Friday, August 27, 2010

Group B Audi

Saw these tearing up the night time forests in England when I was a kid. Amazing then and amazing now. SWB Audi Quattro, the one that started it all:

Monday, August 23, 2010

Blackstone Labs Oil Analysis

I just received my oil analysis from Blackstone labs. It’s a great way to assess the wear of your engine by analyzing metallic particulate amounts which are suspended in your engine oil with the various metals representing an inner component of the engine; crank, piston, valve, etc. Consider it blood work for the engine. The results from mine look very good with the only areas of concern being the oil filter and the possibility of sludge. To remedy this, I’m going to be moving to a larger Mobil 1 filter, as recommended by many Z owners and run half a can of Sea Foam in the engine immediately before the oil change. Per the Sea Foam website, " Sea Foam will slowly re-liquefy and suspend contaminants for easy removal". I'll be using Pennzoil's new synthetic, Ultra and in 5000 miles I’ll grab another sample, send it off to Blackstone and see if there’s an improvement.



Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Falken 380Z RS at the 24hrs of Nurburgring

Found this great video on Crank and piston of the Falken cars tearing it up at the 2010 24hrs of the Nurburgring. You can view the results here enjoy:

Count down to Track day

It may be my imagination and according to Performance Nissan it is but I’m still hearing a slight pre-detonation at low RPM/high gear; e.g. 2400 rpm in 3rd gear. In a week I’ll be having the clutch replaced; details to follow, and at the same time I’ll have my Z shop check the Air/Fuel ratio to ensure its not running lean. If it is, I will need to have that addressed before I take it to the track.

Now the track day I have in mind is more of a performance clinic with an emphasis on car control and driver instruction. They’ll be time spent on a skid pad and hot laps so I need to plan for a full day. The clinic will be held at the Buttonwillow race track in Kern County on October 2nd .

Here are some details of the track