Christian. I sold you my 20mm's right ? Your car reminds me of mine. You have swift springs right ? It seems like some pics of the swifts looks more dropped than others. Yours is perfect. The car looks phenomenal.

On a side note I was out by malibu visiting friends last month And all I kept saying was how much I wish I had my Z. The Z is made for California. I would seriously consider moving out by my friends I'm Redondo beach if the wifey didnt Just Land a teaching position.

Yep, I still have them sitting in my room as I got a great deal on the SP Rays along with a full set of 20mm bolt on spacers. I do have a slight vibration coming from one of the front wheels at 70+mph so I'm not sure if it is the spacers or one of the wheels might need to be balanced. If it is the spacers, I will install the bolt ons I bought from you.

I wish I would have known you were out here, I would have offered to meet up. This is definitely car country out here though!

Let me know about your vibration.I decided to go with 20mm front and 25mm rear.....Keep going

Don't be deterred from spacers Matt, it could just be a case of wheel balance or re-torquing the front spacers. 25 would be nicely aggressive, definitely will make you flush in the rear!

Solution to teh "VQ hiss"
 

I have been thinking about potential solutions to lessen or get rid of the hiss that is a trademark of VQ engines for a little while and am thinking of trying an idea. Since the hiss comes from the X-pipe section of the exhaust, I was wondering if wrapping just the X-pipe in exhaust wrap could lessen the sound?

I researched it and it has helped on other cars with rasp or hiss tendencies and am wondering what y'all think about it?

Deleted....OT

Do the front spacers have hub centric rings? Wonder if that's an issue? I only have spacers in the rear and I couldn't run the rings with my type of wheels. They seemed to fit, but something wasn't right.

They did, I specifically remember all 4 spacers having hub centric rings. I plan to remove, re-install, and torque them down to spec to see if that makes a difference. If not, I will just install my replacement stud H&R 20 mm spacers.

This Saturday, I was set to attend an SCCA test and tune autocross event in El Toro Fields but due to 70-80 mile per hour Santa Ana winds blasting the crap out of everyone, the cars, and the course, they postponed it to the point where I couldn't participate so I bowed out and drove home. I would have had my butt handed to me though! There were only a handful of cars that did not have slicks and those that didn't were z06s, 911s, and Exiges but thankfully I wasn't there to be competitive, only to learn. I will sign up for the next event though.

I had my GoPro with me so I decided to take a video of the drive home to capture how the car sounds in all driving conditions. It is long so I apologize, but there were some fun little spurts here and there. :tup:

Don't know if it's the mic on the GoPro but the F.I. CBE sounds like a lot of drone at cruising speeds. Don't get me wrong I love the F.I. and it's on my wish list. I have heard a lot of folks swapping out their F.I. for another xyz brand because of the drone. What is your opinion of the drone (if any) and how do you feel after a loooong drive.....drained from the exhaust note or is this just a bunch of smoke? I was following the F.I. thread from the start but it's gotten too large of a thread to keep up with anymore.

Hopefully some good weather next time for AutoX. Those damn Santa Anna winds is why I moved out of Rubidoux/Riverside years ago plus the frekkin traffic on the weekends....haha

The mic on the GoPro leaves a lot to be desired, I had the open back cover but that can only do so much lol. In my honest opinion, the drone is not bad at all from my experience so far. There is a fair amount of drone concentrated around 2-2,200 rpm but above and below that, there is not much at all. I do a lot of highway driving between 40-80 mph and I never had any problems with the sound levels inside the cabin.

In the interest of complete disclosure, my previous exhaust had a massive amount of drone, the type that was headache inducing. I have had the FI exhaust for a while now so I might just not notice it as much anymore, but the drone is in such a small window and even there, it is not as bad as I was lead to believe by other reviews complaining about it. I actually enjoy it as you can feel the car a bit more. I guess I will end with the fact that there is a reason why so many people run the FI exhaust, a sizable percentage of which also run test pipes or high flow cats. All I can say is I love it!

SOLD....thanks for the honest unbiased opinion.

Glad to help! I always appreciate opinions and information from others so I do my best to reciprocate when I can.

Just dropping a little update, I haven't been up to much with the Z for the past few months but I have a few things on the way. First will be my new clutch pedal helper spring from Esfourteen, can't wait to install it in a few days:


http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0564_2558.jpg


I will also be picking up my VIP type 3 carbon fiber spoiler from Rick in the next week or so but am unsure of when that will be installed. Thanks for looking, I hope a few more things on my to-do list might get done this year as well. :)

Man your car is nice! You have gave me some wonderful ideas for my 09 Z.

Wish I could cruise out to cali and ride. I live in Clemson, SC so pretty far :(

Good luck, Great Build journal, and keep the updates coming man!