1/4 mile Bradenton FL
 

I took my car to Bradenton Motorsports Park. I have a stock 370Z 6 speed. No mods.

Outside Temp 97 degrees
Heat Index 110 (F-ing hot)

Runs

R/T .110
60' 2.098
330 5.959
1/8 9.081
MPH 79.28
1000 11.732
1/4 13.975
MPH 100.63

R/T .193
60' 1.970
330 5.899
1/8 9.055
MPH 78.43
1000 11.703
1/4 13.961
MPH 100.44

R/T .077
60' 2.188
330 6.005
1/8 9.112
MPH 79.56
1000 11.733
1/4 13.984
MPH 99.94

R/T .154
60' 2.040
330 5.845
1/8 8.943
MPH 79.75
1000 11.547
1/4 13.773
MPH 101.66

I'm certain the heat was a factor in these times and I can't lie, my buddy ran these posted times. My times were 14.0. We had some problems with the clutch sticking in the first couple of runs. We let it cool down, stopped doing burn outs at the start, and launched below 2,000rpms. Raced two 5.0's, GTO, and a turbo neon and beat them all except for a hopped up 5.0.

Anyone have advise on when to rev/shifts each gear?

I can't wait to get back stateside. As soon as I do, I will be coming back to Sarasota to visit family. Spent many a night at Desoto Speedway and at the drag strip next door when I lived there years ago. Maybe I'll see you out there?

Brian

You had some sub 2.0 60' times. That should be good enough to get you around a 13.3 - 13.6 with the rest, i'm sure the heat played a factor.. Were you keeping your hood open and blasting the heat inbetween runs?

i went to the track today to 94deg. hot as hell.. best was 13.73 with a 2.1 60ft and 103mph.

w/ Berk cat drop off's

Are you getting any tire spin? Try lowering your tire pressure.

You're 6MT I assume. What are you shifting at?

Being that the clutch kinda overheated to start we stopped pre-run burnouts and launched the car at relatively low RPM's (1,800-2,000 maybe) and lowered the rear tire pressure to around 30 psi.

I am assuming by the decent numbers we had through 60' yet slow trap speed and ET that without any wheel spin off the launch we are losing tenths of a second and speed around the 1/8 mile mark and continuing down the track. I noticed that our low end numbers compared to the others on this site; if not better, yet we are still running high 13's and just eclipsing the 100mph mark through the trap.

Long story short, (too late!) do we need to "pop" the clutch at the tree, maybe sacrificing some of the 60' times to gain better speed through the 1/8th for a better 1/4 time and speed? Thanks, any input would be helpful and truth be told, I have no idea what RPM's I was shifting at, I just listened to the car and shifted when it felt right. This was my 1st run in my buddy's Z and had only driven the car for about 30 minutes prior to getting to the track. I have had experience in running the early 90's 5.0 and 6 speed LT-1 Z-28's and Formula Firebirds. Recently I leased a G-35 auto, but the 6 speed 370 is a straight up beast! Hats off to Nissan for hitting this one out of the park...my Acura CL-S 6 speed feels like a Buick after driving the 370

We probably did 12 runs the temp never breached 230. We had problems with the clutch in the beginning when we were popping the clutch in first gear at the start. The clutch stuck on us twice which returned us a 19sec and 34sec 1/4 mile, awesome! It made me sick. I thought I was going to have to replace the clutch after owning the car for only 3 months. We almost called it a day, but we let the clutch cool down and started running again without taching up at the tree. That's when we started running in the 13.9's and 13. I think I need to figure out how to tach up in 1st without the clutch sticking. Wheel hop is another issue if the clutch engages. Thanks for your comment.

Nice run, I haven't finished over 101mph yet. Still trying to figure the car out. How do you like your Berk Cat? Do you notice a performance difference?

That translates to 280 HP at the wheels assuming curb weight is 3278 lbs + 180 lb driver.

For your best run above:

That translates to 272 HP at the wheels assuming curb weight is 3278 lbs + 180 lb driver.

Neglecting skill of the driver of course :)

+225lb driver

I love the berks, really has opened it up. Its hard to get traction though.. i need some slicks!

Fat boy (lol)

I'm 6'2"....what's your excuse 5'9"? (lol)

OK...you are actually then sitting around 276 WHP at 225 lbs. of body weight.

Wait...you're burning out stock street tires?

This is not clutch "sticking," it's "slipping". The pressure plate/clutch springs don't have enough clamping force to either bring the engine speed down to the transmission speed, or make the tires spin and bring the transmission speed up to the engine speed. It usually only happens when the clutch is hot and you impart a bunch more heat into the disk, overheating it. If you keep on the throttle and keep slipping it after this has happened, you can "glaze" the clutch, where it will keep slipping until the gaze has been burnt off.

I did this to my Corvette somewhere between 10 and 20 times over the course of it's life and the stock clutch survived to 54,000 miles when I sold it. It does decrease the lifespan of the clutch, but doesn't neccesarily kill it right then and there.

Yep, in retrospect it was kind of naive of us to do taking into consideration the results. Luckily we figured out lowering the tire pressure would give us the grip we were looking for.
As I stated in a previous post I had some experience in running bigger V-8's back in the days of my youth and I now realize I can't drive a 2009 370Z the same way I did my early 90's 5.0 or LT-1 Z-28's.

Thanks for the new calculations! Where are you in Ohio Zkindaguy? I'm west of Cleveland about 25 miles.

Columbus

bout same height as me but i'm 50lb less :hello:

Cool, thanks for the info.

So I ran my stock 370z base sport a few weekends ago. Very similar numbers.

1050ft. actual altitude
89F
70% humidity
29.8 mercury

DA = 3,751ft

60ft. 2.189
330 6.065
1/8 9.194
mph 78.96
1000 11.845
1/4 14.079
mph 101.18

Corrects to:

Stock and Mildly Modified Naturally Aspirated Engines
13.435 @ 106.099 MPH

Completely stock including spare and tools and 35psi. Half a tank of gas.

The scales read 3345 without me in it (+190lbs with clothes/helmet), but the scales at this track are known to fluctuate so not much use in the result.

There's your problem.

Not really. The DA of 3,751ft is my problem. :icon17:

The car is picking up 22.2 mph in the last half and the corrected numbers are right where they should be, which is all I was concerned with. (benchmarking against my old 350z)

Yes, sub 2.0 60ft's are easily possible bone stock. No, it's not going to happen at this track on a test and tune night. They don't allow cars that avoid the water box to run in the groves(they force you to stage closer to the wall). They also rarely spray the track, so traction is always an issue for anyone on street tires.

Post up your timeslip. Show us how it's done.

That's all you had to say, and it confirmed my statement. Test and tune nights will almost never hook well unless its a nice track. Nowhere in my statement did I say, "You suck, learn to drive". Im fully aware that a shitty track on a shitty night wont hook for ****.

The long story short is that, yes, indeed, the 60' is the problem. The altitude isn't the cause. But it sure may be the track prep (or lack thereof), the driver, or both.

Oh boy, here we go.

I have no intention to make my sports car thats designed for the road course, to the drag strip. I got over that **** with my 2000 Camaro. It was fun for a while. The high-11 seconds of fun got boring pretty quickly, and now I'll stick to AutoX-ing and road coursing, thank you.

But FWIW, I cut better 60's with my 235/16 Goodyear Eagle's :). And yes, it was a 6-speed.

I misinterpreted your post. Sorry.

But there's nothing wrong with taking your car to the drag strip. Sure, it would be stupid to by this car just to drag race it, but it's a decent performer.

You're right. I suppose thats the snob in me that just got over the drag strip. Different strokes for different folks I suppose, and you're right, it is a solid performer. I'd be worried about those axles, though.

I'm not worried - I've got 400 passes on my car; over 200 of which were 6k+ rpm clutch drops on bfg dr's. Stock transmission, stock diff, stock axles.

Could be your clutch fluid boiling. I would switch your clutch fluid to Motul High temp fluid and see if this fixes your clutch problem.

Jesus please tell me you have broken 13.3. With 400 passes I can't relate poor 1/4 mile times to bad driving here anymore.

13.264@104mph - and that's at 265whp/250wtq on a dynojet - in other words, about 15 to 20 horsepower less than a stock 370z, and a bit more torque than a stock 370z. But it's a g35, so there is also the longer wheelbase and the weight penalty.

That's good for the #1 spot for all motor times on g35 driver dot com, and #10 for all motor on my 350z dot com. The latter I am quite proud of, because I'm only one of two g35s on that list.

I know you didn't say that, which is why in my response to you, nowhere did I say or even remotely imply that you did. :tiphat:

If I had the same lack of traction in a climate conducive to running good times, I would be perfectly satisfied with a 13.4@106 in stock form. Much the same that I am satisfied with the "slow" results I got. I wanted proof that my somewhat modded 350z was faster. While only slightly faster, that's what my butt dyno told me, and the real world results proved it for me.

In response to the short long story, I wasn't posting because I had a "problem"... with my ability, my car, or my understanding of how drag racing works. I don't recall saying that I have a problem or needed someone to point out the obvious for me.

I also think you may be underestimating the difference DA makes. If you think simply pulling a sub 2.0ft in the same conditions is going to net nicer times than running in sub 500ft DA conditions, you are terribly mistaken.