[CLICK HERE TO SEE VIDEO OF THE 370Z ON TRACK.]
370Z Track Test
With the SEMA show come and gone in a fog of sleep-deprived delirium, each team had virtually no time for last-minute adjustments before heading off to Buttonwillow for SLB finals just days later. With Dai and Costa fabbing/adjusting components literally as their 350Z rolled off its trailer at the track, and yours truly calling it quits after an alignment courtesy of Evasive Motorsports in La Puente, CA, the day's first runs belonged to us, with FD drifter Tyler McQuarrie behind the wheel. Here's where the fun began.
In true 2NR form, we drove our car to the track-200+ miles from L.A. through traffic, high and low altitudes, and at some points, flat out at handcuffing speeds-with no problems. But that changed with its first lap out. "Traction control was a nightmare," explains Tyler. "It was staying on at all times, killing power through corners the instant the car lost traction." Fuses were pulled, relays were hardwired, the taillights were even removed at one point (a "370Z secret", or so Dai told us-a dirty time-wasting racing play?), but nothing completely disengaged the system until Nissan guru Steve Mitchell, of Gardena, CA's M-Workz removed a Bosch modulator underneath the e-brake, rendering the system inoperable.
With the traction control successfully disengaged, it was the ABS system's turn, as nearly anything more than coasting to a stop triggered its engagement. "My driving style is to trail brake into corners," explains Tyler, "and when I would, the ABS would engage the whole way through, keeping the car from rotating like I wanted." Fortunately, the solution was much simpler. "All it need was pull fuse," explained Tein lead tech Nakai, in his thick Japanese accent. "Probrem sorrved." Even after the modification, rear brake bias was a little more aggressive than expected, a product of our Project Mu brakes engineered more for the sustained heat of endurance driving than the short sprints of time-attack. After a suggestion by Project Mu engineers, and a pad change by the Tein crew, we were back in business.
Until the overheating kicked in. Even with the massive Greddy Type 29 front-mount intercooler snapping up the Z's entire radiator inlet, coolant temperatures stayed within acceptable tolerances. Oil temperatures were the problem. "Even stock 370Zs overheat their engine oil after a few laps on the track," noted Tyler. "I could get about one, maybe two fast laps in before the turbocharged Z got too hot. And the differential was getting hot by then, too." This time, the work-around was a bit more entertaining: "Greddy's engineers rigged the windshield wipers to spray the oil cooler with ice water stored in the windshield washer fluid reservoir," laughs Phil. "What can I say . . . it worked."
With its problems handled, Tyler was driving our 370Z to consistent 2:04 lap times. After a switch from 12kg/mm rear springs to 14kg/mm by Nakai and the Tein crew, along with raising the Z's rear stance a little and tweaking the alignment to follow suit, times dropped solidly into the 2:01-2:00 mark. "The car still needed a little more grip," explained Tyler, "but we couldn't adjust camber any more unless we raised the car, which would've thrown everything off." Remember those cards we were dealt? We initially thought decreasing tire pressure would widen contact patches and compensate for excessive camber we weren't able to correct, but once Nakai decided to switch to a new set of Falken RT-615Ks and actually increase pressure a little, Tyler broke 1:59, out-pacing two R35 GT-Rs and every other 370Z in competition, to take Third in Street FR.