A couple of weeks ago I did my first ever trackday. It was at Bedford Autodrome Gran Turismo Circuit. 3.7miles of pure joy lol :hyper:

 

Booked from http://www.trackdays.co.uk. But be warned, the noise regs are 101db........ mine measured 105db and they gave me a red sticker on the windscreen to indicate i was too noisy and they were 'monitoring' me LMAO :nana2: :mac1:

 

I got some new tyres fitted before i went, some may scoff at the brand, but let me tell you they were awesome.

 

Marshal Matrac 235 front, 255 rears. They took half a lap to warm up, and when warm they stuck really well. Even had melted rubber comming off the tread blocks :dance:

 

The only dissapointment was the stock 300zx brakes. OK so i had greenstuff pads on but wow the car suffers on brakesbig time. If you look at the track map above, the green arrow is the main straight, you approach the esses at about 130mph and have got to brake down to 75 to throw it through the left (squealing tyres) and then flat out through the right. On deceleration by 100mph the brakes were fooked :( not good. So next on the list is a big brake kit for sure.

 

But all in all a top day, and can't wait for the next one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

more pictures here http://bagpuss.swan.ac.uk/dunk300zx/Z32_Pictures/H11PCK/

Whoa look cool! good pics as well! who takes the pictures?

Cool to see a Zed doing what it was built for!

Is the Bedford Autodrome where Evo magazine test their cars? What was your best lap time, so we can compare!

Nice one mate, great phots to. I'm looking forward to doing more track days. I've got two sets of oem wheels and tyres sitting in the shed ready. I got GTR brakes after doing my first track day. The originals are utter sh*te, faded to nothing after only a few laps.

Dave

Cool to see a Zed doing what it was built for!

 

 

give chris a nudge about bigger brakes. Im gona need some meaty mofo's as mine are shoddy even thought they are stillens.

Whoa look cool! good pics as well! who takes the pictures?

 

The guys from trackphoto were there to take the pics using their sexy Nikon D2H

 

http://www.trackphoto.co.uk

Excellent ! Something I fully intend to do also

 

Nice one mate, great phots to. I'm looking forward to doing more track days. I've got two sets of oem wheels and tyres sitting in the shed ready. I got GTR brakes after doing my first track day. The originals are utter sh*te, faded to nothing after only a few laps.

Dave

OEM wheels wont fit around GTR brakes?

Is the Bedford Autodrome where Evo magazine test their cars? What was your best lap time, so we can compare!

 

 

Yep, the very same circuit. As for laptimes, they saw my Greddy Profec E-01 and said "is that a lap timing device?" LOL i said no. But a mate timed a lap at 3:20 iirc....... But seriously i could not push whatsoever on the brakes, they were so inneffective. :rant:

 

Also you're not allowed in car video cameras too which is a mofo.

Nice one mate, great phots to. I'm looking forward to doing more track days. I've got two sets of oem wheels and tyres sitting in the shed ready. I got GTR brakes after doing my first track day. The originals are utter sh*te, faded to nothing after only a few laps.

Dave

 

 

Dude, I cannot think how Nissan can get away with putting such crap brakes on a car like this. If ANYONE is thinking of putting their zed on the track, forst port of call is big brakes. I mean ffs the boost controller was turned off and i was running in saftey boost most of the day cus their was just no point going fast down the straights, you only had to slow it down at the end :headvswal

Excellent ! Something I fully intend to do also

 

OEM wheels wont fit around GTR brakes?

 

 

Nope, i don't believe they do :(

Did the Z3 manage to overtake you?

Did the Z3 manage to overtake you?

 

 

Unfortunately dude, i was a sitting duck on the brakes, just about everybody could outbrake me. And that sucks because I love demon late braking manouvers. :headvswal

 

Big brakes are a must. I can't stress that enough. I only went with stock brakes because I had 1 week to prepare the car for it. I.E. the night before @ 10pm i was still fitting some big intercoolers with JD....... and i had to get up at 5:30am....

 

But all in all it was a top day. There was a few spins (not by me), but the session was not stopped as they all managed to scramble back on track.

 

It was an open pitlane too, which means you can be on track as much as you like, the first stint i did was over 30 minutes. :hyper: :nana2:

Suprised you had that much trouble with braking. Stock brakes are not bad (although ofcourse better on the street, than the track like all stock brakes), and the cause for most complaints are becuase half the zed's driving around have seized pistons and fluid way past its use by date.

 

Were they performing adequately at first, and progressively got worse ?

 

Brake fade is down to either overheated pads, or overheated fliud. If the pedal remained firm but brakes faded then the pads were over there maximum heat rating. If the pedal was getting softer then its boiled fluid(in which case you must now replace the fluid).

The problem was the steering wheel shaking violently and the whole car juddering. Pedal remained firm all throughout, with 'adequate' stopping power. Possibly discs heating up and warping maybe? Whatever it was it made me not want to push hard on the brakes. I've never had that problem on the street, not even afterwards. It just shows you how far from the limit of everything street driving really is.

 

I tell you what else sticks in my mind. At the hairpins the g forces generated would throw me to the side of the car, i'm trying to hang on to the wheel, correct slides, and try not to get squished up against the door..... lol 3 point road seatbelts are cr@p also. need either proper bucket seats or 5 point harness.

Dunk,

 

You need a set of Brembo F40's ;)

 

Damnit Chris.......... i thought this site was porn free? ;)

 

 

Nice brakes there mate. You shouldn't have any troubles with those :bow:

Damnit Chris.......... i thought this site was porn free? ;)

 

 

Nice brakes there mate. You shouldn't have any troubles with those :bow:

 

Aye hopefully I'll get to use them proper some time this year :) they are awesome though, plant your foot on them and you are literally thrown forward.

Excellent ! Something I fully intend to do also

 

OEM wheels wont fit around GTR brakes?

 

They do on the back :D

 

Just realised they are still oem brakes in that photo, but anyways I use the spare wheels on the back. I've been trying to find some cheap 18inch alloys so I can do the front and back. You might as well have the mindset that you'll need new tyres and new brake pads / discs if you go to a track day.

There's no defence for the OEM brakes Dave! they are not capable of coping with track days, full stop. Mine had fairly new fluid and uprated pads, and good discs. They are just not able to dissapate the heat from driving on the track. I'd got my gtr setup only a few days before the trackday but didn't want to risk not having the car on the road for the trackday so didn't fit them. I used my OEM ones because I had never had a problem with them on the road, even braking hard from 160 odd. I'd never had fade or any other problems no matter how hard I drove.

While we are on the subject. Whats the purpose of tape over the lights. I see this constantly at race events.

 

I know I am thick :confused:

While we are on the subject. Whats the purpose of tape over the lights. I see this constantly at race events.

 

I know I am thick :confused:

 

 

In the unfortunate event that you crash.... the tape sticks the majority of the broken glass together. Less mess for the marshalls to sweep up=more time on track for everybody.

 

HTH :D

In the unfortunate event that you crash.... the tape sticks the majority of the broken glass together. Less mess for the marshalls to sweep up=more time on track for everybody.

 

HTH :D

 

Clever that, thats my new thing for today learned

photos from the day have now been uploaded on trackphoto.co.uk 108 cars running in total, and I was the only 300zx. There was 1 other 350z flying the nissan flag.

Lots of Nobles there (fooking quick cars) and the laugh of the day was a VW Caddy Diesel!!!!!! Running on slicks!! Even on 7psi I left him on the straight, but on braking and cornering wow the thing was on rails. He passed me on the brakes heading towards the hairpin and went round on 3 wheels LMAO big respect.

 

http://www.trackphoto.co.uk/carsclasses.php?DIR=20060325_Bed_Eas_web

The problem was the steering wheel shaking violently and the whole car juddering. Pedal remained firm all throughout, with 'adequate' stopping power. Possibly discs heating up and warping maybe? Whatever it was it made me not want to push hard on the brakes. I've never had that problem on the street, not even afterwards. It just shows you how far from the limit of everything street driving really is.

 

I tell you what else sticks in my mind. At the hairpins the g forces generated would throw me to the side of the car, i'm trying to hang on to the wheel, correct slides, and try not to get squished up against the door..... lol 3 point road seatbelts are cr@p also. need either proper bucket seats or 5 point harness.

 

If your fluid isn't overheating (soft pedal) then your pads/discs are overheating. You might find on a hot day that the fluid could overheat; what fludi are you using? I use Motul RBF600 from http://www.oilman.co.uk, he'll advise if that is suitable for the Z32. The standard discs and pads give reasonable stopping power (consider the Z32 was designed in the late 80's)for a car of this era. If you're going to do more track days I would recommend getting some track biased pads, e.g. FerodoDS2500 to go with your uprated discs. Consider Braided hoses as well. Bedford is a great circuit, especially for beginners. They take the noise limits very seriously, I was there in the winter on a cold day (sound travels further) and they were throwing loads of people off. I drove my mates Lambo Gallardo, he'd been black flag on one lap, I got black flagged later and was told that was the end of my day. Luckily I had my 350z :D my mate ended up driving it as well. I did get some video footage, but if you get caught they will throw you off.

 

Me in my 350z

350z at bedford

Lap in the Gallardo

Lambo

chris those brakes look damn hot mate, how much they set up back all in?