recommendations for autoX'ing
 

would you need a oil cooler if you were to just autox the 370z, and not go road racing? also, are hawk hp+ pads good for autox'ing? are they much better than the stock pads? can you use them for daily everyday driving also? did the 350z come with a oil cooler stock? if not, did it also have overheating probs?

If your autocross setup is like ours, no you won't need an oil cooler. We usually have 45-60 minutes between runs which last than 60-90 seconds. We also don't have a place to warmup tires and brakes. Probably a good ceramic pad would do you fine. Remember in autocross smooth is fast!!!

that doesnt only apply for autox, being smooth makes you faster in any racing.

My region runs 60 second courses with probably 5-10 minutes or less in between runs. You will have no problem with overheating at an autox. Lots of people swear by Hawk products for autox and track driving and if you get the right ones they are fine on the street. However I would caution changing the pads right away if you don't need to. The stock brakes are good enough for 90% of autoxing and in most cases is best to learn the car first then start changing things.

The 350z did not have a cooler and "didn't" have overheating problems. Thing is without a gauge there's no way of being sure exactly what was going on in the 350 engine.

We run long course auto-x of up to 140 seconds. With runs that long oil temps peak close to 260 degrees, but cool down to between 200-220 between runs. With 60 second SCCA courses I never get above 240-250, definitely no cause for concern in either case.

For brake pads I tried out the HP+ but found them too grabby on the 370Z (you can buy my lightly used ones if you want) and I'm back on the stock pads now.