Exciting New Nissan 370Z NISMO Team

Zaggeron

Here's to better luck at VIR guys.

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2010 Platinum Graphite 370z Roadster:Touring/Sport
2013 Subaru BRZ Limited

CasusManage

A.M. PERFORMANCE IMPRESSES IN DEBUT DESPITE ENCOUNTERING MECHANICAL PROBLEMS

Scotts Valley, California – April 13th, 2011 – After months of anticipation the A.M. Performance team finally made its GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge debut last weekend at the Barber 200 with their never before raced #04 Nismo 370Z GS car. Despite dealing with the usual teething problems that are always expected from the new car and having absolutely no testing time before the event, the A.M. group completed a successful first weekend and showed impressive speed during qualifying and the race before being forced to retire with mechanical problems.



When the A.M. Performance team and drivers Brian Lock and Mike Sweeney showed up to Barber Motorsports Park only a few days ago, they had spent months working around the clock building their racecar, but it wasn’t until they took the green flag for the first practice session of the weekend that they ever had the chance to see their red and white machine turn laps at speed. Sweeney qualified 20th on the grid and took the green flag for the race immediately picking up positions and setting quick times during the first few laps. What looked to be like a promising day ended early for the Californian team who had to retire from the 2h30min race after only ten laps due to a cooling issue. Despite an early end to their debut weekend the A.M. Performance team had a chance to give the racing world a glance of the potential of this new group and the speed of their new GS machine.

The team will get a chance to look into the problems that appeared over the weekend and continue developing the setup of their Nissan this weekend at Thunderhill where they will conduct private three-day test in preparation for their next GRAND-AM event, which will take place at Virginia International Raceway on May 14 – 15, 2011.
For more information please visit amperformanceracing.com and you can also follow us at A.M. Performance | Facebook.

Brian Lock
Driver, CEO, A.M. Performance
“Given that we’ve probably just experienced the worst we’ll ever have for a GRAND-AM weekend; very limited track time, constant problems that we had to fix with the race car, and then a very anticlimactic finish retiring after 11 laps, I’m still thrilled with the result, with the impression that we made around the paddock and the way that our crew handled the challenges that came up. With a completely new car I was able to go out and make confident passes and was very happy with where we were at with the setup, obviously we are not the fastest in a straight line but the data shows that we are very quick on the corners and there’s still a lot of work to be done so we are looking good.
We’ve isolated the problem that we had during the races so we’ll have time to test this weekend and make sure it gets fixed. I anticipate that we’ll be just as strong or stronger when we show up at VIR and that we’ll have a reliable car that can finish the race.”

Mike Sweeney
Driver, A.M. Performance
“This was a tough weekend but a good weekend. Our NISMO 370Z was fast in race trim, really took care of it's tires, and was just plain good to drive, which really shows that Nissan has given us a great platform to start with. I can't believe a brand new car was this good! It's a testament to all the long nights and hard work the crew put in at the shop, and it's an honor to drive a car that has been put together by such talented hands. Unfortunately, we had some issues that forced us out of the race early, which is just part of developing a new car. The car is already on its way to Thunderhill, where we are testing several different solutions for the problem that got us at Barber. A.M. Performance is moving forward!”

Chad Boyles
Board Member, A.M. Performance
"I am very excited that we chose to race with Nissan in GRAND-AM. The reception the car received was even better than expected. Being a long time Nissan enthusiast and owner, I was very excited to see them back on track where they belong. I am extremely proud of the A.M. Performance crew and with the entire package they put together in such a short amount of time."

About A.M. Performance:
A.M. Performance is a race car preparation, aftermarket parts, and tuning company based in Scotts Valley, CA. Our 9000 sq ft. facility is staffed with some of the most skilled and passionate race car minds in the country, with all the tools required at their finger tips to build high end race cars for the most competitive series in the country. Our professional fabricators can handle any job, big or small, from Grand Am Rolex GT cars, to your everyday HPDE track car.
Although A.M. Performance is equipped to build a race car from any make, we specialize in Nissan 370Z’s and Nissan GT-R’s. Our experience racing both platforms gives us unique experience to advise our customers on the exact products they need for their street, track day, or full race car Nissan.
Check the A.M. Performance website often for company updates. Our first two years look to be extremely exciting with our mulit-car entry into the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge GS class. We will also be coming to market with multiple hard parts which will be must haves for any track or race car 370Z. An AWD chassis dyno is also in the works to be installed and ready for customer tunes by the end of 2011.
A.M. Performance... because racing is the reason we get out of bed in the morning!




If you are interested in receiving more great newsletters such as the one above sign up for the A.M. Performance mailing list at:Mailing List Sign Up

spearfish25

Come on guys...we've all read that already. Give us the inside scoop on what happened!

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2013 Cadillac V-Wagon, RIP Z

CrownR426

^ I agree no point in posting if you leave out the main course, na means?!

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Love + Hardwork + Passion
RIP SVTRacer

zzdudaka

I was able to DVR the race when it re-aired... Saw one clip of the car, before the spotlight of it pulling of the track with the "mechanical" issues. Hope you guys get it figured out and good luck! Also curious as to what the issues are.

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Happy Z Motoring! zzdudaka
2010 40th Anniversary 370Z #357

Cmike2780

I'm thinking they should have done the GT-R button swap.

In all seriousness, I hope you guys all the best for VIR. The car was looking so good on the track. Still a great job considering guys started with a bone stock Z only a few months ago.

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[09][MB][6-Spd MT][Touring][Stillen Gen III][K&N][Borla CBE][Evo-R]

phunk

just subscribing. sorry if theres a button for that, i dont see one!

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plumber78

Any new news?

AutoX Z

Watched the VIR race on speed today. Team finished somewhere in the mid to rear or the pack, they never really got shown. Announcers had some good things to say about the team at one point. Any news from the team on the race?

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2013 SCCA Solo National Champion
VVV For Sale VVV

TreeSemdyZee

They finished 16th. That race was last week.

amperformanceracing.com

ChrisSlicks

The only time they got shown was when they punted one of the other teams off the track, then the announcer talked about the car a little bit and how cool it looked. Next week's Lime Rock race isn't going to be aired at all, but the rest of the season will be.

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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

dwntwnall4u

Yeah, saw the race replay yesterday. Good to finally see a 370z on the track. They are making nice improvements.
Congrats to AM Performance

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Working my *ss off for a GTM Rotrex SC to go with my 2006 URD Rotrex SC 4x4 Tacoma.

snaggeltooth

Yea you have to give them prob all year to get things tweaked .. I dont know the teams goals but Im betting a top 5 would be a great accomplishment...

CasusManage

Hey all. We want everyone to know that we will be back posting weekly updates and deeply apologize for not having any the last couple of weeks. We have some cool pictures for you all this week that we hope you will enjoy. We also want your participation. We want you to post questions on the forum that the team at A.M. Performance can answer in a video. The questions can be anything that you have wanted to know and the team can answer. So please be considerate of others as we will not be answering vulgar, crude, or any other question that are not respectful. Furthermore, when you post the question add a name/nickname, this will be the name the team will use to respond to (if you do not provide a name/nickname we will not address the answer to you). Lastly, we will be taking questions until Wednesday, if you do not get your question up by then or do not get it answered in the video please do not fret as we will be doing more of these Q&A Videos throughout the season.



Pictures


1. These are the bushings we've made out of a self-lubricated thermoplastic. These are lower friction and lower maintenence than a monoball joint.




2. Here are those bushings on the car.




3. We ran into the hydraulic release bearing (CSC)/clutch pedal stuck to the floor issue at Barber Motorsports Park. It sucked, and we decided to never deal with that nonsense again, so we made this.




4. We also don't like clutch slip. Or slow-revving engines. To that end, we made this. The stock clutch/flywheel package (including bearing, PP, everything) weighs 38 lbs. This setup is 18 lbs, and even with the metallic clutch discs is really easy to drive. And it doesn't slip even one bit leaving the pit box with hot slicks (5500 rpm clutch dump), the car just lights them up and GOES.




5. Prototype front sway bar. Once we are done testing/developing this piece we will make it out of the appropriate thickness/diameter material and make a blade style adjuster for it. For now it is not adjustable, just for the prototyping phase.




6. Installed on the car. Due to the heim-joints, this bar won't suffer from bushing bind, which is a really common problem with sway bars that is hard to diagnose. Our design makes for a much more consistent performance from the bar.



7. Second chassis (car #05) getting cage wrapped so it can go to powder coat next week, while the third chassis is getting ready to go to the media blaster.




8. Oil cooler setup. At VIR, we never saw oil temp go over 200 degrees. Did I mention our races are 2.5 hours?




9. Lawrence going into Turn 4 early on in the race




10. Our first pitstop! It went surprisingly well, with tires, fuel, and driver change going off without any major issues. The biggest problem was a shoulder belt that slipped under Mike's HANS device, but that only cost us a couple seconds, and will be addressed for future stops.




11. Awesome photo of the car launching back into the race, courtesy of Melissa K. Smith Photography!



"At VIR we P16 at the end. We are very happy to have finished our first race, and that was very much the goal for the weekend. We got a TON of useful data and are confident in the direction of our setup and development of the chassis, which will be applied to both cars that will race at Laguna Seca. However, we also confirmed that with the current motor package we are simply outgunned on the straights, and by a significant margin. We are working with Grand Am right now and are going to sit out the next two rounds as we work on the necessary changes to make the car go as well as it stops and turns. They are being very responsive and we have no doubts that when we come back we will be much more competitive. Finishing was the goal for the last race, finishing in the top-10 is the goal for the next race.

Stay tuned!" - Mike Sweeney




Again post your questions and we will try to get them in the next A.M. Performance video update. Also, keep checking this thread for more great updates on the them.

CasusManage

Alton, Virginia – May 15th, 2011 – The A.M. Performance team completed a successful weekend at Virginia International Raceway finishing16th at the Bosch Engineering 200 in only the team’s second ever start in the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series. Drivers Mike Sweeney and Lawrence Loshak drove the team’s #04 Nismo 370Z GS car to the finish car in what turned out to be an incident filled two and a half hour race.

Loshak had an impressive start from the 21st position on the grid and immediately started picking up positions, but after a few laps had to start all over again after falling to the back of the grid due to a quick spin coming onto the front straight. The rookie driver, who made his GRAND-AM debut this weekend, maintained a quick pace for the rest of his stint and managed to avoid the carnage around him handing the car over to Sweeney during the team’s first pit stop.

For Sweeney his two stints proved to be action packed as well, including a close call where he had to drive off the track to avoid a car spinning back into the racing line. Despite loosing time with his off road excursion, the California native quickly got back in the groove and continued reeling in the cars in front of him. Sweeney took the checkered flag in the 16th position, which marks the team’s best result to date, with a best lap of 2m7.896s on his 57th time around the 3.27 mile, 17-turn circuit.





For more information please visit amperformanceracing.com and you can also follow us at A.M. Performance - Professional Sports Team - Scotts Valley, California | Facebook.

Mike Sweeney

#04 A.M. Performance / Nismo 370Z

“We are very happy with how the weekend went for us, we are a new team and we have a brand new car, so finishing our first race is a big accomplishment and an important milestone in our short history. The whole team did a great job, we are really working well together and we just get better every time we are out on track.

The race was nuts, people were going off and crashing everywhere, we knew it was really important to just stay out of trouble and get to the checkered safely. The #04 Nismo once again was very good, obviously there’s still a lot of things we need to improve, but overall the car has a great platform and it handles very well, we just need a bit more power to be able to keep with the top guys on the straights.”


Lawrence Loshak

#04 A.M. Performance / Nismo 370Z

The weekend was great, for me it was an amazing opportunity to be able to step into the pro arena and to race in GRAND-AM with a team like A.M. Performance. It was also a big plus because I got to work with Andrew Armistead (Technical Director) again, we have a great winning history together and good chemistry and understanding. Everybody together did a great job and the car got faster and faster every time.

It was a good race for us, we learned a lot this weekend and now we know what we need to work on for next time. The car handles great, we are definitely down on power still but once we get that figured out I think we can be fighting for the top spots. We are happy with our result but obviously we are racers and we just want to win, and I believe that is possible wit this car and this team.”


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