The Official 370Z Autocross Thread

[gomer_110]

Originally Posted by buzzyng

Wow, I've just spent about 2 days reading through this massive thread and have so many questions :-) Grateful for all the info provided.

My situation - I have a 2010 370z Nismo that my dad gifted me. It has about 20k miles and only drive it in nice weather. I've never had any interest in tracking the car as I've been racing motorcycles competitively for a long time. After an accident last year, my motorcycle days are now behind me. I recently went to a 3 day track driving event that included autocross. Oh my gosh, I missed out for all these years. So now I want to dive in.

The car has the stillen dual long tube intakes and cat delete but everything else stock. I was looking at upgrading the radiator and an oil cooler to do track events but am worried about being put in an AX class that is really meant for highly modded cars. Where is the best place to be competitive without spending alot.

I have a C8 that I could use for AX but I liked the idea of a smaller more compact car but really not sure the best approach. Appreciate any insight or guidance. thanks

The cat delete puts you straight to street prepared assuming we're using SCCA classing. That's a rather deep part of the pool already, especially for someone just getting started. A good track car is rarely a good autox car. Like Averying said, you could do XSA but it is mostly a "run what ya brung" class.

If you want competitive right away, use your C8 for autox. C8's are classed fairly competitively in factory form.

[buzzyng]

Originally Posted by Averying

Is it also a street car? How much do you care about being competitive vs just showing up and having a good time? What tires are you on? I believe the cat delete puts you right to street prepared category which means the competition will be on slicks.

Running in XSA might be a more reasonable class if you want to leave the cats off the car without going too far down the ‘racecar’ rabbit hole. It allows a minimum tread wear of 200 (more streetable tires) but whatever engine/exhaust mods you want.

Oil cooler upgrade is a must for any 370Z. You don’t need the radiator upgrade for autox but might be a good idea for the track.

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Thanks for the response. Yes it is a street car as dad still wants to drive when he visits so I can't go too far down that rabbit hole ... maybe in a few years.

I have a Z1 oil cooler in the cart right now :-)

I'll start looking into the XSA

[buzzyng]

Originally Posted by gomer_110

The cat delete puts you straight to street prepared assuming we're using SCCA classing. That's a rather deep part of the pool already, especially for someone just getting started. A good track car is rarely a good autox car. Like Averying said, you could do XSA but it is mostly a "run what ya brung" class.

If you want competitive right away, use your C8 for autox. C8's are classed fairly competitively in factory form.

Jumping off the high dive first time out isn't probably the best but I think I've been trying to figure out how to force one car in it's current state into AX and track. I'm a pretty competitive person as I'm used to regularly placing top 3 when racing on two wheels so I don't want to dive into a class where I'm at a significant disadvantage immediately.

I can't track the C8 as I didn't get the z51 package and while I technically could, not covered if something happens on a track. So maybe for now I learn the ropes of AX using C8 and then when my Z06 comes, it becomes track and maybe dad will let me focus the 370 on a performance AX.

Appreciate your response as you were one of the ones I was going to ping about questions. Several impressive car builds in this thread