danegrey's 370Z Journal

danegrey

really odd, I rented a Ford F150 over the weekend to do some hauling.
Got caught by surprise on the feature that stops the engine and restarts it.
I am NOT a fan of that, found myself giving myself an extra time on entering a street.
Just stops, when at rest after some amount of time...

__________________
Lots of Changes
the Z needs to be driven and driven hard for the car lives for it

danegrey

Autocross today, I run in STM, because of the mods I have done, does not fit a class. I finished 2.9 seconds back, the top two cars were 92 NSX and 2006 Lotus Elise.
Not bad, considering after all these years I am still learning to drive
a bad habit I is my use of my right foot...

__________________
Lots of Changes
the Z needs to be driven and driven hard for the car lives for it

danegrey

Well I have done another fun thing....
I have signed up for mid-ohio performance driving school in May

Acura 3-Day High Performance Course

Well it is actually called Acura 3-Day High Performance Driving School, BUT i will not being driving an Acura,(and there was no option for the NXS) so I get to drive my Z...

I also get to re-visit a course that I drove in the mid-80s when I was driving Formula Ford..

__________________
Lots of Changes
the Z needs to be driven and driven hard for the car lives for it

Quicksilvers

Congrats definitely enjoy this driving school and learn as much as possible. Practice makes perfect and nothing beats seat time.

danegrey

And seat time is want I need.... Know it, always have.... the more the better

__________________
Lots of Changes
the Z needs to be driven and driven hard for the car lives for it

danegrey

autocross on Last Sunday, got a lot of compliments on the Z, one person liked the interior, another asked when i was ready to get ready of it, he take it...
just was fun, driving was fun, again off a couple of seconds off the pace, but had fun

__________________
Lots of Changes
the Z needs to be driven and driven hard for the car lives for it

Quicksilvers

Do as many autocross events as you can handle as practice makes perfect and nothing beats seat time in your Z.

danegrey

Track Night at Road Atlanta 4/25

WOW

Had a lot of fun, it was intense. Had lots of fun. I play Forza 7 and used it to get use to the track layout. It was interesting to play the game again after the night.

Good news
no spins / near spins
car felt great and held to the road.

my thoughts on the lap.
turn 1, to 2, like a big ark, car held it well.
turn 2 - 4 like the Forza 7, on braking points
the esses were a blast to take.
5 to 7 were ok, about what I expected.
7 to 10a wow, the car just pulled the entire time, I think I hit 120-125 down that back stretch, then just before or a little after start braking and down shifting.
then to the top of 10b and down to the front straight. There is a huge blind drop there. The instructor said to aim for the yellow on the sign above it would put you in the correct line. Thou I did, but scared my self silly each time.
The Z was great. Front stretch would hit about 100.

hooked I am, glad for the harness and brakes being upgraded

water / oil temps were ok. Thou the brakes did feel a bit funny, not sure if it was me or otherwise.

Oh I kept Traction control on, just to make sure I was comfortable.

Really interesting at speed and having to do many things at once.

It was fun..

BAD -- clutch fluid boiled, at the end of the 2nd run, clutch went to the floor and I left it with my foot. Glad it was the last lap. So I have to get some higher temperature clutch fluid, probably the same that I use for the brakes.

So that was it, just enjoyed it... will do it again...

__________________
Lots of Changes
the Z needs to be driven and driven hard for the car lives for it

danegrey

Went to the Store and like always park out of the way:
1) to get the steps in
2) hopefully no one parks next to me...

A guy in a landscape trunk, made a comment about about having a fit, if someone parked next to me, we laughed about and in the end he stated Nice Car....

Having some comment on the Z always makes me feel good..

__________________
Lots of Changes
the Z needs to be driven and driven hard for the car lives for it

danegrey

Trying a new product, called paint-n-peel.
its a new paint protection product
https://protectnpeel.com/

I will keep you posted. I wanted some protection on the car in a two areas.

1) the roof, bird droppings, when I go to my GF for a week
2) the side skits which are always seem to be getting chipped.

So I painted it on the side skirts, first application does not look bad.
It is a little rough, but not that it can be noticed.
1.jpg

2.jpg

Going to leave it on for the next couple of weeks. Mainly I have to go to Mid-Ohio for a driver performance school.

Will let you known when I come back and take it off.

__________________
Lots of Changes
the Z needs to be driven and driven hard for the car lives for it

danegrey

car home from the shop, was getting some checks for Track Days / School.
I will be at mid-ohio next week for there 3 day Acura Performance School.
A couple of reasons for going
1) took an original Skip Barber 3 day course there 35 years ago.
2) I get to use my car in the school. This will be fun to see how it performs with all the mods.

A couple of pics

I had a 4 point harness on the passenger side and replaced with a 6 pt.
sparco seat harness-s.jpg
Getting its finally checks for track day, had them replace the clutch fluid, since at TrackAmerica it overheated
track day prep-s.jpg

__________________
Lots of Changes
the Z needs to be driven and driven hard for the car lives for it

danegrey

Past week has been very interesting with the Z and lots of items to talk and discuss.
But First off, is the one that made me laugh the most.

Took my mother to the Casino, and had valet parking. Yea I know, the Z - Valet Parking.
Well the person, just drew all over the car, with comments. So he said he would park it up front. hmmm...

Well when I come out to get the car, I hear the sound of the exhaust... Sure enough, they parked it up front, no more than 100 ft, where I dropped it off...

I just laughed, never thought I that would happen... And nothing but comments from the valet attendants..

The Z still rules...

__________________
Lots of Changes
the Z needs to be driven and driven hard for the car lives for it

danegrey

Finally a moment or two to catch up on things
May 22nd to May 24th, I attended Mid-Ohio Drivers School.
The reason I chose Mid-Ohio, for the aloowed me to drive my car. This was big since I want to find out how my car handled.
So I will try to do a day at time

Day 1
Class room, on what the course was going to cover.
1) autocross. to a base time, car school car Automatic, School cars are Acrua ILX, with mods to brakes / suspesion / cooper tires. Base Time for end of the day
2) Skid cars, what fun, learning how to control a skid. (School car)
3) braking exercise (own car), was neat, instructor, helped you figure out braking, a bit of trail braking to get the car turn around the corner.
4) Autocross again (own car), this was fun, could have done it a very long time.
5) first adventure on the course, well it was an adventure, it was raining, and the way the Z is setup was no fun in the rain, for it does not have any give


Best comment of the day, your car sounds great...

Day 1 ended...

Day 2 will begin track time

__________________
Lots of Changes
the Z needs to be driven and driven hard for the car lives for it

danegrey

May 23rd Day 2...
Track time...

Class was how to drive mid-ohio, took us through all the turns in the class room. Explaining about most are late apex, trail braking type of course...
One of the exercises would apply at turn 8..

1) Loaded up the vans and drive the rode with the track with instructions driving. Talked about the lines. Actually it was really amazing on how fast they drove the vans... Track time means alot..

2) Time to follow the leader, did two sessions of follow the leader, which was neat for then the group rotated as to who was behind the instructor... All the non-school cars were in one group. It include my Z, a 2015 Vette, Focus RS, BMW M3, Alfa Romeo Gila, Poresche 911.

3) Then there was a session of where, we got out of our car and jumped in the instructor car, still following the leader. Interesting to see the track with the instructor talking..

4) Next session was still a different format of follow the leader, this time the instructor was in my passenger seat. At times, moving the steering wheel just a bit, to help show the lines. What was interesting this is the first time they have done this in 10 years. All because a couple of students talked to the instructors the night before.


5) on our own, so now lapping on our own... very interesting... a bit scary but once you got in the grove, it was fun. Had a couple of sections like this. Fun, the Z felt great. Fastest time was a 1:56:85 (used Harry's Lap Timer)
Fastest speed down the back stretch to turn 5, was 129 mph

Notes:
I have WhiteLine Sway bars front and rear
I was running 40 psi front 35 psi rear, instructor told me to run 37 front 35 rear, it made a difference
Found out that I brake way too much... into turn 5 and turn 1, call it what every you want to call it, but braked too long and hard.. but that is me.
In order to help us, the course was lined with marker cones, to help and speed up the learning process.
It was a fun day.

Went out with some of the students after class. Everything was normal in the car, after dinner the brake light was on... Hmmm... Now was a bit surprise running Motul 600, Z1 upgrade brakes with Centric Brakes...
Well, when bleeding the tires, it felt like an oven, the amount of heat coming off the brakes... Also the master cylinder brake reserve was down to half.

Could not find any Motuf 600, that night, so the Z was done for lapping on the next day... Did not want to take a chance, since I drove it there...

I think this all reflects, my heavy braking... And learning to trust the car....

Funny thing about all of this, I emailed the shop that works on my car at 10 that night and I got a reply email at 1:30 in the morning on a solution. Which will be the Stillen brake duct kit and a different set of brake pads.

day 2, it done, now day 3 tomorrow.

__________________
Lots of Changes
the Z needs to be driven and driven hard for the car lives for it

danegrey

Day 3

This was an all lapping day, session.
Started out with a little class room session, with the new drivers.
everyone got into the vans, for another track tour. Then it was off for 20 minute sessions on and 20 minutes sessions off. With a break for lunch..

I got a school car for the day, didn't not want to do anything else to the Z after yesterday. School car was an Acura ILX, stick shift. Now they were not your normal ILX's. They did have better tires / brake / improved suspension. Once I adapted felt ok. It was good enough just to do the lapping.

I met an engineer from Nissan, he was pretty quick too, turned a 1:52 in the school car, I was 10 seconds slower then him. I found out he designed brake systems. I talked to him about my breaking problem. He was funny, for he always stated it was HIS OPINION. Making sure it did not reflect Nissan position.

On my lap timing app I record 170 laps over 3 days. Not bad at all.

Now I just need to get the Z to handle my braking needs.

My overall impression of the Mid-Ohio Performance school, is I would do it again. Because they allow you to drive your car. The school was 1900 for 3 days, they provide lunches and lots of track time.

Now need to pick a couple of other track days for the year....

__________________
Lots of Changes
the Z needs to be driven and driven hard for the car lives for it