First track experience today ! Some good, some really bad

RCZ

Cobalt XR3 or maybe just GT Sport pads for me Gotta call them up for 370Z fitments.

I'll take a relo kit too haha, add it to the tab

LiquidZ

That silver looks great!

Anyways, oil and diff coolers are probably the first mods I will buy.

rbratton

Being that I upgraded from a 350Z to a 370Z to have a robust HPDE platform, I'm rather disappointed about this oil cooling issue. That being said, this is a great thread and I'm interested to hear how we solve this problem.

M.Bonanni

Just a little tidbit about the front/rear distribution we touched on earlier. I just put my 370Z up on the corner scales today just for fun. The car had a little over a half tank of gas, no driver, and the spare tire and tools were still in the back. To add to it, the SPL Pro Rear Camber arms I installed added 3 lbs. to the rear, and the Berk Technology High Flow Cats installed removed 10 lbs. from the front. Needless to say, the following percentages are better balanced than your car was completely stock with all of that weight removed out of the back.

My car had a weight bias front to rear of 54.7% front and 45.3% rear.

Point of this is that before removing any more weight from the rear, I would really focus on removing weight from the front, or moving weight from front to back via battery relocation, etc. I know I have touched on this subject already, but now we have a little technical data to back it up a bit.

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RCZ

^ which is why it makes perfect sense to relocate the battery to the rear...

We need to figure out how to take more weight off the front....empty the windshield washer fluid, aluminum radiator, lightweight bumper beam, lightweight pulley, carbon hood, carbon front bumper, battery relocation, carbon engine cover, lighter intakes (replacing airboxes), lightweight strut tower braces, aluminum...

Take a look at these "see through" pics to get more ideas on what we can do. Any suggestions that aren't insane would be welcome..remember... sprung weight, not unsprung, so dont say "get lighter brakes."

http://www2.csc.ne.jp/~salon.de.pal/...-z-z34-200812/

travisjb

I'll chip in a few ideas - prob obvious:

- side air bags... when i removed the headliner, i found a lot of tubing and actuation gear along with the airbags themselves... positioned high in the cabin, so not a good place to carry weight... weight redux may apply equally to front/rear, but still it is up high so a good target

- windshield wipers are EXTREMELY easy to remove... two screws and the whole assembly pulls out... for track cars, consider removing - can always pop in if weekend calls for rain, or use rainX... i didn't weight the assembly, but I remember it was pretty heavy

- plastic trim pieces underhood... only a pound or two, but why not... RCZ, you mentioned carbon cover, but why bother ?

- as I mentioned before, wondering if cooling systems can be positioned towards the back... move steering cooler ? any added oil cooling systems towards the rear etc

- i need to lose at least 15 lbs !

- at some point i'll be pursuing more hard core weight reduction... doors, windows, a/c, stereo... not sure if these will help with balance though

- interested in all the ideas RCZ has above, e.g., carbon hood / bumper, bumper beam etc... not sure about radiator, think i read elsewhere it is already v light

Slidefox

Pics??

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travisjb

if that's for me... dropped car off at 'local shop' last night, so unfortunately no pics... will start a new thread with progress update and pics once it's back, but that'll be a while

RCZ

^ I don't think its a good idea to move those cooling parts too far from the engine.. takes a lot of pump power to get fluids through the plumbing and that's too risky for the rewards in weight balance..

What are you doing to your car?

travisjb

ok, thanks for the advice... you're prob right, would be more weight overall + more parts that could break

car will be in the shop for a while... they are going to take a bite out of the list i posted previously... shop is in the process of reviewing this thread and preparing a quote... for one, their parts design group intends to build intake, pulley set, and exhaust... i'll ask them to consider sponsoring this site, so we can post details and pics... i'm also asking them to quote coilovers, no-brand oil cooler kit, and a few other odds and ends

Slidefox

Which shop?

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RCZ

Very cool.

Also for the oil cooler kit, get a Setrab.

If it means anything to you, I'm getting KW V3 coilovers...

Do post pictures of all the stuff you do, it would be very helpful to hear what your experiences have been...

travisjb

will definitely post pictures when available... thx for tip on Setrab, will look into it

have learned to value your opinion, so will put serious consideration into kw v3 coilovers too !

slidefox, i was asked not to mention the shop's name - they're not a sponsor... i'm sure you can find it earlier in this thread

sensi09

KW V3s are quality, but if this is primarily a track car, I'd look into a set of more track oriented coilovers.

Try to get those GT3 seats to fit, those are some of my favorite seats and I'd love to see them in a Z.

Excellent thread overall. Hope you get the cooling issues sorted out.

RCZ

^^ Thats true, I should also say that my 370z will be a daily driven car. The reason I'm going with the V3's is because you can adjust the dampening. That means that you can set them up to be really good on the track and then set em to be amazingly well mannered on the street. If you are building a car that is going to spend more time on the track than anywhere else, then you are wasting your time with all these minor mods... just strip the interior, cage it, two buckets, plex windows, get rid of the AC, Ohlin coilovers and slicks.... I don't think thats what you are going for though.. you would have used one set of wheels and tires to transport it from the street to the track and then swapped for Hoosier Slicks and enkeis at the track...

If you are looking for high quality coilovers that are drivable on the street then consider the V3's. I already made the mistake once to get racing spec coilovers for my street driven car. This doesnt mean the V3's don't perform on the track...many BMW M3 drivers upgrade to V3's because they perform on the track, but feel like stock on the street...