tomzz

Why Not More 350Z’s in Us Road Racing ?

It seems as if the 350Z has not become the high demand race platform in the US for professional and amateur road racing that some had envisioned or expected after 3 years in the market place.

Do you think this is true,or not true? If true, Why?

EnthuZ

iTrader: (2)

Unlike Cadillac & Ford, Nissan doesn't give any financial or development aid to the US series. Nissan is spending their $ in JPGT, and indirectly from parent company Renault, in F1.

In SCCA, the turbo cars are out of control!

jun14scr

iTrader: (1)

i thought there were a pretty good fleet of 350zs in T2 this year. seems like a lot more people are going to run the STi next year especially with it's strong finish this year at the runoffs. chuck hemingson is the man.

ALong

iTrader: (12)

Enthuz is correct, Nissan doesnt pour the money into the professional programs like the other manufactures do.

As far as T2, Nissan has a pretty good program, expect to see more 350Z's running as soon as SCCA puts restrictors on the STI and EVO.

tomzz

Good thinking crew

Do you think the lack of sports car road racing investment by Nissan is reflecting a different market strategy? Are they now thinking "see 350z mods on Sunday at NOPIA, buy on Monday" to sell cars for the customer modification market, rather that the traditional "race on Sunday, buy on Monday"? Or do thier numbers point to race investment in catagoies other than road racing for US 350z's? Is it TV viewer driven? Is this the reason for heavy Nisan investment in Japan 350 racing? Nissan NA seems to have pretty good minds in their market strategy group who must have a strategy that suggests investment in the US sports car racing 350Z type car niche is just not as profitable as other niches Nissan can invest in.

I have also heard the expression that in US amatuer racing, the class regulations reflects the investment by manufactuers. The more investment, the more class regs favor thier stable? Hence low Nissan invest in 350Z racing, less regs freedom for 350Z's??

davidv

iTrader: (2)

Amateur road racing is expensive. Very few street legal 350Zs go straight from the street to the track and race as is. If I have the time and money for road racing, why buy a car as expensive as the 350Z?

ALong

iTrader: (12)

Nissan, I believe just doesnt have the budget to fund professional racing right now. Remember they were on the verge of bankruptcy several years ago and it wasnt until recently that they have become profitable again. Give it a few years and they will come back. They still have a good support program for racing teams, and pay out contingency money, they just are not funding anything right now other than developement of parts that they can sell through Nissan Motorsports.

As far as racing a 350z, it is actually a very cheap car to build and race considering its performance level. Parts are cheap, in comparison to the BMW's I have raced in the past. A Showroom Stock-C Mini Cooper S is going to cost $20k before you even start race prepping it, a Showroom Stock-B BMW Z4 is going to cost $30k before you prep it, my Touring 2 350Z cost $27k plus race prep and is 5-9 seconds a lap faster than SSC and SSB race cars. Thats pretty cheap to me.

tomzz

Very interesting comments.

The purchase of a car for regular street use usually has so many more emotional benefits at the root of the purchase decison. Which, I presume is why a lot of us bought 350Z's. They are really pleasing to the eye (emontional benefit), and also zoom well (emotion of speed), and are also a great economic value (logic). 2 parts emotion and 1 part logic. On the other hand, most of the comments about racing decisions offered here are much more logical (economic, functional, realistic competitive performance, etc). If you are going to race, why not buy an ugly STI and win races, or get a shifter cart for low cost racing rush?

This leads my curiosity to our new up market buddie in the 300hp 2 seat coupe segment - the Cayman. Porsche used almost the same emotional words on thier launch campaign for the Cayman as Nissan did for the 350Z. All emotion with just a touch of value message. "buy me, I am cheaper than a 911!"

Will the Cayman sell some 350z's once the prospect sees the actual walk out price on the Cayman (only $8k for a brake upgrade), and then looks at a 350Z? Will Porsche product loyalty be too strong for that kind of switch? Will Porsche back racing of the Cayman like they do 911's?

It seems the 350z postion in the 300 hp 2 seat coupe segment looks good for the future.

Well got to go. I have to take my Z in for a new tranny and new front tires. Good thing it is good looking.

35oZephyR

iTrader: (4)

Like Enthuz said, Nissan is probably too occupied on sponsoring and funding this....









And alot of the world has their eyes on the SuperGT series. Funding in the US professional roadracing circuits probably have little impact on the market.

Just my guess.

I don't know if a 30k (+tuning) car is really considered grassroots but I would love to see more in amateur road racing.

zillinois

iTrader: (6)

Come to think of it I don't see a lot of Mustangs in JGTC!

dkmura

iTrader: (64)

Keep in mind that funding for the JGTC Z cars comes directly from Nissan Japan and is run through Nismo. That makes sense for their return on investment for the home market. In North America (and the rest of the world) it's a different story. Nissan is not in a specialty niche like Porsche, which NEEDS motorsports to maintain their reputation. Ghosn made it clear that ANY project (including motorsports) within the company had to show a clear return on investment. That's almost impossible given the current market economy and state of professional road racing in the U.S.

So, while there will be individuals campaigning 350Zs in SCCA, Grand-Am and other forms of motorsports, I don't expect to see any high-profile, factory involvement in the forseeable future!

RBlover69

iTrader: (2)

werd , nascar is so boring....super gt and the whole jgtc needs more advertisment in the US, nascar is just so boring i have a greater time watchthe grand am or grand pro what ever series where there are cars you actually see on the raod and know racing other then a freaking nascar body car which has internals that few will ever see in persson

merlot350Z

iTrader: (3)

Buy the car, invest $22k in making it a T-2 SCCA race car and your ready to hit the track. We will know in two weeks if SCCA has make the T-2 class equal. So far its not.

RBlover69

iTrader: (2)

i love the rolex grand series, ....i think thats one of the best concepts i have seen, ...prototypes with gt cars

chimmike

iTrader: (7)

I'm dying to get into some amateur road racing, but the only track near me is Sebring. Guess that's a good place to start

jun14scr

iTrader: (1)

is that what people are paying these days 22k to prep a 350z for t2?

i can't eblieve the m3 is getting moved to t2 AND getting suspension.
the STis need some restrictions.

John

iTrader: (17)

The E46 M3 was moved into T2 the beginning of 2005 - and from what I understand of the changes for 2006, all T2 cars are getting concessions for remote reservoir dampers.

merlot350Z

iTrader: (3)

John is right about the remote reservoir shocks............add another $6k to the $22K to build the car. BTW thats if you do the work yourself, more if you send it to a race shop. To the guy from Sebring........there will be a race first weekend in January with a high entry for T-2 and then next weekend they all go to Homewood for another National race. Don't miss the sebring race though, should be interesting with the 43 wheel drive cars all over the curbs and into the sand.

jmark

iTrader: (1)

I plan to photograph the Sebring National. Any T2 350Z's going?

J Ritt

iTrader: (4)

In addition to the other reasons mentioned...something very important to consider when racing your 350Z...$30,000 purchase price, +$22-28K for prep...that's close to $60K. Then you need to plan on at a bare minimum $1000 per race weekend for rubber, brakes, fuel, entrance fees, etc. To top it off, you have to be prepared to write your $60,000 car off if you total it while racing. That's a lot of bank for the average joe to swallow. That's why spec miata and rx-7's are a lot more attractive for club-level road racing.
As for Grand-Am, etc., that's some serious racing, and waaaaay out of most people's league. Just to get a drive in one of those cars for a race weekend you'll have to pay $20,000 to the team owner. Also, those cars are much, much, much more expensive than $60,000...try triple that!