The 350 is a good car, not a great car. Alot has been said about over driving it, I am guilty of that, the Z is very fast. With a good to great driver it can compete and maybe win. The powers that be at SCCA are supposed to kick the s2k's into A stock, that should level the playing field. I have been to several Natl events, the s2k's in one group, the rest of us in in B stock in another group, time wise. At Wendover last year, the s2k bunch was around 40 seconds, the rest of us around 42-43. Us includes 2 well driven MR2 turbos, and myself and another Z( with one of the imortals driving it). The course did not favor the Z, a 9 cone tight slalom with a kink on the end. The offset slalom going down course did favor us, the Z kicked butt on that segment by 2-4 car lengths.
If you get the open fast course, the Z will win, a tight course it will not. I am finally learning to slow down and run faster.

 

The only way to make a Z truely competitive in B Stock is to get some serious front shocks (stock suck *****), hoosier race tires, brake pads, and some serious power steering fluid. I've ran autox for over 10 years, been to nationals several times, and run in a region that has several national champions (Danny Pop ASP 03 champ being the latest) and I can tell you by time differences the Z is close to being a BStock winner with the right driver/setup. I'm still struggling with the setup currently and need shocks bad but I have no problems keeping up and running with a few leading BStock s2k national guys.

 

I'd say that's the case to a certain extent if you're in an area where these top ranked driver's don't run. In the case of our club, the experience is lacking so I realise my results are for reference of improvement more than anything else. When the Montreal (and Toronto) drivers pay a visit, then reality hits us full force. Not that we don't expect an @ss wooping, so far nobody in our club has registered for the National Championships this coming weekend, and it's only 2 hrs away.

For my personal and 350Z reference, I'll get a much better picture of where the car stands based on how drivers I've previously run against at larger events postion at the Nationals.

 

Most of us outside of a decent driving range (I'm 1900+ miles away from Topeka), are not going to Nationals; therefore, which car is best to have at Nationals isn't much more than a data point for us... nice-to-know but it's not going to dictate what we drive.

Our regional events have several folks who are successful at a National level... and their performance is another data point... again, nice-to-know.

Based on the consistency of certain competitors, I'm drawing some measurements. Here's how I'm connecting the data points:

1) The highest placing Z at Nationals was 6th, at the hands of a multi-national champion.
a) He's a guy desiring another national title, he choose the Z, he knows more about a car's ability to compete nationally than I will ever know... Z is good.
b) Given his superior talent, he placed 6th... and there was a fart's width between 1st - 6th.
c) This was his first year out in the Z. Competitiors will learn more about the Z over the following 12 months.

2) Local Joe X runs his S2000 at national level events and I'm X seconds behind him at our regional events (he runs PAX)... he placed X at the last national event... I still have work to do.

3) Local driver X bought and runs a Z... and he has multiple national titles. He selected the Z, he must've done his home work as well.

4) Local driver X competed at Nationals in his Boxster and placed way down on the results sheet, yet he and his co-driver still feed me my lunch at local events... I need to work on my performance.

5) National level competitors come from regional competition (they exist outside of Topeka's city limits somewhere), so given enough of them in my region, running in events over the course of a season... me, driving the same courses they do... and comparing their performance with mine...

So, looking at different data points, why wouldn't that say something about how a Z (and to some extent, how I) would perform at a national level? And the answer might be that the Z is a top 10 car at a national level... cool, that's more than I can aspire to anyhow.

For the gifted folks, it makes all the sense in the world for them to select "THE" class ringer... they're headed for a title and that means a lot to them. For the rest of us, we bought a car that we selected for a whole other set of reasons. If I were to pick my daily driver based on how it performs during 60 seconds of A/X... that'd be sad. And I would've ended up with a too small, weather challenged convertible, albeit a fast A/X'er (in gifted hands, of which I do not have), and still end up behind a well set-up and driven Z at my regional events... let alone at Nationals.

BC

 

I've purchased my last two vehicles with autocross in mind, over daily driving, which they also serve the purpose of.... am I sad too? :P

 

LS350Z - What do you mean by killer power steering fluid? How will that help and do you have any brands in mind? I'm enjoying my first year and trying to learn as much as possible. Thanks, Lee

 

christoc,

Nope, you just have your own set of priorities and talents... and some really huge numbers on your car ; )

BC