One question tho, do you think you'd rather go to 3.90 if possible now, or you think you've made a good choice?

For what I use the car for, it's perfectly fine. I take it to work, 30 min back roads and quick elevation changes and then weekends around town. Once I get to a certain point I plan to do some light autoX and such.

My main focus when I chose gearing was weight, braking, and handling. Z's really do have enough power after flow and tune mods unless your really going crazy.

Only you truly know what you want from the car and what the likelihood is that youll drive it on the highway a lot. Another consideration, if you ever plan to really start making power, you'll quickly "overpower" (for lack of a better word) the 4.08.

Alright, I think I completely understand what you're saying :) thank you!

My idea behind the shorter diff was also the fact that I do like the gear spread to be 2nd gear to ~60mph, third to ~93mph etc. After very much thought, I ditched the idea of any forced induction to get more power - maybe a tune to get a few extra hrsprs, but nothing more. We have super strict car policies here and there's virtually zero chance of me having a street legal car if I do any forced induction. Shorter diff will, I believe, liven the car up just that tiny bit more to get rid of the sluggish low rpms in second gear with the stock 3,7 diff. I can't wait to try the Z with the shorter drive...

Winter action again - changed the oil, filter, put a new oil pressure sensor in, as the old one wasn't always precise. Blew one fuse, replaced that too.

Next upgrade I installed was the servo oil cooler. Not an upgrade that I ever thought about doing, but last time I went to the track for some fun driving, I opened the hood to let the car cool quicker and I noticed my servo oil boiling :confused: so apparently althought Z's have servo coolers, they're not big enough.
I bought a universal Mishimoto transmission oil cooler kit: https://www.driftshop.com/universal-...ooler-kit.html and installed it in place of the old one. No problem, not too much hassle - I even managed to do it without removing the front bumper. I do recommend removing it, as it will be much easier - but it's not a must. I then filled with oil, did some air bleeding and now it's good.

I also did some minor adjustment to the handbrake. So, whoever tried to actually use the handbrake, knows that it's pretty dreadful. Just tightening the screw inside the cabin will not resolve the problem. But what will resolve it, is to remove the rear wheels, open the porthole on the disc, and spin the disc until you see a small screw that preloads the brake shoes within the disc. Spread these out until they almost touch the rotor - and then tighten the handbrake to also engage on the first notch. And that's how you get an actual really good working handbrake :tup:

One tiny little update more.....so, as soon as I purchased the car, I wanted the ability to turn off all electronic assists. And I installed the drift switch....but it was a "close-enough" switch. It looked OK, but it wasn't 100% fitting in the interior design. So.....in the meantime, I got a Nissan switch, not sure from which car or for what, but now my drift switch looks completely OEM. Here's the before and after:

https://i.imgur.com/K7cYjFoh.jpg

Click here if you want to see a high resolution photo

Nice switch upgrade. Even the little things count.

Yesterday finally had some time to work on the car so I installed the differential back in the car. Before installing it, as I had the broken breather tube, I fixed it with JB Weld. I was skeptical if the fix was OK or not, but then I figured out there's a simple test I can do to check....

I blew into the breather hose and it built up the pressure inside the diff. When I removed my mouth, it blew all the air out again. I then removed the oil filler cap on the diff, covered it with my finger and I again blew into the breather tube. Again built up the pressure but this time removed the finger - and it relieved the pressure immediately. So - the breather tube is still very much operable, nothing is blocked and I believe this should be OK.

Completely unrelated - my battery died - AGAIN. I changed it exactly 1 year ago, and the car has been sitting for the last 4 months - what the heck? I will go to the shop tomorrow and ask for warranty to cover it, I can't imagine this being normal.

Did you have the battery on a tender?

I didn't (yeah I know, i'm a dumbass) - but I usually run the car every month, so it doesn't just sit, and I do a few laps around the garage (I live in a building) and there's no problem...unless when there is lol.

.

The Z is almost ready for the season!

The battery was charged and works well. I just mounted the new tyre setup - Goodyear Eagle F1 Assymetric 6, in stock dimensions.
The only remaining thing before I get it on the road is to change the transmission oil - it's original, with 20k miles, but the car is 15 years old so I figure it's about time to change it. I'm going with stock 75w85 GL-4 oil, but unfortunately not Redline, as it's not available here, so I bought Mannol.

Alright, transmission oil changed! And what a super easy job it is, I completely forgot that the viscosity of transmission oil is WAY thinner than the differential oil - OS Giken oil is 80w250 and it's horribly thick, it takes ages to pump it via hand pump, while transmission oil being only 75w85, goes super fast. Changing it was a breeze.
Tomorrow registration, can't wait to go for a ride! :driving:

Went for another ride today, the new tyres are just ridiculously grippy.

https://i.imgur.com/oOEyNtsh.jpeg

Goodyear Eagle F1 Assymetric 6, 245/40/19 front and 275/35/19 rear. They inspire a lot of confidence, tell you to push the car more and more, it's just silly. I went on a small roundabout that I often go through, it's very tight and where I would usually encounter crazy understeer, these tyres just grip and grip, it's silly. Incredibly good tyres.

https://i.imgur.com/d1Uzhylh.jpeg


Also, managed to finally test the new final drive gearing. The car feels a LOT quicker, especially third gear. In moments where I would definitely grab a second gear, now it's super enjoyable to use the third gear. Also, tested highway driving, at 130km/h it's at 3200rpm, so it's not too high revs at all. So far it seems like 4.08 FD was an excellent choice.


And one more stylish pic of the Z

https://i.imgur.com/fNn4WF9h.jpeg

Handsome Z!

Thank you!

In th meantime, last weekend had a drive to the coast and back (not much, some 200km) and was driving alongside a fella in an e92m3 (414hp 400nm). We did a few rolling start pulls, I was curious just to see whether there will be any difference now with the shorter final drive. To my surprise, the cars were equal! Last year when I tried the same test, the M3 was always pulling away, it was obvious that the Z can't match it...but now it's almost as if they were completely toe to toe. Start from zero would probably be heavily in BMW's favor, as with launch control and automatic, I can't match that...but rolling from 50 it's pretty much dead heat.
Very cool to see that the car is now quicker, and I'm not just imagining it.

It must be feel so great! Nice