Sports Pkg questions
 

1) Is the ride stiffer than base due to the rim/tire difference?
2) Is there more/less road noise than base?
3) What difference could you feel on the street with the LSD, if any ?
4) Does anyone have the 60-0 numbers on non sports brakes? I think it is 101 for the sport brakes.
5) Would the sport brakes last any longer or shorter than base brakes? Would they be a lot costlier to replace?

Thanks!

I only drove a sport. I assume that the suspension is a little mor stiff and you can get both rear wheels spinning due to the LSD.. no one wheeler peelers here..

I dont think the suspension is any different, but i imagine 19" rims = thinner tires = noisier/rougher ride?

The difference in ride quality between the base 18s and the 19s would be marginal to be honest, I drove the base and S/P Z and they felt the same. As for the LSD: it depends on what you may define as street driving. In the canyons, I feel like having even the stock LSD is a HUGE advantage over open diffs like my Touring. Coming out of turns, I can tell the sport package cars get much better corner exit speed since their inside tire does not spin and waste power.

In casual day to day driving, little to no difference with the limited slip.

1. The ride might be slightly different. The taller sidewall on the 18's will soak up a little more of the bumps.

2. The sport will have fractionally more road noise due to the wider tires.

3. In street driving the stock LSD will lock up and help get the power down but mostly is only of benefit in situations where you would have the VDC off. In cruise mode you're not likely to notice that much of a difference.

4. I don't think there was much in it, maybe 2 feet.

5. The sport brakes are more likely to wear evenly vs the floating caliper design. Pad wear overall is more of a driver factor. Replacement parts are going to cost about the same with the exception of the caliper itself which are usually good for 100,000 miles before needing a rebuild.

Chris, so you think the stopping distance between base and sport brakes is not much? only a few feet if i understood correctly?

Maybe only 2ft different from the sport brakes to the stock??? You know the rear brakes on the Sport are bigger then the front brakes on the base? Not to mention the 4 piston calipers.

Brake rotor size isn't really a determining factor in stopping distance (for a single emergency stop), if the brakes are powerful enough to lock the tire and activate ABS then they will get the job done in equal fashion. Repeated application is a whole different story, and one that isn't typically told by these kinds of test.

The braking distance in these 60-0 tests is basically a factor of tire size and efficiency of the ABS brake force distribution.

:iagree:


:iagree: again. I do turn VDC off in these situations.

if your car's going to be street driven the base will do just fine but the sport package just finishes it up for you from the get go.

as for the stiffer ride, put some wheel spacers on and soften by wheel rate. it's a pretty comfy ride. (15mm rear 20mm front is wat i use). i use 37psi in my RE050A tires.

GL! :)

The biggest difference in the brakes won't be stopping distance. It will be how much abuse the sport brakes can take over the base. They'll stop over and over with less brake fade.

I know my friend can floor his 370Z 'vert (stock) at 40mph with the sport package and light up the slippery-light. I can't imagine that the open-diff would be good for performance applications regarding accleration/traction. There was a whole thread a while back about people (myself included) who wondered why the Z was so easy to break-loose at speed when you stab the throttle. I have never been in a car like that before. Even the C6 I played with didn't do it.

My .02? I have never owned but 1 car with an open diff (My G20 beater). I wouldn't ever own another. Even in the DD it sucks. One time when it was raining, right after I had traded my last car for this G20, I floored it trying to get out into busy traffic. It just sat there and spun 1 tire and moved about 2' and I had to put it in reverse and get the nose out of traffic. I have driven similarly slow cars to the G20 before, but they had a posi-trak (Ford) diff. Never had that issue.

As to the brakes, the 370Z that ate the wall was due to the brake-fluid from what I understand.

The main source of NVH in these comes from the tires and road-noise and almost total lack of insulation. Buy some dynamat or something and it will make WAY more difference than sport/non-sport, and only set you back 8-15#, depending on how aggressive you get with it.

In my opinion...(and I have to say that because if not people might take it for fact and we have a world debate on our hands)

1. Partially... I think. A thinner tire isn't going to absorb as much vibration, so then it is transferred to the suspension, body ect.

2. I would say so yes. I think the base is a little quieter on the inside than the sport mainly due (again) to the size of the wheel and tire. This is also subjective because it depends on what type of surface you drive on.

3. I felt more of a direct link between the road and my right foot. In the base, I'd pull out (with VDC off) and it lights up one tire no questions asked. The sport (with VDC off, and forum gods please don't condemn me for driving with it off!) feels more active and you might get a little wheel hope and slide but it moves.

4. Can't help you there. I know that the brakes in the base weren't bad... the brakes on my sport are freaking killer.

5. Not necessarily. I think if you could find comparable pad and rotors for similar prices, depending on where you look. If you are not going with a race compound tire, brake pads should be in the same range.

Hope that helps!

For street driving assuming of course you arent doing anythin stupid or illegal then base brakes are fine. For the track you really need the sports brakes or an aftermarket set up. The purpose of big brakes is not to improve the occasional emergency stop distance. Their purpose is to stay consistent and functional under heavy abuse on a track. As for suspension all cars have identical suspension except only the nismo.

but the non-sport comes with 18's and narrower tires, no? then that changes suspension dynamics even if the struts/damper/springs are the same. not only that, the tires are different (compound and size) so we're talking 2 completely different setups between base and sport package.


long story short, get the sportpackage.