Last summer, June '21, I scratched an old itch by buying a 2011 GT500 Perf Pack Ed. took it to the track right away in stock form and did not enjoy the experience. 3800 lb plus driver and gas is about 4,100. I was kind of hoping it would be a good hobby car. I was so disappointed in the handling that I didn't really even enjoy driving it to work.

I realized I was going to have to do some major suspension upgrades to the car to improve the handling and I was looking at about $5,000. for a Watts link and a bunch of stuff and I didn't want to spend that much money on a car that is so heavy.

So the second car I've always wanted is a 350Z and I bought one a month later and eventually sold the Shelby. 2004 touring in good condition and local. took that to the track right away and had a blast!

Long story short I debated with myself whether to completely strip the car or go street / track. I really wanted to go all out for the track but I also enjoyed driving it on some of the canyon roads around NorCal. so I did various upgrades without touching the tune and made it a pretty rough ride on the street but I was okay with that. I still had the track bug and wanted to do a totally stripped out build. but I was really enjoying this car and wanted to give it a sweet paint job and make it a nice cruiser.

So I realized why the hell not? just buy another one! so I searched for a few months and found an 03 Track Edition that someone had partially prepped already. had it shipped from Florida and decided to park it for now because it won't pass smog in California. I'm fine with that as I'll get around to this car soon enough.

so I'm going to use the thread to share the stuff I've done with the 04 and then continue on with the 03 when I get to it and I thought that would be interesting to some. I'll share progress photos later but for now I'll just post a couple to get started here.

 

nice setup man! looking forward to your progress. I bet you have some awesome tracks out there to go to!

 

Thanks! I'll share some photos of my work over the last 9 months on the 04 and then new progress. I started with bushings instead of the obvious things that most guys do like shocks and wheels.

Strictly in NorCal, there's Thunderhill and Sonoma. I've run thunderhill 4 days and just decided I'm not a fan, probably won't go back. I did start to learn techniques for that track and I got the line down pretty well but the track just irritates me. the negative camber turns and the blind hills...it's just not fun imo. it feels like it could be a rally track.

Sonoma is completely fun just a total blast to drive on and I love it. so I'm really tuning this car to run Sonoma. my best time is crap at 2:14 but that's my starting point...

4.5 hrs south to Bakersfield is Buttonwillow which I have yet to do, but I'm hoping to run some socal tracks when i get a car trailer. I was going to give Buttonwillow a try last fall but decided if I run into any problems that's a long haul with a tow truck to get back home. I just don't want to get stranded down there if something goes wrong. on the other hand when I do get a car trailer I'll be hitting up tracks all over within a day's drive from here. I'm still a beginner so not in a big hurry.

some of the first upgrades during that first month:



Corbeau seats

Hawk HP Plus pads

Conti Extreme Contact Sport 245/40f 255/40r

Rebuilt stock calipers since I didn't trust the originals.

 

one of the first things I needed to change after that first track weekend was the seats because in stock form they are too tall when wearing a helmet. I spent a month on this problem because in the midst of lockdown seats were hard to come by, with months of back orders. the two that I managed to find locally were the only race seats left so I was lucky to get them at the time.

instead of buying corbeau mounts I picked up sliders from summit and these ultra low mounts on
Amazon

 

In Oct, car went up on jack stands and I was dabbling with the idea of buying a small two post lift but the garage floor concrete did not look good enough to handle it and I did not want to cut and pour for the mount so I decided to just make do with huge jack stands. 12 ton are not about the weight it's about the size and height and I highly recommend them.
Amazon
and that's where the car stayed until February this year up on the stands I had a ton of stuff to install over the winter months.starting with bushings.

 

 

 

this was way overkill for my driving skill and even counting this spring I've only got like nine track days under my belt this car is capable of way more than my driving skill but I don't regret doing all the solid stuff it was enjoyable learning all about the car by getting my hands dirty.

next up is adjustable arms and the rest of the suspension and I'll just let the photos tell the story. I chose Tein S-Tech adjustable shocks and springs as an entry level that I could adjust firmness and not spend too much at this early stage. it's good but a little better than stock and didn't cost too much. I wanted to know what I was missing before spending on an expensive set. $700 was a pretty good starting point.










I had also heard about camber being a thing and admittedly being a beginner not any experience with race suspension so I grabbed an affordable set of front uppers and adjustable rears and either need to learn or find a shop that can do it properly.

 

Nice progression. I'm yet to do solid subframe mounts in the rear, I know it needs doing but I've been dredding it. I will say your next upgrade should probably be the brakes, those stock calipers are just not up to par for track duty. Don't be like me and wait until they explode and catch on fire

Also, while I employ the same drop seat bracket for my pass seat I didn't trust them for the driver's side, they do seem a bit flimsy. On the driver's side I have a regular plate mount and it is fine.

 

nice work man, those bushings are no fun doing. Like Dr Hoon ive been dreading doing them too. I totally agree, brakes are a huge part of track driving, I would do them asap and get the hawk dtc 70 pads. I had the hp pads in my akebono setup before and the difference is amazing!

 

I got the ISR subframe bushings for a bit less than the SPLs and they look identical. Pulling the subframe out was not so bad because I had a ton of stuff to do in the rear like the diff bushings and arms. I used a sawzall to cut into each bushing, first cutting out the centers then into the outer rings. After that, they drop out easily with a chisel & hammer. Some guys prefer fire but I didn't think cutting was hard to do. cutting out the centers was the hardest part & fried a couple sawzall blades in the process. Maybe when I get to the 2003's subframe I'll try a hole bit. I just didn't like the idea of the Z1 inserts. Also, the diff bushings are a PITA unless you remove the diff first.

The new(refurb) calipers and pads were great for my first few track weekends. I now have a set of used Brembos & rebuild kits & new hard lines to go in soon!

I was thinking of trying brackets from Planted or Wedge but the cheap ones have held so far. I'm sure you're right about them. These prob are ok for street. The 2003 will have race mounts.

 

Whoa, thanks for the tip, I'll def pick up those pads for the Brembos that are going on soon!

 

Still working on the winter months, now mostly into January 2022, so all very recently. Replaced stock radiator with Mishimoto + low-temp thermostat & hoses. At the track, the coolant never went above 180. Granted, this was in March, but still a good test of the install.

 

Installed a 1" oil pan spacer with ports, one of which now has a temp sender. This is a great mod since the oil pan now holds 6 qts for better cooling.

Also installed the clichéd plenum spacer, although I'm most likely going to switch to a Kinetix V+. I do feel that this increases power along with the exhaust.

 

Z1 cat-back Y-pipe & single muffler reduces quite a bit of weight vs the stock dual-exit muffler.

This muffler comes with an insert but it unfortunately muffles the sound TOO MUCH. However, without it, my ears were traumatized at the track. Seriously, I had partial hearing loss for a day afterward. It's no joke just how #(*@#$ loud this thing is at WOT.

 

The front bumper was sourced from bodykits.com (Nismo 2 Style KBD Urethane Front Body Kit Bumper 37-2270). Love the look myself. I'll be getting some body work done and the whole car painted this year.

Picked up the HR-style CF hood from a wrecking yard via Craigslist, entirely for the vents. I figured it would cost about the same to buy & install vents in the stock hood (I know the weight savings is negligible). This hood will be painted esp since the CF is faded.

Finally, my first set of racing wheels, Enkei RPF1 and I was utterly shocked to find they fit without rolling the fenders. 18x10.5+15 with 275/35 tires. Ran a day at Sonoma without any rubbing. Thanks to @istubzz.

 

That's it up to the present day. Lots of installs waiting for a day off work (where I'm not too damn tired).

Picked up these Brembo calipers online. Might work fine but I'm going to rebuild the seals anyway. Have the hard lines and SS lines for them but no pads yet. I'm going to pull the Brembo rotors (and the Nismo LSD & Kirk 4pt rollbar) off of the 2003 for the time being since that car will be benched for quite a while.

Got all of this stuff to install between now and the next Sonoma weekend in late May:
Brembos front & rear & lines
Parking brake hardware
Solid motor mounts
Solid trans mount
Short-throw shifter
Compression arm bushings
Z1 flywheel & clutch
Nismo 1.5 LSD
Rear spoiler
Kirk 4pt rollbar (bolted)

 

****ing awesome! How do you like those bushings? I need LCA and compression rod and I was gonna get SPLs, or just buy another car lol

What pads you going with?

 

Thanks! Doing bushings first was a great decision. Love the way it feels so tight. I'm eager to get the solid mounts installed to tighten up the drivetrain.

I initially installed Energy Suspension polyurethane bushings in the front & regret it. I also haven't done tie-rod ends yet. Should have been done before all that rear-end work.

Some SPL stuff is very pricy so for a few items I'm using ISR, GKTech, S2M, Megan from CZP (Z1 doesn't carry any of those brands). The GK spherical compression bushings are half the price of SPL. Worth a try anyway. This doesn't seem like a cheap brand to me; they have some very unique items like solid trans mount, solid steering rack bushings, FUCAs, tie-rod ends, diff brace.

Here's their FUCA for $429. Maybe they aren't as good but it's worth a try. The solid trans mount I bought is not cheap Shanghai cast-iron ****, it's forged.
https://conceptzperformance.com/gkte...ca_p_60809.php

Still using OEM calipers (refurb by carparts.com) and original rubber lines. All I've done so far is Hawk HP Plus pads & dot4 fluid. I've got the full set of hard lines for the Brembos going on soon. That'll be fun. I'm sure it will increase my confidence at Sonoma.

 

nice dude, your making good progress. nice having 2 cars to swap parts off.