Mine All Mine
March & April 2003
196,000 Miles of
Badass NA 2+2 fury
"What the...? Your times are in the upper half of Race Group D!" – Saturday instructor
Wow. Buttonwillow Raceway counterclockwise with Star Mazda. 23 turns in the wrong direction. Two off camber blind lefts over crests? Loved it!
http://www.buttonwillowraceway.com/
Once again, competition is a great motivator. My track buddy Shannon and I have cars that are pretty evenly matched. He has a 5.0L Mustang GT (Fox) with Khumho 245s while I have a non-turbo 300ZX on Falken Azenis 215s (wait till I get some Azenis 245s...evil grin).
When we show up at a track event together, we work on lines and share tips like a two-car team until we are "freight train"-ing through the group like Audi R8s at LeMans. When things go well, we typically get very fast very quickly...
...but this time Buttonwillow would reveal new secrets right until the end.
Prep
EVERY Z made after 7/90 got 1.25" thick brake rotors. My Z was made 6/90 using brakes with the same diameter (11") but only being 1" thick. My brakes were marginal for Willow and completely useless for Buttonwillow. SO, I converted to the cast iron calipers and 1.25” thick rotors of the later Zs.
Upon inspection, my old calipers were essentially JUNK. Bad seals, bad clips, bad sliders, etc. I had intended to sell them, but they were toast and the parts needed were “on national backorder” with NO ETA on getting parts. Then again, the whole swap cost me $90 once I turned in the junk calipers for the $110 core charge. Not to shabby...
The Z also got Motul 600 brake fluid, stainless steel brake lines, a new clutch master cylinder piston, Castrol hydraulic clutch fluid, and Redline MT-90 transmission fluid.
Last but certainly the most expensive, I had to replace a $130 injector that would stop working once I got the car hot on the track. WHEW! I blew about $400 on the car, but I am still well under $2000 total, including the car, so I am not too worried about it.
BIG THANKS to everyone who helped and to Matt for having faith in a driveway clutch bleeding taking only 1 night!!!
Friday
What? Friday?!? Yep. Hardcore "cheating bastards" don’t half-ass it. I went to the open practice on the Friday before the NASA event. Fully open passing with time to learn the new brakes and braking points. Mainly I was there to figure out where to be when going the wrong direction over Magic Mountain or through the Buttonhook. There IS a line for my car and I found it, but it took a while.
I met up with Chris and she gave me a ride in her American Iron Camaro. The heads and cam really make a racket through the headers & race mufflers. It sounds great, but if you didn’t see it you would think the apocalypse is coming.
Saturday
CAR CLUB IS HERE! There must have been 15 cars from the Sports Car Club there. Everywhere you looked, there was a car club car, tent, trailer or member.
In Group 3, Shannon (Fox 5.0L) and I line up at the head of the pack and basically "check out" and leave the rest of the group to make space to play in. We did get passed once in Session 2 by a classic Shelby GT-350R Mustang running uncatchable 2:19’s, but whatever caused the 80 foot cloud of smoke coming from its tailpipes in Sessions 3 and 4 left it behind us for the rest of the day.
In between Sessions 2 and 3 I went GoKarting with my friend Shane (now a Group 3 instructor) to get a better feel for high-G craziness. I, of course, BARELY fit! A 2.5G turn every three seconds? Whee!
AccZDent runs a 2:28.0XX on Saturday. I have finally gotten top time of Group 3 in a session (they kept dropping Group 4 Time Trialers onto the Group 3 timesheet!), so I can frame it. I settle in for the night and prepare to just "cruise" for tomorrow.
Sunday
Easier said than done! The Shelby has dissappeared, only to be replaced by a lady in a 650hp twin turbo Lingenfelter Corvette and not one, but TWO Porsche Boxster S’s...and a 911! Also, Steve, Jason Knight and Colleen have finally gotten used to Azenis/BTW CCW/race tires and are coming on STRONG. Times are dropping FAST.
Shannon and I grid early, but on track part of my air dam decides it wants off the roller coaster. I miss half a session using tin snips to cut off the offending low hanging piece.
I can see that most times have dropped, so I have the red-mist going for Session 2. Trailbraking, buzzing the Esses at ludicrous speed, flat footing Talladega, etc. I chop another two seconds from Saturday, but I am aware that I am wussing out in certain places.
I slow down by a second for Session 3 while seeing just how far I can floor it through the Esses before feathering. Too much. Too little. Just riiight. Porridge!
I also point Shannon by (Fox 5.0L) so that I can follow and pick up any new possibilities in lines to take.
Session 4 becomes the hail mary, wreck it or drive it home, keep the pedal down speedfest that I expected it to be. Also, the grid has gone down in size to about a third of what it was.
As we come around on the warmup lap, Shannon (Fox 5.0L) gets into a dice with a Silver RX-8. As we turn up the wick, Shannon overcooks Star Mazda and the RX-8 passes him. However, I am on a TEAR and I hotshoe it over Magic Mountain.
The RX-8, now following ME, decides that that is TOO FAST for Magic Mountain and lifts while the car is light over the hill...
...WHOOPS! The RX-8 does a 270 spin across the track, but Shannon slowed down earlier as he saw the RX-8 begin its pirouette. They fade away in the distance as I run through Talladega flat-footed.
BACK TO THE MIST. I am still ripping full-tilt around the track and keep the 201,000 mile 3.0L V6 on the boil. I rip through the corners after the bus stop in fourth. Rev to the 7200 rpm fuel cut before the Buttonhook and bouce the car off the limiter again just as I pass the start/finish.
I drop another 0.5 second from Session 2 to hit 2:25.306. I back it up a few times and then work on passing cars in some of the shorter straights instead of waiting for the longer ones.
Wrapup
Well, in light of the car staying together and driving home intact, I am well and truly pleased.
I had at least three people ask me what kind of turbos I had (note, one knew it was a trick question but the others were somewhat amusing to watch as I told them).
The 350Z guy from the last event bought HUGE new 18” Bridgestone S-03s (220 treadwear) and was essentially left deep in the dust as he learned a new track on a new set of tires.
Very fun overall. I was burned out and tired from working till nearly 4am three days in a row and wasn’t as social as I should have been.
However, I won’t need to go back to the track for AT LEAST a month...I think...at least with the AccZDent.
- J_Diddy
Lone Pine...WAY,
WAY, WAY out past Mohave!
The car had been spun off the road in a rainstorm here in Santa Barbara. It was in need of a front bumper, 1 rear toe link, 2 aluminum rims, rear shocks, four new tires, two new mufflers and an engine harness!
2nd Place – Don’t
Let The Mileage Fool You
Unfortunately, the cost of all of that would prove to be too much for the $800 budget. Instead, I fixed as little as possible. I replaced 1 rim, bought junkyard rear shocks and mounted some bald but donated tires (thatnks Matt!).
The result? I drove to a 2nd place trophy on with a gaping hole in the front bumper! The bent suspension arm made the car squirrelly, but I managed zero spins.
Of course, the thrill of the event soon wore off. I wanted more high speed thrills. I needed (uh-oh) more high speed thrills. I wanted to run on a real racetrack!
I put on Metal Master brake pads, bought a new set of Falken Azenis Sports and signed up for a Willow Springs trackday with NASAProRacing.com!