Spec Z Car Update: Dry Ice, Hummingbird, Etc.

Brian mixes up the TOP SECRET X-30!
Chevy AVEO not included, your mileage may vary. 

NMS-South has been making progress on the Spec Z (Nissan 350Z) build for next year, so here's a few tidbits of recent activity. Our immediate goal is to have the car on track at Watkins Glen in October, with both of us taking turns driving. This car is attracting so much attention, one day we had a hummingbird fly into the garage to check it out. Like the kids on the Internet say: "Pictures or it didn't happen!" So, let's go to the Hummingbird CAM: 

Real work wise, Brian completed a clutch bleed with yours truly serving as the pedal pumper, which of course is the highly skilled part of this job! 

After that, we made a custom seat insert for the shorter one of us, because apparently Brian is so tall that I can't reach the pedals from where his driver seat is mounted. This was a fun science experiment as much as anything else, because we got some Tap X-30 expanding foam. You just mix the two fluids together and put it in a big garbage bag. Once the reaction starts and it is expanding a bit, you can place the bag in the seat, sit on it, and the material will form exactly to the seat and your body. We did a bottom section and a lower back section, and then got some twin bed mattress foam to put behind my back. If you watch the IMSA and Le Mans drivers, you'll see some of them carrying their own little custom seat cushion like this when they change drivers. You really want the seat permanently mounted, so having a little booster seat for the short drivers is the way to go!

The X-30 stuff comes in different sizes and is used in boats because it floats! Here's the link: 

    TAP PLASTICS X-30

Then, the crew chief wanted to remove some more of the sound-deadening material from the trunk floor, so using the 3 part process, we 

        

    PART 1) Bought some dry ice

Here's some other ideas for fun with dry ice!

    PART 2) Put the dry ice on the trunk floor to freeze the black material and make it brittle. 

The darker area is what we will scrape off.

    PART 3) Used a hammer and a scraper to remove the material. 

OK, let's go to the SCRAPER CAM!

AFTER: A lot of the material has been removed. 
According to Einstein, or was it Graham Chapman? A Lighter Car = Faster Car!

The next step on this area is to wire-wheel off the tiny bits left, then spray paint the floor to make it look better. Total weight removed on this job was maybe half a pound, so that's easily worth probably a second a lap! And if you believe that one, stay tuned, we're just getting warmed up!