So I am sitting here looking at what I wanna do with my car. I was thinking of putting an ECS novi kit on it.

I am looking to make an all around great car for a TRue true street series that is coming to light near me that involves drag racing, auto cross/road coarse , dyno, and of course cruises to events. Points will be given to what you place at each event. Nothing (as of now) will be allowed to change on the car from each event.

So I am thinking that a blower would help in some cases but hurt me in the auto cross and to be honest I want the car to do all these things. For instance I went to the track last night and heading to VIR today but car is just intake/exhaust.

This has me leaning more towards a nice NA and nitrous setup as it seems to fit what I need better.

I must say I am building a TT camaro to feed my need for strictly drag racing. So what would you guys do? Would the blower help or hurt?

The two builds I wrote down come out to the same cost so cost isn't part of the equation

 

Based on what you wrote, I would vote against a supercharger setup in your case.

I have a T Trim, with all the supporting mods, putting down 709 WHP @ 13psi on a built bottom end. It is actually my daily driver - has 24K miles on it currently. If I were to do it all over again, I would stick with a NA setup. I know I am in the minority here.

 

In a word.. yes... big mistake

The blower will help you at the drags, and on the dyno, but it will kill you in the autocross and won't do much for you on the road course.

The reason is that you really need to properly set up the car for the autocross and road course or you'll get hammered in those events. That means a proper alignment, lowered slightly, corner weighted, and a set of tires that are the limit of what the rules allow.

That setup won't work all that well at the drags, and that will negate the blower advantage at the drags since those tires won't hold big power in a straight line as well as a set of drag radials.

You're better off spending a bunch of weekends at local autocross events learning that aspect of the events. The reason is that the difference between a good autocross driver and a typical enthusiast is about 7 or 8 seconds a lap or more. Autocross is a science and it takes a lot of practice to learn to do it right. Most all of what you learn in autocross will transfer over to your road course event, so attend an "Evolution Driving School" and get better at autocross and that will drastically improve your placing in events like this. There is an old saying "autocrossers make good road racers but road racers don't autocross worth a darn". That is because the key to autocross is to get a good lap in just a couple of runs where road racers get lap after lap to get it right. Since you aren't going to get lots of laps in this kind of event, even on the road course, the ability to "see" the track and be fast right away is key.

Until your skill level is high the car won't make much difference. I don't know your skill level, but unless you're running 15 or 20 autocross events and running on a national level, you're giving up a lot of time in both the autocross and road race events, and frankly, a blower isn't going to help you get any closer to the front of the pack.

Roger Johnson tells the story of how he came to his first autocross and got beaten by 8 seconds by the skilled locals. He figured it 'must be because they have faster cars". He went back and modified his car way outside the rules with mods to the motor and at the next event he got beaten by 10 seconds.. Right then he realized it wasn't the car that was holding him back and that he needed to learn to drive the car better if he was going to be successful. And the rest is history..

Set the car up with a an aggressive alignment, get a set of good tires, get the car corner weighted and then learn to drive it. I know that doesn't sound sexy, but you'll be faster and spend less in the long run.

 

I totally agree. I build my cars the same way. Suspension and drivetrain first. That is the first thi I am going to address on this car. Track wheel and tire setup and replace all bushings and upgrade sway bars and my 14 year old shocks. And practice on top of practice on top of practice, with alil more practice.

 

Also start hanging out on the "autocross and road racing" page on the general forum. There is a wealth of setup and experience on that page and if you tap into it, you'll be way ahead of the game.

You're right about shocks, very important. I like some adjustability so that I can fine tune the car and some sway bar adjustment is also a good thing.

The problem with adjustment is that most folks don't really know how to set up a car and tend to make it handle pretty miserably. I can't tell you how many cars I've been asked to drive at autocrosses and HPDE's that were horrible. I mean really horrible. The folks who set them up didn't know what they were doing or trying to do and they pretty well messed it up. Then they wanted an opinion on how their car drove and it's really hard to tell them that their baby is ugly, or even downright dangerous.

Proper setup is like knowing how to do a Rubix cube. Someone who knows how to do it can make it all correct in a matter of minutes. Someone who doesn't know what to do will twist the thing for hours and never get it right.

Two things are very important about getting a car properly set up. The first is you've got to know what a good handling car does. The second is that you have to know what screw to turn which way to get the car dialed in. Most folks without a lot of experience think that oversteer is fast and the set the car up with too much oversteer. (proper setup is with just a touch of understeer)... The second is the turning of the screws (bars and tires for mid-corner balance and shocks for entry and exit), and which way for each thing sometimes isn't intuitive.

If you don't have a background in chassis setup get some help from someone like Sam Strano. He can get you a set of parts that area balanced and have you very close to correct balance from the get go. If not find someone who will help you set up the car at a test and tune session (there are plenty of these early in the spring where you can take your car and get it working properly).

IMHO getting the car set up properly BEFORE you go learning to race is really important and is very often overlooked aspect. The reason that I say that is that a lot of folks try to learn to race in a poorly set up car and they develop a lot of bad habits that are caused by the car not responding the way it should. If you put an inexperienced driver in a really well set up car he will learn faster and have more confidence because the car will consistently do what it's supposed to do and won't bite him if he makes some basic learning mistakes. I can't emphasize that enough. Spend a some money at a good shop or with Sam and get the car right from the start and you'll be miles and seconds ahead of where you would be if you didn't.

 

I think the biggest problem adding a blower is all the extra weight you need to put over the front of the car and if you plan on really pushing it on road course the weight would be even higher than just the SC kit as you'll want to go above & beyond traditional cooling setup. I agree that focusing on getting the best all around tire/suspension setup would be first order of business- then you need to think of those options- stiffer leafs vs. coil overs (leafs save way more weight & go right in vs heavier coil over & more extensive install for instance), getting an 18" wheel in the front to allow for more tire choices, upgraded shocks, end links, bushings etc

To be a jack of all trades & keep weight & heat in check while still getting more power & retaining decent DD/street manners I think addressing suspension as noted then doing the typical bolt-ons (intake, headers, ported TB, pulley. Tune) plus a MILD cam (something in the .600ish lift category gaining mid range power adding 25-40whp for instance) & a conservative smallish nitrous setup for when/if you need more power and/or looking @ new rear gearing although the Z is pretty well geared from the factory.

That I think would be the ticket

 

I think you're dead on with your thinking. If I could do it again I'd have never put the supercharger on this car (removing it as we speak), but instead just kept it mild NA and then built a big turbo street terror out of a MKIII Supra or a Gen1 CTSV.

 

Thanks guys. I think my next task is putting some new shocks on the car, getting another 18x10.5 for the front and looking at the R888 all the way around (for tracks only) and replacing all bushings, tie rods, good alignment and maybe some upgraded sway bars. I will give Sam Strano a call as well.

I am thinking 410-430rwhp will get me where I need with a 200 progressed shot to help me at the drag strip and the dyno event and without spray the car will be low enough on power not to "overdo" it at VIR and some auto x.

I did go to VIR and had a blast and found that tires are needed bad. I did not go fast or anything, but did ride with some people who did and had a friend of a friend who is an instructor ride with me and basically just give me some pointers on hand position, entering and exiting a corner and just basic stuff. It's So hard trying to learn new stuff, but I loved it and it made my decision that much easier to not put a blower on the car, it just left more money for me to order my s366s for my camaro lol..

Hopefully I will put a "build" together with progress on me and the car. Must say win doi nothing but going straight for the past 12 years, I'm loving the corners! To be honest even if the new series does not get off the ground I will still auto x this car and road coarse and sell the nitrous kit if it comes down to it.

 

sounds like a real good plan to me....keep in mind w/ control arm bushings/ball joints its a lot of labor taking everything off and pressing out old for new, just FYI whether you pay for it or do it yourself. I am thinking of going w/ VB&P kit since it also includes all new hardware vs. many kits that require you to use old factory sleeves tabs etc

 

I'm in agreement with everything above. I have a nice cam-only set-up now and plan on staying NA with a built motor eventually versus FI.

 

I'm with you. These things are wicked fast with a nice H/C combo, and as long as you don't over cam it, very DD-able.

 

Agreed. Even my bolt on (386 WHP) ZO6 was a blast, and plenty fast for the street. I could hammer it at will in 1st / 2nd gears with minimal tire spin on the street, in decent conditions. Obviously can't do that with what I have now, although yes, the top end rush cannot be ignored.