370Z at Nurburgring
 

Does anyone know the 370Z's lap time at Nurburgring? I recall hearing it did a sub-8 minute lap, but that seems impossible given the list of the top 200 lap times (posted as a sticky in this forum).

No possible way its sub 8. The Cadillac CTS-V barely cracked 7:59 and it has 556HP with a 3.9 0-60 and a 12.0 1/4 mile.

Yeah. All I could figure is the road holding of the Z beats the caddy. Doubt that would make the difference though.

LOl and how does that mean the Z does it slower than the caddy? Its a freakin boat for crying out loud

I don't think they counted the oil cooler timeouts on the Z.

Because the CTS-V is the fastest production 4 door car in the world.

speed in a straight line means nothing in the ring... do you have any idea how many turns it has? I am sure a Z would do better than a SL55... why not a ctsv?

and FQ400 > CTSv and its 4 doors too

Well, we'll just have to wait and see I guess.

Not until it's been around the Nürburgring.

you really think a fq400 would do less well on the worlds most technical track than a caddy?

No, I'm just saying it's not the case until it happens - you understand? I should just veto any results from that car since you really can't consider it a production vehicle given all the tuning shops it has to go through before you can purchase 1 of the 100 being produced.

m3 csl (e46) gets a better time then the m3(e90) and the e90 has more hp so im sure that hp doesnt matter as much as the handling of the car.

Track setup is clearly important. YouTube confirms this in the GT-R vs 370Z battle with the gtr only besting the z by a second or two on a short curvy course. The cts-v has 0.9g road holding while the Z is 0.98. Now the Nurburgring is the mother of all tracks as it incorporated almost every track element. How straight line acceleration competes with road holding isn't so clear. You can also compare braking as well where the Z also prevails. In the end, the Zs superior handling may mean a lot more than the caddy's hp.

Someone get a Z on the nurburgring already!

i completely agree. the new z is gonna do some damage

I love my Z, and the handling is great, but I think a stock Z isn't going to rank very high on the 'ring, it lacks the raw power for it.

I agree..... Plus it will overheat. lol

Well the 350Z got a 8:26 back in 2003. ;[]

M3 CSL also comes standard with race rubbers (Michelin Pilot Sport Cups).

Let's get a couple of things straight about the 'Ring. First, power trumps all. Nurburgring has several very long straights where top speeds in excess of 200 miles per hour can be reached in a car with enough HP. Those sections can be as long as several MILES. The difference between a car that can reach, say, sustain 180mph and a car that's limited to say, 130mph, can be up to a full minute. And vehicle top-speed is a function of it's available HP and aerodynamic drag. Therefore cars with a clear HP advantage will have an easier path to a faster lap time at the 'Ring.

Not saying that a car that handles well won't be faster than a car that doesn't handle well, but the very nature of the beast that is the "ring" rewards cars with HP more than it does reward cars with grip.

But let's get back to the tangent, for a moment, of the BMW E46 M3 CSL vs. E90 M3. On a typical 2 mile long road course, the difference between a car equipped with R-comps and car equipped with run of the mill street tires can be as much as 5 seconds. On a 14 mile long course? It's simple to see why the CSL should be faster despite having 60 less horses.

Let's focus on this statement. The 350Z automatic pulled an 8:26. Other cars aside, the 370Z is a superior car to that 350Z in every way. The real question is can the additional hp and road-holding of the 370Z buy 26 seconds? As the HACK noted, the 'ring' is a very long course where these upgrades on the 370Z may make a 26s improvement feasible.

Um...Not really. It's going to take a lot of HP to make up 26 seconds on the 'Ring. I'd be VERY surprised if the 370Z breaks 8:15.

Let's take a very similar car on paper for example. The BMW MZ4 Roadster did a 8:15 on street tires:

SUPERCARS.NET - Comprehensive Specifications, Galleries & Forums since 1996

Same HP figures, the MZ4R is about 200 lbs lighter than the 370Z but probably suffers in the aerodynamics department, so we'll call that a wash. If I had to take a guess, the 370Z will probably come in somewhere just north of 8:15, probably 8:16-8:17 range. Anything lower than that would be a very big surprise.

But the skidpad rating for the Z4 M is only 0.89 Gs (vs the 370Z's 0.98). You then have essentially the same car except for the 370Z having significantly better cornering ability. Given that significant difference, I'd put money on the 370Z trumping the Z4M.

Looking at that list again, a more interesting comparison is the Porsche Cayman S...a car that Nissan itself pitted the 370Z against. The Cayman S pulled an 8:11 lap time. So, I'd put the Z right in that range. Given that Cayman S's time, I agree that the stock 370Z probably couldn't 'best' 8 minutes. :shakes head:

Suffice to say though, our 370Zs are in good company...especially when we paid <$40k!

Eh..... I don't buy it.
The radical SRT8 smokes everything with more HP. The Veyron with all its HP can't beat the viper ACR, porsche turbo/GT2, R35 GTR, or ZR1.

I do agree that the back straight means that a lot of time can be made up if you have enough hp but the only place where HP is enough to give you a win is on a drag strip.

Now if the 370z was delimited, it might be able to do something quick (8:15ish) but I don't see it being under 8 minutes.

370Z besting Cayman S's 8:11, it's not likely. There are multiple factors involved here that would work against the 370Z. The Cayman S has a significantly better drag coefficient and a smaller frontal area, therefore it has the potential to achieve higher top speed for less HP. The Cayman S is also significantly lighter than the 370Z.

Obviously, for all our discussion here, it is merely all speculation until someone actually takes the 370Z out to the mighty 'Ring and actually sets a time. But logic tells me to expect anything between 8:16-8:18.

Yeah, i don't think it will beat the Cayman S either. I do think it will beat the Z4 M though. I'll bet on 8:13.

Some of that's going to depend on the day and the driver, natch...

There's no way the 370Z will lap the 'ring in under 8 minutes. But I'm sure it will be a few seconds behind the Cayman.

Another thing, why hasn't Nissan taken the 370Z to the Nurburgring? The GTR was in 'ring heaven, why not the Z? :(

I'm sure they did take the 370Z to Nordschleife, the results just haven't been published or weren't favorable enough.

Agreed. Google searches come up with lots of articles saying "the new 370Z was spied in the Nurburgring area..." yet there are no lap times posted. Somebody had a bad day behind the wheel or they didn't have an oil cooler on that car.

well keep in mind a FWD chevy cobalt SS w 260HP did the RING in 8:22

I still put a 370Z with oil cooler in the 8:12 to 8:15 range. Something fishy happened to not have the lap times readily posted.

370Z is not that superior to the 350z... sure maybe in interior trim but not performance wise. Its a drivers race between the two. If Nissan were pushing out 400+ hp to the wheels then maybe it could break into the 7s. But it doesnt so plan on a 8:15 or so. Anything more is a pipe dream.

Remember Nissan took a "stock... yeah right" GTR over there and ran a 7:29. Porsche took a stock one over there and couldnt get within 25 seconds of that time with a professional driver. So lets split the difference and say a stock GTR will do 7:45. You think a 370Z can get within 15 seconds of that car. LOL Not a chance. Hell Nissan wouldnt even allow that. its all about HP and the 370z just doesnt have enoguh to do 8s.

Edited by AK

No personal attacks please. The list on the top MAY NOT be the most updated list. Just wait until Nissan decides to run the Z at the ring. That's the ONLY way to figure out what this car will run. Every car responds in a different way in the ring.

Wow there were no personal attacks. Why was all of it removed from the thread????

My last car was a 2006 z51 corvette. That car ran a 7:59 at the ring. I now have a 370z with sport package. Stock vs stock, the Corvette will annihilate the 370z in a straight line or around the track.

I vote for 8:16, right behind the Cayman S, but ahead of the camaro.

On the topic of roadbolding and skidpad numbers, they are not equal. The 370z shocks are underdamped. On a 300 foot skidpad, it's all about tires, track width, height of center of gravity and roll bars. The 370z is well equipped I'm the latter areas, but throw some transitions at it and it starts flopping around like a fish out if water. I've got coilovers on my 370z and it now handles superior to my 06 Corvette, but is still probably a little slower because the lack of power, especially under 5000 rpm.

Lastly, the caddilac CTS-V is no boat. It is heavy and the tires are not big enough, but technoloically the suspension is far superior to the 370z. The Delphi suspension bits are the same as the ones that put the ZR-1 ahead of almost every car on every track. The CTS-V doesn't have amazing grip because of it's weight and tires, but the handling is exceptional.

^ Hmmmm. I like that thought: Put some coilovers on the Z and it handles better than the Z51 Corvette (IHO). Sweet!

May I ask which coilovers you are running with?

The answer is here!
 

Here is the answer and result is really nice
:icon18:
Lap Times - Nurburgring, Bedford, Hockenheim, Serres Lap Times - Predicted Lap Times

That would be an 8:11.28 for the 370Z. I'm guessing the yellow highlight means 'predicted' though?

I think a Nismo on sticky tires with a very fast driver could get close to 8:00.

I got under 8 minutes on GT5 with 370Z

And once again, reality becomes blurred.