Jeff,

Thanks for the positive feedback. I think you won't find too many magazines where the staff will really take suggestions to heart. I honestly wish we could test everything out there, and have Sport Z buy a dyno and all the nice testing tools. But realistically we can't test everything. I know the staff are working on some very exciting articles for the next few issues. You will not be disappointed.

Shaun,

You make a good point. Unfortunately there is no manual written on whats the right and wrong way of testing the 350Z. Believe me if there was I would have been the first one to buy the 350Z for DUMMIES book. We did the best we could to make the tests fair. This test was open to the open public and I believe we had about 25-30 350Z's show up to check out this event through out the day. Where were you;P? hehhe you have no excuse for not coming.

The main reason for this test was a non biased independant test to show people whats out there. My personal opinion is all the cat back exhausts are good. I mean how much of a difference does 1-3hp really make?(For example the NISMO exhaust would probably make the best cat back exhaust for a Turbo. For the fact is the piping is the biggest) I'm just suprised people are under the impression we can make a lot of power from bolt on mods, and the simple fact is this is a non turbo and power probably won't come cheap.

Anyways i'll end it here before I write another article. We appreciate everyones comments and support and stay tuned for the next exciting articles.

ZYA!

 

StrictlyZ and Zland, I agree with both of you. My intent is not to knock the article or testing...what was done was the best that could be done and I value the information.

Some people just haven't had experience with dynos (not that I'm an expert) and think that what comes out of a pull or two is what everyone will get everytime, and that's just not true. Dyno data, and thus your report, is a good guide to making a decision and a method for removing individual perception.

Zland, to use your example...if these 5 cars were drag racing, none of them would get the same time every time. One race, car #1 might win and #4 in 2nd, ... The next race #4 might win and #1 in 2nd... This is because they are so close in performance/gains that minor differences in launch would decide the race. Now if they raced 10x or 100x the results would get more accurate with every run because if car #1 won 8 or 9 out of 10 times then that says something.

So just because XYZ manufacturer provided dyno charts that are higher than the numbers provided by SportZ Mag, does not mean that either is incorrect. It just means that different dynos under different conditions provided different numbers. Even the same dyno under the same conditions will provide different numbers. That's why in manufacturer charts, you don't see pull #1 and pull #2 presented in the same chart. You see pull #4 and pull #13 because they are probably using the lowest stock pull (#4) and the best modded pull (#13)...or an honest manufacturer might use the pulls that best represent the averages of stock and modded.

Again, let me give SportZ Mag praise. This is great information collected profesionally and accurately and I value greatly the information in the article. But what I get from this is that all (except one) of these exhausts are extremely close in gains and if someone is in the market for an exhaust, the choice should be based on more than just the dyno numbers. The other information presented in the article (sound, weight, TQ/HP bias, ...) would help me decide.

 

Shaun, your pt is well taken. As they say, it would be a drivers race (drag racing example) and for exhaust, it does come down to more than hp gain since there is not much difference between some of them.

 

another David...

See above.

Bob

 

Shrink wrap is a definite option but I would need to increase the subscription cost by about $1.00 per year. Many subscribers have stated that the mag is too expensive now.

I've wanted to do shrink wrap from the beginning, but the increased cost would have adversly affected our P/L numbers.

Maybe I'll do a poll and see when the subscribers stand on increasing subscription cost to include shrink wrap.

Bob

 

Mister editor Dave Bexfield --- I'm looking forward to your post on Jeff's suggestions. Bex, you have the pulpit here, don't blow it. Oops, it's Open Line Friday and Bex is never (well almost) in the office on Friday. Eh, eh, eh...

BTW Jeff, thank you for your very kind comments and suggestions, while we would have a lot trouble accomodating all your suggestions, they are all worthy of our attention. Problems --- We're only 56 pages, we cover all Z's every issue and our work load buckles our knees on bad days. Thank God for our Contributing Writers never seem to tire.

Bob

Bob

 

Thanks Shaun...

All of us at Sport Z are watching this link and others everyday; It is very good news for us to see this give-and-take. It is exactly what we wanted and Yuyichi and friends made it happen.

Stay tuned, there's more to come.

Bob

 

1. The reason I suggested you A. allow people to post suggestions for future articles in a thread and B. post a poll on which articles readers would like to see out of the posted suggestions is I know you have a limited amount of resources thus you would be covering articles that people want to see the most.

2. Thanks for considering my suggestions. I am sure you get a lot of suggestions so I appreciate the time you have taken with me. BTW, how many people subscribe to the magazine????

Jeff

 

Only 56 pages? Maybe you should expand...I could do some research on suspension kits for ya and maybe add a piece on JIC coilover installs.

 

I wonder if more articles such as the ones you would like to do on suspension kits and coilover installs would increase sales enough to cover the cost of a bigger magazine ie..more than 56 pages?

 

I started this thread with the hopes of generating subscriptions and discussions since it really is a quality magazine even though I am not affiliated with them in any way whatsoever. The only thing I can say negative about it was there was a single article in which they seem to condone reckless driving. It is the "Wagz to riches" article. From the article; "One of my earliest and most memorable moments was racing a '96 NSX going 150 mph for over 10 miles" ... "In and out of traffic..."

 

Each article goes through the highly-qualified eyes of our editor. It then goes through the less-qualified eyes of the publisher (me). After that is done, it's repeated again and again. Then it goes into page layout and when that's done, the copy editor takes over. Then final editing by the highly-qualified (I know he's looking) editor seals it and then it's given to the printer (me). When it comes off press and completes bindery, it's mailed out via the USPS. That's where we lose control and take the most grief. If only...

With all those eyes and all that talent, I'm guessing that we collectively thought the "street racing" was appropriate to the article. We do not condone reckless driving, but we do not handcuff our very talented writers either.

If you look at the Sport Z Masthead, and read the tiny-tiny print, you'll see our legal cop-out.

Thanks teh215, we really do appreciate your efforts and those of you out there who enjoy the sweat of our labors.

Bob

 

Going to 64 pages is a possibility if the new 350Z gang gets onboard big-time. Sales (subscriptions and advertising) have been good, but we're not seeing the numbers we had projected three years ago.

With quality and with our growing gang of 350Z owners, there is little doubt in my mind that we'll see the 350Z owners subscribing in masses. We'll never be able to do it without the help of our friends at my350z.com and the subscribers who joined us from other boards.

You all have our thanks.

Bob

 

I've been lurking for a month or so. This is my first post...trying to stay quiet until I have something to say, rather than muddy the waters with conjecture.

SNIP_____Note that a 10 decibel increase in sound equates to a sound that's 10 times more intense._______SNIP

However, I would like to correct the above statement. An increase of 10 decibles equates to a sound that is TWICE as loud. It is a logarithmic scale.

Anyway, Great Thread... Mine is on order

 

The dealers should throw in a free subscription or at least an issue when you buy the car, thereby increasing readership. It can only help people feel better about their purchase and encourage them to buy aftermarket stuff. Then more dealers should advertise to get people to buy their aftermarket stuff thus generating more money for a bigger better magazine. The magazine speaks for itself, i love it but i had my car a few months before i even heard of it.

 

TIM --- This may amaze you, but we sent letters and a sample issue to every Nissan dealership in the country. We offered Sport Z at a significanyly lower-than-street cost [plus shipping] but the response was tepid at best.

About a dozen dealerships took us up on our offer and another half dozen signed up for one issue per printing. We can't be sure if they thought they found a way to get a half-price subscription but we nipped that in the bud. In fairness, most of the "half price" dealerships ordered a one year subscription.

FINAL STATS: Approximately 1% of the Nissan dealerships got on board, 99% did not. Tepid? Non-responsive? Don't know!

BTW Tim, there was absolutely no way Nissan dealerships could include a one year subscription with each new Z sale unless they did it outside the corporate policy. If Nissan owned Sport Z, that would be a different issue all together. Nissan USA found another way to support Sport Z -- a two page spread in each issue. How good is that? A tip of the hat for sure.

Courtesy Nissan, Ericksen Nissan and Mossy Nissan have been with us for the long haul and they are also our largest distributors. Courtesy, Ericksen and Mossy are vocal about Sport Z and support us with great zeal; we tip our hat to them. We tip our hat to all our advertisers and distributors and we offer a special tip of the hat to all our subscribers.

I love this job...

Bob

 

I know that I'll catch a lot of flack for this, but after looking though the SportZ magazine I have to say it. I am a proud 350Z owner and think that it's AWESOME to have a magazine devoted to Z's, but my problem is that it is for *ALL* Z's. I personally have absolutely NO desire to look at or read about old 1970's Z's. I want to read about newer Z's (300ZX to 350Z). I loved the articles on "Wagz to riches" and the "Stillen SMZ", but there was just WAY too much on the old antique Z's for my taste. I mean I'm sure that there are people out there who like them or own them, and that's great, but they are Old news. I think that perhaps there should be 2 different magazines put out. One which is the "True" SportZ magazine and one maybe called "Yesterday's Z's" or something that is devoted to all the old Z's out there. Just my 2 cents.

-Chrismcagle

 

To provide a magazine for Z's, it needs to have a large enough readers base. Maybe if it was only devoted to 350Z's, there would not be enough people subscribing to it? It would be interesting to see what the breakdown is of readers meaning what percent is 240 Z owners, 260, 280, 300, and 350 Z's etc...

I do agree with you in that even though I use to own a 240Z and liked it, I really am much more interested in articles related to my 350Z and how to modify it. I wonder how interested those owning older Z's are in reading about our new 350's?

 

I def agree with Chris. I love my 350Z but I am really not interested in any old 240/260/280Z's. Thats old timer $h!t. IMO they are 2 completely different animals, and I think the two deserve two completely different magazines.
If I knew of a magazine strictly for 350Z's I would absolutely buy it, no question.
Not to say I would'nt like Sport Z magazine or that its a not a good magazine for I have not read a copy yet.


BTW- ZLAND any chance of shrinking that 18 line sig?

 

They should be in different magazines, but that's kind of a jackass way of putting it. Some of that old timer $h!t as you call it is rare and in good condition is cool $h!t.

Personally, the 350Z is more interesting to me, but I don't diss people who like the 240Z's, my buddy has a clean '71 240 and it's a cool car. You don't see those every day, whereas at work I do see at least two 350Z's every day.