Baseline dyno and stock pictures:
We are all aware that the HR version is at the top of the hill as far as the 3.5L engines go. But now we have some hardcore proof of how strong this engine is with just a few bolt-ons. This car belongs to a good friend and customer of ours and it is now starting to put down some serious power.
Earlier this year Z Car Garage installed a Bassani cat-back exhaust system with cross-over pipe. The baseline dyno for the new mods (high flow cats and intake) was done with the exhaust system installed. The Bassani exhaust post on My350z.com can be found HERE.
The Stillen high-flow catalytic were first on the list to be installed after today’s baseline dyno. They installed in about a half hour with no real complications. Then our Innovate wide band O2 sensor was then installed to monitor the air/fuel ratio. Off to the dyno! The gains we saw were a pleasant surprise and we are very happy with the overall result. This mod also brought out some more roar in the Bassani system. It sounds mean…
Next on the list for this morning was the new Injen Intake System for the VQ35HR engines. This new system uses twin POP style filters and drastically moves the location of the filters all the way down and into the front radiator opening in the front bumper. This move ensures that tons of fresh, high pressure, air will be crammed into the filters.
As you can see form the graph above we also picked up some massive whp gains from the intake as well! In uncorrected form this car put down over 300hp to the rear tires, WITH ONLY A FEW BOLT ONS!! All of the dyno graphs listed here are SAE corrected to even things out.
This post should brighten the days of more than a few HR owners who cringed when they heard of the imminent release of the new 3.7L engine. Only time will tell how much more normally aspirated horsepower we will make with this engine but you better believe that we have more HR parts on order as I write this. Can you say experimental ECU tuning? Ummm… I love the smell of power in the morning.
All three runs below: (click for larger)
More Photos After the Read More
…[read more]
The drive from Sacramento to Las Vegas with the 370z was like winning the lottery. I’m not kidding. Getting the opportunity to drive these cars on an extended trip like this is a once in a life time experience (well hopefully not.)
I was able to drive the final leg all the way from Bakersfield to Las Vegas. I have never been more impressed with a STOCK car in my entire life. This car is amazing! The improvements over the out-going model are almost too vast to describe here, but I’ll give it my best.
Exterior styling: While quite a few people feel that the new car has some strange styling ques the design really grows on you one you spend some time on it. I spent four days with the car doing everything from detailing them to driving them through the desert with ZCG’s finest creations and I have fallen in love with the way it looks. It is definitely a Z.
Interior: Improvements in this department are vast. All of the materials are top notch quality and the arrangement of the buttons and switches has been improved over the 350z. I wasn’t too big of a fan of the seats in the standard model (I drove the blue 370z the 300 miles from Bakersfield to Las Vegas) but the other people on the drive had no complaints. The Premium Edition interior was also very impressive with it’s power leather seats and full navigation system. Very nice indeed.
Engine: The new VQ is the best normally aspirated V6 Nissan has ever produced, hands down. There is torque everywhere with this thing!! With the rev limit still up at 7,500 rpm so there is plenty of room to play around the rpm range while changing gears as little as possible if you desire. Yes please…
Drivetrain: This is my favorite part of the entire package. They have modified the electronics in the car to recognize what gear you are in at any time. This allows the ecu to be able to rev match you automatically no matter what gear you select, and it works on up shifts too! NO MORE MISSED THROTTLE BLIPS, EVER. The only way to miss a shift now is if you don’t engage the shifter all the way.
In other words if you are at 60mph and you want to go from 5th to 4th gear you just need to disengage the clutch and start to move the shifter and the engine will adjust it’s RPM to match the selected gear and it will hold it there as long as you have your foot on the clutch. You can even keep the clutch in while shifting from gear to gear and the engine RPM will dance around the tach like Circ de Soleil. Wicked.
If you have any specific questions about the car feel free to leave a comment of shoot us an email and I will add whatever information I can get my hands on. Now without further delay here are some more pictures from our adventures on the Follow The Nissan Z tour to Las Vegas and Back.
There are more photos after clicking the read more link and always click on the pictures for larger.
…[read more]
