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280z FP Build


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Brake pads are very sensitive to the designed temperature range.  And the temperature your brakes generate is dependent on many things obviously, but rotor/caliper combination is the hardest to predict.  For AutoX I have seen some guys running some really lightweight stuff to reduce unsprung weight. I will assume they run a higher temp pad for this.  But still you need something that develops close to max friction when cold. For track, cold temps are not an issue after 1\2 a lap. But finding the right temp match to pad is not easy if you are running aftermarket or custom setups. I recommend using a temp paint on the rotor to see where you are at and then choosing a pad compound to match. Then you can play with different suppliers to fine tune over time, but it shouldn't affect your times drastically.  

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Back to the DTC-30's this weekend and I was happy again. MUCH more affirmative brake feel compared to the HPS pad. A little brake drag on the way to the line and they were good to go. Got some more big upgrades planned, so doing some brake temp paint/strips is a good plan. 

 

This weekend was the SCCA National Tour stop at Packwood. Probably the last major event I'll go to this year, which is a real disappointment as we were planning to make a few trips to California, as well as Lincoln for the big show. Oh well. Car did well, by Sunday I had knocked off most of the rust from sitting around all year and a few of the bad habits learned at the track. Saturday was a mess and my mental state meant wasn't up to par, so I finished down in 6th for the weekend. Hope y'all enjoy this video from Sunday!

 

 

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  • 7 months later...
On 2/22/2021 at 7:54 PM, Jboogsthethug said:

Hey Ben, what are your thoughts about your digi dash setup? Do you like it? Do you wish you did it differently or are you happy with it? Also, if your engine throws codes, it doesn't show up does it?

 

Lol engine codes. 

 

The digi dash is run off the RaceCapture box, which is primarily a datalogger for the car and gets info from the MS3 via CANBUS. The dash itself is a Amazon Fire 7. It was a good solution at the time, but I've been thinking about upgrading to an AIM PDM with a 7" display. The Amazon Fire tablet is a bit dark and hard to see in direct sunlight, but let's be honest, you're not staring at it most of the time. 

 

The Racecapture software lets you customize the dash pretty thoroughly, so I've got warning screens that will pop up if my oil or coolant temps get too high, or if battery voltage drops (belt gets chucked).

 

Overall, this was a good budget solution for also integrating more data acquisition into the car. 

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On 2/27/2021 at 12:53 PM, Ben280 said:

 

Lol engine codes. 

 

The digi dash is run off the RaceCapture box, which is primarily a datalogger for the car and gets info from the MS3 via CANBUS. The dash itself is a Amazon Fire 7. It was a good solution at the time, but I've been thinking about upgrading to an AIM PDM with a 7" display. The Amazon Fire tablet is a bit dark and hard to see in direct sunlight, but let's be honest, you're not staring at it most of the time. 

 

The Racecapture software lets you customize the dash pretty thoroughly, so I've got warning screens that will pop up if my oil or coolant temps get too high, or if battery voltage drops (belt gets chucked).

 

Overall, this was a good budget solution for also integrating more data acquisition into the car. 


That's great info, that points me in the right direction! So if/when you get the AIM PDM are you just taking out the racecapture? Maybe I'm just not seeing it but it seems like all of AIM's displays are also dataloggers aren't they?

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1 hour ago, Jboogsthethug said:


That's great info, that points me in the right direction! So if/when you get the AIM PDM are you just taking out the racecapture? Maybe I'm just not seeing it but it seems like all of AIM's displays are also dataloggers aren't they?

Most AIM systems include a datalogger setup in the dash, the exception being the Strada series. The PDM system includes a "dumb" dashboard, and the datalogger is in the PDM. The AIM software is a bit easier to use compared to the RaceCapture, and it's a bit more track focused. RC is very much the "megasquirt" of the data world. 

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I think this is the first time I went through your entire thread. And I have to say you have done it right. I am more into road race now, but if I were building an FP car today I would follow a similar path. Personally I believe lowering both sprung and unsprung weight is the key. I really like your brake and wheel setup. The only disadvantage you have is not using an early 240 shell to start with. But you have almost compensated for that. I am familiar with the John Thomas car and really his only advantage is the weight, a strong Rebello engine, and most of all, his extraterrestrial driving. He runs like 30 or 40 lbs ballast in passenger floorboard. Keep tuning and improving!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Been a bit quiet over on the forum for a bit, but never fear, this off season has been the most eventful in my 9 years of Z ownership! Haven't had time to post all the fun updates here, long form writeups are tricky blow by blow, but my Instagram page has more frequent updates. I'll just drop this teaser here for now:

1026442662_IMG_5549copy.jpg.cf4322522b96e7d60c65189006458320.jpg

 

Auto-x is slowly going out of style, so rather than scrap the car, or revert to a very tame historic road race spec, I'm starting to move towards time attack/time trials. Still in line with the FP rules tho, for SCCA outings!

 

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What is up with the SCCA shutting down the season? Is that just a covid thing? Just saw something hit my inbox yesterday about it being shut down. I'll probably be out of commission this year due to an upcoming surgery anyway.

Can't tell if your pic is ABS or fire suppression. LOL


 

 

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1 hour ago, JMortensen said:

What is up with the SCCA shutting down the season? Is that just a covid thing? Just saw something hit my inbox yesterday about it being shut down. I'll probably be out of commission this year due to an upcoming surgery anyway.

Can't tell if your pic is ABS or fire suppression. LOL


 

 

COVID rules in California are causing the Crows NT to be stopped. Big one is they had a catastrophic failure of the timing equipment for the ProSolo in Charlotte, so that program is stopped while they figure out what's up and how to fix it. Tired of the bad feelings surrounding it. From what I understand, all the existing Pro's are changing to Tours or Match Tours. 

 

And ABS! Although fire suppression is likely happening soon. 

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3 minutes ago, calZ said:

What are you using to control it? 

The Mk60 units can be run in a stand alone mode, and it references some pressure sensors and a DCS/Yaw sensor to get a good sense of what's going on. In the future there's options to upgrade this computer with some custom tuning to make it very similar to the Bosch motorsports unit. 

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On 4/1/2021 at 7:29 AM, JMortensen said:

I'm betting those wheel speed sensors could be used for traction control. That would be really cool. Is that part of your plan?

 

At some point yes, the megasquirt doesn't have a great track record for knowing what to do with traction control. The car will probably get a Link or Haltech in it's future tho, and at that point, TC will be turned on for sure.

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I've long been planning on and working towards having traction control in my car. I've been doing some reading about the MK60 units. It's handy that it outputs the wheel speed and yaw data as raw values that ECUs can read as regular inputs. It avoids having to make the can systems communicate. The only downside is that the ABS unit requires the sensor ring on each wheel to have the same number of teeth. I haven't pulled my R200SN off the shelf to count, but I'm guessing it doesn't have the same number of teeth as the Subaru tone rings I have for the front. 

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My first response to the fuel cell next to the driver's seat is horror, but why not I guess?  Really no more dangerous than having it in the hatch area.  Maybe safer, in terms of less likely to take a major hit.

 

But don't the rules require a metal partition around it, and either braided steel lines or hard lines?

 

Or am I all messed up and that's not a fuel cell?

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Having the cell in the pass side was done back in the day. It offsets driver weight and makes a lot of room for a big ass diffuser, which isn't legal but could be made to be easily removed. Search youtube for AJ Hartmann, he makes CF parts and shows how to install onto the car, IIRC shows how his gigantic splitter and diffuser are removed so he can get the car on the trailer.

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