Car and Driver Crashes a Nismo 370Z

shabarivas

I bet you these idiots left the shipping blocks in their suspension

NIZMOZ

Glad my NISMO 350Z didn't have any issues on the track in stock form even with OEM pads. It did great. Nissan cheaped out in areas.

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SOLD: 2007 NISMO 350Z #0044 Silver Alloy
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Joehand1

I also noticed a bias against the Nismo, even after earlier articles praisng the Sport package.

However, I'm sure they wrote it after the supposed SUDDEN brake failure and were pissed (I think the Mustang brakes got mushy gradually like my old 2005 Mustang GT did on a track two years ago.)

I really like the way the Z drives, much quicker than the Mustang, but that doesn't fix my disappointment about the brake issue, I figured I could track it out of the box like my other cars.

This is not a real big deal though if you know about it and change the pads before tracking, just a real pain in the ...

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2009 370 Z
2006 Ford GT
1987 Porsche 911 Carrera

Urbanracer

C&D's test data on the nismo looks skewed after reading the article and looking at the times and speeds. Seems the nismo should have come in with a better overall time then the S4 and the Camaro. C&D even gave the nismo a 0.99g in the skid pad test they did when they tested the car, thats better then the S4 and the camaro. Kinda seems like they didn;t push the car as much as they could have, particularly in sector 4 of their track were it came in dead last of all of the cars tested, which makes no sense.

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370z4Steve

Not totally surprised...S4 is a really nice car especially with the active diff..

MightyBobo

Apparently people here dont realize how little room there is at VIR, if your brakes completely fail on you going 135 MPH into a tight 90+ degree turn...

So far Ive seen RCZ reply that he himself took his OEM pads out and barely escaped a fate very similar to C&D. I personally can testify that, after driving VIR, if your brakes WERE to fail, your *** is grass.

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JonBoy

+1

VIR is very hard on brakes. The article stated the pedal went to the floor, which can mean one of a few things:

1. The brake fluid boiled (probable cause, and common on many cars with stock brake fluid).

2. Mechanical failure of the braking system (burst brake line or seal somewhere)

3. Insufficient brake fluid in the system to start with, eventually causing air in the lines

"Bad" or "poor" brake pads will not cause the pedal to go to the floor. When you have glazed or overheated pads, you still get brake pressure (until the fluid overheats) but you get very little stopping force from the pads. It is possible that they both boiled the fluid and overheated the pads, which is about as bad as it gets aside from actually bursting a brake line.

Very few people ever get their cars to 130-140 mph and then hammer the brakes into a turn like that. Even fewer do it lap after lap. This was not a driver problem, it was a car problem and while other cars at VIR in this test experienced brake fade, none of them experienced catastrophic brake fade or failure.

LaSeeno

So... someone took a 30k car (stock) and slammed on the brakes while doing 130mph+ into a turn?

Sounds like driver error to me.

MightyBobo

Have you ever driven on a track before?

If the stock braking system sucks, it sucks. Whether its the fluid boiling or the stock pads getting way too hot. And I'll reiterate - AGAIN - RCZ himself testified that his stock brakes almost completely went with little to no warning.

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dad

"Some thing in the brake system failed, not the driver! Your only fooling your self blaming the driver"!

JonBoy

You've obviously never been on a track. You don't brake gently and easily heading into the turns. Well, you do if you want to be slow, but if you're going for the fastest time (which is what the Lightning Lap is about), you're going to be driving the car as hard as possible and that means heavy braking.

My S2000 could easily boil the stock brake fluid after multiple laps on a racetrack that was heavy on the brakes. It's not at all uncommon. It is uncommon to have it happen so quickly and catastrophically.

They performed the same type of driving on all the other cars and they didn't break or fail this way. If it was all driver error, why didn't it happen in the other cars?

370Zsteve

The June 2010 issue will have an update of the Nismo track incident.

Apparently they finally admit it was not brake "failure". Seems the pads were worn down to the plates and they boiled the brake fluid. Question remains... were the pads worn when they received the car? If so, this highly publicized incident was very damaging to the brand and Nissan should sue their asses if this was the case

source: C&D May 2010 issue, Page 113

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SOLD MY Z MARCH 2018 - another Core OG moves on - new ride 2019 Z Corvette Grand Sport - no mods necessary but already have eyes on HFC and intakes LOL IT NEVER ENDS.

Modshack

Ummmmm....Nissan generally supplies the press and test cars....No lawsuit there!

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MightyBobo

It makes the fanboys feel better to blame the driver, IMHO.

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kenchan

someone deleted my awesome post... must be racially motivated cause im asian.