I haven't signed up yet either. I might wait till the beginning of August.

... pretty cool my car is featured on Royal Purple's Facebook page today ...

Royal Purple

... headed out to the track in the morning (Summit Point) ... new brakes, new oil cooler and cool temps !

http://www.the370z.com/members/sixpa...ums-custom.jpg

Have fun! Summit Main or Shenandoah? Both are great, Shen has a lot more corners packed in and so is a bit more technical. Main has some challenging corners too.

Summit Point on 8/18/12 ...

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... my day was cut short with a brake issue ... pedal all of sudden was hard as crap to push and seemed like all stopping power was gone. Not sure if I ran it out of vacuum, or the pads got too hot. Either way I was done, but still had fun didn't tear the car up so we can live to go fight another day in the future.

It was the main circuit ... brakes didn't work out like I had hoped ... made a thread in Track section about that.

It was pretty cool on Saturday there were two 370's and three 350's ... all very sharp looking cars.

Damn, I wish I could have made it. Looks like you still had fun though minus the brake issue :tup:

I was hoping you were coming...but when it got time to go the meeting I figured you were not coming. Would have made 6 Z's there I bet that would have been a first !

Well you can blame NASA's shitty communication for that.

I'm not sure why they are like that ... you would think they would be all over "new blood" to grow themselves.

They were quick to cancel, did that the same day I sent my first e-mail :shakes head:

Been awhile since I posted to the old journal ...

The car is pretty much dedicated to fund raising efforts for Lung Cancer research these days ... we learned alot last year. Fund raising is a tough racket no matter the cause. Hoping 2013 is a kinder year. The car does a great job of getting us attention, and this year will be even better.

Anyway, we added a prototype Kinetix intake manifold ... only three were ever made. Might make a few HP, might lose a few HP ... but it sure looks good in the engine bay either way. I am hoping that someday, UPREV will figure out the VVEL table and if and when that happens, this intake manifold will stand a good chance of showing respectable gains. In the meantime, it can just sit in there and look shiny.

http://www.the370z.com/members/sixpa...e62281-im2.jpg

Had to hand make some cork and rubber gaskets for both throttle body and the lower plenum points ... had never done that before it was kind of fun.

http://www.the370z.com/members/sixpa...er-gaskets.jpg

Out with the old ...

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... and in with the new.

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We added a small custom decal to the backside of the plenum that you can only see if you look between the hood when it is open and the front windshield it says "THE POLISHED TURD".

Can't get a decent cell phone picture of it, it is hard to see.

Looking good Craig :tup:

Nice! :tup:

Strut tower brace back on ... pulled out the CAI heat shields and wrapped them in aerospace quality gold foil from Enjuku Racing ... keep some heat away from there anyway, and it adds a nice touch.

http://www.the370z.com/members/sixpa...e62310-im9.jpg

Also got most of the Z-1 Motorsports Silicon hoses on ... and the hood struts as well. Engine bay is getting there slowly but surely.

Thanks Shahid !

Thanks Iwan !

So you gonna be hitting up Summit Point at the event in April? I'm planning on doing a full day HPDE with my new PSS :driving:

Hope so, but have some other stuff in the works for April so might not fit schedule wise. Saving most of my pennies to try to do Znationals and that track day in October and then Sebring with Chin in November. :tup:

Nice, that sounds like a lot of fun. I'll still be trying to beat your lap time :roflpuke2:

That shouldn't be very hard. I am incredibly slow ... just look fast because the car is cool. :tup:

Yeah I wasn't too fast either my first time out, but I at least have a good set of tires this time.

manifold looks great man!! Iv been thinking what I can do to dress up the engine bay a bit.. my intercooler pipes just look like CAIs lol

thanks man ! I am by no means a turbo expert, but being an engine bay bling bling kind of guy I would look into getting colored blow off valves in the engine bay ... one in each charge pipe just to spice things up. But not sure that is even necessary or possible ... I am along ways away from going FI.

i have wondered that on my Z..

I would love that intake manifold just for the looks!

Did you have to retune it?

Nope. Going back to the dyno in a couple weeks, but not because of the manifold.

... me too. :tup:

... started messing around with the brake booster support tank today. My plan was to cut a short piece of that metal strip the length of the tank, and mount it to the hole circled in the picture. There would be a slight indent behind that piece so would be enough room to loop some worm clamps behind it to strap the can in.

http://www.the370z.com/members/sixpa...33-booster.jpg

Bracket cut down and mounted ...

http://www.the370z.com/members/sixpa...0-booster2.jpg

... wedged the can in there and got the clamps on ... it's pretty tight and isn't going to move anywhere.

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... going to let it ride for a few days as the stainless steel lines are a PITA to cut so want to make sure I know how exactly where I want them, final orientation of the nipples on the can and all that good stuff. Can fits in there alright and doesn't look to crappy anyway. Might take it back out and paint the bracket black. Course the bigger question is will it do anything. Peace of mind I guess, is all it can give me right now until it hits the track.

http://www.the370z.com/members/sixpa...1-booster3.jpg

Stillen front brake cooling kit along with some PVC gutter downspouts that we hope can mount under the cars front crash bar ... the brake kit will use the fascia inserts we are using now to get cold air into the engine bay so have to relocate those somewhere else and the gutter downspout adapters look perfect for the job.


http://www.the370z.com/members/sixpa...7-brakes99.jpg

its amazing what you can find and repurpose during a walk through of home depot. Whenever I have a new project that takes some fabrication, I just browse every aisle til I find something that will work. Most recently, it was a house shutter to cover the powdercoating booth exhaust hole in the side of my workshop that I had to enlarge.

It is crazy like that ... just stumbled upon those roaming through the garden section, and I thought wow the shape is perfect, they are 3 inch, and the notch looks like it will allow it to mount under the crash bar and look like they belong there... 4 bucks at Lowes. I am not certain how to attach them yet but will play around when the fascia is off putting the brake cooling stuff on.

Great idea on the house shutter ... :tup:

just screw them into the crash bar with some sheet metal screws?

I hope it's that easy ... I would have to drill some starter holes in that bar though and I am guessing it is a pretty tough cookie to drill.

Finally got around to finishing up my brakes from last year ...

http://www.the370z.com/members/sixpa...0-brakes88.jpg

... stainless steel lines in, RBF600 swapped in with the help of the awesome Motive Power Bleeder ... had never used one of those that thing is pretty cool.

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Got the Stillen hose flanges mounted behind the hub and the hoses routed to the front fascia. They are just flopping around in there right now, have to hook them up but ran out of time and energy and was cold out.

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Relocated the hoses from Modshack mod to some PVC Gutter Downspouts we got from Home Depot and painted black ... just used some self tapping sheet metal screws and bolted them onto the bottom of the crash bar ... had to put them on either side of the tow hook, which was not planned, but at least they are functional still and getting cold air into the engine bay.

I had forgotten that when we did the modshack air fang thing last year, I had broken off the upper tabs that held the stock covers over the fang vents. So now I have nothing to attach the top bolt of the Stillen inserts for the brake cooling. :ugh2:

... got the lines run for the brake booster. getting the old hose off the adapter that goes into the firewall was an epic battle.

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... and painted the strut tower brace.

http://www.the370z.com/members/sixpa...e64146-dd1.jpg

BLAZE Green plasti-dip over a white base coat.

http://www.the370z.com/members/sixpa...ure65672-a.jpg

Looks good Craig!

Thanks dude !