Also, here's a pic of the back side of the center dash panel, which gives some idea how to construct one. Again, thanks to my friend Wence for doing most of the work there on all the plastic cutting and fitting. The main trick was the cotter pins through the holes in the little fins (originally for the vents), which holds the plate to the frame. The rest is just cutting the edges to lock around various other bits, and screw holes at the bottom to attach where the stock center console does.

If you squint, you can kinda see the resistors soldered to the pair of buttons as shown in the diagram above (except my "R3" is on the opposite leg from "R2", inside that red heat-shrink, which doesn't really change the circuit at all). The white junk is epoxy holding the wires to the back of the plate for strain relief (so that pulling on the wiring connector doesn't pull on my solder joints to the switches). The main panel material is part number 8650K12 at mcmaster.com (12x24 panel, 1/8" thick, "Formable Chemical-Resistant Kydex Acrylic/PVC")

http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...-rear-view.jpg

I missed it, why the two maps?

You mean two buttons? You need to two buttons to switch maps :) If you mean why switch maps at all: to be able to experiment, mostly. e.g. having different throttle tables available that I've set up a few days before the track weekend. Eventually I may play with maps for race fuels and/or maps for different rev limits (if I beef up the engine, not the least part of which would be the oil pump).

Also, I use one of my maps as a 3mph security map so I can leave the car idling somewhere and it can't drive off faster than I can walk.

I made it to TWS this past weekend. It was cold and wet at the start Saturday and the end on Sunday, but we got in a few sessions of merely cold and dry runs in-between the rainy bits. I wasn't going for record times or anything. Mostly I was trying to avoid freezing to death :) It was a good shakedown on all the car's changes though.

I ended up setting the SPL front arms at roughly -2.5 Camber and +5 caster in the front (and slight toe-in), and I left my old Conti DW tire setup on the car (with plenty of tread) because it looked like the whole weekend would be wet, and I didn't want to try the brand-new RS3's for the first time in the wet. The first two sessions on Saturday were wet, then we had a mostly-dry and an even-more-dry session. Sunday started with two dry cold sessions, and then finished up with a ridiculously wet one as a storm system was moving in from the north. They cut the day short since a lot of instructors and drivers had to drive back in the direction the storm was coming from.

Anyways, a couple of video clips via RaceKeeper. I'll just re-paste the YouTube description instead of trying to re-describe them w/ the embeds:
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Driver's Edge - Texas World Speedway - Sunday Nov 24, 2nd yellow Session.

Final two laps - one where I was following another 370Z and talking with my instructor about line differences, and then the final lap where I hit my best time for the weekend at 2:09.86. It was a cold wet miserable weekend in general, but the track was dry for the late Sat and early Sunday sessions, including this one. It was still fun though :)

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Driver's Edge - Texas World Speedway - Clockwise, Sunday Nov 24, final yellow session - Wet, wet, wet.

A lot of us were tip-toeing around the track, rain was coming down at a decent rate, puddles all over the place. It was a lot of fun, but eventually Turn 6 got the best of me. I came in off-line after a pass, turned a little too sharp on the wrong patch of the track, and the rear came around too fast for my skills to catch it in these conditions. I did try to counter-steer a bit at first, but I think my reactions were too heavy for how delicate the track surface was and I gave up pretty quickly. Ended up spinning around and rolling backwards off the track on the inside, which killed the engine. The annoying buzzer in the final second or two is my low oil pressure alarm (because the ignition's still on but the motor isn't, so it's reading zero). No damage to the car, and I was able to restart and drive it back onto the track and into the hot pit afterwards without a tow.

bump, good read.

This car is setup very nicely! I enjoyed seeing it and thanks again for the hand-me-downs :D Hope to see it in action one day

Glad you're safe, could've been worse, but I'm sure the "oh shít" kicked in

No problem! You should hit up a TWS event next time you do one, I'm planning to hit that track a lot next year.

Thanks :) Really, going that slow, what the car was doing didn't feel all that scary. Mostly the pucker factor was whether the cars behind me would react to it ok. Another car had passed that black Porsche with me on the same straight just before the turn where I spun (I'm adding a rear-view cam before next time so this stuff is more obvious in the video). But lucky for me these guys are pretty good at training us up and putting us in run groups, so I can generally trust the people around me on the track to do the right thing :)

nice!

Ran into this video today while looking through other youtube coverage of the same event I was at, highlights of slip+recovery moments for one the 350z drivers w/ Driver's Edge who's about 10,000% better at car control than me. I need to aspire to this level somehow - maybe find a skidpad I can play on alone for days, or take up drifting or something. I think I'd feel much more confident pushing the limits if I knew my hands knew how to recover like this:

Oh I forgot to post this earlier too. A 'vette driver caught my wet spin in his youtube clip as well. It's so much easier to see what's going on from behind :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8aFVsGiOWw#t=227

Nice little slip.

I've diverted some funds from the never-ending black hole of modding the Z, to upgrade my towing situation over the past couple of weeks :)

http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...g-solution.jpg

F-250 w/ 6.7L turbo diesel + Haulmark 8.5x24 trailer. No more towing a windowless car through the rain, and should make it a breeze to start going further to other tracks. Now it's time to go crazy at pitpal.com setting up the trailer interior to carry wheels and tools and everything else :)

The damn truck engine has 800 ft lbs of torque. If only it fit in the Z :)

got enough room in there for a miata or another Z? LOL Nice pickup!

i've always wanted to go up to MSRC, but never have because of the potential risk of breaking down 4 hours away from home. are you gonna try to make it up there this year?

Get some A/C on that trailer and you will have a hard time getting rid of me during the summer.

Also, for those that drive to the track I highly recommend AAA premier membership.