Here are a few more shots before the wraphttp://i333.photobucket.com/albums/m...rch_4_1920.jpghttp://i333.photobucket.com/albums/m...rch_5_1920.jpghttp://i333.photobucket.com/albums/m...ASAMarch_1.jpg

I agree they are very different but both are quality built good value performance cars. Our issue with the original 03 Z, pointed us to a G35. We had a lemon law buy back 03 Z because of the tire issue. The Wife loved the Z so we ended up with a G35.It was a flaw less car and we traded it on a 08 G37. She wanted a new G ,but they have not changed it very much in the last several years and She misses the Z so we went looking last weekend.

I drive an 11 F150 Eco boost or a 08 Crown Victoria ,because we also up fit Police cars and driving the Shop Demo car gets me thru traffic like a hot knife thru butter. The wife loves the G and the Z will be a daily driver. The Z community was great when we were going thru the tire issue so I thought we would check this site out to see if there were any issues with the new Z.
Mark
http://i333.photobucket.com/albums/m.../MarkVic_1.jpg

There aren't many issues with the 370 at all. I think your wife will be really pleased with one. A 370 with the touring package makes a great daily driver.

:iagree:

I used to think the 370Z was a big car until I saw it next to a Mustang like in the picture I posted above. Makes you realize your really dealing with two differnt classes of cars. One a medium size sporty sedan from Ford and the other a sports car from Nissan. Its a wonder that the Mustangs do as well as they do on track. They just look so big and clumsy in comparison.

When you look at manual tranny Mustang GT they weigh just over 3600 lbs with a 54/46 weight distribution. Thats a lot of weight over the front end. Ford has done good job taming all that weight on smooth surfaces. Not so much when things start to get twisty and bumpy.

Both cars have their places. I see Mustang as more of a Summer cruiser and drag race car and 370Z as more of an enthusiast drivers car.

The Z isn't far off from those numbers though. IIRC, it's is like 3300 with a 53/47.

You discount the Mustang's capabilities a little too much, but of course that's your opinion. If it wasn't an engaging driver's car I wouldn't have traded my Z for one. Highway cruiser? No way. Sedan? Please.

The Brembo GTs, and especially the Boss models, are at home on some twisty back roads. Yeah it might not move quite like a 370Z does but you'll look awfully foolish if you think you can just up and walk away from one in the twisties.

We'll see what happens at VIR.

WTF? a sedan ? sporty ? a 11 GT can hang with a m3 at the track and is faster in a straight. its a sports car.

Actually they are heavy cars our car's current race weight with driver and 1/2 tank of fuel is 3650 Lbs and we hold the AI track record at VIR.

Nice :tup:

having own 5 350Z's over a span of 6 years, a 370Z for a year, a miata for 3 years and now a my first American car bieng a 5.0, and being an avid track head,...i can tell you with all certainty and experience that the 5.0 is on par in the handling department. Am not just some troll here trying to dismiss or discount the 370Z or inflate the 5.0...infact i cant think of a single thing a 370Z can do better than the 5.0...am sorry ....its a great car....with a stiff suspension and tires this thing is going to be NASTY...and if they lose a bit of weight and IRS....there will never be a reason to buy a Z anymore

Never happen. I think they're proving right now that they don't need one.

They'd be a lot faster without the solid axle.

If you say so. Doesn't look like it's hurting them all that badly.

I haven't watched much racing this year, but I've seen a couple clips where you could see the rear end of the stang getting funky on technical portions of the track.

Yeah, but that's a racing spec Stang?

A stock Stang will probably continue to come with SRA.

Am I completely mistaken in thinking it's a nice thing to have at a drag strip?

Yeah, it's great for drag.

I noticed the SRA getting a bit hairy when I was test driving the stang, and I wasn't even killing it. I would love if they brought back the IRS like they used to have on the Cobra's, except better set up for track use. The mustang platform belongs on a road course, rather than the drag strip.

Bullsheet. If you diminish its drag capabilities, you'll cut out a large segment of the customer base. Mustangs are drag cars. The old Fox bodies still kill 'em at the strip.

If SVT or Shelby release a track monster with an IRS (which adds weight, btw), then ok. But base Stangs have always been drag toys.

No, I agree with that. I'm just saying there should be a Boss model or something with IRS.

Foxes actually make pretty decent road course cars as well. No one really realizes it because the prices are driven up due to the demand for them as drag cars, but there are quite a few guys with foxes that will kill it on a road course.

A proper IRS setup will work well for drag also. It's not optimal, but stock 'vettes on stock rubber are cutting 1.7-8's and with slicks and power mods 1.5's on the OEM IRS setup.

I have a friend with the full MM kit (about $10K) and DOT's on his fox. It is GLUED to the ground. He claims 1.05g on the pad is what the company states it will do. They are lightweight cars, and they can be made to stick, their only problem is the nearly 60/40 weight split.

That's assuming the Z stays the same forever. There's a chance that Nissan could try and make it a lot better. Might not be a huge probability any time soon, but still there nonetheless.

If there's one thing we should all learn from The Bieb, it's:

http://cdn02.okcdn.okmagazine.com/wp...n24newsnea.jpg

:werd:

It will happen on the next gen mustang. Yes, they do need it. Roads are not tracks. Roads have little irregularities and expansion joints in them. This is where IRS shines. On a smooth track, it's almost a moot point, but in the real world...

i just dont see them keeping up, i mean from the 350Z hr to the all new 370Z the diff was 306-332 crank :/ meanwhile the mustang got almost a 100RWHP upgrade from year to the next, theres clear evidence it going to get DI very soon. Any kinda advantages the Z ever had, are getting addressed...weight, IRS,

the Z would need a TT or a big badass V8....tt would be awesome but it would cost a grip....the gap between catch up is just growing and growing

well see i guessssssss lol

Yeah, but the 350Z hr didn't have this much competition to motivate a huge change. IMO after Nissan recovers from the quake damage and get everything back in order, there are big changes coming to the Z to make it competitive with cars like the 5.0 or Camaro SS. Yeah they're completely different cars, but are in the same price range and are cross shopped. They are taking away from Z sales.

The only change Nissan made was to adjust production for dismal sales. Where is your source for this "big change"?

I hope there is one, too, but none looms.

It's not a fact, just an opinion. I just think they need it to keep the Z alive. I've heard rumors of DI though.

You may wanna hold off on that 2011 Mustang... http://jalopnik.com/#!5792482/faulty...w-ford-mustang & http://jalopnik.com/#!5796207/ford-s...-transmissions :icon14:

Jeez. That sounds worse than I thought. I knew they had some issues, but damn!

i have no problem beating new gt's or new ss/2ss actually kinda slow cars for the money and what say. the only new mustang that has beat me is my buddys 10' gt rousch and it was by no means walking on me or anything beat me maybe a half i was right on his window with my nose. so imo i can buy a z and do whatever tt/sc and will be way faster and cheaper price.

This sounds all sorts of contradictory.

First, what kind of Rousch is it?
Second, what mods do you have?
Third, are you sure you are racing 5.0's and not 4.6's?

well, it is actually impossible for a nismo or sports PKG 370z to beat a camaro SS or 11 GT. in a straight line. you put professionals in both cars and the results will be the same each time. the SS is not that much faster, the mustang is faster. stock VS stock. unless you are modded that changes the ball game

but if your car is stock you do not know what you are talking about plain and simple. just because you beat some average drivers in your Z you think the Z is faster.....

The Z might be close to a SS. I have seen Youtubes of them racing and the SS slowly creeps, so put a driver in the wrong gear and the Z might win. I know I raced a 265whp 350Z (full bolt-ons/tune) in my WS6 and only put 2 cars on it 60-120, and have raced numerous '10 SS's in my WS6 and it was dead-even every time. The Z and the SS are driver's race with the edge going to the SS.

I sold my WS6 before I got a crack and a 5.0, though, or a 370Z. Sad about those 2 things.

fair enough. but that other guy is saying he is beating SS no problem which is BS

You probably think the 2010 GTs are the new 2011 ones huh? They may look the same, but are completely different. Either that, or you're just a bs'er. I've ran my brothers 40th 370z with bolt-ons the other night and he lost every time(I'm still stock).

3260-ish with the touring package, a little less without.

300+ pounds is "not far off"? Come on man, that's huge. Next you'll be saying that a couple of tenths in the quarter mile is just a couple of tenths. ;)

This is actually the source of a lot of controversy on the Mustang forums. It's largely a misrepresentation of the issue at hand. This article is based on one thread on a Mustang forum with around 3,000 posts in it from around 250 different users. At least 90% of these posts are attributable to select few. The article is very vague and just assumes that these 250 posters account for the "hundreds" of "broken" transmissions, which is not true.

So far we know of one user that actually had a defective transmission, which was replaced. Unfortunately he turned out to be the type of person who would make it his personal crusade to go after Ford because of it.

The rest of the complaints are about clunky shifts, mainly when cold. As anyone who has driven a manual transmission - especially a direct-input or semi-remote style - will tell you, on cold starts the 1-2 and sometimes 2-3 shifts can be a little rough. Anyone who has been on this forum since the early days will remember all the complaints from nubs we would have to respond to because they thought that clunky 1-2 shift was a grind and something was wrong with their transmission.

That's what's going on here. Inexperienced manual transmission drivers are reporting every little clunk they hear or feel and in many cases are misdiagnosing them as "grinds." A clunk is fine. After the transmission warms up it's buttery smooth.

I have 13,000 miles on mine so far and I have not had any issues. I definitely experience a cold shift clunk on the 1-2 over the winter or on chilly mornings, but never a grind or anything truly faulty. I am an experienced driver, though, so I know not to freak out and cry to Ford because the Getrag in my 412 HP car is making a little noise.

As a Z community, we went through these complaints in '09 (remember the infamous Modshack one-liner, "is this your first car?" :icon17:), and for the Mustang community they are dealing with the same thing in 2011. The 5.0 has brought on a lot of newer, inexperienced drivers to the Mustang ranks. And it so happens that these nub owners are some of the whiniest I have ever observed on an internet forum.

Why do you think I have 24k+ posts here? :p:icon17:

Overall I'd say the Getrag MT-82 is a fine transmission. Would it have been my number one choice? No, I'd have loved to see a beefier T56 in there with a true direct input, but it does seem like the MT82s are holding up to repeated abuse... there are a few 600-700whp cars running the stock transmission without any issues yet.

I think all this is is the 2009 370 6MT saga all over again. You have a few transmissions replaced for bum synchros (it happens) and then a lot of complaints from inexperienced drivers for things that the experienced guys know are normal. The only difference is that the Mustang is getting a lot more exposure because the nubs are more vocal and there are just more Mustangs out there (the MT-82 is used in the V6 and V8 models, so you have to figure at least 25k manual transmission 2011 models have been sold).

Oh, and there are a lot of old-guard Mustang "buy 'murrcan" owners that are just bitching because the transmission is designed by a German company and built in their Communist Chinese factory. I guarantee you if this was a Tremec (Mexico) there'd be far fewer complaints, because most good 'Murrcans have learned to accept that some goods can indeed be built in Mexico and Canada... 'cause we're attached to 'em and can supervise 'em, ya know? :facepalm:

I have never had any problems in our shop 2011 but we replaced the trans in our race car with a T-56. Under road race conditions the stock trans will over heat and fail. We did not want to add a cooler so we replaced the trans,Also a 2010 4.6 is a dog compared to a 11 5.0. On our Dyno our old shop car a 2010 GT with cams ,cold air ect only made 310 RWHP,for comparison our 11 Saleen/GT put down 371 RWHP stock.I love the Z's and G's but a stock 5.0 mustang will walk any stock Z in a strait line.