I was at the Southeastern Z Shootout this past Sunday in Georgia. It was held at Silver Dollar Raceway. I had a blast, and I was very impressed with the track. It was much more professional than the local 1/4 track I frequent(Steele); it was in much better condition, facilities were luxurious compared to the shacks at Steele, and personnel knew what they were doing. Nice change from the local track.

Temps were in the mid 80's at the beginning, slowly reaching 90 degrees or so, with DA's around 2150 feet or so. Traction was decent for the first half-hour or so, but progressively got worse as the day wore on, and the track got hotter. The staff brushed the staging and launch pads a few times, but it never really helped. I only dipped into the 2.0 range on one launch, and proceeded to screw up that run with a misshift. Most of my launches were in the mid 2.1 territory, with a few of 2.2's, and even 2 2.3's. Remember, this is on dedicated DR's. I started out running 19psi cold, which resulted in 25psi hot an hour later. I then dropped them to 19psi hot, then again to 17psi hot.

I got 22 runs for the day. My best was a 13.793@101.48, with a 2.114 sixty foot. That is just two thousandths of a second off my old personal best that stood for over a year, except the DA's were 3900 feet greater than that night back in december of 05.

There weren't a lot of g's or z's. There were three sedans: myself, a guy with an 03 5AT Caribbean Blue(gorgeous), and devster(05 6MT). There were a couple of coupes, and maybe 6 NA z's that were running. One z was running a stillen supercharger(stage unknown), and his best of the day that I saw was a 12.4@111.

Out of the g's and z's, I had the best All Motor time, to my knowledge. One could attribute that to my DR's, but I was consistently outtrapping every one else as well. In fact, I didn't lose a single race all day where I didn't cruise to the end, and that includes several runs where I misshifted and still ran the rest of the way. I never trapped below 100mph all day, unless I missed a shift.

I ran one guy in a white 05 track z(revup) many times. I think his best was a 14.2@98, but he had a few 14.3's and 14.4's scattered here and there. There was a guy in a black z(unknown year or trim) that I saw run a few 14.1's and a 14 flat, usually trapping around 99 or low 100mph. That same guy also ran a 13.5@??? on the bottle for one run; at least that is what I was told.

Now here is a timeslip for the one run between devster and myself. I'm not picking on you devster, I'm just using this slip to illustrate a point:
Devster - Me
60: 2.358 2.113
330: 6.395 5.928
1/8 ET: 9.671 9.022
1/8 MPH: 75.90 80.08
1000: 12.247 11.661
1/4 ET: 14.786 13.898
1/4 MPH: 95.90 100.95

So I outlaunched him, which is to be expected. Devster has an 05 6MT, with about 7k miles IIRC. He's still on the stock rubber on the stock wheels. I think his only mods are a stillen airbox and a ztube. Almost stock. Anyway, at the 1/8th I'm a little over 6 tenths ahead, and just a hair over 4mph faster. At the big end, I'm almost a full second ahead, and just a bit over 5mph faster.

*** Note this was not his best run of the day. I think his best was a 14.4@96.

Now, go back almost two years. My first time at the track, in very similar conditions, my best run netted me a 14.7@95mph. Almost exactly what he ran on this particular run. At the time I was bone stock down to the rubber, with about 4k miles on the car. Ironically, I have about 3k miles on my new engine.

My point is that his run very closely approximates my best run when I was stock, in very similar conditions. From there I can compare my current times for sunday to my times stock - if that makes any sense.

So - my best run was a 13.793@101.48. My best run completely stock was a 14.737@95.82. Compared to stock, I've dropped my ET by almost a full second(over nine tenths), and my trap has increased by almost 6 miles an hour.

How bout those gains, huh? The ET can be largely be attributed to traction, and a bit to better driving. The traps have to reflect the mods. Just like the ET, some can be attributed to better driving and more experience, but almost 6 miles an hour is a not-insignificant margin.

There's always debate on if NA bolt-ons work. I'm sure plenty don't. And they're not the most cost-effective way to get power. But I think that I'm proof that a discriminating approach can yield some pretty good gains.

 

Awesome review Trey!

I myself have had some doubts about my spending on mods.

I've asked myself many times, Are they a waste of money or not?

Whether or not, I have no choice. There's just no way I can afford to go FI.

And just as I expected, Bolt-on's are best reflected after the 60 ft.

Those were excellent trap speeds for those conditions!

.

 

Trey i think 0.5 second 1/4 mile time was just better driving over time and the other half is due to mods. Regardless there is no doubt that u have a fast G35, good to see sedan representing and winning races especially against 350Zs

 

Hey I'm not worried! I had a lot of fun. You definitely showed the crowd that its not all about the 2-seaters. I was in the stands for a lot of your runs, and most of the excitement from the crowd was from you were racing the white Z. The Sedan just ate it up!

 

I think most of all your mods work and have a cumlative positive effect. The issue is the cost and NVH that comes with the mods, especially the exhaust work. For a picky bastard like myself, I couldn't handle the NVH in my daily driver. You know already know that though

 

Are you at the track every weekend
Nice write up and way to go representing the sedan club. What was your raceweight? Did you remove anything from the car?

Bobby


2003 G35 Sedan 6MT
13.84 @ 101 (stock)

 

Trey

Great write up with a positive ending.
Driving is very important at the strip along with a car that has the right parts installed.
6 mph at the strip would add up to 20-25 added HP with this class car and weight.
One factor that comes to mine is drive ability. You just have to have drive ability to get the car down the track with consistency. It looks like you have that combination worked out.
I would like to try next time out at the strip some positive camber in the rear to help offset the negative camber on launch along with consistent shallow staging. Your 60 ft are better than mine by a long shot.
I would like to see your results with the above setup and staging. I'm betting an improvement over some very good runs. Your the man, Trey

 

I think I've already explained this, but I can't remember. This is the fastest car I've ever had. I've never had a coupe or a sports car - it's always been sedans with something else occasionally, such as my old Avalanche. Before this car, the sportiest thing I've ever owned was a 2000 Chrysler 300M.

So I never went through the state of male adolescence where I had a car I thought was fast with an obnoxious exhaust. I'm going through that stage now. So at this point I don't care about NVH. Well, I do care, but I can accept a certain level of compromise that many others will not. As for cost - yeah, I've spent more on the car than is sensible, but you'd be surprised at how cheaply I've done so.

lol I wish. I was out a couple of weeks ago, and that was the first trip since last fall. I was at a different track this weekend, participating in a SouthEastern regional z-car event.

And unfortunately I didn't weigh the car. I've never weighed it. I should have done so this past weekend, as it's the first track I've been to with a scale. But I didn't remember the scale until after we were on our way back home(4 hours).

The only things I had removed were the spare, foam spare insert(where the tools are placed), and the trunk mat.

Thanks Pasta. I've definitely become much more consistent. I'm still not as consistent as I'd like; I'm missing 2nd gear way too often. I still miss 3rd or 4th occasionally, but it's rare - maybe 1 in 15 runs or so. 2nd, on the other hand, I seem to miss at least 25% of the time. But that's another thread altogether.

As for the camber, I'd be willing to do so if I had adjustable camber in the rear. I wouldn't be willing to change it for every trip to the track, as frequent alignments would be inconvenient. But I don't get the staging. When I stage, I creeeeep up until the first light comes on, then inch forward as slowly as possible so that I can stop as soon as I see the next light come on.

Of course, sometimes it's more effective than others, but I've yet to be able to see it's impact on either my ET or my trap.

 

Great write-up Trey, I really enjoyed it, was very interesting and good work with the improved time-slips.

 

You're shallow staging which is what you want to do when going for the best possible ET/MPH. Shallow staging give you about 6" of roll out before the timers are even tripped. This basically gives you a rolling start. If you were bracket racing, you'd try to roll up as far as possible without breaking the beam. This will give you the best reaction time.

 

You should have let me drive it!

 

^^^
Lol

 

Trey,

Are you also grinding your gears during most of the miss shifts?

.

 

No, shockingly I think he has only ground a gear about 2 maybe 3 times EVER. It's weird but you would have to know him to understand how he drives. It's like some weird mental connection thing. LOL

 

^lol