auto-x/drag weekend
 

Just thought I'd share my weekend. Friday after work the girlfriend and I get in our cars (370z and her C6 Vette) and met our friend with his M3 at the drag strip. None of us could hook up for crap. My girlfiend managed to do the best with traction control on but still only pulled a 13.9 at 103mph. My friend and I were pretty even most of the night but he finally started getting his launch down at the end and managed a best of 14.3 @ 98mph with a 2.16 60ft. My best of the night was only 14.8 @ 95mph and 2.5 60ft. For those that don't know our track out here in Vegas is very well knowns for having bad track conditions and giving crappy times. My first run was such crap I ran a 22.2. I guess I was a little too liberal with the gas as I litterally bounced off the rev limiter from 1-4 while barely moving. I finally just had to put it in neutral, let of the gas and have the car almost come to a stop, then just put it back in 3rd and putted to the finish line. Needless to say I still need to get used to my car and how to race it. Took me about a year to dial in my 280z to where I was getting perfect launches. Guess I have my work cut out for me.

Then sunday all three of us went to our local SCCA auto-x event. That was a blast in this car. I was worried about traction issues but the car never really left me hanging. There were a few times I got a little crazy with the gas and the back end would start to come out but it was very easy to get it back in line. Ended up pulling a best of 47.1 sec which to compare, a guy that has done a lot more auto-x before with his GTR pulled a 46.4. Beat my friends M3 (coil overs and other suspension mods, intake, exhuast) as he ran a best of 48.3. My girlfriend could only muster a 56.1 in her Vette but she is still very new to all of this so I cut her some slack.

Needless to say a fun weekend and some sunburn. It was fun testing my abilities as well as my new Z's. Plus I feel very lucky to have such a kick *** girlfriend who enjoys doing these same kinds of things. Unfortunately no pics as we were all driving but I will try to see if anyone from the auto-x got pics of us. Good times to say the least.

Those trap speeds are terribly slow for all of those cars....

tell me about it. None of us were happy with our results at the drag strip

Good to hear you had some fun with your baby.... and you other baby =)... Have you added an oil cooler to your new Z or were you able to track it without it?

-William

No oil cooler needed. Temp never got above 230 but remember I was only running hard for 50secs or less. Typically the temp would drop to 190 between runs. It was 90 out with a small breeze.

During drag temp never got higher than 220. I mean it may have spiked during my run but my focus was on the tach. I just know that at the end of my run on the turn out it was always around 220.

I think the whole oil cooler thing is only if you are doing road racing or other types of racing where you have the revs up for a consistant amount of time. For auto-x or drag I don't think an oil cooler is needed as you aren't running the car for very long before shutting it down. Mind you my engine is barely broken in too, only 1500miles on it. Temps on my car have never gone past 230 on normal driving whether it was hwy, streets, traffic, hwy/street with aggressive pulls. Thats also during the summer where we had days hotter than 110. So far so good, knock on wood.