Project 350z Drift Car
05-04-2016, 03:47 PM
#1
Registered User
Thread Starter
Project 350z Drift Car
Hey everyone,
Andrew here from ISC. I wanted to share a little project we have been (and are) working on. Feel free to ask any questions or share your thoughts.
What this isn't:
This is not a Formula Drift Prepped Car. This car isn't in any relation to any of the drivers we support in Pro-AM, Formula Drift US/Canada.
What this is:
Its a build for fun, a budget minded "company shop car" if you will. Employee driven, employee built. Myself (Owner), Jorel (sales) and Kyle (tech) all drive it, and share the build direction, make team decisions on where to take it next, etc.
The car gets a lot of seat time. I saw a lot of threads on here about mileage; "150k how long will it last", etc. this engine has about 100k on it (we were told). The car runs at every ClubLoose North Event. They have about 12 events a year, BUT the car runs in A group, B group, and C group... so needless to say its getting 2x to 3x more abuse/use than a traditional car at the event! If someone want's to get a feel for the car or our suspension products, they can drive it themselves or hop in for a ride along.
I started the build thread on our website about 2 months ago, so I need to make some posts on here to bring this thread to current/ this week.
Build thread on site for reference: http://iscsuspension-na.com/company-...t-car-project/
A little background:
Long story short as individuals we got hooked on drifting (driving) about a year ago when we signed on as a sponsor of ClubLoose. It translated from a traditional event as a vendor, to "why don't we drift too?!". And then things just took off. For years the brand has been involved with products orientated for drift, including supporting competitive and professional drivers in various series around the world, so I guess it was time we gave it a try behind the wheel!
We started last year with a BRZ. Started stock. It came to the point where I needed to sink some significant time and money into the BRZ to make it capable of going to the next level in A group and beyond (U.S. Drift, etc). The car lacked power, lacked suspension angle, and also we needed to invest in a cage to run in A class.
I always kept a close eye on how the 350z's performed at the track. Even fairly stock (motor wise) they had the ability to recover from a mistake and flow properly on the course due to the amount of power they do have (at least compared to a BRZ), and the way the suspension worked with the chassis.
I pretty much decided that a 350z was the next step. Not to mention they are a bit cheaper than a 2014 BRZ, so that left more budget for aftermarket parts! Sold the BRZ and started poking around over the winter for a 350z in the New England area.
Andrew here from ISC. I wanted to share a little project we have been (and are) working on. Feel free to ask any questions or share your thoughts.
What this isn't:
This is not a Formula Drift Prepped Car. This car isn't in any relation to any of the drivers we support in Pro-AM, Formula Drift US/Canada.
What this is:
Its a build for fun, a budget minded "company shop car" if you will. Employee driven, employee built. Myself (Owner), Jorel (sales) and Kyle (tech) all drive it, and share the build direction, make team decisions on where to take it next, etc.
The car gets a lot of seat time. I saw a lot of threads on here about mileage; "150k how long will it last", etc. this engine has about 100k on it (we were told). The car runs at every ClubLoose North Event. They have about 12 events a year, BUT the car runs in A group, B group, and C group... so needless to say its getting 2x to 3x more abuse/use than a traditional car at the event! If someone want's to get a feel for the car or our suspension products, they can drive it themselves or hop in for a ride along.
I started the build thread on our website about 2 months ago, so I need to make some posts on here to bring this thread to current/ this week.
Build thread on site for reference: http://iscsuspension-na.com/company-...t-car-project/
A little background:
Long story short as individuals we got hooked on drifting (driving) about a year ago when we signed on as a sponsor of ClubLoose. It translated from a traditional event as a vendor, to "why don't we drift too?!". And then things just took off. For years the brand has been involved with products orientated for drift, including supporting competitive and professional drivers in various series around the world, so I guess it was time we gave it a try behind the wheel!
We started last year with a BRZ. Started stock. It came to the point where I needed to sink some significant time and money into the BRZ to make it capable of going to the next level in A group and beyond (U.S. Drift, etc). The car lacked power, lacked suspension angle, and also we needed to invest in a cage to run in A class.
I always kept a close eye on how the 350z's performed at the track. Even fairly stock (motor wise) they had the ability to recover from a mistake and flow properly on the course due to the amount of power they do have (at least compared to a BRZ), and the way the suspension worked with the chassis.
I pretty much decided that a 350z was the next step. Not to mention they are a bit cheaper than a 2014 BRZ, so that left more budget for aftermarket parts! Sold the BRZ and started poking around over the winter for a 350z in the New England area.
05-04-2016, 03:49 PM
#2
Registered User
Thread Starter
After a great year running our BRZ drift car in 2015 we decided to switch things up for 2016. We wanted to take a different approach, using a more drift orientated chassis. In the world of Drift Nissan has a lot to offer. From the S13/S14 chassis, do the 350z/370z chassis, and even the older classic Datsun’s. The 350z made the most sense for us, due to the current and future products we want to offer for this platform; it will be a great way to test and develop new additions to the ISC 350z product line.
Project ISC Drift Car; 2003 Nissan 350z 
Project ISC Drift Car; 2003 Nissan 350z
Vehicle: 2003 Nissan 350z
Project Goal: To build a grassroots competitive drift car that is reliable, affordable and fun.
Start Date: March 2016
Supporting Partners:
March 5 2016
So here we are in the beginning stages of our 2016 350z Drift Project! All the entries and updates will be located on this page. Our local series that we sponsor (ClubLoose North) is only a month away, so needless to say we have some work to do.
After keeping an eye out over the winter last week we were able to source Nissan 350z that fit within our needs and budget. It was currently living its life as a drift car, and was sitting for a year or two. It is a bit rough around the edges, BUT it was a great platform to start on so we took the plunge. Jorel and Andrew drove through the night down to New Jersey about 6 hours away to grab the 350z last week.
Here are some images representing how it looked when we picked it up last week:
As you can see, the interior needs some work. Although it will stay gutted, we will implement a formal dash, with actual gauges!
We gave it a good cleaning, found a lot of leaf debris, as it must have sat under a tree for a while. We gave it a compression check, new NGK 1 step colder spark plugs, and a oil change.
Stay tuned for next week’s coilover installation!
Last edited by ISC Suspension; 05-04-2016 at 04:03 PM.
05-04-2016, 03:50 PM
#3
Registered User
Thread Starter
March 10 2016
After Cleaning the Z up last week, doing fluids and some basic maintenance it was time to work on suspension. We put on some of our ISC N1 Street Sport coilovers.
Formal 350z Installation Guide from this install is located here: (Coming Soon)
Obtaining optimal ride height for this application is key with the front end suspension design on the 350z platform. As we got the Z was to low, it looked good, but drift wise it would not have been as functional, so we raised it about 1.5 inches. Future suspension modifications will include camber arms and an angle kit, but we made some progress today by getting some fresh coilovers on there! The 32 way adjustable ISC’s make for a perfect drift platform, and have been proven through years of drift use, including Formula drift with drivers like Jeremy Lowe and Tyler Nelson. Our first event next month will be a shake down and tuning day, with a big focus on suspension tuning and vehicle dynamics.
More information on our coilovers for the Nissan 350z can be found here: http://iscsuspension-na.com/store/#!/350Z-G35-Coilovers-Suspension/c/12617079/offset=0&sort=normal
After we install the camber kit we will do a formal alignment here at our facility. First drift event is only a month away, so we have some work ahead of us! Next post will be about mounting the race seats correctly, a new radiator and some body parts!
05-04-2016, 03:51 PM
#4
Registered User
Thread Starter
March 18 2016
Some new (to us) components have been arriving this week. We got a new (used) hood since the carbon fiber one that the car came with was to far gone unfortunately, saw 1 to many hits! We got this OEM hood that we will paint shortly, to the NEW color of the car we have in the works 
Paint color will be top secret until officially released!
Paint color will be top secret until officially released!
We also got a new radiator and headlights today. The headlights is came with had broken tabs and we were unable to mount them securely to the tubular front end of the car. The OEM radiator we had was fine, but due to the abuse these vehicles go through we felt the car deserved a nice aftermarket aluminum radiator. The old coolant was disgusting so we were glad we got that situated!
Next on the list was exhaust. We ordered a Invidia exhaust system and ran into a little issue. Come to find out our current aftermarket setup was a true dual exhaust, this invidia system brings the dual into a single exhaust where it meets the catpipes. Hope was not lost, we were able to source a stainless steel assembly, and even delete the cats! So we killed two birds with one stone. It did push back productivity since we needed to order additional items, but that should be ready for next week’s installation and blog topic. Will it be realistic to build a reliable fun drift car for $6,500.00 or under? The costs are rising but there is still hope!
We have only had the car for a few weeks and it is great to see it start to come together, but we still have a lot of work to do before the ClubLoose North Spring Opener which is less than a month away. In addition to the exhaust getting finalized next week we plan on properly mounting the race seats and harnesses, as well as beginning to do some body work. Stay tuned for next week’s progress report!
05-04-2016, 03:51 PM
#5
Registered User
Thread Starter
March 23 2016
This week the theme has been attention to detail. Although we still have plenty of fine tuning to do there were several smaller but time consuming tasks that needed to get situated. with ClubLoose North season opener 24 days away we are spending about 20 hours a week on this car until it reaches more mature stages of completion. The theme was also not being able to “catch a break”. Between having some defective new parts, strange surprises from prior work down before we owned it, and some not as advertised used parts we certainly had to invest a LOT of extra work into the car this week, which should have taken half the time!
The race seats were welded to the chassis of the car from the prior owner, literally welded. No adjust ability allowed. So, we cut the welds and pulled the seats and ordered some NRG rails and brackets. To our surprise the OEM mounting mounts on the chassis were welded over too, so this turned into a solid days project making this all work correctly. As luck would have it the NRG seat rail/ bracket didn’t line up correctly with the 350z mounting points, so we had to cut up the brand new bracket and weld the tab on correctly. These were about 65.00 each.
Next onto some body panel securing. The current “clips” were rusted, and the rubber bands that used to be there were replaced by zip ties. We ripped those off and picked up some of these puppies. Stainless steel too, so they shouldn’t rust again! These were 25.00 per pair.
Next on the list was a handbrake. This drift car did not have one, and having a hydraulic handbrake especially for this vehicle platform is key. To keep this build down in budget Andrew picked up a used one on Facebook from someone for $100.00. Once we opened the box we realized that it was cracked, and bent, and beat. So spending $50.00 more on a new one would have been well worth it, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose with buying parts off of people! So…. time for more welding and powder coating, THEN it will be ready to use!
We threw on some NRG hood dampers as well this week. These were direct fit (pheww, something worked out for us this week) and now we can raise the hood and have it stay in place. These go for about $100.00.
To compliment the new headlights from last weeks write up Andrew ordered some yellow Lamin-X. We have worked with Lamin-X in the past, they make a great product and they are a awesome group of people to work with. You you will to wait for the finished installation results but for now here is just a teaser
Time for a few stickers to go on 
We decided on a paint color and we ordered some materials and supplies for the job.
For next week’s post: Prepping the 350z for exterior paint (including body work). Painting the gutted interior white. Drivetrain fluid changes. Installing the busted hydraulic handbrake (after we fix it), and maybe even installing the new exhaust system! A lot to do, we shall see!
05-04-2016, 03:52 PM
#6
Registered User
Thread Starter
March 20 2016
A lot went down this week, again it appeared to be another week of “attention to detail”.
Body Work Preparation: Made some progress this week. Kyle did some body work on the roof, and we also painted the interior. The interior was multiple colors of unfinished attempts so we finalized it with a nice coat of white to give it a cleaner appearance.
Here is a before and after shot of the interior, notice that the handbrake is now installed and completed as well, powder coated, welded, and installed!
We then formally mounted BOTH seats, as you can recall we did the driver seat a couple weeks ago, but the passenger seat did not have proper harness anchor points. The crew came in on Saturday and got some extra drift car hours in, this was one of the last steps in making this interior completed.
As promised here is the picture of the Lamin-X installed (www.lamin-x.com). Came out good in my opinion! Installing Lamin-X is a great balance of heat, water, and well… patience! The kits come with everything you need to install, and if you are a first time installer they have a lot of good pointers and installation guides on the website.
With the first event 2 weeks away it was time to start thinking about tires as well. We grabbed some rubber for the first event. We will be running a 245/40/18 tire size.
It was time to drill out the new hood we got so we could install some hood pins! Always interesting punching holes through things!
Things are coming together, There is a still a lot to be done but it is great to see and feel the progress. Next week we are going to situate the exhaust and continue to prep for painting the car.
05-04-2016, 03:52 PM
#7
Registered User
Thread Starter
April 5 2016
We wanted to situate the exhaust on this car. We thought we initially just needed a catback. We went with a Invidia system.
Kit can be located here: Invida 350z Catback
Invidia has a good quality system that won’t break the bank. When we went to install the system we noticed we overlooked something, so we had to order a different cross pipe for the system to work with the rest of the exhaust on the car. While we were at it (at this point why not) we went with some new “cat pipes” as well. The car came with some nice coated Stillen headers, so those obviously were left on the car, now we have a full header back system.
Out with the old:
And in with the new:
Next week we will continue to do paint prep. We are also going to be ordering some gauges and installing them.
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05-04-2016, 03:53 PM
#8
Registered User
Thread Starter
April 15 2016
Paint time! we opted for a simple single stage “ISC” yellow. Simple, cheap, and when the car hits tires or a wall it wont be super painful to spray it again as apposed to spending $5,000.00 on a paint job.
Once the paint cures it will be time for some form of livery!
We also put on these adjustable control arms and did a much needed alignment! We have an alignment machine in house so it is a great tool and certainly often used for our shop cars or auto-x or drift, etc.
Alignment specs here:
4 12 drift 350z 2
Here are the adjustable arms we put on before the alignment.
Overall we got a ton done this week. It was nice to get the car in a more brand orientated color, and also dial in the suspension more with the upper arms and the alignment. Stay tuned for next week’s ClubLoose drift event, this will be the shakedown!
Paint time! we opted for a simple single stage “ISC” yellow. Simple, cheap, and when the car hits tires or a wall it wont be super painful to spray it again as apposed to spending $5,000.00 on a paint job.
Once the paint cures it will be time for some form of livery!
We also put on these adjustable control arms and did a much needed alignment! We have an alignment machine in house so it is a great tool and certainly often used for our shop cars or auto-x or drift, etc.
Alignment specs here:
4 12 drift 350z 2
Here are the adjustable arms we put on before the alignment.
Overall we got a ton done this week. It was nice to get the car in a more brand orientated color, and also dial in the suspension more with the upper arms and the alignment. Stay tuned for next week’s ClubLoose drift event, this will be the shakedown!
05-04-2016, 03:57 PM
#9
Registered User
Thread Starter
Some pictures from last weekend's "Dirty 30" event:
Car feels great.
Time for a cage and maybe a more formal angle kit.
Car feels great.
Time for a cage and maybe a more formal angle kit.
Last edited by ISC Suspension; 05-04-2016 at 04:00 PM.
05-04-2016, 04:01 PM
#10
Super Moderator
MY350Z.COM
MY350Z.COM
iTrader: (8)
Harness mounted to the floor behind the seat ?
05-04-2016, 04:08 PM
#11
Registered User
Thread Starter
05-05-2016, 12:49 PM
#13
Registered User
Thread Starter
Thank you!
In the next 2 weeks its time to commit to a cage and a angle kit as well. So that will be some great improvements too.
05-06-2016, 08:02 AM
#14
Registered User
Thread Starter
May 6 2016
Event Coverage; ClubLoose North Opening weekend and Dirty 30 event.
Events went very well. The opening weekend was a 2 day drift event, and Dirty 30 was on Saturday. Weather was great, the turnout was great as well. The first day was certainly a learning curve. Getting used to the car took the majority of the day for most of the team. That being said once we did all get used to it, we loved it!
The handbrake set up is still not working correctly. So we teamed up with Bob Patinka of Patinka Motorsports. We are sponsoring him in Formula Drift Canada and he makes an awesome dual caliper setup for these cars. That will be a project for next week and we will keep you posted. Here is what the kit looks like. It is great quality and affordable. He makes them for S13/S14 and the 350z/370z chassis as well.
Here are some shots of the events.
By the end of Dirty 30 we got moved up to A group! Very exciting but at the same time it means its not time for a cage. To run this class you NEED a cage. So that being said expect to see some progress on that in the near future.
Event Coverage; ClubLoose North Opening weekend and Dirty 30 event.
Events went very well. The opening weekend was a 2 day drift event, and Dirty 30 was on Saturday. Weather was great, the turnout was great as well. The first day was certainly a learning curve. Getting used to the car took the majority of the day for most of the team. That being said once we did all get used to it, we loved it!
The handbrake set up is still not working correctly. So we teamed up with Bob Patinka of Patinka Motorsports. We are sponsoring him in Formula Drift Canada and he makes an awesome dual caliper setup for these cars. That will be a project for next week and we will keep you posted. Here is what the kit looks like. It is great quality and affordable. He makes them for S13/S14 and the 350z/370z chassis as well.
Here are some shots of the events.
By the end of Dirty 30 we got moved up to A group! Very exciting but at the same time it means its not time for a cage. To run this class you NEED a cage. So that being said expect to see some progress on that in the near future.
05-06-2016, 09:06 AM
#15
Dam it I keep coming back into this thread so temped to just throw everything I have into drifting my Z.. But then I remember how much I hated buying parts and tires for my s13 hahaha
I so wanna rig a tube fab bash bar/rad support unit for my project Z..
I so wanna rig a tube fab bash bar/rad support unit for my project Z..
05-08-2016, 09:17 AM
#16
Registered User
After a great year running our BRZ drift car in 2015 we decided to switch things up for 2016. We wanted to take a different approach, using a more drift orientated chassis. In the world of Drift Nissan has a lot to offer. From the S13/S14 chassis, do the 350z/370z chassis, and even the older classic Datsun’s. The 350z made the most sense for us, due to the current and future products we want to offer for this platform; it will be a great way to test and develop new additions to the ISC 350z product line.
Project ISC Drift Car; 2003 Nissan 350z
Project ISC Drift Car; 2003 Nissan 350z
Vehicle: 2003 Nissan 350z
Project Goal: To build a grassroots competitive drift car that is reliable, affordable and fun.
Start Date: March 2016
Supporting Partners:
March 5 2016
So here we are in the beginning stages of our 2016 350z Drift Project! All the entries and updates will be located on this page. Our local series that we sponsor (ClubLoose North) is only a month away, so needless to say we have some work to do.
After keeping an eye out over the winter last week we were able to source Nissan 350z that fit within our needs and budget. It was currently living its life as a drift car, and was sitting for a year or two. It is a bit rough around the edges, BUT it was a great platform to start on so we took the plunge. Jorel and Andrew drove through the night down to New Jersey about 6 hours away to grab the 350z last week.
Here are some images representing how it looked when we picked it up last week:
As you can see, the interior needs some work. Although it will stay gutted, we will implement a formal dash, with actual gauges!
We gave it a good cleaning, found a lot of leaf debris, as it must have sat under a tree for a while. We gave it a compression check, new NGK 1 step colder spark plugs, and a oil change.
Stay tuned for next week’s coilover installation!
06-08-2016, 04:00 AM
#19
Registered User
Thread Starter
06-08-2016, 04:08 AM
#20
Registered User
Thread Starter
June 5 2016
Been busy with the car the past few weeks.
So first things first, last weekend’s event we did not go to due to weather, instead we spent the day working on the Z and getting some stuff done so it is ready for the next event!
The Cosmis wheels finally arrived, and they look great!
Certainly worth the wait!
In order to run in the higher class we got promoted to we needed a cage. It was time and a cage was something we were planning on doing this season anyways. We ended up going with the Enjuku Racing 8 Point ER Spec 350z Cage. For now we will run the 4 point setup, and later this year when more time allows we will install the remaining components of the cage. here is a rendering of the completed kit for reference.
It took several late night during the week but we got it done. Here are some images of stages a long the way. Again the remaining cage will be done later on, but for now this is all we needed to be in the next class (for now).
Needless to say there was a lot of Pizza involved.
____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ __________
June 8 2016
Here are some little video edits from the past couple events!
Been busy with the car the past few weeks.
So first things first, last weekend’s event we did not go to due to weather, instead we spent the day working on the Z and getting some stuff done so it is ready for the next event!
The Cosmis wheels finally arrived, and they look great!
Certainly worth the wait!
In order to run in the higher class we got promoted to we needed a cage. It was time and a cage was something we were planning on doing this season anyways. We ended up going with the Enjuku Racing 8 Point ER Spec 350z Cage. For now we will run the 4 point setup, and later this year when more time allows we will install the remaining components of the cage. here is a rendering of the completed kit for reference.
It took several late night during the week but we got it done. Here are some images of stages a long the way. Again the remaining cage will be done later on, but for now this is all we needed to be in the next class (for now).
Needless to say there was a lot of Pizza involved.
____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ __________
June 8 2016
Here are some little video edits from the past couple events!
Last edited by ISC Suspension; 06-08-2016 at 04:10 AM.
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