot how much I HATE changing the oil on this car with the oil cooler sandwich plate. I always end up spilling oil everywhere and it's extra hard to check for leaks because of it. The Purolator filter is just long enough that it's a real bitch the wrench off after breaking it loose. Doing this upside down on cold concrete also sucks. While greasing the sway bars I noticed that my exhaust cans had been scratched and dented pretty badly.


Also took the opportunity to put on the biggest power mods to date:



Against my better judgement this week I bought a used set of BC ER coilovers revalved by Relentless Autosports with 12k/10k swift springs from phantom21 (at the370z). I really had planned to hold off on any more modifications until I was driving the wheels off of what I already have but they're in great shape and I just couldn't pass up the deal.


I ordered a set of SPL rear camber links from Z1 along with some SS brake lines, an SS clutch line, RBF600 for the clutch, Red Line MT-85 for the transmission, and Red Line 75W90 for the diff. The fluids and lines came yesterday (3/23/2010) but unfortunately the camber links were not in the box! I have called Z1 and emailed but haven't received any response yet... and that kinda annoys me.

I'm going to have to re-learn the darn car after all these mods. Not to mention the fact that lowering the car scares the hell out of me. The front spoiler thingie is 3" from the ground as it is and I have to take my very mild driveway at an angle to keep from scraping. Toss in the damage already done to my exhaust and it's scary.

sig11

Wee! Thanks to the rapidly approaching HPDE at Gingerman on the 23rd and the lack of a garage I had Mufflers & More install my SS lines and coilovers on the 6th of April. Fortunately Kenny was able to get the suspension on without having the BC tools. They worked pretty much the whole day on the car... and my only complaint is that they over torqued the lugs and I had to buy a breaker bar to get the wheels off to raise the car back up. My alignment is probably a bit too agressive for the street but my tires did seem to be wearing a little too much on the outside.



They left the height set how phantom21 had them set which resulted in them having to disassemble the lift to get the car back on the ground. Surprisingly enough there didn't seem to be any issue with rubbing.

Whew boy was it low though:


(thanks to thekinn for taking these at Cars Coffee & Karts)


Unfortunately it was only barely drivable at this height in the Detroit metro area... every little bump resulted in more scraping of the already rough front spoiler so the next week (4/10) I raised the front by about .5". This also resulted in making the ride height almost exactly 26" from ground to the top of the arch of the wheel well on all four corners.



Friday I ordered a set of 275/35R19 and 295/30R19 Yokohama AD08's since I haven't been able to track down any 305/30R19 RE-11s. Should have them on Thursday morning just in time for my first track day of the season on the 23rd at GingerMan with 3balls. I may have Kenny back off the alignment a little bit but without the front control arms I'm not sure how successful that will be.

I was planning on heading straight from the track to my parent's house in southern IL but since it's looking like cold and rainy day I'm not sure what I will do. If I treat the track as a half way point I have to take my dog with me and I'm afraid he will bite me if he's stuck outside in the cold and rain all day.

I guess that's about it for this week. I'll hopefully have some new track video from GingerMan to post after I get back to Detroit.

Click images for larger versions as usual...

ChrisSlicks

Yeah, that's pretty low. If you raise the car up a little bit you will also lose some of that camber, so it could end up where you want it. You will have to realign regardless but height is the only thing that is going to affect camber in the front.

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Hotchkis ARB | Stillen CAI | Art Pipes | Berk CBE | Stillen AP Racing Brakes | AE Performance Oil Cooler | BC Racing ER Coilovers | Doran Control Arms

sig11

At this point the height isn't an issue for most roads around here. I backed the compression and rebound down to 10 on all four corners after raising the front .5" Kenny left it set up how it came and when I finally got the tools to adjust the height I counted off the clicks on all four corners and was honestly really surprised how wildly different they were.

I'm going to give the Koni method for tuning a try Saturday.. I'm sure that will eat up at least one session. I need to get a drill/hole saw so I can cut access to the rear rebound adjuster too. I keep forgetting to look for appropriate grommets to replace the plastic that's cut out too... oy!

Any suggestions or comments on setting up this way?

ChrisSlicks

That seems like a pretty fair approach.

The ball park setting of 10 is a pretty good starting place for street tires on a warm day. On a cooler day I like it a little bit softer especially on the rebound to assist in weight transfer.

BTW the rear rebound setting is really awkward to reach.

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Hotchkis ARB | Stillen CAI | Art Pipes | Berk CBE | Stillen AP Racing Brakes | AE Performance Oil Cooler | BC Racing ER Coilovers | Doran Control Arms

sig11

I'll have to install the extenders I suppose. :P That could mean a smaller hole in the plastic too.

ChrisSlicks

Sorry, I meant compression. The one on the external reservoir at the bottom of the shock. It is placed such that you have a long reach around the wheel to get to it for quick changes.

__________________
Hotchkis ARB | Stillen CAI | Art Pipes | Berk CBE | Stillen AP Racing Brakes | AE Performance Oil Cooler | BC Racing ER Coilovers | Doran Control Arms

sig11

Ahh yeah. If I wasn't so tall it would be really tough. I kind-of dread having to reach back there with hot tires and brakes.

sig11

Ugh. I didn't consider the fact that I now have 10mm wider front tires. I am going to have to raise all four corners this afternoon.

And I need to borrow a jack so I can unload the front since I only have one floor jack.