If you have been keeping up on our 370z exploits, good for you.  If you haven’t then HERE is some mandatory reading.

We were planning on taking the car to the Motorsport Auto Show (MSA) from the beginning and if you know us then you are aware that there was NO WAY that we were going to take a stock car.  We made a few phone calls to the people that can make things happen and the ZCG 370z turned into a monster overnight.

We decided that the first change to the car needed to be in the suspension department.  Eibach springs was a first choice because of their pedigree in the industry and we shortly had a couple of boxes at our door.  They are advertised to lower the car 0.9″ in the front and 0.8″ in the rear.  The springs are a progressive rate set-up front and rear to help with ride quality and in the handling department.  The looks are vastly improved as the photos show and I’m happy to report that there is a noticeable decrease in body roll and mid corner stability seems to be improved; it’s a nice improvement considering that the ride quality is not any more harsh than before.

The next call we made was to our friends down at StopTech Brakes, and we went for the big boy of brake kits.  You can remember that we ran into problems with the stock brake system after a few sessions on the track so we felt the need to step up here.  It was the week of the MSA show so we needed to request overnight delivery if we were to finish everything that week and when we unwrapped the boxes we were overjoyed.

Before our eyes lay the latest and largest kit that StopTech has to offer for the 370z.  It includes 6 piston front calipers with 380mm rotors in the front and 4 piston calipers and 355mm rotors in the rear.  The rotors are a slotted two piece design to aid in performance and replacement.  I don’t even know where to begin to describe the feeling these brakes give when you slam on the “stop” pedal, it’s not worth testing the limits on the street so we will be heading back to the track with haste very soon.  Bummer, I know, more track days for work.  Where will it end.  Haha

Now comes the time for improved power.  We ordered the Stillen cat-back exhaust and the new Gen-3 intake system to help our car breathe better on both sides of the engine.  Before I even get to any sort of dyno results I need to say that everyone here at Z Car Garage was let down by the fit and finish on these two products.  The exhaust rubs and hits in at least two or three places, its painfully annoying.  The intake system comes with no brackets of any sort and the front part is left to bounce around to rub on and destroy anything it pleases (see video below.)  We have made our own brackets and changes to the intake to prevent any sort of serious damage, we were even forced to wrap the air conditioning lines on the driver’s side to prevent the intake from inevitably rubbing through.  Stillen is a huge company with tons of R&D time in these products, I don’t understand how they could ship a part like this and expect owners to be satisfied.

As far as power numbers are concerned, it is an improvement.  On the graphs the blue line is the car returned to its totally stock form for a baseline.  The red line is after the intake only.  The final green line is with the intake and exhaust.  Each change gains around ten wheel horsepower and a moderate torque increase as well.  Too bad horsepower poor fit and finish.  I have heard from our sources that they have made improvements to the exhaust fitment, and not to defend Stillen, but these were some of the first parts on the market for the 370z.  We here at Z Car Garage just want our customer base to get the the best product they can, and the product that you deserve.

As far as future upgrades to the ZCG 370z are concerned, I will be posting the solution to our other track event failure sometime next week with test data to follow as soon as we get back to the track.

Here is the video of the intake that is supplied without any brackets.  We ended up making our own.  Enjoy the random music in the background.

Last weekend was amazing.  I have so many stories and so many pictures to share with all of you.  Give me some time to upload the pictures and prepare the posts and you will not be disappointed.

The good news is that we took home a couple of trophies from the MSA show and had a blast talking to everybody at the show.  We met some great people and had some good times.  I should have a few things up by mid week.  ZCG

Here is a video of the first red group (most experienced) session in our ZCG 370z last Saturday at Thunderhill.  This isn’t me driving but you will see my helmet bounce in and out of the screen a few times from the passenger seat.  There isn’t anything too exciting here as it’s the first session but I thought some of you might like to see it

Also remember that we are in a stock 370z on stock tires here.  Almost all of these cars are on “R” compound tires and some are making huge horsepower, ex: both Dodge Vipers.  We’ll be able to keep up with them soon!

Hopefully next time we get the ZCG 370z out on track we will be a bit more successful with completing the entire day.  Enjoy and be safe.

Note: If any of our loyal readers have footage of their Zs on track at Laguna Seca on Monday please let me know.  Alvin and Scott this means you two.

Zs are at home on the race track.  The Z was thrust into the public eye back in the early 70’s when they were winning every event that they could be entered in.  So when Z Car Garage picked up a 370z a couple of weeks one of our first goals was to get the stock car out on the track to see what it could do.

We were at the track fully loaded with a greasy breakfast by 6:30 and by 7:30 we had finished registration and tech and were awaiting the driver’s meeting.  The meeting began close to 8am and our large group went through all of the usual track event propaganda.  The Speed Ventures crew was super down to earth and very upfront about what they expected from all of us and the thorough meeting took place without a hitch.

We registered the car in the Red (fastest and most experienced) and White (most novice) to ensure that we would get as much time on the track as possible.  The red group came up right after the driver’s meeting so we geared up and got on track with me riding shotgun.  After everything was warmed up we got to the task of seeing how far we could push the car in it’s stock form.

We figured the tires would be the limiting factor for the car today but we were out to test the limits of every part of the car, and boy did we ever.  We finished the session and pulled the car into the pits to record our test data and then let the car cool down for one session.  Then I got behind the wheel to go out for my first session.  Which leads me to what you are all waiting to hear.  The car had issues.  Two and a half laps after I went out I was back in the pits with a frown on my face.

I’m not going to go into what happened until we have a solution to offer all of you.  After we determined that the issue wasn’t detrimental to the car or our safety we went back out in the next few sessions, and then we ran into our second problem.  This time on our standard post-session inspection we discovered that the front right brake pad had begun to degrade and was grooving the rotor, check out the pictures.  At this point we decided to call it a day because we had to drive the car two-and-a-half hours back to San Jose.

On further inspection today our suspicions were confirmed, it looks like we’ll be calling Nissan to have it replaced…. under warranty.  All the other brakes looked fine and were functioning normally and in fact I didn’t notice any change in performance in the brake system in the session before the failure.  Strange.  Looking back we could have risked it and stayed for a few more sessions to see if the situation would change but because of the first issue we headed back to the bay area.

Even though the car wasn’t perfect, I had a blast testing the car and would encourage all of you to get out on the track and have some fun.  Everyone that I spoke to at the event was amazing.  Car people are the best and always seem to go out of their way to take car of fellow enthusiasts, thanks to all who attended the event.  We will see you soon, and we’ll be bringing the 370z.

ZCG is committed to making the 370z an efficient track tool and will go to any lengths necessary to solve any issues that come up.  As soon as any progress is made it will be released here on ZCarBlog.com first so make sure you keep coming back to get your fix.

There are over a hundred photos after the ‘read more’ so make sure you check them out. One of the cars that I was most interested in was a Mazda FD RX-7.  This car is simply amazing.  Nothing on the car was left untouched.  Check out the photos and I’ll try to get some more info from the owner.  Wow.  I tried to take photos of as many cars as I could so I hope that yours made it.  See you out there.

…[read more]

I’ve decided not to post all of the Convertible and NISMO pictures because they can be found in all of their High-Res glory at www.Nissan370zNY.com.   Here for your viewing pleasure are two videos from Nissan that feature both cars.