Well for what its worth, after researching it seems the Swifts are the most thought out lowering spring on the market for the 370. They don't over-lower the car past the point where the suspension geometry starts to go to s**t and the spring rates are designed to work within the damper range of the OEM shocks, but still stiffer than stock. Not to mention Swift springs are just flat out better quality. Their actual rates are more consistent between a full set and they are usually lighter, plus they don't contort and bind under compression like others do.

Looks awesome!

Bat

Hey Mike I just picked up DSport magazine and I realized on the cover it said Redline Time Attack! I wondered if I'd see you driving the berk bmw but man I see a sweet picture of your Brilliant Silver 370z in action!
Says Buddy Club Street RWD Class Winner: Mike Bonanni | 370z | 2:26.548!
Amazing time and congrats on yet another triumph!
I noticed you do not have your rear valence so I'm assuming this was couple months ago.
Sick driving in the rain!
Kick *** and take names! :tup: :driving: :stirthepot:

Oh wait... it says you drove a BMW 135I # 36 but thats on your 370z o____O;;

Oh nice! Thanks for the compliments! I haven't seen it yet. The Berk BMW didn't make it to that event so to salvage points toward the championship I entered my bone stock 370Z. Luckily it was raining since I didn't have an oil cooler or anything and I ended up getting an unexpected win out of it haha. It was a fun event and yes, it was back in October '10 so it was a few months ago. As for the number, the number and the points travel with the driver so long as I drive in the same class.

Awesome congrats once again and you should pic up the issue that's a nice picture of the Z on page 78. You got a half page pic. :tup:

Thanks! Will have to see if I can find it tonight. I think my subscription is up....

Yep, just saw the pic now also. Congrats!

The 370Z finally hit its time for an oil change so after a few weeks of sitting on my brand new 25 row Z1 Motorsports oil cooler kit, I finally installed it!

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...ilcooler_1.jpg

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...ilcooler_2.jpg

The install instructions were very thorough and easy to follow. The install process was also fairly simple if you take the time to do it correctly. I opted for the 25 row which is their middle kit, they have one smaller and one larger. I chose the middle one basically because I live in Vegas where it gets crazy hot in the summer and although the smaller one would have surely been fine for daily driving, the larger one gives me a bit more freedom to do some spirited driving and probably even a track day or two. So far the thermostatic sandwich plate works well, oil doesn't take forever to get to temp and stays static anywhere between 180 and 200 depending on if I am moving or in traffic. I haven't done any real hard driving with the kit yet aside from the occasional 1st to 4th pull. A+ kit with cool features and quality components for a fair price. Had a good customer service experience with Z1 when ordering, shipping was fast, packaging was excellent, and as mentioned the instructions were overly detailed which isn't a bad thing.

Do you still have those forgestars :)

I must say thats one properly built Z. Good job buddy! :tup:

It was. Then he unbuilt it. Now he is slowly adding things back :tup:

Nope, sold them when I put the car back to stock last year. Wish I still had them now.

Thanks! Yes, as Chris said, it was at one point, then put back to stock to sell, and now being mildly re-built as a fun daily driver.

Dear Mike, I wish we could trade our cats.
Thank you!
:D

Ummm last I was at Mikes house he didn't have a cat, or any pets for that matter.... And if he did have a cat, not sure why he would wanna trade unless you had a cool tiger or something... LOL :rofl2: ;)

^ hahahhahaa....

but wow, that is one crazy track car.

Been a while since my last update but here's a new one!

One of the first things I installed on my 370Z way back in 2009 was a set of BC Racing ER series coilovers, the first set for the 370Z actually. I loved them and like everything else that was on the car when I decided to put it back to stock, they were sold. After deciding to keep the car, another set of BC Racing ER series coilovers was high on the hit list for my re-mod. Well, I finally got a second set, put them on the car, and wrote up an in depth review on my website. Check it out...

Mike Bonanni Motorsports | Official Driver Website for Mike Bonanni

All My Friends Have a Lowrider | Project 370Z Suspension Upgrade Pt. 1 | Mike Bonanni Motorsports | BLOG
(Direct Link^^)

http://www.bonannimotorsports.com/bc..._install_2.jpg

http://www.bonannimotorsports.com/bc..._install_1.jpg

Nice review Mike. I love the flexibility of this setup.

This weekend I should be getting my old 18" Forgestar F14s back from the guy I sold them to! They are wrapped in Hankook RS-3 street tires this go round, which are INCREDIBLE street tires for the track. Very excited. Unfortunately I am trading him my stock wheels so these will have to pull double duty as daily/track wheels for a while until I can get another set for the street. Only thing left to get before I can hit the track again is some brake pads!

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...hawk_dtc_1.jpg

New track pads are here! Thanks Hawk Performance! This is the last thing needed before I can get the car back on track!

Nismo wheel studs are ordered from Scott@FontanaNissan as well. I just don't trust the stock ones for some reason.

Oh, and I got my old Forgestar F14 18" track wheels back from the guy I sold them to, this time wrapped in Hankook Ventus RS-3 street tires! Pictures coming later after I stop being lazy and wash the car.

Nismo 60mm wheel studs are here! Thanks Scott@FontanaNissan!

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...ismo_studs.jpg

The high temp hose for my soon to be brake ducts also showed up! Shooting to have it back on track July 9th at Buttonwillow with Extreme Speed!

A few quick photos from the weekend with the Forgestar 18" wheels back on. She's starting to look like the real deal again!

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...V/IMG_3199.jpg

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...V/IMG_3202.jpg

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...V/IMG_3205.jpg

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...V/IMG_3208.jpg

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...V/IMG_3228.jpg

Looking good Mike!

How are you putting together the brake ducting? I really need to do something myself.

Looks awesome Mike!

Thanks! I am not 100% sure yet how I am going to go about doing the brake ducts yet to be honest. I will be sure to document whatever I end up doing though.

Those wheels look perfect.

Are you running any spacers on those F14s? :)

Mike, why the hawks over a set of carbotechs?

Nope.

A few reasons. One, I have liked these pads on other cars I have driven so I figured I would try something different. The Carbotechs have a more aggressive initial bite than the Hawks but the Hawks have a different torque curve. I am hoping that the less aggressive initial bite may aide in avoiding "ice mode" but there's only one way to find out! Since I will be running street tires, I think the less aggressive initial bite will be beneficial while the temperature range and torque curve will still be plenty. And perhaps the most important reason is budget as they are a sponsor this year haha. I wouldn't have taken them on as a sponsor though if I didn't think they would work as good or better than the Carbotechs.

Which compound did you go with DTC-70 or DTC-60? I'm with you, I like medium bite pads in the 0.45 to 0.5 range like these. I haven't had any ice mode issues with pads in that range and I also like to make sure they have an MOT of 1400F or above (which these do of course).

Nice, I am interested to see your results since I would like to buy track pads soon. I have held off very long thinking I would just get AP brakes, but there are more important things like reliability to consider right now.

I went with a split friction setup, DTC-70 front, DTC-60 rear since that worked well for me before on the Carbotechs. From what I have heard the 370Zs are a bit rear brake biased with matching compounds front/rear.

This is true. If I run the same compound front and rear then the rear can get a little squirmy under heavy braking. ABS keeps it in check but if you like to brake in straight lines go with the one step down for the rear.

Corner balanced the 370Z today. She's a fat pig for sure. 3500 lbs. race weight with me in it and full tank of fuel...and that's with the spare tire/tools/trunk plastics removed. Yes, I corner balanced with a fuel tank of fuel on purpose since our wonderful cars have to run a full tank at all times to avoid fuel starvation.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...ce_6-14-11.jpg

The Z looks great Mike, I have been following your blog and saw you pop up a few times on speedhunter and you have been going very well this year! Keep up the good work, do you have any ideas to tackle fuel starvation?

Thanks! Yes this year has been great so far. As for the fuel starvation, no I have not thought of any solutions that would be easy and realistic for a daily driver unfortunately. Leaving it up to the aftermarket to come up with that one.

Mike have you thought of building a small surge tank?

Plenty of times, but that task is beyond my level of mechanical ability unfortunately haha. Not to mention, to do it properly in a way that it would pass a tech inspection for a reputable event, and to do it in a way that is truly safe in a car that has no separate trunk area is harder than it sounds. The driver needs to be 100% protected from any fire danger from the tank. Easy to do in a car that has a partition between the trunk area and the cabin, not so easy in the 370Z. Can it be done, yes...by me personally...hell no.

Alignment done! Hopefully brake ducts and wheel studs will be done this weekend. First track day will be July 10th at Buttonwillow! Will also be at Buttonwillow on July 9th offering instruction with a group called Speed District if anyone is interested.