Please read the project 350Z article in the April issue of Sport Compact car if your interested in perfecting your G35 or 350Z's balance and handle as well as possible. They pull 1.0g in cornering.

Go figure, they use the Hotchkis sways that we have a group buy on and get rid of the stupid stock staggered tire sizes, like Ive been reccomending to friends and customers all along.
READ IT and learn2turn.

 

Whoah....they pull a full G on the skidpad?

 

Yup, WITHOUT changing shocks or springs! Read it!

 

got a link to the article?

 

I don't think SCC links to current articles. It's the second part of their Project Z. Here's a link to the project cars page. It probably won't be available until the end of the month when the new issue comes out though.

 

so, what tire sizes do you recommend? rims?

i havent read that article, is it out yet?

 

The magazine came out about a week ago. I believe they used:

tires: 275/40ZR-18 BFGoodrich g-Force KDs
wheels: 18x9.5 BBS RG-Rs (30mm offset rear, 42mm offset front with 12mm spacer made specifically for putting the wheels on Nissans)

 

can anyone explain to me how the whole skidpad rating works... i never understood it... i'm taking 1.0g is real good

 

I just read the article, they also used a KAAZ LSD with Redline oil and redid the 24 clutch plates to DDAAADDDAAAD where D turns the diff and A the axle. They said they had problems with the diff locking too much until they used the sticky tires DiRN mentioned above. Good read!

 

I agree. Definitely a good read. But nothing tops the intro to the first part:

Quote:

What do you do with a car this good? The 350Z is so stunningly effective in stock guise, we've been struggling for months to come up with a first step for our project car.

 

They just drive the car around a big skidpad (i.e. circle) of fixed radium (usually 200ft) while slowly increasing the speed until the car starts to slide and the car can't maintain the fixed radius. Then from the maximum speed before sliding, they figure out what the max steady-state acceleration is. The equation for centrifugal force is F=(mv^2)/r where F is force, m is mass, v is velocity and r is radius. Since F=ma, you can get acceleration from this equation.

Measured, steady state lateral acceleration (from a skidpad) is always lower than instantaneous max lateral acceleration which you would measure on a racetrack with an accelerometer. This has to do with transitional dynamics. But that's basically how it works.

Jason

 

Ya i read that article this weekend, who's running the group buy on the sways? Are you refering to that thread "suspension sale"?

 

I thought I remembered that article from like early 2003... where they did a ghetto suspension job but got it to 1.01 or something.

meanwhile they tried to gain HP with a custom exhaust and not sure what else, ended up losing 2hp.

 

The "ghetto" suspension used Toyo RA-1 race tires, so it's not really a fair comparison. Most of the advantage was probably due to the R-compound tires.

If they were able to pull a G on street tires, then the mods are much more impressive.

-D'oh!

 

I am trying to understand a couple of things:

1 . Seems that the viscous LSD sucks in some instances ?? The clutch one is better ?? So is it a good mod to put the KAAZ ones in ??

2 . I am thinking of changing tires soon. I do not want to lower the car as the roads here do not permit that. What combo is best:

255/45/18 F with 265/45/18 R or 275/45/18 R or some other ?

I assume the middle number (45) indicates the "height" of the tire and it is 45 on stock. So what I want is to improve handling and cornering and cut the understeer as much as possible.

Comments please

MoZi

 

at 265 or 275 you need to go to a 40 hight, its more of a ratio, 45% or 40% of the width. so as you go wider you get taller as well.

youd need new rims for 265 or 275 though.

 

Thanks for your feedback. Below is the paragraph that made me think that you can use 255 F and 265 or 275 R on stock rims, especially the last sentence. Could you elaborate on that?

Thanks, MoZi

The next piece, we're guessing, is tires. As we learned in our six-hour Z thrash back in the October '02 issue, the Z's wheel wells will swallow a lot of tire. The fronts will easily accommodate 255s, and the rear can swallow 275s. With a carefully chosen offset, 265s and 285s are even possible. But while massive rear tires are tempting for visual effect, steamrollers will only exacerbate the understeer problem. We wanted at least 255s in the front, and were tempted to try 255s in the rear as well, but we wanted neutrality, not a tail-happy monster. For our first stab at tires, we chose a slight stagger, with 255/35-18s in front and 265/35-18s in the rear.

 

Mozi - they said the wheelWELLS could swallow a lot of tire, not the wheels.

I wouldn't put anything wider than a 245 on an 8" wheel.

Jason

 

Thanks Jason for the clarification. What are wheel "wells"? An explanation of the paragraph I pasted would help a lot.

Thanks again,

MoZi

 

the actual width from the fender to the inner plastic thats around the wheel.

they also mention offsets, so it can be assumed they are talking of aftermarket rims.

I do think 255's fit fine on the stock rims though.