I had opportunity to go with the AM Performance (AMP) team to Thunderhill Raceway last Fri, Sat and Sun! I feel very fortunate as the AMP team is one of the better prepared teams for local events I have ever participated with! Their crew is top notch and drivers and over all management are first rate. They really took excellent care of my car and me as well! This was a big weekend for me as it marked a return to the track after not driving for nearly 2 years. The Z is also the first non Porsche I have driven on the track ever!

All I can say is WOW! Both the AMP team and the car were very impressive! I received first rate instruction from their drivers Brain and Mike. They even had a chef and air conditioned quarters for us!

My AMP supported Nismo was a beautiful thing to drive on the track. The car's capability was definitely beyond my driving as this was my first time on Thunderhill and I was very rusty at track driving. Still managed to post a 2:04.8 lap time my last day in Time Trial series with NASA. And I will say with one of the Grand Am drivers at the wheel of me car we passed a full on Porsche 996 Cup car in a session with me in the passenger seat. I'm sure we were doing close to 2 minutes flat on those laps. Imagine being in a fully caged $200,000 Porsche race car being passed by two dudes in a 3500lb 370Z street car! I was very tempted to wave as we passed the Porsche but I was scared to let go of the door handle! LOL! My car apparently has way more grip than the Grand Am race car due to fat hoosiers R6's.

Brian and his team have guided me to make wise investments in suspension and brakes. Their brakes were talk of the track. I was making up two car lengths on cars in braking zones with AMPR competition brake kit! Those brakes are wild!

Some pictures from this weekend.

From the paddock





On the Track

 

nice pics.

 

Very cool. That Z looks amazing

 

Great pictures and your car looks amazing! Hey, that BMW Z4 looks like it's right on your tail.

 

My new rollbar

 

That's a fine lap time for a street car! Congrats! Seems like with the magazine documented brake issues a brake upgrade needs to be the first mod.

 

Took the car out to Laguna Seca last month. It was putting down 1.44 laptimes fairly consitently. Not bad for big street car with stock motor. I had big issues with rear brake bias. I switch off ABS to avoid the ABS ice mode issue but then was locking up rears into T2 and T7 ...scary! I spun the car into 7 once and then backed off on aggressive braking into that turn.

Other issue I discovered that is known was fuel starvation out of T 4 and t10. Car fuel starves out of right handers with anything less than 3/4 of a tank.