Infiniti Dealership Sponsered Racing

[gwoods]

Yesterday Infiniti of Scottsdale rented Firebird Raceway's main track and hired Pro AutoSports Performance Driving to give instruction.

I took out my 2007 G35 Sedan along with 100+ other Infiniti cars and suv's.

The majority of the Infiniti's were G35's.

Pictures of the hot pits

I arrived at 7 am with my race tires. It took me about 45 min to swap my race tires on. Including lots of questions from other owners.



From 8:30 -9:30 I received instruction in a class room with my group.

Then at 10 my group went out on the track with an instrutor in the passenger seat of every car. On the back straight I could hit 120 mph + before I had to start braking for the 1st turn at abou 50-60 mph.

Along the back straight the difference between an 07+ G and all the other cars became very obvious.... I could easily over take 3-5 cars on the back straight including a G37!

There was a professional driver named Amy Elizondo http://www.amyelizondo.com giving "track tours" in a 2008 M35 and G35. Amy's driving skills are amazing, she is driving this M35 on the performance edge and fixing her hair and having a conversation with 3 people all at the same time. I taped one lap around the track my second ride with her.



Amy is just as sweet as she is cute, she posed for a picture with me next to the G35 she gave tours in. She may be the next Danica Patrick I should get that picture signed! I think my wife may have got tired of hearing about her last night



There were 3 turbo charged cars out there including a G20 which was my personal fav.





I unfortuneatly do not have any video of my racing... I had one of my co workers riding in the back seat during my last two races and he did try to shoot video but he said he needed both hands to keep him in his seat!

I would have never thought that my G was capible of what I put it through yesterday and I am hooked on track racing now I learned a lot and can't wait to do it again on May 10th!

Jeff

[grantman240z]

Jealous....

[rn79870]

I've been waiting to hear how this went for you. Looks like you really enjoyed it. So, do you think the G performed up to expectations?

[G_whizz]

You lucky ^$#(*@ lol!!

Thanks for the pics... looks like it was alot of fun!

[joe603]

So no strait line racing? Did they have a course set up?

[gwoods]

Heres a picture of the track... we were starting out of turn 9



Length 1.6 MilesWidth 45 to 60 FeetTurns 14Straight-away 5/8 Mile

My car did better then I could have imagined. The Kumho V710 tires were amazing and probably saved me from spinning several times.

It was amazing to be on that back sweeper turn (the looper). I'd enter it at about 60 mph and scrub down to 40 mph at the apex turn. Then use light throttle to keep the back end planted and drift out of it at about 70 mph using just enough steering to keep the car in the turn but not so much to make it spin out! Oh and on the last race I had 3 passengers... my co worker, a girl I met in line (also a G owner gave her the web site) and the instructor.

Jeff

[AZhitman]

I missed out on this, signed up too late. Did it look like there was a full house?

Looking forward to making the next one with you guys.

[gwoods]

Couple vids from the over pass





Yes it was a full house... I saw one cars numbered 00 and 111 so I'm guessing there were 112 cars out there?

Next one is May 10th sign up starts April 1st.

Hope you can make it next time!

Jeff

[Sentientbydesign]

Please forgive my nescience, but what makes an 07+ G better than an older G? Just the power or are you saying your car handles better than the rest?

[Focusedintntions]

I wish they'd do something like this around here

[gwoods]

On the 5/8th mile back straight the 306 hp G35 sedan's were hitting 120 + mph and still had time to get down to 60 mph or less for the looper turn at the end of the straight ..... ALL the other cars were lucky to see 100 MPH including the 2008 M35 driven by the pro driver.

After the 1st race we went back to the class room and all the 06 Sedan owners were complaining about the 'new' cars passing them. There were 3 spin outs all were in 06 or older sedans. One bent the rear suspension bad enough to leave on a flat bed.

One 03 coupe owner said he felt trapped by the dealership to upgrade to a newer car. The dealership did have the complete 2008 line up at the track for us to look at and salesmen were on hand.

I felt my car handled better then most of the other cars at the event because of the 275/40/17 TRACK tires I put on and took off just for this event.

[Sentientbydesign]

Wow, very impressive.

Nice "slicks".

I'm surprised that there was such a performance difference between your sedan and the older ones. Were the older coupes getting passed as well?

[gwoods]

Yes... the 07-08 Sedan was the fastest thing on the track yesterday next to a turbo charged G 20...

Heres a pic of me coming around turn 12 from the track photographer

[phil4watching]

Nice man. i wish they woulda gotten some videos of you drivin

[gwoods]

Pic of me putting the G up on jacks after the first race so the tires could cool without weight on them

[SVTCOBRA]

Nice Job!!!! Looks like fun, can SEE why your wife would be tire of you talking about Amy!!! (still think you need a cobra on the fender with those wheels! )

[gwoods]

One of the instructors had his candy red mid 80's Mustang GT convertable race car out there with the hood up. He recognized the rims and asked me what I was doing with Ford rims on my Nissan LOL.

The Mustang bullet rims are very light for 17x9" and they are a perfect fit for Infiniti's. I don't know how else I could have fit 275's on the front without rubbing. Its almost as if Ford designed them to be used on Infiniti's?

I had them filled with Nitrogen... I started out with 31 psi cold..... checked them between runs and they went up to 36 psi hot and sticky. I may start out with them at 28-29 psi next time and see if I can get a larger hot contact patch.

[G_whizz]

Yes... the 07-08 Sedan was the fastest thing on the track yesterday next to a turbo charged G 20...

Heres a pic of me coming around turn 12 from the track photographer

Frick'n AWESOME pic!!

[gwoods]

thanks man... the goal of turn 12 was to come out of it under throttle and as close to the wall as you could. Then drift to the outside of the track... I am just starting to drift right leaning hard against the passenger side tires....

[Q451990]

There was a professional driver named Amy Elizondo ... I taped one lap around the track my second ride with her.

Oh my! I love the casual "hair flip" while she's slinging that car around. I would love to go to an event like that - it looks like you had a ball!

Heath

[RED_DET]

Damn, my infiniti dealership needs to take some notes or something. You need to put a suspension on there to accommodate those race tires. Alot of your extra speed also came from the fact you could enter and exit the corners with more speed as opposed to someone with street tires. Nice job none the less, sounds like you had a blast.

Yes you gotta love sleeper sr20det g20's.

[smockers83]

I think I'm going to start applying for jobs in the Phoenix area now. Pretty sweet! Just looked at Wells Fargo, quite a few openings.

[rn79870]

^ Don't worry, It's a dry heat...

[smockers83]

^ I'm not worried, I'd just miss the snow and being able to ski for free whenever I want to. What are the areas to avoid?

[ArizonaG35]

You should DEFINATELY consider Phoenix... Wells Fargo is hiring a lot of people right now as their business is doing well despite the down economy.

RN may say that it's a "dry heat", but any way you put it, 118 degrees is EFFING HOT! I've grown to love it over the last two years so the heat doesn't bother me... If you think you're going to miss the snow, then don't fret... I could be boating this morning in Phoenix, and snow skiing in the afternoon in Flagstaff! Just a few hours drive and you've got all the snow your hearts desire!

I would stay in the "Streets" not the "avenues" there are some pretty killer deals on houses right now, so this would be the time to buy! I say stay away from the "avenues" but if you go far enough out, it's pretty nice areas... Keep us posted!

[smockers83]

Nice, thanks ferrell, if I do move there tho it won't be until May or something...have to graduate first. I've flown into Phoenix once and the areas outside towards the mountains did look nice but it was hard for me to determine downtown, just something I wasn't expecting (skyscrapers all condensed in one area--there really weren't any skyscrapers from my point of view) My gf is from San Diego and she had problems with the Midwestern heat (it's way to f'in humid) even tho its not 200.7 degrees, so I think I'll survive--I survived L.A. for a week in August pretty well.

There's snow in AZ? I thought you guys all lived in pueblos or something!

[suby01]

woods

great pics defff jelous would want to take my g out for some fun

[gwoods]

Damn, my infiniti dealership needs to take some notes or something. You need to put a suspension on there to accommodate those race tires. Alot of your extra speed also came from the fact you could enter and exit the corners with more speed as opposed to someone with street tires. Nice job none the less, sounds like you had a blast.

Yes you gotta love sleeper sr20det g20's.

I think the tires were a factor for sure but... all the 07's & 08's were hitting 120 + in the straight.

I have 2 mods.... tires and Fujita intake.

I am not planning on doing anything else to the car.

Jeff

[gwoods]

You should DEFINATELY consider Phoenix... Wells Fargo is hiring a lot of people right now as their business is doing well despite the down economy.

RN may say that it's a "dry heat", but any way you put it, 118 degrees is EFFING HOT! I've grown to love it over the last two years so the heat doesn't bother me... If you think you're going to miss the snow, then don't fret... I could be boating this morning in Phoenix, and snow skiing in the afternoon in Flagstaff! Just a few hours drive and you've got all the snow your hearts desire!

I would stay in the "Streets" not the "avenues" there are some pretty killer deals on houses right now, so this would be the time to buy! I say stay away from the "avenues" but if you go far enough out, it's pretty nice areas... Keep us posted!

So I guess I'll never catch you at my house off of 83rd avenue?

Better brush up on that spanish SA!

[gwoods]

Pictures from Infiniti of Scottsdales pro photographer

http://picasaweb.google.com/in...ebird