| The story starts more than a month ago... in anticipation of this event, I was tuning the car for more power on a dyno (all the previous tunes were done on the street, but that was getting difficult at these higher power levels), when something in the drivetrain slipped and cut that tuning session short. I spent the next few weeks replacing the clutch, differential and transmission (in that order) before finally narrowing down the problem to the driveshaft just a few days before I had to leave for California. A new driveshaft was overnighted and installed the day before I left for California. At the same time during those few weeks, I was also working on finishing my doctoral dissertation. I finished just a few days before I had to leave for California as well, so you could imagine the last few weeks leading up to this event was VERY stressful. The new mods to the car this time is a hood vent to reduce cooling drag, and a new wing and 4" splitter. I also installed a 2.25l Zero360 fire system (no pics): 
I knew our main competition in Modified class was going to be the Factor-X 650rwhp NSX that edged us out at California Speedway: 
I showed up with some minor aero improvements and slightly more power, but Factor-X showed up with new 3-way adjustable Moton coilovers; these are full race (used in Grand Am, etc) coilovers that retail for about $10K. The NSX weighed in around the same as us (about 2950lbs without driver), but I knew it was going to be a tough fight this time because the Z was under-sprung and under-damped. I am using a set of JIC FLT-A2s coilovers on loan from Sean (sfarrah), they were the stiffest coilovers (12kg/mm front and 9kg/mm rear) I could get my hands on at that time, but my Z needed a much stiffer setup with its aero and power. I had a set of Zeal Super-Function 2-way adjustable coilovers on order but I won't receive them till June... We still had a very slight edge in handling against the NSX, which was apparent during one of the practice sessions when the NSX was following right behind us, but the 150-200rwhp advantage of the NSX was huge on the straights. The driver was definitely not an issue this time, as I had somehow managed to convince Ryan Hampton to drive the Z. Ryan is currently a pro Formula-D drifter (some of you may know the Falken stickered 69 Camaro) but his competition resume includes road racing in IRL, Grand Am, ALMS, SCCA, Formula 2000, etc: [ http://www.restartcommunications.com/hampton.htm ] He might just be the best driver at the time attack, though Buttonwillow was not what Ryan called a "driver's track", where the driver can make a huge difference. The final results were: SPL 300ZX 1:55.319
Factor-X NSX 1:54.379 So kudos to the Factor-X guys, they definitely had the faster car this time. Too bad we won't get to run against them again as they are apparently retiring this car and building a new unlimited class car. BTW, in comparing these times to the Super Street time attack from Nov 2006, considering that the weather was 75deg vs. 95deg (which would have been worth at least 2 seconds due to the reduced power and grip), we would both have set new record times in Limited class. With every time attack, the cars show up with new mods that continually raise the bar... In the street class, Salah was representing the Z32 as well. I had convinced Salah that it was much more fun to attend the time attack than the West Coast Nationals. Mainly I talked him into it so he could bring a pit crew with him that I could borrow ;) Once he decided that he was going to attend the time attack, he went on a frenzy buying tires, sending his Ground Control advance coilovers off to be re-valved and re-sprung, and getting all sorts of fancy ducting installed :) Unfortunately that meant he showed up at Buttonwillow with a setup that was radically changed from before and totally untested. A crew of 2-4 people were continually working on his Z throughout the weekend, trying to get the car dialed in. It never quite got there but was finally good enough late Sunday to put out a fast 2:05.174 lap. If the car was properly balanced and dialed in, we were pretty sure the car was capable of a low or sub 2 minute lap. Unfortunately balancing a car's handling is not easy, and in my experience not something that can be dialed in with simple adjustments (ie. camber, sways, shocks) at one event... So after overcoming a great deal of adversity in getting the car dialed in, as well as 2 track incidents during his final time attack session, Salah Uddin took 2nd place Street RWD: 
Congrats Salah :) On our side, Ryan Hampton in the SPL 300ZX took 2nd place in Modified: 
The Z32 gang all sad because we didn't win: 
LOL, just kidding 
I would like to thank Seb for all his help over the weekend - I would not have been able to deal with the issues I had with the Z by myself, and he stuck around the entire weekend actively wrenching on both cars. Thanks Lee and Glenn for letting me borrow stuff all weekend, and sorry about damaging the camber gauge Lee :( Also thanks to Daryl, for all the pics :) Videos from the time attack:
Practice session (60MB hirez) -- [ http://www.splparts.com/events/redline0407/practice.mpg ]
Practice session (6MB lowrez) -- [ http://www.splparts.com/events/redline0407/practice_low.mpg ]
Time attack session (60MB hirez) -- [ http://www.splparts.com/events/redline0407/TA.mpg ]
Time attack session (6MB lowrez) -- [ http://www.splparts.com/events/redline0407/TA_low.mpg ] I towed the Z to and back from California by myself, the Z was pretty much built by me and paid for by me without any sponsorship so far. So all in all I think I did well, though SPL is not really making enough money to pay for this racing. Since I have earned by doctorate I will be focusing more on SPL, and may deviate from our purely parts business and start taking on car builds/tuning, though it will be on a very select basis given my limited time. Oh finally, please vote for my Z at Cardomain for the Grassroots Motorsports Ultimate Track Car challenge: [ http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2638690 ] The event is by invitation only, and to get an invitation I'll need the votes. So PLEASE VOTE!!! Do so under the RATE THIS RIDE (GRM UTC Challenge). THANKS!!!
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Redline Time Attack @ Buttonwillow writeup LONG - 
17:37:23 05/07/07
