Went to a practice event here in San Diego this weekend. Nice weather we're having at the moment. [img]/w3timages/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

Did my 7 runs in the wet & slippery, then worked the second run group and watched the sun come out and the course dry up and people's times improve by 6-8 seconds. Then it rained again for lunch. Oh well, at least I didn't have to stand in the rain.

Ran three to get the feel for the course and the car in the rain, then turned the VDC back on for run 4 out of curiosity. It helps in places and hurts in places. Doesn't give you enough throttle coming out of hard turns, but works well on semi-straight sections. Overall VDC sucks, though.. came into the 2nd turn (first right) a little quick.. and it kicked in and made the car understeer instead of fishtail, and didn't bring the car in-line.. made me plow into the outer cones. My car definately had a healthy meal of cones yesterday. Without the VDC, I could navigate that corner with a back end being a little loose, but the front mostly tracking through the corner. VDC on was 2 seconds slower than the previous run.

Learned something from an instructor. Aside from the fact that I was way too heavy on the throttle in most sections (due to the rain and 260hp), there's another interesting trick for our cars in the wet. The powerband is a little peaky.. there's that point in the RPM range were it sort of kicks in, and shocks the tires a little.. enough to break them free even on a straight in the rain. So you have to let off the throttle just a little as the RPMs get to that point, then ease back into it. Unfortunately, I learned this after my final run and didn't get to try it out.

 

yeah, you want to either stay above 4000 rpms or under 3500 rpms to be "smooth". Also stay below 5800-6000 with a stock car (doesn't apply to crawford plenum or other wise enhanced vehicles who have the dropoff at 6200 plus rpm fixed). There is a large torque dropoff there which can cause wheelspin or fishtailing at inopportune times when upshifting and falling into the meat of the power band.

at 3800 to 4000 rpm the secondary intakes are opening and cause a sudden rush. You can either back off or shift around it. The car has plenty of torque if you get caught at 3000 rpm to come out of a corner in the wrong gear but ideally you want to be above 4000 rpm the whole time for linear and peak throttle response.

Better Life thru Chemistry
Black on Black 03.5 Sedan 6MT - Custom Catback, Custom Intake Tube, HyperGround Kit

 

Mine's a 5AT, which makes it just a bit more challenging.

 

Track events + rain = awesome car control learning experience. I've been to a track event here in Phoenix at PIR in the rain one time. It was scary at first (walls are MUCH closer in the rain) but after a while, with the lowered limits it helped you learn the car's limits and characteristics at the limit much better than a normal track event.
Given the chance I'd definitely do it again!

Justin McClanahan
Heavily Modified 95 Infiniti G20
Working on a G35 Project Coupe
EverythingG35.com

 

Scott,

I'm definently learning that less is more with our cars. I ran in the rain on Saturday (2-14-04) and learned a lot of good information. I never turned the VDC on though. The VDC is bad in the AT but even more intrusive in the MT. As I said I now have the Victoracers as well. They did suprisingly well in the rain. My best run on Saturday was a 70.512 (clean) and a 66.041 (clean) in the dry on Sunday. The other thing that has now happened with the Eibach sway bars is that I have no understeer. Next practice try my car to see the differences if you like.

See ya.

Base 6MT Silver sedan
Stillen Exhaust
Stillen CAI
Eibach Pro Kit
Eibach Sway Bars


197129-g35 #3B 2-14-04.jpg

 

Rename that picture to get rid of whatever weird characters are in the name.. stick with just letters, numbers, hyphen and underscore.. no spaces or other punctuation.. and try to repost.

As much as I'd like to take you up on that offer, I should warn you that I haven't driven a stick in 5 years.... [img]/w3timages/icons/tongue.gif[/img] Maybe I'll just ride along on X runs or something at the next event.

 

Thanks for the help with the picture. Let me try this again. No events for a while. Are you going down to the National event?

Base 6MT Silver sedan
Stillen Exhaust
Stillen CAI
Eibach Pro Kit
Eibach Sway Bars


197778-G35 race trim.jpg

 

I might show up to watch. Not brave enough to run this year. [img]/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Where'd you get your letters? Magnetic or Vinyl? I assume you'll be replacing that STX with an ESP? [img]/w3timages/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

 

I got the magnetic letters and Numbers from a guy who runs SCNAX up in LA. His name is Darryl and he advertises on the SCNAX web site. The whole letter/number package was very, very resonable. He was very helpful and has lots of great ideas.

As for the STX, yes I have to change to the ESP or take off almost everything and run DS. The SCCA should actually assign a class for the G35 sedan. There are more and more entering SCCA events. Who would I write to get that done. Maybe I could run in DSP or maybe BSP like the coupes get to. The coupe has been assigned a class BS right. Maybe we can write to the SCCA to get the sedan classified.

Base 6MT Silver sedan
Stillen Exhaust
Stillen CAI
Eibach Pro Kit
Eibach Sway Bars

 

Where do you see that the coupes run BSP? They run BS stock, but I think they're ASP in streep prep. They don't have an official entry yet, either. I don't know who you would write too. I'd imagine eventually they'll class it.

I wouldn't think you'd want to run with the coupes. They're classified in a higher class than the sedans. There's an advantage to staying with the lower classifications... makes you a bigger fish in the pond. [img]/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Thanks for the info on the letters. I'll check it out.

 

While running a Solo I in the rain (in my BMW race car), I once tried to run with street tires. I figured my shaved Yoko's had so little tread I'd be sliding all over. BIG surprise; the street tires (full tread COMP/TA's) were much slower....even in heavy rain. The shaved tires were a bit crazy when hitting puddles at 120mph+, but the cornering speeds were so much higher, it made up for occasional lifting on the main strait. Moral of the story; stay with your dedicated auto-x tires no matter how hard it rains.

04 G35s 6MT BS Aero Kit/Nav/Prem
Warning: Objects in Mirror Are Losing!