Car and Driver Crashes a Nismo 370Z
 

February Car and Driver has their annual lightning lap article.
They wrecked a Nismo 370Z, and blamed it on brake failure.
They also had some comments regarding the car's power output.

Vids, links, pics??

more info please

Brake failure?

Interesting...

Only a fool blames the equipment!

This should prove interesting...

they probably got the dreaded ice sand effect and ran out of track...

so who pays for the car?

Or "ran out of talent"

ha, a nice reference to another thread here. +1

Nismo 370Z
 

I tried scanning the article but my scanner is acting up. Anyway, it is in the Feb Edition of Car and Driver. I'll try again later.
According to the article Nissan claims that the brake pads were not the 'track applicable' pads.

They know the left pedal is not the brake?

that'd be pretty sad if that was the case and they blamed it on the brakes...

kinda like this scene
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Pretty sure MANY 370s have been on a track without crashing using stock pads. Nice they blame the car instead of their driving though...

Indeed, sometimes its the Indian, not the arrow

Impatiently waiting for the mail....

I can't find any mention of this on Google. Waiting patiently for the US Mail.

Just checked the mail...ran yesterday.

Wow...Car & Driver really doesn't have anything good to say about the Nismo370Z.

Throw $25 worth of quarters in the cup holder and the M3 would be LL3, and not LL2. And really following the arbitrary price guidelines, Nissan should have delivered a non-Nismo with a Sport package, and qualified for LL1, and would have received rave review after rave review from all the drivers about how great of a track car it is for the price.

Factory option 'sport' pads will be offered on Sport Zs now? How inflated will that price be?

I would think the 09 sport package with the brake upgrade would have the sport pads?If not then Nissan is selling bogus options?

In 2010 they are offering "Nismo racing pads" for anyone that will have the upgraded brakes.

So are these car magazines truely unbiased? Or do they have an agenda behind them when they test all these cars? Some love certain cars while some hate the ones the others love.

I love how they think they were the reason for the release of the new track pad:shakes head:

Lame...

These pads should be standard on all Nismo/track package 370Zs.
C&D sucks at driving.

Hey look, I fared better than that! lol

LOL...definitely more like talent failure. :) Brake failure...that's a good one.

C&D claims it was a hardware failure, while Nissan just says the pad isn't designed for track use. There is no specific statement identifying the hardware component that failed ( i.e. cracked brake pad, ruptured brake line, piston assembly. etc. - so abruptly as C&D claims.) Nissan simply states the brake pads are not designed for track use - implying a position of no liability, not specificity identifying the pad as a failed component.

I think until C&D goes into more detail regarding the investigation, I have to call ******** on this as well.

Every writer has his or her own bias (although not necessarily an "agenda").

The stock pads do not work on the track, many have tried and have had trouble, some have come close to disaster. When the pads get too hot the ABS freaks out and makes the car very unsafe, absolutely feels like a brake system failure to the driver.

So what is the solution?

Easy, replace with dedicated track pads.

I haven't seen any around besides the Nismo pads unless I'm looking in the wrong places.

I was on track a while ago when the brakes failed on me. If I had not had a run off area, I would have crashed the car.

Its the pads...

Carbotech. I went with XP10 front, XP8 rear's as per RCZ's recommendation (and many others), and for a beginner they felt amazing. You need nothing more w/ the stock brake setup other than better brake fluid.

Thanks +rep. I've used ATE Super Blue in the past and it worked great, do you recommend the same?

We have Carbotechs in stock. It's pretty much all we use at the track. It's also rotor and street friendly as well, unlike many race pads.

My point about the brake failure, is that even a semi-experienced amateur driver would recognize quickly that the OEM pad is not suited for track use, and adjust his driving accordingly. Blaming the brake pad or braking system is a poor excuse, especially for a professional magazine.

Dont use Super Blue... get Motul RBF600, its a little more, but I have had much much better experiences with the motul than the ATE...

Shariff: My stock pads were working fine on track until I started adding a little pace. They let go suddenly and the car would not stop. It was so sudden that it caught me by surprise. I wasn't even going 90% on the car yet either... its pathetic.

Could you PM me price for Motul RBF600 + XP10 + XP8?

However, C&D claims that there was no warning prior to the complete brake system failure (although that's pretty hard to believe).