Quality

No point installing crap. It will cost you a small fortune in alignments and ball joints.

As a point of reference the SPL arms for the 350Z made of billet aluminum with 2 spherical bushings and ball joint retail for $759, where as the "cheap" steel SPC retails for $400, and the garbage Kinetix pieces retail for <$300.

The cheap stuff might be okay on a street car, but it just doesn't work on a track car. So expect the Doran pieces to be >= SPL in price due to low production numbers and quality design.

$759 is not bad. I feel this going to be higher.

I would expect that it will be, but I don't think it's going to be ridiculous.

interested

Updates?

Upper control arms would be awesome, I think this winter I'm gonna do coilovers and suspension bits (the 3 different rear pieces and front uppers) all at the same time. I'm halfway through replacing my front lower control arms (well, Transverse Link they call it) with OEM parts tonight, since my lower ball joints are suspect. It's a bitch of a job, seems like every nut needs fire/freezing + airwrench to have any hope of removal, and the space is tight in there.

Man, I'm really interested in these arms! I'm always worried about my SPC arms slipping on any kind of hard cornering.

Sorry guys my vaca was last week and I'm at ORP tmrw and get back home Late Wed night.
Thursday I will swing out to the shop and get an update.
I know the material was ordered before Indy and was getting per water jet cutted before it arrived at Doran Racing to cut down on waste and costs.
Fingers crossed.
The guys at Z1 were able to tour the shop last week and can tell you their thoughts on them.
;)

sub'd

yup, we had a great time talking with the team, even if BJ flaked out on us :icon17:

the Doran arms were mighty impressive. extremely light, i could hold them up with just one finger yet impossibly strong. the team manager showed me the arm from the front right of the car after it took a huuuuuge hit and it just had a small knick in it. dustin@z1 and i were both very impressed with the product. you guys are gonna love them but i would not expect them to be $759. they are made here in the USA by trained, experienced workers and that costs money compared to the other companies that outsource their labor to asia. if i had a Z and was planning on tracking it, these Doran arms would definitely be on the "worth it to save up for" list :tup:

I've already saved up for them :) Get a batch of these made already!!

Sub'd

Updates?

no kidding i think about these things at least once a day.... is that sad?

Rumor is the first batch is done. I think they are taking them down to barber.

Some Qs that I didnt quite find the answer to. Help/answers would be awesome!

1. on the front control arm the end with the camber adjustment occurs is a spherical bearing :tup: on the other 2 ends where, presumably, the caster adjustment occurs (dwnshift said that there might be 'slight' camber adjustment, hope this is true still :) but i dont see how it can really happen because the ends are fixed and not similar to the spl for the z33 where its a threaded rod end) are they spherical/ball as well?

2. the rear camber arm, spherical or rubber? w/out a true coil setup we cant utilize the toe arm right, are we gonna have to do the cutout stuff :(

3. I drive a G, according to the FSM the suspension looks pretty identical. do you think it'll work? :)

4. what parts does nissan supply and what parts are doran? im confused.

thanks! :D

1. Changing the caster at the inner mounts isnt the only place that it can be changed ;)
2. We do not use the rear spring buckets with our setup
3. Doran racing designed most of all te suspension we run on our RC ( sway bars, drop links , sway bar mounts, front upper control arms, delrin bushings, rear camber and tie arms etc
4. Should all work on a G but don't quote me on that ... There is def someone more qualified to directly answer that one at this time
5. We have a list of stuff we are working on for 2013 ad testing a few bits at Barber on Sunday.
6. 2013.... We are awaiting orders
7. As Timmy said... The waiting is the hardest part

Dwnshift, will we be able to get the parts from you guys, or do we have to go through Nissan MotorSports? Getting parts from Nissan MotorSports at times is like pulling teeth from a chicken! I'm still waiting for one part. It's been over 4 months. :mad:

I would say through Doran Racing. Nissan Motorsports has had some reorganization and it's getting ironed out. It's been quite the project and were placed in a pretty tough predicament.

Thanks for the reply dwnshift!

i'm actually beyond stoked that you said you might have developed some delrin bushings. for reference, here's a picture of the front suspension and the bushings of interest (please let me know if there are any others!)
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...i_/Capture.png

1. this is actually giving me tire wear issues cuz it's starting to give alot. this badboy seems to move twisty but also up and down. spherical reccomended?
2. spherical is definitely recommended for track (because it moves in 2 axis). can get away with delrin/poly for dd
3. delrin/poly should be fine here
4. not a bushing but a ball joint. the 350z had issues with these guys i believe. are they replaceable?

let me know of your thoughts!

Re: the above. SPL makes some replacement bushings for 1+2 already: SPL PRO SUSPENSION | 09+ Nissan 370Z Z34 . #3 is part of the shock assembly, but I guess you can press those out and replace as well?

#4: The mfg doesn't intend the lower ball joint to be repair/replaceable, they have you replace the whole lower arm (which is actually pretty cheap), but I don't know if maybe the aftermarket has some way of replacing that ball joint or not. Looks unlikely to me though (I've replaced my lower arms already once w/ new OEM, have my old ones sitting in the garage to look at).

1 is called the front lower arm inner bushing and ¿2 is called the front compression bushing? -> just came to this realization!
3. i hear they were often replaced in the 350s and g35s with whiteline's poly.

so these 3 bushings and a nice upper arm is all we needs to care about? :D

I'm still kinda hoping someone has a solution for replacing the lower ball. I haven't gone and ripped the rubber off of my old ones to see if it looks even remotely possible, guess I should. If they did, I could fit all those new bushings on my old lower arms off the car and then swap them back on.

is #2 called the front compression bushing (by spl)?
did you leave #3 as is?

maybe doran developed something for #4 :) or are you tracking on the oem ball joint, dwnshft?

the upper arms are pure eye candy! just beautiful pieces, and super light to boot!

Mike
Nice meeting you
The arms are going out to be anodized this week.
We should have at least 9 sets for sale.
Dwnshift

Bummer, my last track day is this weekend :) Damn New England short racing season ...

Is anodizing necessary or just to make them look pretty?

Awesome! Is there anyway we can get on a waiting list? Any info on pricing?

You should make a trip to Mid-Ohio in two weeks! :)

Save some front arms for me too :)

I was thinking about it, we'll see how itchy I'm feeling :)

There's always winter events down at VIR just a bit of a haul and a gamble on weather.

Good chance that I'm headed to Road Atlanta for a NASA event 11/30-12/2 too. :)

PM sent

I will try and swing by the shop on Wednesday and nail down the full scoop on the arms.
For those that have pm'd ... I have saved them all.
Once we he t the pricing we will go down the list.
The anodizing is primarily a cosmetic but it does actually harden the Material.
But... They look really nice just polished As well.
;)

I know we talked a while back so hopefully I'm still on the list :tup:

Just in case I'm not on the list already PM sent!

PM'd


Tapatalk & such etc

Chrisslicks
When is mid Ohio?
Are you going and where are you coming from?

It was great to see the Doran 370Z out on the track at Barbers on Sunday! The sound was music to my ears!