TravisJB Journal

RCZ

^ Eh, I think we would have a much easier time. We don't have roll cages, bucket seats, 5 point harnesses, etc. All we gotta do is stop, unclick seatbelt and get the hell out.

m4a1mustang

I'm talking mainly about a post-impact fire.

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Tage

Hey all, this is Tage Evanson. As many of you know my Civic was severely damaged. I will be slowly rebuilding it but it's going to take some time so in the mean time I found a smoking deal on a 2003 350Z. Travis was another local that I knew had invested a LOT of time/money into his 370Z (I figured they were similar enough) to warrant shooting him an email to ask some questions. He provided this link and it's AWESOME to say the least. It took a while but I've read from start to finish of this post since last night. It was nice learning about 2 years worth of trial and error in just 2 days. Thx Travis!

So here's a few of my comments:

1. Travis, you put WAY too much emphasis on the car and seemingly nothing on the driver. I think your last update mentioned that you picked up 4 seconds per lap at Chuckwalla. I'd bet money that the majority of that time came from YOU driving better/faster, not a 1/4" ride height adjustment, shock setting or new aero device.

For example, my first time to PIR back in 1999 I ran a 1:22 and I thought I was driving "flat out". I made NO CHANGES to the car and did PIR the following month and dropped 4 seconds down to a 1:18! I thought I was hot stuff back then because I was hanging with a Camaro SS in my 145WHP Acura Integra (with full interior). It only had Koni shocks, lowering springs, sway bars and Kumho V700 R-tires. Fast forward to 2009'ish and I thought for $h!t$ and giggles I would take my daily driver commuter (95 Honda Accord 4 door) out for a quick lap just to see how pathetic it would be on my street tires. I pulled a time of 1:18. LOL! The moral of the story is DO NOT UNDER ESTIMATE THE DRIVER!


2. Along the same lines of focus on the car, you have too much emphasis on the power to weight ratio. While being at 8.7:1 in TTS would be ideal, it doesn't mean your car won't be competitive. When my Civic was ~2300 and was NA making 215WHP (only a "10.7" weight to power), I was still running mid/high 1:06's at PIR and that was on 225mm wide Nitto NT-01s!!! Going to a Hoosier only lowered my lap times to a best of 1:06.2xx. It wasn't until I put 275/35-15 Hoosiers on the front of my Civic did I drop down into the low/mid 1:05's. As you know, at the Feb event this year I put the car on R75 Hoosier radial slicks and that's when I dropped times down into the 1:03s. Another example is Clay's green ST2/TTS Porsche. His power to weight was only 10:1 but he was doing low 1:05's in race group with his car. Yes, these are both much lighter cars and all things being equal I think a lighter car will be faster than a heavier one with the same weight/power ratio but the point is, power isn't everything.


3. Oh, BTW, I LOVE the background of your car number. I had no idea I was a "target". Nice!


4. Good move on sticking with the F250 as a tow vehicle. the Cayanee Turbo is an incredible high performance SUV but it is a horrible tow vehicle. It has no torque in the RPM range that you need it.


5. This is my first 350/370Z related thread I have read so far but I'd agree that this is likely the best one EVAR!


6. Contrary to what I preached above in point 1 & 2, I say you supercharge your engine and then tune it for TTS. The last thing you want is a car that makes 325WHP but only 320+ for the last 200 RPM before hitting the rev limiter. What's important for classes that are governed by "peak" HP is getting as much "average" HP as possible. In other words if "325" is your max then do whatever you have to, to produce "325" for as long as possible. My Civic's engine in TTS trim when I ran slicks was detuned to basically make 260-265WHP between 6000-8400RPM. It basically ALWAYS made the max HP allowed by the class. My Civic also handles like a champ too though.


7. I love that you're going extreme with your car. We need more guys like us out there. I love my Civic but the only reason I keep modifying it is because people don't expect it to be fast and are just blown away at what it is capable of. If you stay on the path you're on, you'll get your 370Z there *IF* you put a little more focus on just driving it vs thinking you need a car mod to take it to the next level. You are getting plenty of seat time but when things slow down with your work/family/move it could be worthwhile to invest in a professional racing school. I did the Bonduarant 4 day school and I feel I got more out of that than an equal amount of money spent on the car. The eariler you do it within your racing career the better too. Another eye opening experience could be to hire a personal coach or pro driver. That might be cheaper than a private school. Have them drive your car and then analyze the data on your Traqmate. I think you'll be surprised at the differences in the graph plots and then you'll know exactly where to shave those seconds off your lap times. At the Bondo school when we got into the Formula Mazda's I basically blew the doors off everyone in my class and ran neck and neck with a couple of the instructors, but then they put the top instructor out there to play with me and while it was close, he consistently pulled away from me lap after lap. Yes, I was even humbled... :-)


8. Re: Ford 6.0L diesel motor. I have one too. I love my truck but get an extended warranty if you don't already have one. LOL!


9. In terms of getting out of a burning car quickly, regardless if your car is stock or modified, you should still practice the procedure. Many modern cars will lock the doors when you start the car. You should get into the habit of at least unlocking the doors before heading out on track to ease/increase exit time. When I get out of my Civic (during practice or the real thing) I go out the window because it takes too long to open the door. It takes me 2 seconds to move my hands from the steering wheel, release the harness, drop the window net and exit the vehicle complete and be standing outside my car. This is in a full race suit, HANS, gloves, helmet, etc. I'd be curious how long it takes someone in a stock 370Z to do the same?


10. BTW, I'm looking to compete in my 350Z in TTA (on Hoosier DOT rubber) to see if I can get all the track records in that class here locally and then I'll switch to Hoosier slicks and go for TTS/ST2 (TT and Race Group). My Civic when rebuilt will be lighter and more powerful and be maxed out in TTU/ST1 (the next class up in TT and race group).


One last question so I'm not hijacking Travis' thread here (more than I already have). Is the 350Z similar enough to the 350Z to warrant asking questions here on this site or should I just find a 350Z specific site to do that?

ChrisSlicks

Hi Tage, I hope you are recovering well. Travis told us the story about what happened and it was extremely scary, and you were very brave to jump out of a still quickly moving vehicle. I've been following your recovery thread on the NASA forum.

I would say it is worth hanging out here even if you have a 350, some of the parts are interchangeable, and the general engine/chassis/suspension design is quite similar. There are several folks with 350's and G35/37's on this site just because the site is more active with information and far more friendly. It would be worth registering for one of the 350 sites as well to read through existing information. Some might consider it bad form to post the names of the "competing" sites so I'll just PM you that info.

And yes, Travis was the first person I know to jump head first into building the 370. He started off mild like the rest of us but quickly realized the potential and invested in the car doing a lot of his own R&D along the way.

RE: #10 - Yes the 370 has auto-locks engaged by default but this was one of the first features I turned off. They tell you how to change the setting in the owners manual, very simple. Getting out the window of the 370 might be a little more challenging than a Civic given that the opening is not as tall, it is a tight fit for my helmet and if you have HANS attached to your helmet it is going to be a very tight fit (helmet only fits sideways). Fortunately the doors are easy to open quickly. More difficult is shutting down the engine while moving, it requires a 3-second hold on the start/stop button, although someone said that if you press it 3 times quickly it will also shut down so I have to try that out.

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travisjb

Terrific to have you on this board, Tage!

All, I think you know from my prior posts who Tage is... back in the day a top autocross driver, and more recently a winning time attack driver and racer... you've probably seen him and his Civic featured in import tuner, modified, etc. It's great to see him make the jump to a nissan platform, and maybe we can keep him around! He'll be a great resource for all of us on driver coaching and understanding which mods really matter at the track. And I'm sure he'll be looking for specific input on his new 350 from all of you.

Just a few, huh?! lol

I'm sure it would seem that way having just read through this journal, but I do invest what time I can into my driving skills... never enough, but I put more time there than I do into mods/tuning... I've done the 4-day Bondurant course, for example... and plenty of Karting and more recently have gotten into Sim racing to hold me over between RL sessions... Also, my improvements at Chuckwalla were more about learning that track than they were outright driver improvements... Also tires and setup definitely bought ~3 of the 4 seconds... As a benchmark, my PIR times improved by 5.8 seconds over two years including all of the mods that were done on the car... final time of 1:07 and change, and I don't think anyone could do much more than mid 5s in the car, no matter how good they are... so, my guess would be that at PIR I was leaving 1.0-1.5 seconds on the track due to the guy in the seat

But I'm with you... it's time to check my ego and maybe do another 2-3 day advanced course with one of the schools

Fair... it matters though... there is time to be gained coming out of corners - you can only make up so much everywhere else

Everyone needs a huckleberry! If only you weren't a moving target! ha

It's a solid, dependable vehicle... it's been choking a bit lately on clogged fuel injectors, but otherwise solid


I think you may be right! Going to ease my way back in this fall and then maybe take the plunge to keep things interesting

Good idea! But of course if they wreck it... that'd be an ugly scene

Tage humbled? say it isn't so!! LOL

We're all glad you are okay!!

I have a new job looking after products that protect people from fires, so your incident hits close to home for me

I'd be curious as well how long it takes people... you might even start a thread on that!

Rock on, Tage!

Yes, what Chris said

I think you'll find plenty of people around here that talk about the differences but at the end of the day they are darn close

By the way, did you know this car is for sales? (at least I think it is still available)
Twin Turbo Time Attack 370z for sale built like a factory race car!

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*For Sale*

Tage

Thx! Yeah, I'm pretty excited to give the 350Z a try to see how it performs and see if I can make it competitive on not just a local scale but on the National level as well. That wasn't the plan originally but my Civic is going to take so long to rebuild that I might as well stick with the Nissan for a while to see what I can do with it.

RE: Your improvements at Chuckwalla. Yeah, learning the track and/or gaining driving skills is all the same thing to me IMO. Improvement via the driver is the bottom line. Take PIR for example, you might know it like the back of your hand but unless you're flat out from T9 all the way through the oval, you're leaving a TON of time out there. No reason your PTW couldn't do it. I was flat out in my Civic!

Speaking of which, for those interested in the Civic that Travis was chasing after. Here is the most recent video of it at PIR. It's a race vs a TT but you'll get the point (low weight = lots of grip and great brakes / it also has ridiculously short and close gearing).
NASA Arizona - PIR - Feb 6 2011 - Big Bore Race on Vimeo

Oh and before I forget, I noticed along your struggles with fuel starvation that you mentioned of plans of going a fuel cell to not just resolve those issues but also that you alluded to the fact that you thought it was required for race group. That is not true, you do NOT need a fuel cell for race group. In fact, IMO a stock tank is preferred since it doesn't "expire". With a fuel cell, the bladder must be 5 years or less in age and you need proof of the age in order to pass tech. IMO, just get a good surge tank and keep the stock tank. Your dual fuel pumps is a good start but you should have those pumps, pump into a small 1/2 gallon aluminum box (outside of the tank). The stock tank/pump(s) job is to keep that thing full at all times (to simulate a "full tank") and then you have a 3rd fuel pump that draws fuel from the bottom of that to feed the fuel rail. If the stock tank ever sucks air the aux/surge tank will keep the engine running uninterupted for quite some time. I'm not sure why folks aren't doing this now as it's a much easier and simplier solution than all this maddness with baffles/tubes with holes in it or trying to find the perfect location for the dual pumps, etc.

I am anxious to hear how your experiences with NASA Florida compares to NASA Arizona as well as how you stack up against their local competition. I believe the tracks there are a bit faster so the aero should certainly help out more so than AZ tracks (w/ the exception of Chuckwalla).

That 370Z race car is pretty awesome but it costs about the same as I have into my 06 F350 dually, 24' Hallmark trailer, my Civic and my 350Z.

Boost_lee

Wow, amazing story. My best wishes to him for a speedy recovery