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Thought some might find it interesting, and I haven't seen it linked here yet.

 

Very interesting.

 

yea 5 star front too. at least on the older ones, but im sure it translated to the 06 as well. thank you race inspired design.

 

That is an '06.

 

Yah know, I think Nissan missed the boat here with the chassis. The Z shares it's chassis with the Murano (a frickin SUV), FX35/45, G35 coupe/sedan. Sure it's cheaper for Nissan to do it this way, but it definately takes away from the car. If the Z/G had it's own dedicated chassis, it would be lighter and it would handle better. My STI handled way better than my Z, and the steering provided FAR more feedback (both on JIC's).

 

That pic of the car getting hit still reminds me of how much I don't want to be in an accident though, .

 

I believe the murano shares its platform with the altima. The z,g, and fx share the same platform but just because it does does not mean that the z has a platform that was designed for an suv. The fx and murano are suv but built on car platforms. The z weighs about 3200 lbs and that is pretty light for a sports car the size of a z with a v6. I believe the 350 weighs less than the previous z.
I believe all this has been discussed before in previous posts.

 

You may be right about the Murano, it is FWD. However the Z is not lite by any means, it weighs 3400lbs due to the platform sharing, which makes it a heavy pig. If Nissan had given the Z it's own dedicated chassis it would'nt have been compromised (beefed up to support the extra weight of the FX), it could weigh 3 or 4 hundred pounds less and be a way better performer. 2900lbs is lite for a sports car like the C6Z06 with a v8, different price range I know but the point remains. The Z was meant to be cash cow, it brought Nissan from the verge of bankruptcy with it's platform shared, compromised chassis. Just like it was meant to do. My mechanic/tuner is a Z expert, he says 300 was far better built than the 350. If Nissan wanted to make a world class sports car, they would have built it on an aluminum space frame like Honda did with the S2000. My roadster weighs 3600lbs, and the chassis creaks and flexes whenever I go over anything bigger than a pebble.

 

We cant compare the Z to the Z06 ... the Z06's body panels are made of fiberglass, hence why it is light for a V8 car.

The Acura NSX, which is made mostly out of Aluminum, is about 3100lbs. The 350Z Coupe (at 3200 lbs) is only 100+lbs heavier, not bad at all. Plus it is lighter than the 300ZX, which had its own dedicated chasis.

The coupe at 3200lbs is not too bad ... but I have to agree with you on the roadster's weight of 3400lbs is a little on the heavy side. You quoted 3600lbs for the roadster ... is that for the new 06 model? Hmmm that seems quite high.

Also, there is no creak or flex in the coupe, the roadster will not be as rigid as the coupe because of the loss of the roof.

As far as Nissan making a world class sports car --- that title I think is reserved for the upcoming 2007 GT-R.

 

The real question is - the sharing of the chassis has made the Z a poor car HOW? It seems to be: highly capable, fast, and sells well regardless.

 

I find the chassis of the ZR to be very stiff for a roadster (which I assumed was due to the excessive weight). I'm surprised to hear someone say they find the chassis flexing.

 

I never said that the Z was a poor car. I said it was a pig.

Perfomance m6 = 3401lbs
a5 = 3381lbs

Grand Touring Coupe m6 = 3405lbs
a5 = 3391lbs

Roadster m6 = 3601lbs
a5 = 3599lbs

Komodo.

 

Let's compare.

Track MT = 3225

BMW M5 (06) = 3868
Audi S4 (05) = 3659
Nissan 300ZX TT (93) = 3533
Toyota Supra (95) = 3515
BMW M3 (05) = 3415
Dodge Viper SRT10 (04) = 3385
Ford GT (05) = 3350
Subaru WRX STi (06) = 3351
Mitsu Lancer (06) = 3285
Acura NSX (05) = 3152
Ferrari 360 (02) = 3064

Well... I dunno, seems like the Z compares pretty well to me.

I'm also afraid that your weights don't jive with other published weights:
http://www.rsportscars.com/eng/cars/...0zroadster.asp
http://www.nissanusa.com/vehicles/Mo...20563|,00.html
http://www.nissanusa.com/vehicles/Mo...20564|,00.html

 

I lowered my car because the rear was lifting at speed and loosing traction. Pretty dangerous, especially at track speeds. No more lift, but she now creaks and moans in the rear at the mere sight of the driveway. If you pull out the tonneau and trunk liners, you'll see that it's nothing but an open tub back there. And there's no way to re-enforce it where it needs it while maintaining the use of the roof. You can't even acess the shock towers because their seald off. My buddies S2K has a stupid drop, and the chassis never makes a sound. Ever. Why do you guys think the hatch has that ridiculous member between the rear shock towers?

 

I think its early to speak of C6 ZO6, I will wait till it comes out for actual numbers (it is supposed to be around 3100lbs). But the C5 ZO6 weighed more than 3100lbs. There are very few cars that weigh less than 3000 lbs and still be normal sized cars, well you have tiny cars like Lotus Elise that weighs 1980 lbs.

Even the Ferrari Challenge Stradale and Porsche GT3 are supposed lightweighted sports cars, they weigh close to 3000lbs. Even the Enzo or Carrera GT weigh somewhere close to 3250lbs.

So the Z weighing around 3200lbs is not bad at all. And the rule of thumb is every 2 cylinder increases the weight of the car by around 200lbs, I think that includes increased weight in drivetrain and chassis mass.

IMHO By not sharing the platform and to make enough profit on the S2000 or the NSX, Honda needed to keep the models unchanged for a long time. NSX came out in 91 and Honda recently stopped the production. S2000 came in '99 and is still in production, no major changes other than the engine and some minor tweaks.

 

We don't have the track here, when we did it weighed 3226lbs, the performance was 3247lbs, and the Roadster was 3463lbs. Added chassis re-enforcements ( to cure a dimpling problem in some of the body panels, due to chassis flex) has pushed the weight up roughly 200lbs. I beleive most of the weight was added to the under carriage and also balancers at the front and rear corners. The aforementioned numbers are for the '06. What does the US '05 Track Weigh?

 

ferrari enzo's weigh 2767 lbs


the C6 Z06 weighs 3130 lbs

regular C6 weighs 3179 lbs

base model Z weighs 3188 lbs, track weighs 3225 lbs
the 35th aniversary/grand touring is about 100 lbs heavier
roadster is about 200 lbs heavier
grand touring roadster is 3,536 lbs. Now that is pig heavy

You can get a Z to weigh less with aftermarket parts. I'm not so sure how much less you can make a Z06 since everything on it is already pretty lightweight. The engine in it weighs about 100 lbs more than the Z engine

I agree the Z is heavy in it's own right, but compared to other stuff out there it's not that bad. Even STI's and EVO's weigh more than the Z, but they have 4 seats...and their chasis is still not as stiff. Yeah they might handle better, but that's because of other reasons, not the chasis so much

My Z weighs around 3100 lbs with a half tank of gas
weighs around 3060 without spare tire/tools

 

I hear what your saying, but there's no need to change the chassis if it's already state of the art. Can you imagine how much better the Z would be with it's own chassis built on an aluminum space frame?

 

can you imagine how much more expensive the Z would be with it's own chasis built on an aluminum space frame?

A cheaper and safer way to lose weight would be to use fiberglass body panels instead of aluminum. At least that'd save maybe 100 lbs

 

This is where I got the Enzos numbers and I trust MT.

http://motortrend.com/roadtests/coup...ro/index5.html

It weighs 3254lbs, curb weight.
Then like someone else said, it would be the Skyline GTR.

If you are talking about handling, you can make the Z handle 1.0g on skidpad with very inexpensive mods.