wstar's Journal

wstar · 10-24-2011, 03:49 PM

Undertray pics:

Front area:

Rear area (with the new grease fitting holes apparent, and you can kinda see where the bushing itself is a problem):

Attempted a shot of the oil pan clearance, came out kinda useless

ChrisSlicks · 10-24-2011, 04:02 PM

I had a similar problem with the Z-speed undertray and the Hotchkis bar. I removed the nipples due to the interference, but then I discovered as soon as you hit any hard transition the sway bar comes down and smacks the undertray. After a few good hits like that the undertray will be bent all out of shape. Might happen with a stock bar as well, can't say for sure. I have the AM Performance pan, which relocates the drain plug so I have the same issue with the trap door now.

wstar · 10-24-2011, 04:13 PM

Edit: where do the swaybars end up hitting the tray when mobile?

ChrisSlicks · 10-24-2011, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wstar

Edit: where do the swaybars end up hitting the tray when mobile?

As the end link is pushed up when compressed, the center section of the sway bar is pushed down by a similar amount. Compress the front suspension unevenly such as entering a harsh driveway or a track transition and you will hear a loud "thunk" as the center of the sway hits the tray. Eventually the noise stops once the sway bar has bashed the undertray into the desired shape

wstar · 10-24-2011, 04:24 PM

Ah I might get saved on that a bit for now, being on the stock super-tall suspension still. Probably gets worse as you drop the car down

haitech · 11-02-2011, 03:26 PM

Sorry to hear when things don't go your way and there are obstacles.

But get some pics up for your updates! haha

wstar · 11-02-2011, 07:09 PM

Soon as I get the sensor installed (hopefully tomorrow) I'll post pics/vid and details on the oil pressure gauge I picked and how it's all wired up (with an audio alarm on low pressure to boot!).

wstar · 11-03-2011, 11:02 PM

Oil Pressure Gauge install is done. I'm not going to do a full DIY, instead I'll link you to spearfish25's for a lot of the install details (and link this back to there as well): DIY: Oil Pressure Gauge.

First, I'll cover the sensor install stuff, I'll put the actual dash gauge stuff in the next post. My sensor (like almost all aftermarket sensors) is 1/8 NPT threaded. There have been conflicting reports on whether our car's stock oil pressure switch is 1/8 NPT or 1/8 BSPT. BSPT is more normal for Nissan and Japanese mfgs in general, but at least one other forum member checked his threads thoroughly and found NPT apparently. I ordered hardware for both scenarios, which also gave me known-good male and female examples of both thread types to compare with each other and the stock sensor. My car ended up being BSPT, but it could well be that this varies by mfg date or some other variable. In both cases I ordered a setup based on a 3-port all female Tee-shaped adapter, so that I could play with different installation orientations and find what worked best for me.

This was my NPT parts list from Aircraft Spruce, which I didn't end up using. It's a 3-way all-female 1/8 NPT tee, and one male:male hex nipple for attaching it to the engine block.

Code:

1		0	AN911-1D AN FITTINGS AN911-1D NIPPLE	1.540	1.54
1		0	AN917-1D AN FITTINGS AN917-1D TEE	7.250	7.25

This was my BSPT parts list from McMaster-Carr, which I did end up using:

Code:

4978K121 - BSPT Thread Low-Pressure Bronze Pipe Fitting, 1/8" Pipe Size, Tee
4860K631 - British Standard Threaded Brass Pipe Fitting, Nickel-Plated, BSPT Thread, 1/8" X 1/8" Hex Nipple
4860K141 - British Standard Threaded Brass Pipe Fitting, BSPT Male X NPT Female, 1/8" Adapter

The double-male hex nipple goes between the engine block and the tee, the stock pressure switch goes into another tee port directly, and the aftermarket sensor uses the NPT -> BSPT adapter to plug into the tee.

For sealing the threads, on the advice I found via googling, I went with Permatex #2. You want to put a nice layer of this stuff over every Male threaded end in the assembly, but leave the first 1-2 threads clean (so that as you screw the threads in, while excess permatex tends to squeeze back out on the outside, it's not contaminating the inside where the oil flow will be).

This is the various BSPT fittings, the stock sensor, and the OEM sensor loosely threaded together in the final configuration I decided to use, and a tube of the sealant:

The orientation I chose has the stock sensor sticking out in its normal orientation (but further due to the tee), and the aftermarket pointing fairly close to straight down. It was the longer and heavier of the two, so I wanted to reduce its leverage on the whole assembly as much as possible. The bottom (wire outlet) of the sensor comes out about 1/2" above the level of my AM Performance oil pan, so that combined with the Z-speed solid aluminum undertray should sufficiently prevent any hits on the dangling sensor. The stock sensor reaches out close to in-line with the swaybar (as with spearfish's, but not quite as far out), but it's even higher up than my oil cooler lines which were placed to clear swaybar movement range, so it's all good.

After basic assembly, I had to cut one factory wire tie on the oil switch's wiring to get the wire to route correctly, and then I put some 1/4" split plastic tubing over the new sensor's wires and tied it up along the same rough path, and then sealed everything over with a bit of electrical tape to keep moisture at bay.

Pics of the sensors installed, in various stages of completion and from various angles:

From straight underneath, looking up at the OEM pressure switch into the Tee:

Same, zoomed out and showing the aftermarket sensor as well:

Angled view of roughly the same stuff:

Different underside view angle:

View from the front:

Cable protection / electrical tape stuff:

wstar · 11-04-2011, 12:12 AM

Part 2: The Gauge Itself.

I decided on a pretty awesome looking (feature-wise) gauge from Spek-Pro: ProParts - Gauge Controllers, Mounting Pods. That listing shows it as 0-150 PSI, but the current model they're shipping is actually a 0-120 PSI gauge face with a 0-150 PSI pressure sensor. It's a little pricey at $255, but IMHO worth it. The basic rundown on the features of this gauge:

52mm (2-1/16"), digital internals with analog-style display
LED Backlight: several different colors for the main backlight, red needle.
3 Buttons along the bottom of the faceplate for programming menus: you can pick the backlight color, set the brightness, recall the last peak value, calibrate the gauge to zero sensor pressure (w/ engine off), and set high- and low- pressure alarm pressures.
Regardless of your chosen backlight color, when the pressure is low or high enough to trip one of your alarm settings, the gauge backlight switches to flashing red.
There's an alarm wire output that you can hook up, which will ground a small 12V load to do whatever you want it to do.

Full details on the features, wiring, and programming are in this rather poorly put together but informative instruction manual: http://www.propartsllc.com/pdfs/Pressure.pdf

I didn't use the dimmer wire (supposed to dim the gauge with the headlights/dimmer for your dash). I tried hooking it up to the dimmer+ and dimmer- lines used by the factory radio harness, but had no luck making it work, so I left it disconnected. It could be that I just didn't do something right at the time though. The brightness is easy enough to adjust from the gauge's buttons in any case.

I did make use of the alarm wire though. I went down to a local electronics shop and picked up a small 12V Piezo Buzzer rated for 75dB. You could search somewhere like Mouser to buy something similar online, e.g. this 95 dB one, they have a pretty wide selection of them there. My 75dB is loud enough to really be annoying, but I haven't yet had the chance to see if it's loud enough for windows down on the track with a helmet on. If not I'll upgrade it later. In any case, any reasonable piezo buzzer is well under the 1.5 Amp limit for the gauge's alarm wire, so you don't even need to use a relay or anything. Keep in mind the gauge's alarm "output" is a switched ground: you hook your buzzer's negative terminal to the gauge output, and your buzzer's positive terminal to an ignition-switched +12V source.

The problem with wiring up that alarm and setting an appropriate low pressure point on the gauge though, is that anytime I'd want the ignition on and the engine not running, the alarm would be sounding off the whole time due to the gauge being powered up and reading 0 PSI. I thought about putting a killswitch on the alarm itself, but then I figured I'd flip it off and forget that I did so, which ruins the whole point. So instead I wired up a lighted on/off switch for the whole gauge itself. This allows me to shut off the gauge+alarm if I'm going to have the ignition on and engine off for a while, and it's really obvious if I leave it that way when I start driving because the whole gauge is powered off (duh, turn the switch on).

As far as mounting for all of this goes (the gauge, the switch, the alarm buzzer), for now my center dash config is still a lid-less cubby and 2 empty DIN-sized pockets where the radio used to be. Later I'll probably upgrade to the "standard" of just a flat faceplate over this area to mount hardware on, but for now I mounted the gauge inside the cubby, and the switch and alarm hidden in the back of one of the DIN pockets.

This pic is the DIN pocket w/ the switch+alarm, obviously:

And this horrible shaky video is me playing with the gauge while the car is half-warmed-up. The brightness setting is just too high for the camera, hence the blurry look of the lit-up parts of the face. I roll through the basic settings menus (peak display, high alarm setting, low alarm setting, backlight color, brightness). On the way through, I set the low alarm high enough to make it trip at my current pressure just so you can hear it go off and see it flash, and then set it back to zero after.

Warning: partway through this video, I trip the alarm, and you're going to get really annoyed at the buzzing sound long before I get back through the menu system to set the low pressure alarm back to zero. Have your mute button handy:

ChrisSlicks · 11-04-2011, 06:22 AM

Nicely done! And thanks for confirming the thread type.

Red__Zed · 11-06-2011, 05:21 PM

sounds like a good time

In for the vids

travisjb · 11-06-2011, 05:51 PM

This addiction either bites hard or not at all... we now know which way this one went

wstar · 11-16-2011, 10:56 PM

Sorry for the delays on the vid. I waited till I got back from my trip, and then it took a couple days just to get everything exported from my phone and re-encoded via RaceRender, which left me with just short 1.5 hours of HD video w/ gauge/track/timer overlays. I've been keeping all my raw data/video for myself to review and learn from, but I just pasted together a few shorter bits for a 20-minute video for youtube upload. I'm hoping they'll show the "train" section in the next green classroom when they're telling everyone for the 50th time to be vigilant about letting passers get by

wstar · 11-22-2011, 02:25 PM

Just got my images back from Hart Photography. They shot the event and sell prints and downloads and such, so I ordered a zipfile of all the raw images they had on my car, ended up being ~100 images @ 15 megapixels. I haven't really gone through it all in depth, but I picked out these 4 in a quick overview of them to post up here:

wstar · 11-25-2011, 12:34 PM

This rambling post is mostly just to get my current thoughts down now that I've had time to reflect a bit more on my recent HPDE and everything related. The act of writing clarifies them, and I'll be able to review them myself down the road. Feedback on any of it is welcome, but mostly this is a public conversation between me and me

Reviewing the raw footage from the green and blue runs, it seems like in an ideal world there would be a group in-between the two that I would've fit into best. Not limping around the track like some of green and really holding up the show, but not quite as experienced as the average blue-grouper. I passed a few cars in blue, but I got passed a lot too, and I'm definitely in the lower range of speed and skill for that group. Still, at least here on my "home" track (MSR Houston), that's probably the group I need to run with going forward to improve. As I branch out to other nearby tracks, I think I do need to start back in green on them at least for a while, because I'm not adept enough to learn the course on the fly so fast.

Looking at lap time stuff: My best lap running solo at the informal lapping event before was 2:04.00. My best lap from the HPDE on the same track came in at 2:02.13. So I improved by almost 2 full seconds, but really I think of it as more than that in some virtual sense. I think there were a number of new complicating/distracting factors at the HPDE relative to how I was running by myself: I was forced to learn to look more broadly (helps planning and better overall, but harder to nail the current point compared to staring in front of the car), forced to pay attention to flag stations and understand them, there was a whole lot more traffic on the track, and I had someone talking in my ear the whole time. That last one in particular is interesting in the after-analysis. It's common in the video replays to see me getting some feedback on the corner we just finished, and my brain gets just distracted enough processing that feedback that I screw up the next corner a bit. I think that will fade as I get more comfortable and able to multi-task better, but again it's just another slowing factor compared to when I was running my horrible/unstable lines solo.

As far as specific driving technique/mistakes go: I need to learn to unwind the wheel a bit more/faster on corner exits while applying a bit more throttle, and trust the car dynamics to do the right thing there. I keep trying to add more throttle without the steering change, which results in my oversteer slip-ups. I need to keep trying to extend the range of my virtual line in front of me. Right now I'm visualizing the upcoming corner and the entrance of the next at best, I need to be able to start visualizing through multiple upcoming corners all at once when they're tightly connected. I need to get more aggressive, too. There were a lot of times I slacked off on the acceleration parts and/or the straights because I was busy thinking and processing things, when I could've picked up some easy time there. I also had a tendency to really back off and be too nice when a driver in front of me seemed slower, and that just complicated passing. I need to just get up on his *** and be ready to pass aggressively instead of worrying about how he feels.

Also, there was a consistent pattern where every time I nailed corner X a little better and came out of it faster, I'd end up entering the next corner too fast and screwing things up, and then maybe next time around I'd try to move the braking zone back to account for it. I need to start handling all of that in one cycle when I can. If I know I entered a corner better and I've got more speed coming out, part of the initial planning process in my head needs to be to move up the braking spot automatically to compensate.

My inter-mediate range plan and goals for now is to keep running HPDE-type (and occasional Auto-X) events at various local tracks, and to shoot for getting my times at MSR Houston down to 2:00 flat or less consistently, barring traffic holdups. I'm going to try to avoid any further major upgrades to the car until I reach that goal, because otherwise it gets hard to track my progress vs the car's progress. I'm still not sure what the long term plan is, or if I'll ever graduate to trying to do something competitive, but I think that's a ways off and I have time to reflect on it and consider the costs.

As far as car upgrades go, the basic lineup of remaining items is about the same as it has been: add some better coilovers dropping the car very slightly in the process, a better LSD, some good seats, fuel starvation fix, and continue stripping out interior weight over time. I think I'm going to hold off on any cage+harness work until the car becomes at least 95% track-only and/or I have a competitive plan and know what regulations I'll need to adhere to, both which are probably around the same future timeframe, whenever it is.

10-24-2011, 03:49 PM	#1 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	Undertray pics: Front area: Rear area (with the new grease fitting holes apparent, and you can kinda see where the bushing itself is a problem): Attempted a shot of the oil pan clearance, came out kinda useless __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

10-24-2011, 04:02 PM	#2 (permalink)
ChrisSlicks A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: North East Posts: 6,203 Drives: 09 370Z Sport M6 Rep Power: 654	I had a similar problem with the Z-speed undertray and the Hotchkis bar. I removed the nipples due to the interference, but then I discovered as soon as you hit any hard transition the sway bar comes down and smacks the undertray. After a few good hits like that the undertray will be bent all out of shape. Might happen with a stock bar as well, can't say for sure. I have the AM Performance pan, which relocates the drain plug so I have the same issue with the trap door now. __________________ Hotchkis ARB \| Stillen CAI \| Art Pipes \| Berk CBE \| Stillen AP Racing Brakes \| AE Performance Oil Cooler \| BC Racing ER Coilovers \| Doran Control Arms

10-24-2011, 04:13 PM	#3 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	Edit: where do the swaybars end up hitting the tray when mobile? __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details Last edited by wstar; 10-24-2011 at 04:16 PM.

10-24-2011, 04:24 PM	#5 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	Ah I might get saved on that a bit for now, being on the stock super-tall suspension still. Probably gets worse as you drop the car down __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

11-02-2011, 07:09 PM	#7 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	Soon as I get the sensor installed (hopefully tomorrow) I'll post pics/vid and details on the oil pressure gauge I picked and how it's all wired up (with an audio alarm on low pressure to boot!). __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

11-02-2011, 03:26 PM	#6 (permalink)
haitech Track Member Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Austin/Dallas Posts: 922 Drives: 11' 370z Magnetic M6 Rep Power: 15	Sorry to hear when things don't go your way and there are obstacles. But get some pics up for your updates! haha

11-03-2011, 11:02 PM	#8 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	Oil Pressure Gauge install is done. I'm not going to do a full DIY, instead I'll link you to spearfish25's for a lot of the install details (and link this back to there as well): DIY: Oil Pressure Gauge. First, I'll cover the sensor install stuff, I'll put the actual dash gauge stuff in the next post. My sensor (like almost all aftermarket sensors) is 1/8 NPT threaded. There have been conflicting reports on whether our car's stock oil pressure switch is 1/8 NPT or 1/8 BSPT. BSPT is more normal for Nissan and Japanese mfgs in general, but at least one other forum member checked his threads thoroughly and found NPT apparently. I ordered hardware for both scenarios, which also gave me known-good male and female examples of both thread types to compare with each other and the stock sensor. My car ended up being BSPT, but it could well be that this varies by mfg date or some other variable. In both cases I ordered a setup based on a 3-port all female Tee-shaped adapter, so that I could play with different installation orientations and find what worked best for me. This was my NPT parts list from Aircraft Spruce, which I didn't end up using. It's a 3-way all-female 1/8 NPT tee, and one male:male hex nipple for attaching it to the engine block. Code: 1 0 AN911-1D AN FITTINGS AN911-1D NIPPLE 1.540 1.54 1 0 AN917-1D AN FITTINGS AN917-1D TEE 7.250 7.25 This was my BSPT parts list from McMaster-Carr, which I did end up using: Code: 4978K121 - BSPT Thread Low-Pressure Bronze Pipe Fitting, 1/8" Pipe Size, Tee 4860K631 - British Standard Threaded Brass Pipe Fitting, Nickel-Plated, BSPT Thread, 1/8" X 1/8" Hex Nipple 4860K141 - British Standard Threaded Brass Pipe Fitting, BSPT Male X NPT Female, 1/8" Adapter The double-male hex nipple goes between the engine block and the tee, the stock pressure switch goes into another tee port directly, and the aftermarket sensor uses the NPT -> BSPT adapter to plug into the tee. For sealing the threads, on the advice I found via googling, I went with Permatex #2. You want to put a nice layer of this stuff over every Male threaded end in the assembly, but leave the first 1-2 threads clean (so that as you screw the threads in, while excess permatex tends to squeeze back out on the outside, it's not contaminating the inside where the oil flow will be). This is the various BSPT fittings, the stock sensor, and the OEM sensor loosely threaded together in the final configuration I decided to use, and a tube of the sealant: The orientation I chose has the stock sensor sticking out in its normal orientation (but further due to the tee), and the aftermarket pointing fairly close to straight down. It was the longer and heavier of the two, so I wanted to reduce its leverage on the whole assembly as much as possible. The bottom (wire outlet) of the sensor comes out about 1/2" above the level of my AM Performance oil pan, so that combined with the Z-speed solid aluminum undertray should sufficiently prevent any hits on the dangling sensor. The stock sensor reaches out close to in-line with the swaybar (as with spearfish's, but not quite as far out), but it's even higher up than my oil cooler lines which were placed to clear swaybar movement range, so it's all good. After basic assembly, I had to cut one factory wire tie on the oil switch's wiring to get the wire to route correctly, and then I put some 1/4" split plastic tubing over the new sensor's wires and tied it up along the same rough path, and then sealed everything over with a bit of electrical tape to keep moisture at bay. Pics of the sensors installed, in various stages of completion and from various angles: From straight underneath, looking up at the OEM pressure switch into the Tee: Same, zoomed out and showing the aftermarket sensor as well: Angled view of roughly the same stuff: Different underside view angle: View from the front: Cable protection / electrical tape stuff: Felix 808 likes this. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details Last edited by wstar; 11-03-2011 at 11:06 PM.

11-04-2011, 12:12 AM	#9 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	Part 2: The Gauge Itself. I decided on a pretty awesome looking (feature-wise) gauge from Spek-Pro: ProParts - Gauge Controllers, Mounting Pods. That listing shows it as 0-150 PSI, but the current model they're shipping is actually a 0-120 PSI gauge face with a 0-150 PSI pressure sensor. It's a little pricey at $255, but IMHO worth it. The basic rundown on the features of this gauge: 52mm (2-1/16"), digital internals with analog-style display LED Backlight: several different colors for the main backlight, red needle. 3 Buttons along the bottom of the faceplate for programming menus: you can pick the backlight color, set the brightness, recall the last peak value, calibrate the gauge to zero sensor pressure (w/ engine off), and set high- and low- pressure alarm pressures. Regardless of your chosen backlight color, when the pressure is low or high enough to trip one of your alarm settings, the gauge backlight switches to flashing red. There's an alarm wire output that you can hook up, which will ground a small 12V load to do whatever you want it to do. Full details on the features, wiring, and programming are in this rather poorly put together but informative instruction manual: http://www.propartsllc.com/pdfs/Pressure.pdf I didn't use the dimmer wire (supposed to dim the gauge with the headlights/dimmer for your dash). I tried hooking it up to the dimmer+ and dimmer- lines used by the factory radio harness, but had no luck making it work, so I left it disconnected. It could be that I just didn't do something right at the time though. The brightness is easy enough to adjust from the gauge's buttons in any case. I did make use of the alarm wire though. I went down to a local electronics shop and picked up a small 12V Piezo Buzzer rated for 75dB. You could search somewhere like Mouser to buy something similar online, e.g. this 95 dB one, they have a pretty wide selection of them there. My 75dB is loud enough to really be annoying, but I haven't yet had the chance to see if it's loud enough for windows down on the track with a helmet on. If not I'll upgrade it later. In any case, any reasonable piezo buzzer is well under the 1.5 Amp limit for the gauge's alarm wire, so you don't even need to use a relay or anything. Keep in mind the gauge's alarm "output" is a switched ground: you hook your buzzer's negative terminal to the gauge output, and your buzzer's positive terminal to an ignition-switched +12V source. The problem with wiring up that alarm and setting an appropriate low pressure point on the gauge though, is that anytime I'd want the ignition on and the engine not running, the alarm would be sounding off the whole time due to the gauge being powered up and reading 0 PSI. I thought about putting a killswitch on the alarm itself, but then I figured I'd flip it off and forget that I did so, which ruins the whole point. So instead I wired up a lighted on/off switch for the whole gauge itself. This allows me to shut off the gauge+alarm if I'm going to have the ignition on and engine off for a while, and it's really obvious if I leave it that way when I start driving because the whole gauge is powered off (duh, turn the switch on). As far as mounting for all of this goes (the gauge, the switch, the alarm buzzer), for now my center dash config is still a lid-less cubby and 2 empty DIN-sized pockets where the radio used to be. Later I'll probably upgrade to the "standard" of just a flat faceplate over this area to mount hardware on, but for now I mounted the gauge inside the cubby, and the switch and alarm hidden in the back of one of the DIN pockets. This pic is the DIN pocket w/ the switch+alarm, obviously: And this horrible shaky video is me playing with the gauge while the car is half-warmed-up. The brightness setting is just too high for the camera, hence the blurry look of the lit-up parts of the face. I roll through the basic settings menus (peak display, high alarm setting, low alarm setting, backlight color, brightness). On the way through, I set the low alarm high enough to make it trip at my current pressure just so you can hear it go off and see it flash, and then set it back to zero after. Warning: partway through this video, I trip the alarm, and you're going to get really annoyed at the buzzing sound long before I get back through the menu system to set the low pressure alarm back to zero. Have your mute button handy: __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

11-04-2011, 06:22 AM	#10 (permalink)
ChrisSlicks A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: North East Posts: 6,203 Drives: 09 370Z Sport M6 Rep Power: 654	Nicely done! And thanks for confirming the thread type. __________________ Hotchkis ARB \| Stillen CAI \| Art Pipes \| Berk CBE \| Stillen AP Racing Brakes \| AE Performance Oil Cooler \| BC Racing ER Coilovers \| Doran Control Arms

11-06-2011, 05:21 PM	#11 (permalink)
Red__Zed A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: window seat Posts: 28,940 Drives: Mostly on two wheels Rep Power: 120	sounds like a good time In for the vids

11-06-2011, 05:51 PM	#12 (permalink)
travisjb A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: GSO Posts: 2,803 Drives: VIR Rep Power: 189	This addiction either bites hard or not at all... we now know which way this one went __________________ 2009 370Z #104 For Sale

11-16-2011, 10:56 PM	#13 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	Sorry for the delays on the vid. I waited till I got back from my trip, and then it took a couple days just to get everything exported from my phone and re-encoded via RaceRender, which left me with just short 1.5 hours of HD video w/ gauge/track/timer overlays. I've been keeping all my raw data/video for myself to review and learn from, but I just pasted together a few shorter bits for a 20-minute video for youtube upload. I'm hoping they'll show the "train" section in the next green classroom when they're telling everyone for the 50th time to be vigilant about letting passers get by __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

11-22-2011, 02:25 PM	#14 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	Just got my images back from Hart Photography. They shot the event and sell prints and downloads and such, so I ordered a zipfile of all the raw images they had on my car, ended up being ~100 images @ 15 megapixels. I haven't really gone through it all in depth, but I picked out these 4 in a quick overview of them to post up here: __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

11-25-2011, 12:34 PM	#15 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	This rambling post is mostly just to get my current thoughts down now that I've had time to reflect a bit more on my recent HPDE and everything related. The act of writing clarifies them, and I'll be able to review them myself down the road. Feedback on any of it is welcome, but mostly this is a public conversation between me and me Reviewing the raw footage from the green and blue runs, it seems like in an ideal world there would be a group in-between the two that I would've fit into best. Not limping around the track like some of green and really holding up the show, but not quite as experienced as the average blue-grouper. I passed a few cars in blue, but I got passed a lot too, and I'm definitely in the lower range of speed and skill for that group. Still, at least here on my "home" track (MSR Houston), that's probably the group I need to run with going forward to improve. As I branch out to other nearby tracks, I think I do need to start back in green on them at least for a while, because I'm not adept enough to learn the course on the fly so fast. Looking at lap time stuff: My best lap running solo at the informal lapping event before was 2:04.00. My best lap from the HPDE on the same track came in at 2:02.13. So I improved by almost 2 full seconds, but really I think of it as more than that in some virtual sense. I think there were a number of new complicating/distracting factors at the HPDE relative to how I was running by myself: I was forced to learn to look more broadly (helps planning and better overall, but harder to nail the current point compared to staring in front of the car), forced to pay attention to flag stations and understand them, there was a whole lot more traffic on the track, and I had someone talking in my ear the whole time. That last one in particular is interesting in the after-analysis. It's common in the video replays to see me getting some feedback on the corner we just finished, and my brain gets just distracted enough processing that feedback that I screw up the next corner a bit. I think that will fade as I get more comfortable and able to multi-task better, but again it's just another slowing factor compared to when I was running my horrible/unstable lines solo. As far as specific driving technique/mistakes go: I need to learn to unwind the wheel a bit more/faster on corner exits while applying a bit more throttle, and trust the car dynamics to do the right thing there. I keep trying to add more throttle without the steering change, which results in my oversteer slip-ups. I need to keep trying to extend the range of my virtual line in front of me. Right now I'm visualizing the upcoming corner and the entrance of the next at best, I need to be able to start visualizing through multiple upcoming corners all at once when they're tightly connected. I need to get more aggressive, too. There were a lot of times I slacked off on the acceleration parts and/or the straights because I was busy thinking and processing things, when I could've picked up some easy time there. I also had a tendency to really back off and be too nice when a driver in front of me seemed slower, and that just complicated passing. I need to just get up on his *** and be ready to pass aggressively instead of worrying about how he feels. Also, there was a consistent pattern where every time I nailed corner X a little better and came out of it faster, I'd end up entering the next corner too fast and screwing things up, and then maybe next time around I'd try to move the braking zone back to account for it. I need to start handling all of that in one cycle when I can. If I know I entered a corner better and I've got more speed coming out, part of the initial planning process in my head needs to be to move up the braking spot automatically to compensate. My inter-mediate range plan and goals for now is to keep running HPDE-type (and occasional Auto-X) events at various local tracks, and to shoot for getting my times at MSR Houston down to 2:00 flat or less consistently, barring traffic holdups. I'm going to try to avoid any further major upgrades to the car until I reach that goal, because otherwise it gets hard to track my progress vs the car's progress. I'm still not sure what the long term plan is, or if I'll ever graduate to trying to do something competitive, but I think that's a ways off and I have time to reflect on it and consider the costs. As far as car upgrades go, the basic lineup of remaining items is about the same as it has been: add some better coilovers dropping the car very slightly in the process, a better LSD, some good seats, fuel starvation fix, and continue stripping out interior weight over time. I think I'm going to hold off on any cage+harness work until the car becomes at least 95% track-only and/or I have a competitive plan and know what regulations I'll need to adhere to, both which are probably around the same future timeframe, whenever it is. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

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