VZ On a track

[andrewmac]

Hi All
Thought I might put up a little write up on my experiences with my VZ Calais on the track.
As some people may know a few members of the JC NSW cruise club held a track day at oran park yesterday, for the most part stockish cars and we got a few modified cars but they were mostly Toyota soarer V8's.
My Calais is nothing special the only performance upgrades done to her are a dyno tune and some slotted rotors with greenstuff pads.
On the day I was running 16 inch alloy rims with heaps of tread and was running 100 octane fuel (normally run on 98 Ron due to he tune).
Despite what I though I was going to do in the car I drove it very hard for most of the day and power wise it never had a single problem, the power delivery was smooth and linear the whole day and the motor honestly never seemed like it was strained which shocked me considering the beating it was getting and the fact that it was a 38 degree day so not the best for performance.
The only time I had a little worry was when the temp gauge went up to 3 quarters on the second last run of the day but as it was following a few other cars so I came off the track a lap early( too be on the safe side) and as soon as I go to the car park it was back to a quarter. I have looked and realized the coolant is a little low so I think I can put it down to that.
My brakes were fantastic the whole day and pulled me up efficiently without a hint of fade, but again not standard.
The thing that stood out to me the most was how well the transmission (5 speed) handled the constant changing of gear and in power mode really knew what gear to choose from.
It engine braked and dropped gears at the right time (not perfect but very good for a slusher) and not once did it get confused. I was worried about the transmission the most as I know there not designed as a strong box but it handled it brilliantly.
Body control was also quite impressive, now these cars are a family sedans (luxury in my case) so I was not expecting a go kart but it was still quite controlled and never felt too sloppy.
One thing that I have never quite felt before was the steering feedback, and how at high speeds on the track is more obvious than when on the road, I could feel when the cars limit was and how I knew that if I turned the steering anymore the back end would slide out.
I left ESP on for most of the day and found that for the most part i was not very intrusive and I decided that I would use it to help me learn the limits of grip, later in the day I could predict most times when it would intervene so by the end of the day I could use hat to my advantage and sop it from coming on.
So overall I have to say I am extremely impressed with the car's on track performance especially in the hot conditions.
Driving the car home and again today shows how well it handled the day and if anything drives better, everything seems smoother and it just seems so relaxed.
I guess it got a good clean out.
So theres my bit of feedback on my car, a few other VZ guys were there and they were for the most happy with the performance of there cars aswell, I will let them explain talk about there experiences if they wish.
So there it is, VZ is good on the road and a track, who would have thought haha.

[ashbox]

i have just one question, why didn't you use the paddles? i'd love to take my car on a track but unfortunately we sa peeps don't have one. that and the standard brakes prob wouldn't cope.

it sgood to hear you had a postive exp at the track and not a neg one.

[andrewmac]

i have just one question, why didn't you use the paddles? i'd love to take my car on a track but unfortunately we sa peeps don't have one. that and the standard brakes prob wouldn't cope.

it sgood to hear you had a postive exp at the track and not a neg one.

I did try the paddles once but im not really a fan of them, they are a bit slow and a I just wanted to concentrate on driving the car, I always get confused with them aswell, dont ask me why but im fine in a manual and as soon as it's something electronic I start to stuff up
I know what you mean with the brakes, thats my one major issue with the Vz's hence why I changed mine.

[tanner892]

yeah the paddles shift too slow, and when turning they r mounted in position and dont turn with the wheel so its almost impossible to use them if your driving on circuit at high speed under concentration, i only ever use em in straight lines

[andyman]

well a little bit from me,


having the most un-track friendly wheel base and body, and weighing around or more than 1800kg's, considering it has

a 2100 kg towbar
extra heavy duty wiring for extra battery back in back and amp cables,
sound deadening through most of the car
uhf radio etc

to start off with i drove 150km's from home to reach oran park, so my idea of the day was just to have fun and hoon around the track in a safe controlled environment, then drive home with the experience and my car i 1 piece and operating as it was when i got there,

so on the track as soon as you hit it, everything you had planned went straight out of my head and a sense of personal achievement set in, besides 2 tight corners the whole time my car was on the track it didnt see anything less than 100% throttle until i had to slow down, my car rarely went below 4,000rpm, my car is predominantly stock beside slotted front discs and heavy duty pads, super low springs front and rear, monroe gt sport strut and a 3.46lsd upgrade.

the one thing i noticed most was my tyres letting me down more than the car did, i was expecting the sheer lack of aerodynamics and weight would play a big role how the wagon would corner, the only real amount of understeer i felt was from the soft Toyo tyres folding onto their sideways and understeering from the tyre rolling and sliding, usually in a spectacular tyre squealing, the end result was an almost destroyed 4 month old $210 tyre, swapping to the 15 inch re92's later in the day provided a the back end to kick out a little in oversteer to add a little enjoyment.



The power of the Alloytec v6 175 was good and surprising again mainly from the weight of the car, at its peak revs down the straight it allowed me to take over many cars, despite the fact i burnt my hand several times trying to check the trans oil level and engine oil midway through the day, the temp guage never moved off its normal range untill i slowed down exiting the track when a little heat soak set in, yet the gauge on moved up about 2mm,

the 4sp auto was not really aloud to do its thing during the day, i held it in gears by changing the gear stick, i left it in drive and power mode once or twice and it was to eager to change gears and not hold on, which made for cog swapping very often.

the body with its superlow suspension held its ground and track rather well besides being let down by the tyres, i was surprised to have several people come up to me and ask what suspension i was running and complement how the wagon handled.

not much more i can say, only problem during the day i had was a mystery oil type substance was building up in my drivers side front wheel arch, which later i discovered at home it was my 2 month old battery spewing acid out, which has now eaten the paint from the fuse box down to the window washer resivour.


final checks for the day showed the trans oil to be still in good nick, nil engine oil burnt and no coolant lost, i used roughly 20l'ts of fuel which was good considering it was being run for about 15minutes each hour mainly at 4,000-6,5000rpm

cheers
andrew

[hingo1983]

andrewmac, can I ask how the Calais was in a slide? If the back steps out is it scary stuff or is it easy to catch. My old VR Calais was so simple to throw the back out and catch it but the VZ is a larger, heavier car without LSD and wider tyres with a lot more grip. I haven't even tried to lose the back end yet as I'd imagine it would be a lot harder and frankly I'm not too keen on breaking my car trying to find out.

[ashbox]

yeah the paddles shift too slow, and when turning they r mounted in position and dont turn with the wheel so its almost impossible to use them if your driving on circuit at high speed under concentration, i only ever use em in straight lines

tip is to be in the right gear before you hit the corner and change up as you straighten up.

they would change just as quick as your norm shifter would.

personal preference really but i'd go with the paddles most days of the week.

[svsex]

anyone compared the ride quality and performance of the sv6 suspension setup to the calais?

[Torquative]

and the guys running standard brakes seemed to survive heaps better.

I had aftermarket "police spec brakes" on which acctually melted, photos can be found in the JCCC NSW section of this forum. The rear rim got so hot the little exterior centre cap melted to the rim and I melted the rubber dust boots down to nothing and onto the piston on the front calipers. IMHO I wouldve been better with the standard brakes, they seemed to last on everyone elses cars.

I did like turning ESP on and off tho, definately noticed it going through the dog leg "flip flop". I had coolant temp displayed on the digital readout so it killed the ESP on or off dash warning BUT could tell whether it was on or off by the way the car handled.

the 4sp auto was not really aloud to do its thing during the day, i held it in gears by changing the gear stick, i left it in drive and power mode once or twice and it was to eager to change gears and not hold on, which made for cog swapping very often.

I found I left it in 3rd and it just shifted between 2nd and 3rd occasionally.

But like andyman I used no oil or coolant which was good on a 38 degree day

[andyman]

I found I left it in 3rd and it just shifted between 2nd and 3rd occasionally.

But like andyman I used no oil or coolant which was good on a 38 degree day

nah stuff that, i wanted to kill it, lol...... which i think it has done something, for some reason it sometimes holds 2-3 a bit longer between gear changes, but it changes gears so much smoother now tho lol, a few times in the day i forgot to shift into 3rd, it did it itself when it got to its limiter haha


you didnt use oil or coolant, but you burnt brakes hehehe. mine only faded once on my last burn for the day,,,




also im still on the tank of fuel i used at the track toooo.... hehe, running real low but


i reckon it would have been 40+ on the track, when you look at the videos, it looks like from the grill down on the front is melting from the heat radiating off the track


hows your tranny fluid, still pretty and pink? mine is, didn't burn or overheated luckily

[andrewmac]

anyone compared the ride quality and performance of the sv6 suspension setup to the calais?

We didn't have any SV6's along on the day, we only had a Exec wagon and Acclaim sedan and there both running after market suspension.

[ashbox]

calais would be running fe2 suspension anyway so it would be the same setup with exception of esp.

[andrewmac]

calais would be running fe2 suspension anyway so it would be the same setup with exception of esp.

Calais has the fe1.5, its stiffer and lower than standard but higher and softer than fe2.
Not a huge amount of difference though.

[Torquative]

havent checked the tranny fluid, just the power steer (which needed a topup at the track), engine oil and coolant

oh and have obviously changed the brake fluid as it was smelling really bad an an aweful colour for something that was blue when it went in

[ashbox]

my mistake, i thought they'd scrapped the fe1.5 on the vz and then re-introduced it in the later model ve's

[Ewok]

As far as I was aware only the SV6 has the paddles on the auto? Besides the point, I think you probably drove your car on the track that day as hard as I drive mine to work in the morning ... (j/k). But you're right, the 190 alloytech motors are pretty responsive and hold revs very well. As the guy in the red M3 on Hale road found out yesterday morning ..... (I came off west coast highway after heading north and he came off onto hale from southbound on westcoast hwy so hung a left, but cut across me through a giveway sign, so I kept the revs up and was nose to tail with him all the way up the hill as he was revving the tits off the thing heh, backed off after the roundabout though). FE2 suspension is great, at times it can feel a little hard, like when you're in a car park going over speed humps but generally the suspension absorbes a lot of bumps really well at higher speeds.