The Official 370Z Autocross Thread

[handyman]

Just finished an all day autox school. It was my 3rd day on an autox course and I'm picking it up quickly. I ended up matching the best time of one of the instructors which he set in his B Stock S2000CR. That made my day (as well as a couple FTD's)

I experienced the damned inside rear tire spin up on a big increasing radius sweeper. Has anyone found any remedies for this that wouldn't bump me out of CS? Being light on the throttle helped of course, but I want to be able to lay down the power! I've heard one guy had good luck using a bigger front anti-roll bar... but I'm not stoked about making the understeer even worse just for traction on corner exits. Maybe after using tires and alignment to counteract the understeer a bar wont be so bad.

I found smooth trail braking and playing with tire pressures really helped getting the car to rotate, I wasn't have any issues with plow by the end of the day.

For anyone who's interested I found 41 psi front and 34 psi rear to be my happy place on the stock tires (of course it will change depending on driving style, course, and traction, but its a place to start) I was still getting a bit of roll over on the fronts (to the base of the triangle) and not quite enough on the rears (about 1/4" from the triangle) but it was handling great with a lot less understeer.

I'll be throwing 285 RE-11's on next week, so all my tuning of tire pressures will be useless to me, but hopefully they will help someone else.

[handyman]

Managed to win the street tire CS class at today's autox (and got 11th out of 53 in PAX) Turns out our stock tires aren't too bad in the rain

[cossie1600]

Yeah, bigger front bar helps the inner rear lift. You just have to deal with the understeer with tire pressure and alignment setting (same reason why I don't have the bar)

New tires work too, I love my 285 setup. I can see a huge difference over last year's setup

[boardkat]

so has anybody in CS actually test-fitted a 315/30R19 with the sport pkg front wheel and a 5mm spacer? they're the same height as the 295 and i know they'll mount up fine on a 9" rim - we have a few guys over in the solstice world that did the same thing with a 315 on an 18x9 (which has similar tread/section width as the 19" version). i'm dealing with my own car issues that may see me make the jump over to the 370 in the near future and don't want to reinvent the wheel if i don't have to!

[boardkat]

oh and i know jeff had a set of custom AST 4100's made - was that through brian hanchey @ ast-usa directly, or did was strano in the middle of it? anybody running 5200's?

[cossie1600]

not sure how much info you are going to get, there are probably not many people who particpated at the national level in this forum, especially in a 370z

[boardkat]

Originally Posted by cossie1600

not sure how much info you are going to get, there are probably not many people who particpated at the national level in this forum, especially in a 370z

yeah, i know jeff sold his recently, but spoke with dan briefly @ nats last year and i think he still posts on here. agreed that there aren't many nationally-prepped 370's, not just on here, but anywhere. 19" wheels, limited camber, 40ish competitive runs when flipped, almost no shock options... easy to see why!!

[cossie1600]

it sounds like you know about autox, then you should know it is a copycat sport/event. i think the guy who finished 4th last year got this car a lot of attention, but then it makes no sense for new guys to try it as the miatas will probably rape the 370 again this year.

if nissan was more amature friendly, all they need to do is offer 18x10 front wheels, a torsen lsd and some camber adjustment

[boardkat]

Originally Posted by cossie1600

it sounds like you know about autox, then you should know it is a copycat sport/event. i think the guy who finished 4th last year got this car a lot of attention, but then it makes no sense for new guys to try it as the miatas will probably rape the 370 again this year.

if nissan was more amature friendly, all they need to do is offer 18x10 front wheels, a torsen lsd and some camber adjustment

i picked up a cmod ride over the winter so i'm less concerned about "the" car to have to "win", but having a dual purpose car that's a blast on the street is a priority - which is why i'm considering the 370. agreed on the wheel/lsd choice - add sub-3000lbs with double-wishbones front/rear and 315's square for under 30k and we wouldn't be having this conversation. one can dream

[cossie1600]

there is no such thing as a perfect car. heck i would even argue the cars that win at the national arent street driven, most are trailer queens anyway, even in stock class. its all relative and what makes you happy. i had a rx8, i got rid of it after 6 months because it was such a disappointment at the track. it doesnt mean i dont like the car, it just didnt do what i wanted it to do

[Shamu]

I made assessmsnt pretty quick that a CS 370Z or wouldnt be much fun. Nismo in BS isnt much fun either. Then learned no one had even asked SEB to class the 370Z in SP! So I wrote up request and asked others to write in. We now are stuck in BSP. Not a fun class with EVOS but heck of a lot better than ASP! So started down that parth and 370Z still comes up short against class leading car potential in HP. And silly SCCA Solo rules dont let you use full coilover in the rear which is a problem if I want ultimate performance and proper motion ratios for the track.

I'm now playing more on the track with my car and its gone into SSM.. ...Sigh honestly 370Z sucks for most of classes right now if you want to live without an oil cooler I guess CS is best. I wont roll that way.

Its more of a fun car than a car that will be nationally comptitive. 370Z in CS is likely best chance but yeah big bar up front and saggy nasty stock springs you have to live with. I had a hard time with Nismo springs being too soft up front. My car rides better on 1000 lb front springs with 400 lb rears on JRZ coilovers than it did on stock Nismo Tokico junk. And performance is like night and day.

Its nice to have car setup on 315 rears and 285 fronts that actually turns! I'm just running against 500 HP turbo 3 rotor RX7's now. No delusions of making this a nationally competive AX car.

[AutoX Z]

Theres alot of references to me in the above posts. My and my co-driver were 4th and 5th last year and I've made it no secret that we underperformed at nationals last year. We gave up maybe a second the first day coning the fast runs and making stupid errors on the others and then completely mis-drove the course the second day. I still think the Z can win and we are going back this year to try and prove it. It's not an overdog by any means but I think it can win, its just never going to be easy in any car against the top drivers in CS right now.

We have played with the idea of 315's but at this point have no plans to run them at any upcoming events. Our biggest concern isn't fitting that size tire inside the fenders, it's actually mounting it on the rim. The 295's are hell to mount as is and we have been warned against trying to go larger by a few different people including Hoosier.

[AutoX Z]

Originally Posted by Shamu

Its more of a fun car than a car that will be nationally comptitive. 370Z in CS is likely best chance but yeah big bar up front and saggy nasty stock springs you have to live with. I had a hard time with Nismo springs being too soft up front. My car rides better on 1000 lb front springs with 400 lb rears on JRZ coilovers than it did on stock Nismo Tokico junk. And performance is like night and day.

Its nice to have car setup on 315 rears and 285 fronts that actually turns! I'm just running against 500 HP turbo 3 rotor RX7's now. No delusions of making this a nationally competive AX car.

After taking apart my front suspension I found that the front of the car spends almost all of its time on the bumpstops. There is maybe .5" of travel at most and then a big squishy 3" bump stop. In the rear there is more travel, maybe 1.5" before you hit the bumpstops.

And my car turns just fine. Is it like a miata? no but its much better than many other car's I've driven.

[boardkat]

Originally Posted by AutoX Z

Theres alot of references to me in the above posts. My and my co-driver were 4th and 5th last year and I've made it no secret that we underperformed at nationals last year. We gave up maybe a second the first day coning the fast runs and making stupid errors on the others and then completely mis-drove the course the second day. I still think the Z can win and we are going back this year to try and prove it. It's not an overdog by any means but I think it can win, its just never going to be easy in any car against the top drivers in CS right now.

tell me about it. i've got buetzer and heitkotter to contend with out here if i make the move. well, maybe not brian if he lands that pro driving contract in a few weeks! so much for easy access to free contingency tires though! i am in the same camp as you - i truly believe the car is equipped to win on most courses with excellent driving. it's definitely not an underdog by any measure of the word.

Originally Posted by AutoX Z

We have played with the idea of 315's but at this point have no plans to run them at any upcoming events. Our biggest concern isn't fitting that size tire inside the fenders, it's actually mounting it on the rim. The 295's are hell to mount as is and we have been warned against trying to go larger by a few different people including Hoosier.

interesting. i've had any of a number of experienced/inexperienced mounting guys @ my local america's tire slip the 295's onto my 18x8 rims without any issues over the past few years. maybe there's something different about the 19's? if/when the time comes, i'll let you know how it goes because i definitely want to run 315 square if it's possible.

[boardkat]

and fyi dan... i'm the owner (dennis) of the broken BS solstice from last year. we only spoke briefly in grid but i think you had a longer conversation with my co-driver (adam).
i'll definitely look you up when i'm there this year, although i'm just doing a fly 'n drive this time around in cmod, even if i've got a shiny new 370 sitting in the garage