You sound like you may not have the Z for too long!!!
I've got a cure for that - take one twin turbo and stiffer suspension and mix with the Z. Just think 220kW at the rears and handling to bring back memories of the MX5. OK, so I exaggerate about the handling charecteristics and what rubber could handle 220kW through 2 wheels???

 

nope! not that i can remember!

BTW

If you believe what you read, Motor magazine has run a bunch of cars at Wakefield and the lotus elise came on top.

And it's only got 110kw... (lol, but it weighs in at 800kg)!

The Zed came in very strong. Too bad it wasn't running the new exhaust .... hehehehe

But seriously it scored just under the Sti in performance and was a the winner in the looks department.

 

Wouldnt be nice to have one of those Sti Intercoolers on the front of the Z. Then lets see some pissy little pommy car (LOL) kick our ****!

As always

H

 

No surprise to see the Elise come out on top. It was made for the track and a short twisty track like Wakefield suits it down to the ground. Did the mag give lap times and if so, what time did each car run around in?

 

Elise 1.10.44
WRX STi 1.11.53
HSV GTS 1.11.81
Boxster S 1.11.81
Mighty Z 1.11.97
M3 SMG 1.12.00
Z4 1.12.09
RX 8 1.12.68
WRX 1.12.84
Commy SV8 1.13.22
GT Falcon 1.13.60
XR8 1.13.93
Ausi S3 1.14.00
Renault Clio 1.14.27
XR6Turbo 1.14.38
Astra Turbo 1.14.44
Falcon XT V8 1.15.68
Ford Focus 1.15.78
Corolla 1.16.75
Barina 1.18.20
Echo 1.20.84

As always

H

 

Thanks Harry. Good to see that we were withing a poofteenth of the STI, Clubbie, Boxter S. Especially pleased to see the Z beat the M3 / Z4 and Rex.

 

Dont forget though, Wakefield is a fairly tight track. The story basically says the Z is magic on the track. Im sure it would be a different story say at the Creek or Phillip Island.

As always

H

 

Don't think we were doing those sort of times on the day

As for me keeping the Z...

I really don't know. I suspect part of my problem is I had my previous car for so long and have certain expectations left over from it. It took me about a month just to stop reaching for the roof latches LOL.

For me right now the Z lacks something. At first I thought it was just the lack of power and little bit of the handling but I'm not so sure lately. I'm beginning to think it's lack of feel. The Zed is easy to drive to the point that it's rather sedate for everyday motoring whereas the 5 was very involving for the driver all of the time. A lot of people would say that's a good thing I guess.

I'm also disappointed with Nissan Oz (has anyone had any contact from them after sales) and also the build quality in terms of rattles isn't up to scratch IMO.

Anyway we'll see. I do like the Zed, I'm just not yet convinced I'll keep it for 9 years like the I did with the MX-5. That's enough from me, back on topic.

 

I agree on the after sales comment. I have not had any contact from Nissan, but I have filled in a questionaire slamming the sales team at the dealership that I purchased my car from.
Whoever was driving the Z around Wakefield does know how to drive. Consider that the R32 GTR that was at the track on the day we were there cut a best time of 1.13.XX. And thats approximately a 200kg lighter car that was producing 200kW at the tyres according to the owner.

 

If I could stay off topic for a second , or two.

I agree with you Matt, the Z does lack something, and this might be a contradiction, it does everything its meant to. It's like it has been sterilised.

I can put it in terms of motorcycles.

For about 5 years I owned (and rode a lot) a GSXR 750. I wanted a new bike and Suzuki were bringing out "the next best thing", something to hassle those pesky Ducati's, it was a TL1000r. It was a big twin that was supposed to take Suzuki to the top of WSB, they tried it for a year (or two) and pissed it off in favour of the GSXR's again.

Now this bike had plenty of power, you'd give it some and it felt like you werent going anywhere,look at the speedo and you were doing 170kms hour. It was just too boring, it didnt jump up and snarl at you.

I think the Z is the same, the power is so linear it takes a lot of the fun out of driving it.

Again these are my opinions and arent neccesarily those of the producer or this television station.

As always

H.

By the way, I sold the TL and got myself one of those Yamaha R1 thingies. Now that's a different story, they can never be described as boring!

Sorry for the length (that's the first time I've ever had to say that!)

 

By the way, the guy doing all the driving around WP was Neil Bates. I dont have the story with me, so forgive me if this is wrong.

As always

H

 

Glad to see I'm not the only one that feels that way.

A couple of turbos would make things more interesting but the $15k it would take to get things working correctly... I'm not sure if it's worth it.

 

Crouden (CAS) are apparently doing a custom setup for a customers Z. Indicative pricing 15k single turbo.

 

I tend to agree that the Z is too sedate.

It has come to life a bit with the new exhaust and i am looking at importing the Crawford plenum. I think those and a piggyback will be just enough to crack open the "whoop-***" in this car.

I find the car a pleasure to drive every day for work but when I want to throw it arround it just tends to gentrify my actions... Something I expect from traction control not the whole setup.

I think raw power and torque will fix this gentrification of our car.

As far as turbos are concerned I'll only keep the Z for 3 years so the investment isn't worth it. Hopefuly by then they will come out with a 350Z-TT.

 

I'll have to look into this. Croydon don't do a lot of fabrication themselves, mostly bolt on stuff, so I'll have to see if I can find if and who they've outsourced it to.

 

Well everyone, finally got my system on last Wednesday.

To sum up, I dont particularly care of I dont get the alleged 18kw, the sound more than makes up for the $$$.

The car now sounds how it should have, especially accelerating above 3000 revs, SUPERB note. It is not overly loud just a lot deeper. Just cruising you hardly notice the difference but when you hit the loud button it certainly livens up. On the drive back up the highway from Sydney it sounded fine, no drone.

Im sure there is extra power there, it didnt really sit me back in the seat though.

I was a bit sceptical when I first turned up to the workshop. There were two shady looking guys rubbing there hands together. Reminded me of Ferris Bueller, "the Ferrari 250 californian, etc" and "trust me Im a proffesional". However the guys were fine, the called me an hour or so after I dropped the car off to tell me it was ready.

The system itself looks like it superbly made, the finish is excellent.

Did I happen to mention the note?

As always

H

 

Ok...I'm dynoing the Hi-tech tomorrow morning.

I'll then head to Nathan's dads shop and get the spacer put in. I expect i'll get it dynoed the following day.

Jim is very busy... saw a brand new 911 turbo sitting in the yard waiting to be Unichiped....mmmmmmmmmmmm 911 turbo [homer voice-over]

Hope all this works to plan....Pete said that Nathan couldn't feel any gains from the spacer but it'll worth a try.

 

Well it wasn't what I expected... Hell, I got a lot more!

I told Lambros that i'd accept 14rwkw or better, I got 21.5rwkw. I had to ring Hi-tech up to let them know how pleased I was. That is way beyond my expectations.

Good job Hi-tech!

 

Impressive. That's a 28.8rwhp gain.

 

well the initial dyno we did was 149.9kw...so it's a 21.6kw gain.

Where did you get the extra KWs from? Not that i'm complaining or anything .

I should have the spacer on tomorrow and if i'm lucky i'll be able to fit in a dyno too.

I really hope it makes a difference.