wstar's Journal

wstar · 01-17-2014, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by travisjb

might consider screwing them down with cabinet screws instead of nails

Definitely

I did the nails for now because I'm just not 100% confident yet that I won't be moving or removing them. They'll get screwed in eventually.

I did find some Floor-Tex-like stuff and I think I might coat the remainder of the floor, but all the ones I saw wanted 50F+ temps for curing over a period of days, and it's colder than that now and I have events coming up 1 and 3 weeks out. So I guess I'll just let the grey paint wear down a bit until it gets warmer and I have the time.

travisjb · 01-17-2014, 10:15 PM

btw, not sure how athletic you are but once you get used to it, becomes very easy to reach under and hook up the car at the oe locations... one knee on the ground and reach your arm behind each front tire... so long as you have the hooks pre-positioned, you'll be able to easily pick those up and muscle memory takes over. really should become a 2 mins job hooking up over time

wstar · 01-27-2014, 06:08 AM

Had a fun weekend at TWS. We had a couple patches of ice on the track Saturday morning, but as the weekend progressed it turned out to be mostly perfect weather. Sunny enough to keep the track reasonably warm, cool enough to not sweat much in the car.

I switched over to my new 18x10 square wheel setup (+34 offset, w/ 10mm spacers on the rear, thanks Travis+Mike for offset info!), and broke in a new set of Hankook RS3's on them. My Saturday sessions were an exercise in traffic management (how fast can you throw out passing signals?), as the brand-new tires were slippery, I hadn't figured out my pressures yet, and I still had to develop some feel and confidence in them to boot. It was definitely a learning experience

My last best time at TWS-CCW was 2:08.49 back in March, and in these good conditions I should've been able to improve on that substantially by now, but, all of the above. My best time Saturday morning was 2:16

, but by late Sunday I had worked it back down to a 2:06. I still wasn't being aggressive enough with my braking, but that will come with a little more time learning to trust how this new rubber feels.

My overall impression of the RS3 is that I wish I had switched up to it sooner. After hearing about how R-comps and slicks have a finer knife-edge of traction, I thought they would be harder to drive than my old high-treadwear Conti DW's, but they were much easier once I got used to it. The breakaway is more linear and predictable, and they don't get suddenly greasy overheating late in the session the way the Contis did. I think I'll end up adding a little more camber all around to keep up with how hard these push out mid-corner, but I want to feel them out for another weekend or so before making any more changes.

Trailer stuff: I ended up adding another layer of 1x12 under the ramps from earlier (so 1x12 + 2x12 + 2x12 for front height), putting 45 angles on them all and a backstop, and also putting in some shorter rear ramps (1x12 + 2x12). Might be my suspension/tire setup, but more likely just my trailer wheel wells are taller than travis's. In any case, this is what I had to do to reliably open the door under all conditions:

Also, strapping the tires to E-track about a foot off the floor (and then another strap through the front of the tires to keep them together) worked out really well:

While I'm at it, random picture of my car+shop+lift. I'd like to say the complete mess in there is temporary, but it's been temporary for a long time now

And video of my fastest lap for the weekend. I think my ego trying to chase down that Audi gave me some extra oomph

(But really, the only reason I caught him is because he lifted to let the silver car that was kicking both our asses pass him).

wstar · 02-10-2014, 09:22 AM

Had a great weekend at COTA! MVP TrackTime ran this event as a 3-day weekend. Friday morning was mostly lost to weather (ice started coming down during my first session, and then all the second sessions were cancelled while the track was slick), but COTA gave us an extra hour on Sat+Sun to make up for the lost sessions, which was really awesome of them. Got to meet Mike (the Powerdercoater) for the first time, guru came up from Houston Saturday and brought us BBQ for lunch, and then he brought back some of the local Z-club crowd on Sunday to hang out.

The track is ridiculously technical and complex, and has both faster straights and tighter corners than I've seen before. It was pretty scary until I started getting comfortable with it. The elevation changes are dramatic as well. Even after staring at videos of the track for hours, I wasn't prepared for how those look and feel in person. It would probably take many more weekends there before I really started to get the nuances of this track down, but that's unlikely to happen given how expensive events there tend to be. Still, it was well worth going once and giving it a spin. Every sector is exhilarating when you nail it just right (or at least, as just right as I was going to get for this weekend!). The only remotely boring part of this track is the back straight from 11 -> 12, but that flies by quickly and it's a good chance for tons of passing to sort out trains. Honestly, I think I really need that straight as a breather between the complex stuff happening before and after it anyways.

No instructors, so I watched Mike Skeen's video from some practice laps last year in a Porsche over and over to try to have some idea about my lines. I eventually got down to 1:41.76 on a clean traffic-free lap, and that's about as good as I can do COTA currently. I had a back-to-back pair of clean laps on the session after that one and they were also high 1:41.xx's.

I kept it on the pavement all weekend, and I only had one maybe-spin in my final session Sunday that I blame on getting tired and sloppy. I thought it qualified as a spin, but they didn't flag me, I guess because I didn't quite get fully perpendicular to the track during my mad rush of poor over-corrections? Who knows, but no flag so I kept on trucking

No true equipment problems, but lots of things were showing signs of abuse - notably my trans fluid was fairly burnt out by the end of Sunday, shifts were getting sloppy. And some of the little surface checking on my front rotors was turning into real cracks after my final session. I don't think I can go another full weekend on these rotor rings. COTA is tough on brakes, be prepared if you go!

Anyways, all I've exported for now is my fastest lap. I plan to edit up a highlights/incidents video later as well with the interesting stuff from my footage.

JARblue · 02-10-2014, 09:43 AM

Looks like a great weekend. Thank you for allowing me to live vicariously through you track guys

This is the first and, so far, only track I have experienced in the Z. Although it was at the Nismo Performance Academy, and I wasn't really able to go full speed, it was an amazing track and a great experience. Maybe someday I'll actually have the money to buy another DD and the time to track prep the Z

For now, y'all's videos will have to do

SPOHN · 02-10-2014, 10:04 AM

Sounds great. I talked to Mike last night. Those times are still great in my book based on Mikes. Mike has a lot of track time so he adapts quickly. Did ChrisSlicks track also?

wstar · 02-10-2014, 10:08 AM

No, I think Mike was confused between two different Chris's. guru on the forums here is the Chris that brought us BBQ

sig11 · 02-10-2014, 05:23 PM

Awesome! I'm jealous... I would love to take a trip down to COTA.

Y'all are pansies for not running in the ice! Get the tires warm and it's pretty close to rain.

Mike · 02-10-2014, 05:39 PM

Great meeting you Brandon!

wstar · 02-10-2014, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sig11

Y'all are pansies for not running in the ice! Get the tires warm and it's pretty close to rain.

Hah! Yeah I had zero desire to do my first session ever at COTA on ice, especially given all the repeated "You break it you buy it" warnings about their expensive crash barriers and surfaces

If I managed to eat a wall with my car, it might've cost more to repair COTA than the car itself

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike

Great meeting you Brandon!

You too, had a blast

Boost_lee · 02-10-2014, 09:47 PM

I was in Austin on Saturday and totally forgot about this event

Looked like fun!

guru · 02-11-2014, 07:55 AM

great times from both of u guys!

now theres no pressure for next month... lol really looking good out there brandon, we need to actually coordinate some time to be at the same event this year.

wstar · 02-11-2014, 12:26 AM

Doh, you could've come by to hang out at least

I reviewed a bunch of the rest of my footage. There's some interesting learning moments in there that aren't exciting to watch, and there's a bunch of exciting clips of other people's errors/spins/offs that I probably shouldn't publish for them, some people are sensitive about these things.

The most tempting footage was several separate times getting stuck behind this one Porsche who was like a rolling safety hazard all weekend, going something like half the group's pace and randomly off-line all the time. The first couple of times I wondered if he was drunk, or had just had a stroke mid-session, but eventually I figured out that was just "normal". Anyways, not posting that either because I'm a nice guy :P

I do post my own errors though! There was one definite loss-of-control moment in T12 here that got exciting, it was nearly a spin, but kinda saved it while losing all my speed. That was the only thing close to an incident I had throughout the event. Overall it was a pretty clean weekend.

DR_ · 02-11-2014, 08:46 AM

Looking good! I have an instructing gig there with Lone Star BMW March 21st-23rd. I can't wait to get back out there with the surge tank since last year I would start to starve on 16-17-18 after 5 laps.

wstar · 02-11-2014, 09:33 AM

Yeah I can imagine, 16-17-18 looks like it would be fuel starve hell with our stock setup

My known schedule in the immediate future is:

Mar 1-2 - TWS (Driver's Edge)
Apr 5-6 - MSR-Houston (Driver's Edge)
Apr 26 - Harris Hill (Nismo Fiesta)
May 17-18 - TWS (Driver's Edge) (signup is on Mar 17 @ 9:00AM)

I'll probably have some work travel to schedule around in late March or mid-April, so I doubt that I can squeeze much else in given that work travel tends not get firm dates until the last second :P.

Chris introduced me to Sean Farrah (of SPL Parts, and also TX Regional Director for NASA TT) at COTA over the weekend and we chatted a bit, and that has lead to a renewed interest in hitting some NASA events sometime by mid-summer and start working my way into their system. Do their DEs a little and qualify up to do TT3 and then maybe start planning out a path to get me and the car to ST3 someday (or whatever the equivalent is by then).

(although, looking at their schedule, probably my best bets there are Hallet in June, NOLA in Sept, and TWS in Oct).

01-17-2014, 10:15 PM	#2 (permalink)
travisjb A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: GSO Posts: 2,803 Drives: VIR Rep Power: 189	btw, not sure how athletic you are but once you get used to it, becomes very easy to reach under and hook up the car at the oe locations... one knee on the ground and reach your arm behind each front tire... so long as you have the hooks pre-positioned, you'll be able to easily pick those up and muscle memory takes over. really should become a 2 mins job hooking up over time __________________ 2009 370Z #104 For Sale

01-27-2014, 06:08 AM	#3 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	Had a fun weekend at TWS. We had a couple patches of ice on the track Saturday morning, but as the weekend progressed it turned out to be mostly perfect weather. Sunny enough to keep the track reasonably warm, cool enough to not sweat much in the car. I switched over to my new 18x10 square wheel setup (+34 offset, w/ 10mm spacers on the rear, thanks Travis+Mike for offset info!), and broke in a new set of Hankook RS3's on them. My Saturday sessions were an exercise in traffic management (how fast can you throw out passing signals?), as the brand-new tires were slippery, I hadn't figured out my pressures yet, and I still had to develop some feel and confidence in them to boot. It was definitely a learning experience My last best time at TWS-CCW was 2:08.49 back in March, and in these good conditions I should've been able to improve on that substantially by now, but, all of the above. My best time Saturday morning was 2:16 , but by late Sunday I had worked it back down to a 2:06. I still wasn't being aggressive enough with my braking, but that will come with a little more time learning to trust how this new rubber feels. My overall impression of the RS3 is that I wish I had switched up to it sooner. After hearing about how R-comps and slicks have a finer knife-edge of traction, I thought they would be harder to drive than my old high-treadwear Conti DW's, but they were much easier once I got used to it. The breakaway is more linear and predictable, and they don't get suddenly greasy overheating late in the session the way the Contis did. I think I'll end up adding a little more camber all around to keep up with how hard these push out mid-corner, but I want to feel them out for another weekend or so before making any more changes. Trailer stuff: I ended up adding another layer of 1x12 under the ramps from earlier (so 1x12 + 2x12 + 2x12 for front height), putting 45 angles on them all and a backstop, and also putting in some shorter rear ramps (1x12 + 2x12). Might be my suspension/tire setup, but more likely just my trailer wheel wells are taller than travis's. In any case, this is what I had to do to reliably open the door under all conditions: Also, strapping the tires to E-track about a foot off the floor (and then another strap through the front of the tires to keep them together) worked out really well: While I'm at it, random picture of my car+shop+lift. I'd like to say the complete mess in there is temporary, but it's been temporary for a long time now And video of my fastest lap for the weekend. I think my ego trying to chase down that Audi gave me some extra oomph (But really, the only reason I caught him is because he lifted to let the silver car that was kicking both our asses pass him). travisjb, Boost_lee, Mike and 3 others like this. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details Last edited by wstar; 01-27-2014 at 06:12 AM.

02-10-2014, 09:22 AM	#4 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	Had a great weekend at COTA! MVP TrackTime ran this event as a 3-day weekend. Friday morning was mostly lost to weather (ice started coming down during my first session, and then all the second sessions were cancelled while the track was slick), but COTA gave us an extra hour on Sat+Sun to make up for the lost sessions, which was really awesome of them. Got to meet Mike (the Powerdercoater) for the first time, guru came up from Houston Saturday and brought us BBQ for lunch, and then he brought back some of the local Z-club crowd on Sunday to hang out. The track is ridiculously technical and complex, and has both faster straights and tighter corners than I've seen before. It was pretty scary until I started getting comfortable with it. The elevation changes are dramatic as well. Even after staring at videos of the track for hours, I wasn't prepared for how those look and feel in person. It would probably take many more weekends there before I really started to get the nuances of this track down, but that's unlikely to happen given how expensive events there tend to be. Still, it was well worth going once and giving it a spin. Every sector is exhilarating when you nail it just right (or at least, as just right as I was going to get for this weekend!). The only remotely boring part of this track is the back straight from 11 -> 12, but that flies by quickly and it's a good chance for tons of passing to sort out trains. Honestly, I think I really need that straight as a breather between the complex stuff happening before and after it anyways. No instructors, so I watched Mike Skeen's video from some practice laps last year in a Porsche over and over to try to have some idea about my lines. I eventually got down to 1:41.76 on a clean traffic-free lap, and that's about as good as I can do COTA currently. I had a back-to-back pair of clean laps on the session after that one and they were also high 1:41.xx's. I kept it on the pavement all weekend, and I only had one maybe-spin in my final session Sunday that I blame on getting tired and sloppy. I thought it qualified as a spin, but they didn't flag me, I guess because I didn't quite get fully perpendicular to the track during my mad rush of poor over-corrections? Who knows, but no flag so I kept on trucking No true equipment problems, but lots of things were showing signs of abuse - notably my trans fluid was fairly burnt out by the end of Sunday, shifts were getting sloppy. And some of the little surface checking on my front rotors was turning into real cracks after my final session. I don't think I can go another full weekend on these rotor rings. COTA is tough on brakes, be prepared if you go! Anyways, all I've exported for now is my fastest lap. I plan to edit up a highlights/incidents video later as well with the interesting stuff from my footage. Boost_lee, guru, Rusty and 2 others like this. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details Last edited by wstar; 02-10-2014 at 09:24 AM.

02-10-2014, 09:43 AM	#5 (permalink)
JARblue A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Austin, TX Age: 44 Posts: 36,450 Drives: 11 Z34, 98 E36 M3 Rep Power: 2684441	Looks like a great weekend. Thank you for allowing me to live vicariously through you track guys This is the first and, so far, only track I have experienced in the Z. Although it was at the Nismo Performance Academy, and I wasn't really able to go full speed, it was an amazing track and a great experience. Maybe someday I'll actually have the money to buy another DD and the time to track prep the Z For now, y'all's videos will have to do __________________ 2011 370Z 6MT Sport Gun Metallic \| ARC \| CJM \| Ecutek \| FI \| Fujimura \| R2C \| SPL \| Stillen \| TWM \| Z1 \| ZSpeed \|

02-10-2014, 10:04 AM	#6 (permalink)
SPOHN A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Covington, GA Age: 46 Posts: 14,844 Drives: Waiting on next Z Rep Power: 222	Sounds great. I talked to Mike last night. Those times are still great in my book based on Mikes. Mike has a lot of track time so he adapts quickly. Did ChrisSlicks track also? __________________

02-10-2014, 10:08 AM	#7 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	No, I think Mike was confused between two different Chris's. guru on the forums here is the Chris that brought us BBQ __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

02-10-2014, 05:23 PM	#8 (permalink)
sig11 A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Detroit Posts: 1,294 Drives: 09 370Z Red Sport-MT Rep Power: 18	Awesome! I'm jealous... I would love to take a trip down to COTA. Y'all are pansies for not running in the ice! Get the tires warm and it's pretty close to rain.

02-10-2014, 05:39 PM	#9 (permalink)
Mike The370Z.com Sponsor Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Loganville, GA Posts: 5,944 Drives: 370z Rep Power: 2186	Great meeting you Brandon! __________________ NISSAN: 75 280Z / 86 300ZX GLL /87 Sentra SE / 03 350Z / 23 Z Porsche: 93 968 / 23 Macan GTS / 93 968

02-10-2014, 09:47 PM	#11 (permalink)
Boost_lee A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: SATX Posts: 2,813 Drives: 09 370Z TT 6MT Rep Power: 30	I was in Austin on Saturday and totally forgot about this event Looked like fun! __________________ My TT Z

02-11-2014, 07:55 AM	#12 (permalink)
guru Track Member Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: houston,tx Posts: 597 Drives: 2011 magblack 370z Rep Power: 15	great times from both of u guys! now theres no pressure for next month... lol really looking good out there brandon, we need to actually coordinate some time to be at the same event this year. __________________ JTRAN_MOTORSPORTS/GREDDY/MOTORDYNE/ACTION_CLUTCH/MEISTER_R/FORGESTAR/SPL/HOTCHKIS/SEIBON/KOGNITION/RECARO/CARBOTECH/STILLEN/PASSWORD_JDM

02-11-2014, 12:26 AM	#13 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	Doh, you could've come by to hang out at least I reviewed a bunch of the rest of my footage. There's some interesting learning moments in there that aren't exciting to watch, and there's a bunch of exciting clips of other people's errors/spins/offs that I probably shouldn't publish for them, some people are sensitive about these things. The most tempting footage was several separate times getting stuck behind this one Porsche who was like a rolling safety hazard all weekend, going something like half the group's pace and randomly off-line all the time. The first couple of times I wondered if he was drunk, or had just had a stroke mid-session, but eventually I figured out that was just "normal". Anyways, not posting that either because I'm a nice guy :P I do post my own errors though! There was one definite loss-of-control moment in T12 here that got exciting, it was nearly a spin, but kinda saved it while losing all my speed. That was the only thing close to an incident I had throughout the event. Overall it was a pretty clean weekend. SPOHN and guru like this. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

02-11-2014, 08:46 AM	#14 (permalink)
DR_ Track Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Dallas Posts: 981 Drives: Touring/Sport M6 PG Rep Power: 17	Looking good! I have an instructing gig there with Lone Star BMW March 21st-23rd. I can't wait to get back out there with the surge tank since last year I would start to starve on 16-17-18 after 5 laps. Mike and guru like this.

02-11-2014, 09:33 AM	#15 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	Yeah I can imagine, 16-17-18 looks like it would be fuel starve hell with our stock setup My known schedule in the immediate future is: Mar 1-2 - TWS (Driver's Edge) Apr 5-6 - MSR-Houston (Driver's Edge) Apr 26 - Harris Hill (Nismo Fiesta) May 17-18 - TWS (Driver's Edge) (signup is on Mar 17 @ 9:00AM) I'll probably have some work travel to schedule around in late March or mid-April, so I doubt that I can squeeze much else in given that work travel tends not get firm dates until the last second :P. Chris introduced me to Sean Farrah (of SPL Parts, and also TX Regional Director for NASA TT) at COTA over the weekend and we chatted a bit, and that has lead to a renewed interest in hitting some NASA events sometime by mid-summer and start working my way into their system. Do their DEs a little and qualify up to do TT3 and then maybe start planning out a path to get me and the car to ST3 someday (or whatever the equivalent is by then). (although, looking at their schedule, probably my best bets there are Hallet in June, NOLA in Sept, and TWS in Oct). Boost_lee and guru like this. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details Last edited by wstar; 02-11-2014 at 09:41 AM.

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