Our new house car needs a bit of TLC to get ready for the track. Join us this off-season while we build up the basics of a solid car for High Performance Drivers Education.
Having acquired a new house car, The Community Garage is at work to bring it up to speed. This 2008 Nissan 350Z was found living the life of street cruiser; babied about on weekend trips to the coffee shop.
Yeah, that's not us. We don't do the "hard parker" scene.
Purpose Built
One of the biggest mistakes car enthusiasts make is starting to modify their car without a clear mission in mind.
Your car came from the factory as a reasonably well-engineered machine. It works for 90% of the drivers out there. But if you're in that 10% of drivers who want more out of their car than the factory provides, then you're not going to stay stock for long. What to do?
A: You do what looks cool on the internet.
[Bad idea - looking for insight from folks who don't know you or your car.]
A: You do what seems cool right now.
[Bad idea - relying on a short term appeal for your design standards.]
Modifying a car can get out of hand in a hurry. We've seen many car enthusiasts spend a lot of money on a mishmash of mods that don't produce the performance or the look they hoped they would. Most of these fails are due to poor vision - a poor sense of what the end goal is for the car. So take time to be honest with yourself about what your goals are for the build and what you'll really do with the car.
Our Track Toy
Zsa Zsa is being built as a track toy. The intent for this car is not as an all-out time attack or competition car. We just want to have fun - driving really well. We have no interest in pretending to be the fastest thing on track - running at the pointy end of the field is very-very expensive. We just want to drive on track and have a good time. Sure, we'll spend some time on the street, but this car will be driven 90% on track.
Reliability and ease of driving are the priorities. Zsa Zsa arrived in our stable with some very nice track-focused equipment in place. We're just about done with some minor repairs and maintenance work. From here we'll add excellent coil overs, brake mods to deal with the high temps seen on track (and NO that does not mean a big brake kit), and some additional bracing.
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