And the fun begins...







Before you ask or comment...yes, I know speakers are heavy, and no, they are not staying.

TO BE CONTINUED . . .

 

do you have the body kit and everything else done yet? more pics! so far all you've done is pull out trim and carpet, anyone can do that!

 

Hahahaha...OK wise guy!!!! Body kit and suspension for sure, and maybe the cage should be completed this coming up week. It's good to see you on here man. I rarely get to visit this site, but it's a good one for 350Z info! The drift section doesn't get a whole lot of action. Every once in a while this dude by the name of Topics II graces us with his magnificant presence....(Chris Forsberg) .

Talk to you soon


Hell, I never even thought about it until now, but Chris if your reading this, maybe I can just buy your Z off of you! It sure as hell would save me a lot of trouble....see you in Jersey homie.

 

speaking of chris, kelly has a whole section of the forum ( he and jacob made a new forum called icondrifting.com, or something like that ) devoted as an ask chris section. i asked a question and it still hasn't been answered, lol.

on topic though, how much weight did you drop from the z taking out those parts? it seems there is very little sound insullation in the back of the z from the noise it makes, and from the pictures it looks that way too. heat gun that crap out, its heavy! i wish i would have weighted the trash can after gutting my black car, it would have been interesting.

also, what body kit and which suspension did you pick. i want to copy all your performance mods, but don't want to get the same body kit as that would look silly. i was looking at the silly looking initial d body kit for namesake alone, can't go wrong there!

post updated pics of the outside of the car all prettied up, or i'll post pics of it with dents!

 

Ummm...you don't want to do that. And you'll see why in about five days.

The Vertex kit would have taken too long to get here, and too long to replace should anything happen to it (which is highly probable appearently). The "Intial D" kit as ricey as that sounds, is cheap, plentiful, and has the little opening by the air inlet that I like. Should look OK if it's not too over done on the graphics or accents around it. Gimme time, I'll get more pics up.

 

Join the team of gutted Z's!

 

you bought the body kit i was about to get!! you bastard!! now i can't get the damn thing!! that was about the only mod i was going to do to the car other than the lsd. the do-luck kit looks pretty hot. at a drift event though, a body kit with the initial d name would be worth extra pimp points. someone should make one for the el camino.



Rickdogg:

as to joining the team of gutted z's, been there and done that with too many cars. the z is going to stay full weight with cold ac until it hits a wall or something, or maybe a fence. gutted cars get old after awhile, but you have to have at least one of them at all times to keep it in your system.

 

HAhahaha...OK, that's weird because the Do-Luck kit was my second choice after the ID kit. But again, that one is just as, if not more expensive then the Vertex kit, so it brings the same problem of price and availability.

But hey, just stay the hell away from fences and you'll be fine!!!

FYI - Coilovers arrived today and will be installed soon, I'll give you a call and let you know how everything goes. Did you get the LSD ordered yet?

 

the lsd is the only thing i've ordered so far. i was thinking of a body kit cause i've never done one, but had no idea what it would actually look like in real life. now i can see exactly what its going to look like, on the same color car as mine! what coilovers did you choose? with what spring rates? i do already have the 5 zigen wheels off my black nissan on the newer nissan, 10s in back and 9s or 9.5s in front, with azenis sports on them. the car needs a bit more power though. have you worked anything out successfully on the power department? anything in time for the next event? anyways, you go mod that thing so i can pick and choose what works on yours, then just copy cat it.

 

That's great that you got the LSD ordered, it is by the far the most important thing on the Z to get it drift ready. Suspension wise we are being supported by Ksport USA. They are a new suspension tuning company in the US but have been doing business overseas for some time now. They supplied us with an amazing kit that I can't wait to get installed in the car. We are going to experiment with different spring rates, but are starting off with 16kg front and 12kg rear. I need to test this setup on the car, but may end up going with something more stiff in the rear. So much more weight on the Z is up front so it needs something a little stiffer on the front.

So far we have not secured anything as far as power modifications go. Honestly with the Z I haven't seen anything significant come out of doing N/A modifications. With all the money you would spend on bolt on parts, cams, ecu tuning, blah, blah, blah....and not getting major HP, you'd be better off doing some sort of forced induction.

The wheels we got for the Z are simply amazing, 18x10 all the way around, with a very aggressive offset....just waiting on rubber to get the thing rolling on them.

And by the way, don't waste half of that cars potential by just drifting it. I've past race prepped V8 cars left and right on road courses in my stock Z on crappy tires so you need to come to the next NASA DE and let me show you how to hustle that thing around! It's an absolutely amazing road racing car....just get good track brake pads first....ahhh....just call me sometime soon dammit, this post is getting too long.

 

it is your responsibility then to tell me when the next nasa track day is that i can attend. i'm super easy going, and always show up to events, so just tell me when and where and i'll show up. i love nasa anyways, and would love to attend more of their events, as their tech inspectors let you run just about anything : P

do i need anything other than my motorcycle helmet and car? or do i need a fancy snell 2000 hat and fire suit? give me an hyper link to the correct helmet if i need one please.

hope you have your car ready in time! don't forget to take it for a test drive and work out the bugs.

 

I'll give you a call soon, but for now (from NASA DE tech form):

Minimum Safety Gear for Driver and Passenger -
*Proper Fitting Helmet that meets Snell 1990 (SA1990;M1990) or newer or equivalent standards for cars and motorcycles. *Modern style stock seatbelts in very good condition or a NASA approved restraint system, while operating a vehicle on the track. Restraint system requirements are listed in the CCR, Section #11.4.8. Lap belts used without any shoulder restraints are not permitted. *Non-synthetic fabric clothing (i.e. cotton). At least a T-shirt and long pants must be worn *No open toed shoes, shorts or tank tops may be worn in the car while on the track. *It is recommended that drivers wear eye protection such as goggles, safety glasses or face shields preferable made of new impact resistant materials. *It is recommended that any corrective eyeglass material used be made of safety glass type that meets the U.S. Government standards.

 

i just spoke to deanna about more drift events in texas, and signed up for one of the de courses on 5-21 and 22. do you teach at those?

 

Do I ever!!!! The NASA De events are my pride and joy, I can't wait to get out there in a fresh Z....mmmmmm....fresh meat.....hahahaha.....

Awsome to hear you signed up man, you will have an absolute blast, we'll talk soon to go over the (very short) list of things to do to your car before coming out to a DE. I'll let them know that I'll be spending most of my time in your car that weekend, being that your a new student and all.

 

so when no ones looking, do we get to drift on the track? is anyone watching the backside of it? or can you see the whole thing from where the officials sit? : P

 

Hahaha...ahhhh...I knew that question would come up sooner or later, but I was thinking you would at least wait until we got to the track. Short answer: It depends on who's working that day.

Long answer: I've been black flagged more times then I can remember (yes, they can even black flag instructors) by the corner workers in my car, and in many students cars. The corner workers tend to freak out a little bit when they see a car sliding around at high speeds, which is very understandable. It's sort of their "alarm" if you will...that something bad is about to happen, get ready to run to help, there is about to be a crash!!! We'll have to play it by ear, and see how many people are in the DE group with you. Most times I can hollar at them on the radio and tell them which car I'm driving and they leave me alone. As far as students go....your the first to ask me if they can do that. I think once you see how much faster the speeds are then any drift course we've done, you might not want to drift!!! Motorsport Ranch is an amazing track, you will have an absolute blast. I drove a stock touring model Z there last time, and I was passing spec miata's on racing slicks.....

 

sounds fun! i also talked to deanna about the texas drift events, and combining them with grind in houston to make them for cost effective. hopefully the idea takes!