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in a round-about kind of way - it's sorta an insult to Chevy & the Camaro that they have to have a 700hp engine simply to compete with cars with 1/2 their hp
nice pics btw...
Well to be completely honest, the driver is mediocre. A good driver in that Camaro would have handed me my *** by far more than half a second over a ~2:20 heat. Gen 5 Camaros handle quite well when they're set up properly, and that track was wide enough where the Camaro's size wasn't a detriment. The next race is at a much tighter track and I feel that's when I can beat him. We'll see!
Also, less than half. :P Still untuned with no cams.
Little update: was getting a bit fed up of the NVH I had in the car. Decided to remove the only thing I could that's relatively easy to do, so I swapped out the Torque Solutions tranny mount for an OEM one.
Difference is night and day. You can only tell the motor mounts are solid at idle, otherwise the car feels wonderful. I don't feel like driveline slop has resurfaced at all, possibly due to Whiteline diff bushings in the rear and solid mounts in the front.
I can safely say that solid mounts are perfectly daily drivable (mine are at least), and to avoid a poly trans mount unless you want excess NVH for little gain in the driveline slop department.
Little update: was getting a bit fed up of the NVH I had in the car. Decided to remove the only thing I could that's relatively easy to do, so I swapped out the Torque Solutions tranny mount for an OEM one.
Difference is night and day. You can only tell the motor mounts are solid at idle, otherwise the car feels wonderful. I don't feel like driveline slop has resurfaced at all, possibly due to Whiteline diff bushings in the rear and solid mounts in the front.
I can safely say that solid mounts are perfectly daily drivable (mine are at least), and to avoid a poly trans mount unless you want excess NVH for little gain in the driveline slop department.
did you replace with a new OEM tranny mount or just your OEM mount you had before? Reason I ask is I've searched a lot about this and was wondering if i should upgrade to the urthane tranny mount or NEW oem mount. Don't really want the NVH, but would like to stiffen it up with a new OEM mount.
did you replace with a new OEM tranny mount or just your OEM mount you had before? Reason I ask is I've searched a lot about this and was wondering if i should upgrade to the urthane tranny mount or NEW oem mount. Don't really want the NVH, but would like to stiffen it up with a new OEM mount.
New OEM. I really wouldn't put a poly trans mount in it. You have no idea how much it was affecting my enjoyment of the car.
Vibration was excessive, I could feel the exhaust throughout the whole car which meant I couldn't hear the exhaust anymore. It felt like I had put a white noise machine on top of everything. When I removed it, the whole car stopped vibrating so much to the point where I felt like a man who had regained one of his senses. I know the Torque Solutions one is 75h, where others have a 60 or 65. I really wouldn't try any of them.
I have solid engine mounts and full Whiteline bushings. Car feels like OEM + instead of wannabe race car. Which is what I wanted.
Removed my driver's seat, put it on a bench, saw how the **** mechanism to lower the front part of the seat works, and modified it.
I didn't take pictures because I'm a dweeb, but someone else has already shared them here (about 5 pages back on the main page). I did something similar but in a different way. I removed the rivets that act as a brake on either side (one on the **** side, and the other), and moved them a couple of centimeters downwards. The seat drops all the way till the "seat swaybar" touches the underside of the seat now. Made a big difference!
This 200cm driver can now fit in his car WITH a helmet on.
Front part only. Gives you a lot more room between your legs and the steering wheel. Also lowers your seating position by a couple of cm.
Honestly after looking at the bottom of the seat, I had second thoughts about cutting and rewelding the "legs" of the seat (which I wanted to do). I'd rather pay a bit of money for rails. Peace of mind and all that.
Installed 16.5mm spacers on Liza over the weekend. Love the way she sits now. Here are some pics! Rolled the rear fenders when I installed the spacers as it rubbed a bit.
Also, I wanted to share a little experiment I've been doing. Basically, this is the much sought after JDM 350Z wheel (one of two as I understand correctly).
I noticed that the JDM Momo 350Z wheel looks nearly identical to a Mitsubishi Evo steering wheel. I removed my steering wheel to see if by any chance the steering wheel hub fitment was the same, but it turns out it is not. Since I have access to a workshop, I've devised an idea to make it work. I'm not aiming to have the Evo wheel airbag work, so I won't comment on if I think it'll work or not. It'll fit on the OEM Nissan hub with no aftermarket adaptor if my idea works, and during the reupholstering process, it'll lose the emblazoned Mitsubishi logo. I'll either stick a "Z" in the center or a "Nissan" badge.
Best of all, it's cheap. Machining, re-upholstering and installing the wheel should cost me less than $200. A clean wheel wouldn't need the upholstery either, but I feel like having mine dressed in new perforated leather. I have lots of work to do this month and will be travelling to China so updates will likely follow in May.
Brian Crower Stage 2 cams installed! Dyno graph inside.
Installed a set of BC stage 2 cams on my 2003 Z last week. There are 2 graphs on this dyno. The 270whp number is after the cams were installed but still on stock tune. Redline is still stock.
The 292whp number is after final tuning with the cams installed. For those who haven't been paying attention, engine mods are:
- XERD longtube headers;
- K&N Typhoon air intake kit;
- Chinese Y-pipe;
- Scorpion cat back system;
- BLOX plenum spacer (the smaller size, 5/16th I think?)
- Lightweight flywheel
- BC Stage 2 264 degree cams;
- Tuned with Uprev.
I know dyno figures are taken with a grain of salt, and I wish I could dyno before cam install but I wasn't in the country when they were installed. What I can definitely say is that the cams+ tune added at least 22whp to whatever it had before (same dyno, same day). Car feels quite peppy now, rushes to redline without pause. Sounds a bit different, too. Has very slight lope.
Overall very happy with it, and have decided that NA mods end for me here. If I do supercharge it later, I know I'll make decent power as all the supporting mods are there. Next on the list is a set of swaybars and a shorter final drive. Then I start tidying up the interior and exterior.
Had the second race of 2018's official Lebanese Amateur championship. Placed 1st, by a decent margin. Opponents were gen 5 supercharged Camaro SS, a tuned 135i, a tuned M2, and an S2000. A 458 Italia also joined for shiggles.
I'm not very happy with the classification system, as it pits anything RWD and over 3500cc together. That's why I share a class with a 6.2L SS and a 4.7L(?) 458 Italia. It's not really fair but since I'm winning regardless I'm not too pissed about it.
It's really not fair for those who have near stock Evolutions or STI's who have to face fully modified yet not gutted versions of their car. All road legal AWD turbo cars are classified together, regardless of power output. Gutted prototype cars are on their own in any class.
nice pics...isnt your car technically under 3.5 liters? or is that splitting hairs? and/or dont want to run with the miatas??
That's the problem. Their classification is flawed. Also, Miatas aren't popular here for races/events at ALL. Haven't ever seen a prepped Miata; they're all stock cars from the dealership and usually driven by well off college kids. It's not a popular car here at all.
So, I installed Recaro Evo9 seats on my car last week, along with a Momo Monte Carlo steering wheel. Gonna wait till winter and try to shampoo and condition the leather, otherwise I'll have it re-upholstered.
Also, anyone know the PN for the little plastic ring that comes installed in the factory leather shift surround? Mine's missing and I hate the sag that happens as a result.
Been a long time since I updated (partly because I get near 0 feedback from my stuff, but oh well) and I'm back with some new stuff!
First off, I installed Nismo dampers front and rear on my car. Made a very pleasant difference in driving it day to day. NVH has dropped measurably after I installed them, and the way the car behaves when there's a bump or other irregularity on one side of the car and not on the other is very different. Driving over cat eyes or other such imperfections on the road isn't nearly as unpleasant as it was before I installed them. Would I pay ~$1400 to buy them new? No. But at $250 used with the brackets and dampers I couldn't pass them up and I'm glad I didn't.
I also installed a set of Tanabe sway bars front and rear and LOVE how the car feels after them. No need to describe what better than stock swaybars feel like so I won't bother. Plenty of such threads here.
Installed an engine bracket thing that mounts on the front strut bar and radiator support. You don't really feel any difference but I guess it'll be extra reinforcement if I have a fender bender or something. I also removed my Typhoon intake system and restored my stock air box. Car feels more responsive like this for some reason, but I don't feel like it's faster or anything. Only measurable data I have is that the g/s reading on the MAF went down by 2g/s after I restored the stock airbox and paper filter. But, IAT's went down like crazy when stuck in traffic and the car feels more responsive when I shock the throttle at around ~1500rpms or so in a low gear. Pickup is slightly better.
Anyway, moving on. This year's final speed test was yesterday and I placed first in my class. Here are some pics and videos, I'll try to update if I get any more. Cheers and thanks.
Winner winner vegan dinner! Next to the fastest car of the event, and every one before it. Roger Feghali's hellafast Evolution. Action shot number 1.
ps: I know I missed an apex but I just couldn't get her to grip at that corner. I felt this was faster than slowing the **** down to catch the apex and power out so I stuck with this line. Anyone more experienced is very welcome to chime in and give me a tip!
03-12-2018, 10:51 PM
