wstar's Journal

wstar

From Forged Performance: JRZ RS1 Coilovers **Review** and Press Release :
"Linear Rate main and helper springs: 6 X 2.25 650lb Front 8 X 2.25 500lb"

I imagine that's what's written on the spring boxes if I go dig for them in the garage (650 and 500), but I'm eating pizza right now :P Unless they changed something with this setup since then.

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7AT Track Car!
Journal thread / Car setup details

VoBoy

dude you got some serious mods within a couple months!!! wish i could check it out this weekend, but ii had to back out of the event.

wstar

Hah! You were probably the cancellation that got me through the waitlist, thanks

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VDC_OFF

Brakes? What are those for? :P

j/k nice mods! Congrats

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wstar

They're for avoiding read-ending your slow-*** car

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7AT Track Car!
Journal thread / Car setup details

wstar

Had an awesome weekend at MSR-Houston, lots of fun. They bumped me to Yellow because they knew I had been edging up into that range off and on for a while now, and it had a shorter waitlist. I was a little nervous about jumping into Yellow the first morning, but once I got out there it went great and I was able to keep pace and manage traffic there just fine. It's really great group to run with

JRZ RS1 Coilovers: Keep in mind I was coming from stock, but OMFG these made such a huge difference to the car's handling. Even after having played with them a little on the street, I wasn't expecting such a huge improvement on the track as what I ended up feeling. In an effort to be conservative I started out at half-stiff in the rear and about 2/3rd's stiff in the front and figured I'd adjust from there if things seemed screwy. It felt so good in the first session I decided to avoid the adjuster knob tweaking all weekend. I had a learning curve adapting to the car's new handling anyways, no point making it harder on myself.

Multiple other drivers that managed to follow me through a corner commented to me out of the blue about how my car was dead flat in corners, virtually zero body roll. Brake->Accel transitions were much easier and smoother, to the point where I started getting comfortable with small amounts of trail braking. No issues with loss of traction due to suspension hop or anything, even though MSR-H has lots of little ripples and bumps in the pavement here and there.

The biggest change though was how much easier it was to control the rear with throttle in the corners. It's like before I had to push through throttle while slowly compressing down the stock rear suspension, and then it would finally break hard and it would be difficult to control. Now it breaks free with less throttle in a very smooth, predictable manner. It was very confidence inspiring and I did a lot of drifty corner exits on them this weekend. I love these coilovers! Maybe next time out I'll start adjusting stiffness to find my optimal settings, but at any setting they just rock

New Failure Mode - Dead Thermostat: Saturday in the later sessions I was noticing a signs of coolant splash in the engine bay (i.e. from the pressure relief cap spewing a bit). My oil temps were a bit high, peaking around 265 but never really pushing any higher once they got there. After the final session I looked harder at things and it was apparent I had lost more coolant than I thought and needed to investigate. In the end, it turns out my thermostat had managed to stop working right. It wasn't opening, or at least wasn't opening fully enough to matter. I had the track shop take the thermostat out of the car so I could keep running Sunday. With the thermo gone the coolant stopped boiling over, oil temps were still peaking around 255, but kinda understandable: no thermostat probably isn't very efficient with the high-speed radiator flow. I really think the oil cooler saved me from engine damage on the first day when it was stuck, otherwise things would've overheated much faster.

Videos:

I youtube'd two laps from the 2nd Yellow session on Sunday. The first is my personal best time at 1:52.11, and the second is a few laps later when I ran off in the grass. As I mentioned in the Youtube descriptions: most of my really "good" laps this weekend were in the 1:53's and 1:54's. I was overdriving myself and the tires a bit this session (and not in a smooth way), which led to both the awesome fast-lap and the eventual off. At least it was a clean off, I straightened up before I hit the grass.

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Journal thread / Car setup details

SPOHN

I very much understand what you mean by controlling the rear with the throttle. Helps so much. Glad your happy with them.

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sig11

The RS1s are well worth the money. You articulated it far better than I could.

My problem now is that my VLSD seems to be completely shot now and I'm trashing my outside rear tire. I thought I was being light enough with the throttle on exit to not spin it but I corded the inside of my right rear yesterday. I should have softened the rear up a bit when I first started feeling it but I thought I was driving around it.

SPOHN

The VLSD is worthless when hot. And are diff gets hot quick.

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wstar

Yeah, my car loses cornering late in sessions. Some of that's from overheating the Conti DW's, but undoubtedly some of it's from the VLSD as well. Need a good 1.5-way on my mod list, but there are so many other things I need to get to first (like, fixing up my cooling situation, and getting a 4-pt + solid seats + harnesses into the car). Oh and adjustable suspension bits moved up the list. I need adjustable camber in the front.

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7AT Track Car!
Journal thread / Car setup details

sig11

I think I destroyed the VLSD completely last year because I didn't have problems like this except for a few corners a few laps in. I can't wait to get the NISMO diff and 350Z ready. :P

cv129

wstar, on the JRZ RS1, that small silver knob at the bottom, do you know what that is for?

sig11

It's the valve for filling the shock with gas/nitrogen.

wstar

^ What he said.

Random progress updates:

The APRacing/Stillen BBK + CL RC6E pads are physically on the car, but the old calipers are still sitting in the backs of the wheel wells and hooked up to the brake lines. Tomorrow's the planned day to swap to the fresh braided lines and bleed the system and bed the rotors, etc.

I've got (in the garage or in-shipment) a CSF radiator, a bunch of silicone coolant hoses, an upgraded 25-row series-9 oil cooler, a new thermostat (Mishimoto's, to replace the one cut out at the track), etc. I'm giving up on sorting out a Laminova-like cooling setup for now, because I need the car to get colder and work right for a pair of upcoming track weekends like now, and there's no time to experiment. This is just a rehab of all my cooling system, with the water, oil, and trans coolers all getting larger/better (my old 19-row oil cooler will replace the even smaller existing trans cooler).

Also have Z1's engine/trans mounts on the way, will replace those while the radiator's out. Also planning to gut the engine-bay side of the HVAC stuff while the radiator's out, but will probably just plug/cap the lines going to the interior of the car at the firewall for now, no time to dig apart all the under-dash stuff.

Next event: May 18-19 @ Texas World Speedway.

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7AT Track Car!
Journal thread / Car setup details

ChrisSlicks

You'll want some of these unless you like your dust boots extra crispy

DH586 Titanium Brake Shims for AP Racing CP7040 Caliper

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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