Hi fellas this is my first post, I live in Australia and I have ordered my Z, but I can`t get it until March.

Anyway, we have our first 24 hr enduro race at Bathurst, a great race track. The Z that is entered is in tenth place and doing well, this after a tyre blow out on the main straight at 200kmph, which did some front 1/4 damage, and a fair bit of time in the pits. It is 4 th in its class behind an STi WRX and the only cars ahead are Porsche, M3`s etc which are highly spec`d up for racing.

We are two thirds through and the Z is proving very reliable, and if not for the huge blow out would be leading its class. Thought you guys would like to know.

PS. Before the blow out it set a 2:24 lap time, 4 seconds better than the best M3.


real time race results:

http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/re...1/2002.MOUN.R6

 

Thanks for the info! Its good to hear that the Z is doing very well, and i can only imagine how it would run with FI. Agiain thanks.

 

oz350,

Thanks for the update. Keep us informed. Go Nathan!

 

And to think this car only arrived in the country several weeks ago, never seen or driven before. Many of the competitors compete in various formats all season with a wealth of track time and R&D behind them. The Z had only two weeks to test and prepare for this race.

 

Update: The Z has lost several positions. The huge tyre blow out has upset the front end suspension and aerodynamics, it literally ripped off the front quarter, so it can`t maintain those blistering early lap times.

 

I pre-ordered my 350 6 months ago, and am getting the first one in the country february 20th getting the le mans track..
what did you get?
the 350z times in the 24hr bathurst are superior to all the M3 not bad

 

The 350Z DNF'ed! What happened??!

 

Nice. Anyone know how long into the race the blow out happened? 22 hours is still a pretty long race! It is good to see that it had the fastest lap in its class, by almost 5 seconds, beat out everything in the 3 class, and the 7 cars that had a faster lap were: HOLDEN MONARO, FERRARI N-GT, PORSCHE GT3 RS, PORSCHE RS, MOSLER MT900R, PORSCHE GT3RS, PORSCHE GT3R, with the fastest 10.3 seconds up.

I guess it is good that LEE SMASH REPAIRS is one of the sponsors.

 

The blow out happened pretty early and from what I saw it did some serious damage. Not sure why it retired - driver error or mechanical, but it lasted almost to the finish. For its 1st outing with minimal preparation its a good effort.

 

Too bad about the blowout!!!!!!!!

 

Interesting to see the Monaro in there considering it is coming to the states next year as the GTO. I've seen quite a few people dismissing this car after the estimates on HP, etc in Motor Trend.

I'm not familiar with this race, but how modified are these cars?

 

There are a number of categories and the Monaro competes at the elite level. The track car is a beast - 427ci, @ 650-700hp, 0- 60 in less than 4 seconds and a top speed of 320 kmph- ( @ 200 mph).

Though the GTO coming to the US is strongly rumoured in Australia to be not 350 but 400hp, maybe more. Several people close to Holden here won`t say exactly, but don`t be surprised, I think this is to combat the Mustang.


http://www.hsv.com.au/vy/showcars/main.asp

 

Interesting if that really happens. We should start seeing more production stuff here in the spring I suspect, if not earlier.

If I was wanting to wait another year for a car, I'd seriously consider the car for some V8 fun. Still love that neck snapping low end torque, but a Z will be fun in a different way.