first round of attacking the interior today for the first time. I'm trying to do this without removing the roll bar. I'm aware of how difficult the floors are and plan to leave the carpet in place for now. I am going to cut open the rear shock supports and get rid of those extensions. I intended to shorten them at least, but I'll just open access to the top.

 

I removed the wiper motor but I kept the plastic cowl and rubber seals. The weight of those is negligable, but I want to have some separation from the engine to the battery and brake fluid reservoirs, I don't want either getting cooked by the motor heat.

 

That's good advice, thanks.
Hoon, I recall you replaced your door windows with Lexan. I just removed everything. it was surprising how much weight was removed from each door. and probably a pound of hardware alone. I think it's an easy 20 lb per door removed. The doors feel so light now. I love it. did the same thing with the Z3.

I don't think I'm going to have any trouble hitting 2,800 lbs.

I zip tied the interior latch pull wire although it's just as easy to reach over and pull the outside handle. You can see the tip peeking out in this photo.



Enjuku has these pull rings that attach to the ball on the end of the wire. a little more convenient.

 

Yes, I have p4p side windows, but they are for paddock only, The doors are gutted and I just have stoppers I added that lets me slide the windows in and out of the door. I don't drive with them in. If you go back thru my thread you can find how I did it.

 

The moral of this story is, I need a 3D printer. 😄

 

got a reply from NISformance. they CAN create a tune for headers and kinetix velocity intake with 75 mm TB and stock MAF diameter. this is a mail-in ECU tune. there is a tuner in my town but I really don't think I need that for this car. You mainly need that for FI or a larger MAF diameter or larger injectors. which is all good stuff that I should probably get into down the road but for now I'll be happy with a base tune for these upgrades.

I'm really eager to feel the difference. The car was phenomenal at the track one year ago, the last time I took it out. because that was the first time it had correct cam sensors. I didn't know it prior but the ECU was limiting power because of that. when I replaced them, holy ****. it was the most fun I've ever had at thunderhill west. with all of the bushings and suspension work, it was even better than the Cayman.

THW is a short track, just under 2 mi, so it is helpful if you've got good power on tap. The 350Z has a closer ratio gears than the Cayman in gears 1-2-3, but the Cayman has closer ratios between 4-5-6, so the Z will out-launch a 987 S out of turns, but fall behind on straights. and there are two short straights on THW.

this is a fun track but I hate the east track. I just detest reverse camber turns. That damn track was built for bikes, not cars.

 

That's exactly the tune I'll need as well. Try it and let me know how it works out

 

I want to make this work without rivets. I'm going to hire a car window shop to install it with the correct adhesive for Lexan. I like the look of this.

 

Got a couple more parts orders coming in this week. first is this Carbon Creations rear wing by carbonfiberhoods.com. I spent a long time deciding what to do about rear downforce and figured that a full APR wing is too much downforce without a large front splitter which would cause... understeer, if I'm thinking about it correctly... I think this wing will do nicely. it was a lot cheaper than the Seibon. The quality is VG.

 

okay the last of the parts for a while. now I've got a lot of work to do on the car which is good, it'll keep me busy. and I just found a few rear suspension bushings that need to be replaced so I'll do that when I remove the diff. and with the tune, I'm not going to order that until I get the transmission and clutch swapped. because I'll be doing the headers at the same time.

 

Check that manifold thoroughly, mine had metal shavings in it! I also recommend ditching the cork gaskets, I used the Motordyne Aramid gasket for the lower one.

 

That wing looks good, but I don't know how much downforce you'll get from it as low as it is. For proper downforce you'd want your wing to be up high enough to be in clean air, not the low pressure area behind the rear hatch. Same issue as with my duck tail, it looked good but I didn't notice much discernable downforce until I switched to a proper wing.

Also I've found on my setup at least I have no need for a large front splitter. Between the car being front heavy, the square tire setup and the soft-ish rear suspension my car still tends to be neutral leaning towards rear happy even with the wing at 4-5 deg AOA.

 

thanks for that advice. I noticed the interior was full of dirt. and even a spider web. looks like it's been sitting on a shelf for a long time. I will definitely clean it and buy a better gasket. I appreciate that tip.

 

The rear wing is a little taller than it appears in that photo but i'm sure you're right about downforce. I wanted something that played nice with the rear hatch. eventually I might do some sort of chassis mount through the hatch into the trunk or on the rear like yours.

 

I've been looking at jack supports again. I wanted to buy a MaxJax but those greedy ******** doubled their price in the past 2 years. I'm not paying $4,000 for a mini lift. I think what I'm going to go with is bash bars in the front / rear with jack points. this adds weight but I think the utility outweighs The weight hit. these are both at enjuku. and the best price around $250.






when I had my 2011 GT500, steeda offered Jack bars that bolted up and ran along the inside jacking area. One long square bar. it was awesome. there's nothing like that for the Z. but there is a similar bar. built for drift protection. true focus fab. The steel tubes are 1.5 in. I like the bracket that wraps down. jacking on the bracket instead of the stamp steel pinch points on the ******** OEM would be helpful and save time. but then maybe it would be better to create something simpler. a custom welded jack bar that truly runs along the underside. I would like to jack right in the middle to get one whole side up at a time. That was really handy on the Shelby. I asked steeda to adapt it for other makes and models and they didn't even reply.

 

As front heavy as these cars the middle of the weight won't be in the middle of the side. I can raise one side by jacking on the side rail towards the front right where the plastic cover of the rail ends. You might want to experiment to see where your center of mass is before adding jack points.

Street Faction used to offer bash bars front and rear with middle jack points and you can setup the rear as a bash bar or as a base for the wing mount with or without jack point. That's where I got mine. But looking at their site they no longer list them.

Edit: Might be their site is just fubar, it doesn't seem to list any products anymore

CZP still seems to offer them though
https://conceptzperformance.com/stre...33_p_34797.php

 

yeah, that street faction bar was in my wish list for a long time and I waited too long. I use 12 ton jack stands for the size and height. they're made for semi trucks. feels very safe with those in place. but getting the car raised up higher than normal is a challenge. I think these bash bar jack points would make it very quick and easy. Even if I'm just putting race ramp blocks under the wheels first, it's still a hassle. with my extra long low profile jack, that gets the car up to only the third notch in those stands. and I'd like to get it up another 6 in for doing work like the transmission. doing the front rear is definitely safer than the sides. so I think that's my best option.

 

everyone on IG is talking about these new Hoosier track attack pro tires.


compared to extreme contact force:


these are both 200 TW tires. I don't know what the Hoosiers are priced at but it's probably similar. maybe more expensive. but the 275-35 contis are about $300. this is what I'm planning on buying for the Z for spring.

so I asked track day tire what the difference is between these two 200 TW tires. they said, the Hoosiers are faster, high-wear tires, while the Conti's are endurance tires.
​​​​​​That was actually awesome to know about. If I had the funding, in other words when I'm all done with upgrades and builds, to where my budget goes toward wear items, then I would go with the Hoosiers but until then I'm going to choose the Contis.
pretty sure this winter will be the end of the costly expenses. I've done everything that the car needs for a DE4/TT car. The rear diff is the last item to do. I'm really looking forward to that, spending money on tires, brakes, instead of core vehicle necessities..

 

I didn't want to buy tires 5 months ahead of the first spring event but couldn't pass up the buy 3/1 free sale that came up again like last fall.

275-35/18 x4 came to $1060 shipped at TDT using the code CONTISPICE.
​​​​​​https://trackdaytire.com/product/con...contact-force/

I will eventually switch to the more grippy rubber with my lap time improvements but for now, this endurance tire will meet my hpde needs. I've got the wheels stored in the shed. I'll just park these in the house for the winter. and that means the last cost for this car will be the diff.

 

my first serious tires. 🏎️
for the past 2 years I've been using Yoko Advan Apex tires. put them on the Z3 and the Cayman and love them! they give good feedback. I've never slid off the track. these ECFs will be very grippy for me. a good next step.