260Z Fun at CMP

Ron Earp

Admin
We got my 260Z out to the Monster Memorial weekend at Carolina Motorsports Park. This is a track I really like and the weekend was setup for mucho track time with a test day on Friday and four races over the weekend. However, the test day turned out to be a day of work for Jeff and I as my car came up with some new ways to malfunction, including a MSD 6AL failure which never happens, except for me it seems!

I'd munched my motor four weeks ago and in order to make this weekend we pulled a stock 260Z motor out of a friend's car, cleaned it up, slapped the race headers/intake on, and had at it. Had at it we did, working on it that is.

After we got the carbs right by needle adjustment with EGTs we could get it to pull to 6000 RPM barely (the old race motor would go to 7400 RPM and liked it). The big issue this motor had was oil pressure. I have an Accusump so we thought that leaving the stock pan on instead of putting on my competition pan would be okay. No, it was not okay. Essentially my cornering and line was dictated by how low I could tolerate the oil pressure to go. When the gauge hovered around 5 psi in the turns, I stopped cornering. As you can imagine this puts a hurting on your lap times!!!

The first race out I was doing okay, running bad times, but at least running. I lost control in the carousel portion of the track and once the spins and grins stopped my car was in the racing line facing traffic in a relatively blind corner. I had the thrill of watching first hand twenty plus of my fellow racers practice their accident avoidance skills and not plow me off track. That was not fun. The car would not restart hot so I used the starter in reverse to inch my way off track. Eventually the double yellow kicked in, everyone was on the ball, and I was pulled off track by truck. All of that only took two minutes, but it was a rough two minutes!

The second race on Sunday was non-eventful with me nursing the car around to finish the race so I can legally attend the division championship in September. Basically our points races are about done and the Z car will be put away now until I get the race motor done in August and install. So, the garage is free now and the Lola can be worked on, hot dog!!!

My racing partner Jeff Young with the TR8 did a fantastic job this weekend. He pulled off a 4th place finish Saturday, and a second place finish on Sunday - his highest ever and the first time a British car has been in the top three in SCCA IT racing in a long time. Pretty funny - Jeff actually had a couple of older officals come over and tell him "God bless him" for getting one up there. We've worked on that car a lot over the last couple of years getting it developed and it looks like it is paying off. Had to take a picture, we've never seen the TR8 in 2nd place impound before, although we hope to see it a lot more in the future!

Picture is of Jeff in the suit talking to Steve Eckrich about the race. Steve owns the extremely well prepped RX7 and does some work on Speedchallege cars as well as others. He's the guy that we'll have do the Lola cage because his work is top notch and he's a SCCA tech inspector so we'll know we've got legal stuff in the car. Steve is a fantastic shoe in a car as well and routinely takes home first places in the Southeast, good racer and an extremely nice fellow.

R

 

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Ross Nicol

GT40s Supporter
Interesting mix of corners and straights at that track Ron. Ok so when will you be releasing the video of your spin? Sounds as though it was an uncomfortable experience while you waited for the others to hopefully pass you safely. No wonder you were slow with a stock motor and oil pressure disappearing.I had a steel plate covering the deep part of my Z's
sump to try and stop the surging.It's the sticky modern tyres that cause it, never had a problem when you didn't have much grip. By the way there is a 260z box with better ratios we all used over here. I can't remember the detail but I'll search it out if your interested.
Ross
 

Ron Earp

Admin
I've got a NIMSO comp pan that solve the oil pressure problem, but didn't put it on this motor. Definitely had issues though!

I can't use any gear box ratios that are not stock for the US market. Therefore, UK/Australia boxes are not legal. Rear end ratio is free though and I run a 3.90 or 4.11 depend on which rear end I have in there. The 3.90 seems to be fine for most everything we do though.
 
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