I decided to race my Max at the 35th Annual Lone Pine Time Trials, located 200 miles north of southern California. Its my 20th year of entering this event. Last year I rented a car and raced it . . and won my class!! The course is an autocross course and is about 2 miles long and is set up on an abandoned airstrip near the base of Mt Whitney.

Top speed at end of straightaway is around 80-120 mph depending on the car. Of course Ill have plenty of pics when I return. Im leaving tomorrow (Friday) and returning Sunday.

 

awesome, best of luck. I have a feeling you'll attract a lil' attention.

 

Hehe, you're prolly right Nis. I am gonna try not to drive 100%. Also, I need to tape the fenders so rocks dont chip it. I bought masking tape and black duct tape to put on top. ANy suggestions?

 

it's past my bedtime so maybe my eyes are malfunctioning... did I just see duct tape?????

i'll assume the masking tape won't ruin the paint and then black duct over top? nice to see you're being preventive. you better protect your front spoiler as well. It's too late for 3M and that would be insane for that.

try to get ahold of the mod PrinzII he's the detail guru.

try not 100% is a paradox. I remember track and other competitions injured with that mentallity. always ended putting out 100+%

 

You might be able to get the same material they use for clear bras and shape that to fit the areas you need it to fit.

 

I thought I would use masking tape for bottom layer on spoiler, fenders etc. and THEN put black duct tape ON TOP of masking tape to really protect it. Duct tape will not be in contact with paint.

 

Good luck at the track. Warren

 

Good luck! Sounds like fun but I dont think the maxima will do to well. Just my guess because the car isnt exactly autocross material. Oh well, It should still be a blast.

 

It's guy's like this that make me proud, too bad the Max does not currently have a AWD version.

 

Good luck - keep her safe!

 

Wreck the Max and we will report you to DCFS.

 

All the best on the auto-x man.... Irish44J (5th Gen) and Requin6 (4th Gen) auto-xed last month in a small local meet (small circuit in a stadium parking lot, never got out of 2nd gear) and they held their own pretty well against all the WRXs, S2000s, M3s, etc, that were there.

Irish's thread is here:

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=395112

Looking forward to seeing the results, pics, vids, etc...

 

Autocross = 20-60mph in a parking lot

What you're doing is open road racing. Way, way cooler than autocross IMO (and I love autocrossing).

 

sounds like fun. good luck and can't wait for the pictures

 

Gotta say GOOD LUCK!!! let us know how you do!

 

i wanna take it to the 1/4 mile track, you wanna race it wow.......... good luck man...

 

This will be intersting, can't wait to see the pix.

 

yea, have fun and good luck. btw, do you remember your first time, what kind of car did you enter back then?

 

I just got home and boy do I have some stuff to tell you guys. Lemme feed my hungry teenagers and Ill post pics, vids, and a nice story that I promise you will love.

 

Before I even got started on my trip, I discovered a nail in one of my tires. I had to replace it since it wasclose to the sidewall. Sumitomo - 245-40-18. $150. GRRRRR

On my drive up to Lone Pine - hwy 395, east of Sierra Nevada Mtns, a pretty isolated area - I got to open up the car. With me and two teenagers plus all our gear (full trunk), uphill, in 6th gear, I got it up to 135 mph!!! Nnice and solid. I bet my WRX wing was holding it down!!!!

The course is on an abandoned air strip. Its about 2 1/2 miles long. Usually the first part is like a typical autox and then it opens up with high speed gates and slalom options at the end of some of the straightaways.

First thing I did was tape up the car's fenders, hood, and front spoiler lip. I used masking tape topped off with black duct tape. Worked well except its very ugly, and some of the tape came loose. I have better ideas next time.

The car is classified as D stock, same as the Spec V, my prior car. Technically, it should be in Street prepared since I have a rear sway bar, strut brace and open air filter. I figure I need it. I was BY FAR, the largest car out there. Only carsclose were a new BMW M3 and a Mercedes CLK500.

My photobucket doesnt work so i posted to yahoo. Feel free to check out my album. Ill comment on some individual pictures.

Here is a pic of me with the car:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/markdo...1a.jpg&.src=ph

Here is a pic next to a WRX, which shows both his and my WRX spoiler:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/markdo...a6.jpg&.src=ph

The first lap, I wanted to get a feel of the car. Very stable, and easy to drive, and very fast. By the time I got to the 4th lap, I was in 4th place out of 15, good for a trophy!!! I beat the M3, which was driven by a VERY experienced and good driver. The CLK500 beat me by a few seconds though.

Second day went even better. I placed 3rd out of 25 or 16 cars, for another trophy.

You guys dont realize the untapped potential of this car. Its really amazing. I kept exepcting it to give out as I pushed it. The harder i pushed it, the faster it went. I really havent done much to it except the rear sway bar. This car is really solid-feeling and it handles really well.

I have raced for 20 years. My first car was a 75 Civic. I eventually won my class in Lone Pine with it after slaloming it and road racing it. Next ride was a Mazda RX4 rotary. That car was so fast, in 1994, that I won my class and most of the classes above it.

Check out the yahoo album and tell me what you think. I have vids but i need someone to host them.

Most people did not know what car this was. Everyone expected it to do poorly since it is bigger than anything else there. I showed them.

6th Gens rule, and if anyone thinks they dont, watch my vids.

 

Addendum: I hit over 100 mph on the end of the straightaways, and I hit the rev limiter a lot, and had the ABS working overtime. I left foot brake if I dont need to shift and I could tell the car needs a good set of pads. The brakes work VERY well, but the car nose dives a LOT. Nevertheless, it very predictable at 9/10s. I wanted to save a bit so tires wouldnt chunk and I had a ride home. This was quite a ride!!!

The second day (today) I pyumped the tires up to 44 in front and 40 in back. MUCH BETTER!! Quicker steering and it didnt roll the tread as much. The car is a real beast.

 

great accomplishment... that sounded awesome... biggie size auto-x.... after looking at the pics, I see why all of ya needed the tape or some sort of protection. I take it you were the only Maxima out there?

 

Wow nice deus, NICE! I knew she'd pull it off, and live up to being a true sports sedan

 

Grads. You showed them a Max is not just a family car. Warren

 

i remember once i was driving semi fast down a local street and a 6th gen did a flyby. even though it was kind of whack that thing looked stable as funk, big fast boat. i give you props my man, that's actually one clean lookin 6th gen...and we all know how 5th genners feel about their own cars

 

That is AWESOME way to represent! GREAT PICS!

Can't wait to see the vids!
JJT

 

The Max looks better with the spoiler than the WRX and its made for that car

 

damn Dues.. way to go.. you make us maxima owners proud..

 

That's bad a$$! Considering there arn't many places we owners can go and stress the hell out of our toys, and in a controlled environment.

 

Kinda a big pig to get on the auto X game....but good luck to you and love your car.

 

i didnt even know 6th genners did the wrx spoiler thing, i think its pretty dang cool

 

haha thats awesome! glad to hear someone is out autox'ing the big fella. i frequent autox's too, next time if you pull the ABS relay (or fuse for that matter), you can get some more predictable braking, i've been doing it for a while and prefer it for timed competition events, just a tip

great job, man!

 

I think no 6th gen owner ever considered that spoiler, until Deus did it. thats definitely a first

 

Hey bloke thanks for putting that up it looks like some serious fun...

Wish we had that sorta thing going on down here , my two teens would have got a buz outta it too...

Well done ....

Love the back ground mountains and stuff too..

Nice to see Our Aussie GTO on page 16 getting down too .. they are not a bad bus and resonably put together over here by GM... we call them a HOLDEN MONARO over here they just lauched the AWD version with the 6 ltr motor it gets down something nasty.. for a big two door coupe.

 

I think the 6th gen max may be suitable for track rather than tight autoX courses. The course i raced on is very open and the max seemed at home on the wide open parts. It really was a blast and very surprising.

 

Try putting the vids on Putfile.com dues. Its kinda funny if you open your photo album and hit the slideshow button and change the speed to fast its almost like a mini movie in certain spots. So after all that, no damage? Id be scared of hurting something... Whats funny is I do that everyday... only no cones. Our traffic here sucks and I agree the Max is a beast!

 

Our Max is not too big compared to a Cutlas that I've seen on the course.
I have a small crx that I use to autocross... Feels like a little go-kart. especially with no power steering. lol
Good luck!

 

Here are the videos from my race. Enjoy.

http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=PICT0632
http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=PICT0633

 

Congrats on flogging the beast out there. Kinda autox and timetrial combined on a rallycross looking surface. I agree that the bigger cars with power would do much better on road tracks - like the Caddies in SpdWorldChall.

I especially liked your pic#46. What's next - hillclimb?
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/markdo...3b.jpg&.src=ph

 

That pic is near Mt Whitney, 14,495 feet high