import111's 370Z
 

Been waiting to post in here until I got at least 1 mod on the car. Got the Z in Feb. I had an 05 STi that had quite a bit of mods done to it. The Z is quite a different car in a lot of ways. So far I am happy with my choice though. For the last couple of years I have been doing HPDE's about 4 times a year when it is cool enough outside. I plan to continue this with the 370Z. Here are pics and mods.

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p...s/IMG_1649.jpg
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p...s/IMG_1648.jpg
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p...s/IMG_1647.jpg

Mods:
-BC BR series coilovers (10k/8k F/R spring rates)
-Rear camber arms
-Alignment: 0 toe all around, -1.4F -1.7R camber
-Berk HFC's
-Fast Intentions catback exhaust
-Carbotech XP-10 F/R brake pads (track only)
-Motul RBF600 brake fluid
-Stillen "Race" oil cooler

Love the color!! Making her sit right should always be the first mod... IMO!!

So many AZ members!! Nice!! :tup:

nice car. Im coming from a evo, and I'm probably gonna get a z. How do you feel about the car compared to your STI? I had 426 awhp on my evo and im a little worried about dropping so much power.

Looking good Import!

Add a twin turbo and the engine will easily exceed 500whp (600 is possible with extra boost). With that much power though the car would be a beast and not nearly as much fun to drive.

Awesome, I come from the suby world too. Congrats and welcome!

I had 275whp and 308wtrq on a mustang dyno on my STi. Since you had so much power in the Evo, a 370Z will feel a lot slower to you. My Z feels slower than my STi did. Other than power the Z is amazing though. Brakes and handling are right up there, if not better than the STi.

Looks good! Have you decided on which CBE you're going to get?

nice drop... how does the ride feel compared to stock? how do you change the settings in the back shocks? could you take close-up pics of the gap?

Awesome stance.... all you need now is an agressive offset wheel

Right now I am waiting to see how the Berk CBE turns out. It is between Berk and Stillen so far.

Ride feels a lot stiffer than stock. Although my strut settings are set very stiff (full stiff front and 7 clicks from full stiff in the rear, 32 clicks to choose from). I went to 12 clicks from full stiff in the rear and it was actually quite a bit softer. I think closer to full soft and it would ride pretty smooth, though still more stiff and harsh than stock obviously.

Changing the strut settings in the rear you need to remove the plastic covers over the strut tops in the trunk. I am leaving mine out for good so I can easily adjust at the track.

I plan on getting some more pics in a couple weeks. Hopefully they get some better pics than my dad took. Otherwise I will get some better ones some day.

yea, I am kind of bummed that Nissan made the wheels so far into the fenders. I might do some spacers with extended bolts in the future to make everything more flush looking.

What seems a little odd with the BC coilovers is that the rear spring rate is softer than the front, the reverse of the stock setup. It will be interesting to see how this feels when you take it to the track.

sounds like a good plan and keep an eye out for updates on our exhaust.

In theory it should keep the rear end planted better, while giving the front sharp turn in. I started full stiff on all 4 corners and actually softened up the rear a bit to give it better traction pulling out of corners.

What are the stock spring rates? I kept asking in another thread and no one knew.

I answered you a couple of weeks ago :)
Stock spring rates

The extra weight transfer to the rear might help acceleration out of corners but it could also increase understeer, that is what will be interesting to see.

Wow, if those rates are correct then the BC BR series coilovers along with many others are using stock rear rates with very stiffly damped struts. For the amount of body roll and brake dive the stock 370Z has, I thought the stock rates were much lower, like in the 200's.

Looks great ! Need you to come up to phoenix for the next nasa event so we can have two on the track at once ! :)

I am with Proautosport, not NASA. Still glad to have so many 370Z's in Arizona. Hopefully a lot of them will be at both NASA and Proautosport events.

I may go to an upcoming proauto event at FIR... maybe i'll see you there

Got to push the Z hard for lots of corners on a mountain road today for the 1 time ever. Overall I am very impressed. Was a very fun drive and the car did very well.

Oil temp got up to 260 and stayed there. Temp dropped from 85 to 67 from bottom of the mountain to the top and I was not able to push hard for long periods of time. Maybe 60 seconds of hard driving at a time before catching traffic, though I kept the rpms up above 4k most of the time. I was glad that I did not hit the limiter thing due to oil getting too hot.

The brakes were amazing. Better than my modded STi brakes were I think. ABS also seems to not kick in very hard even when making the tires squeal a little bit. When I put stickier 265's up front the braking will be even better yet.

The BC BR series coilovers worked very well also. They also help with the braking keeping brake dive in check. Body roll is reduced greatly over stock and the car just felt very easy to control in the corners.

I feel the car needs more power. Probably because I am use to 308wtrq that my old STi had, but I think another 50whp/wtrq would make this car such a great drivers car. I am hoping that HFC's and catback exhaust help out the power feel in the near future.

Newer pics.

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p...stunes/002.jpg
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p...stunes/007.jpg
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p...stunes/006.jpg
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p...stunes/003.jpg

/\/\/\/\ Would've been a great pic if he pushed his head back a little :icon17:

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p...s/IMG_1648.jpg
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p...stunes/002.jpg

LOVE those two pics! Blue looks beautiful as usual. :tup:

Looks like a great turnout!

Isn't softening up the rear end going to make the car pushy rather than turn in harder (and give more rear bite as you said)?

Nope. Talk to some racing engineers that work for race teams. They have the $ to do all the testing and the stuff they learn is amazing. I just did a mountain drive last weekend and got to push my car really hard through some corners for the 1st time. The way I have it set up right now is very good. Car was neutral and gripped like crazy, and was also very stable under hard braking. I can't wait for my 1st track day in this thing. I wonder if I will be able to beat the times I was running in my 05 STi.

I'm still pissed I didn't record that drive up Lemmon. I did however get a quick clip of your car leaving McDonalds. It's not much, but I can post it up if you want.

Sure, post it up.:tup:

Updated the mods list. Got my Berk HFC's and Fast Intentions catback installed this week.

congrats on the whip, looks great in any color.

So your front is 10kg/mm, and rear 8kg/mm - is this correct?

SO you reckon even this setup feels stiffer than the OEM setup - would than be with full hard on the compression dampening, or have you tried these springs with full soft and just to see how the springs feel.

I love the stance, looks great.

Mate, the car weighs 1450kg.

Half on the front, half on the rear.

This rough calculation leaves you with 360kg or so per corner. Imagine the g force in or the bumps - if these springs are 4kg/mm the car would hit the bump stops coming out of the driveaway hehehe.

I'm actually even surprised that these springs are still so low - 8kg/mm is comparable to a sportsbike springs - and the car weighs much much more.

If you want to fight body-roll get stiffer anti-roll bar. Do not fight the roll with stiffer suspension units, they will just make the ride harsh and skip over bumps in corners.

How hot was it outside when your oil went to 260F?

Makes me think the oil cooler, or a few, would be agood addition for people in warmer climates.

For a guide, Nisom 370Z suspension, rough guide:
The damping on the Nismo 370Z is much more aggressive, too, with 40 percent firmer dampers up front and a huge 140 percent increase in the back. Roll stiffness is up 15 percent, too. So, yeah, you're going to notice something's up as soon as you get into the Nismo Z.

Spring rates are 15 percent higher than the regular 370Z in front and 10 percent higher in the rear.

Carbotech XP10 front and rear pads ordered. Just need an oil cooler and I will be ready for the track day Oct. 31st.

Looking good and nice mods! :yum:

Stillen "Race" oil cooler installed today. We will see how well it works in 2 weeks at the race track. Going to install track pads and Motul RBF600 brake fluid next weekend. Mods list updated.

cool... which track in 2 weeks ? which club ?

FIR east with Proautosports

XP-10's and RBF600 installed. Took about 1 full bottle to get through the whole system on the farthest away corner. The XP-10's have INSANE bite. I was not expecting that when I went out to bed them in. Can't wait to get some stickier tires to take advantage of the bite.

Speaking of tires, my rear tires are not looking so good. 7k miles on the car and I think due mostly to the -1.7 rear camber and the fun I have been having spinning the tires, the inside edge is damn near bald. After this track day I might need some NT-05's back there sooner than later.