Issue link: http://grassrootsmotorsports.epubxp.com/i/501675
Grassroots Motorsports 151 DATA SHEET project: building a competitive 2003 Nissan 350Z for SCCA Solo Street Touring U autocross. part 1: sizing up the competition (Dec 2014). part 2: adding livery (February 2015). part 3: building some custom parts (May 2015). part 4: installing ISC suspension bits (this issue). Part 4: Bolting New Suspension Parts to Our Nissan 350Z story and photos by j.g. pasterjak PROJECT CAR: NISSAN 350Z dawn of the Z ed I t's easy to be reasonably competitive in SCCA Street Touring autocross–just bolt a few bits under your car. Of course, if you want to run at the pointy end of any class, it takes true dedication to testing, development, skill- building, and constant practice. While we aspire to cone-dodging greatness, we have to start somewhere. Off-the-shelf bolt-ons it is. Our frst step was to look at the Street Touring suspen- sion rules, which allow substitution of springs, shocks and anti-roll bars. Bushings can also be changed, and we discussed them in the last installment since the topic is fairly involved. When it comes to springs and shocks, the class rules say that mounting points must maintain their OEM locations, but springs may be relocated on the shock body. What that means in practice is that no new holes can be drilled to mount suspension arms, but threaded collars may be used to raise and lower the springs, thus adjusting ride height and corner weights. In the rear of the Z, where the spring sits next to the shock instead of around it, we'd have to retain that setup–no coil-overs here. However, we could add height adjusters to the spring buckets, allowing us to adjust ride heights and corner weights. We also had another trick up our sleeve in the form of our adjustable-length ISC shock absorbers. Through the use of some clever threaded adjusters, you can actually adjust the length of the shock body, which means you can make ride height adjustments and not lose shock travel. More on that in a bit. Before bolting our bits in place, we peeked at our fellow classmates' term papers. Sure, it's fun to blaze your own path–and we're here to help you do that–but part of making informed decisions is seeing what has worked historically. In our case, we had an exceptional resource in the form of the My350Z.com message boards, where none other than Brian Peters chose to disclose the setup details of his own 350Z. Brian is the reigning champ in the SCCA's STR class, the place previously inhabited by the 350Z before its recent move. When it comes to research materials, it's hard to do better than that.