You're preaching to the choir. I know all about proper test procedure, and NASA too for that matter. But we don't need to get into a resume battle

All I was trying to say is that I believe the 350Z composite driveshaft is a well-designed, engineered, and tested component. Being a mass-production, consumer product application most certainly designed for 200,000+ miles of street use, I'm sure it has excessive margin. As such, it's not optimized for ideal performance gains, but I'm sure it's damn good.

 

Wow Phil -

You tell me I'm jumping down you're throat along with a couple other people, and daking paraphrases what we were trying to tell you and you don't jump on him. Take it easy. I'm just trying to help you out.

I'm not as well versed in composites as reen and that other fellow so I'm not gonna get into a pen15 measuring contest, but I think that Nissan intended for both modest performance and safety gains when it engineered its driveshaft. It could have shaved $$ by using steel and the safety rating, weight, and performance of the car would not have been seriously damaged, but I think it speaks mostly to the spirit of the car that they engineered a composite part where plain steel would have done just fine.

Phil, all we're trying to tell you is that you are not going to see any "gains" on your car, whether they are measured by performance, aesthetics, or safety. You most certainly will not see catastrophic losses, but you're tinkering with something that doesn't need to be tinkered with, and with a prototypical part no less. You're opening up a box of trouble you don't need to.

Dan

 

Agreed, i wasnt trying to pick a fight, just pointing out that the research is not as easy composites 101 class (or whatever) because of the cost considerations. And getting back to the original point: I never doubted that the stock "composite" driveshaft was a sufficient or even exceptional design merely that, in lieu of Nissan's reluctance to provide numerical evidence, I'm sure if driveshaft concerns are an issue for some people that there are a myriad other options out there that are probably better. And to bang the point home quotes like (from Nissan or otherwise):

" As such, it's not optimized for ideal performance gains, but I'm sure it's damn good."

is all Ive ever seen regarding the topic. And that sounds more like an act of faith rather then fact. Any numbers are yet to be seen.

 

350Z's have been raced both professionally and non-professionally for well over a year now. There have been power mods galore put on the car by many people.

Have these cars had their driveshafts changed to another material? If so, what? If not, how has the composite driveshaft been holding up?

I have read a lot of posts about this or that failing in race situations or following FI, but I have never read a post about a failure of the stock drive shaft. Maybe it is as good as you need already.

 

Your U joints would go first then you LSD if anything..This driveshaft will never break..I remember Smithstown running stock drivetrain into the 11's on SLICKS...No problems..Well except for 2 gaping holes in their engine and pieces of their pistons scattered all over the place!!

 

Phil, you and your sponsor can help us all out in understanding the weight difference a bit better by simply weighing the stock shaft ***'y when it's removed and the replacement. Remember to include all the respective attachments. They probably won't want to do this but they could also do torque testing on each to determine torsional stiffness and the ultimate torque load which would require breaking one of each. Of course, to get a statistical meaningful number they would have to break 3-6 but that's beyond our interests and probably their pocketbooks.

If they truly want to market this as a product improvement they will have to do this kind of evaluation anyway.

Good luck.

 

What dimensions do you need to fabricate a driveshaft?

 

Phil if you ask me you are wasting an incredible amount of time and effort on this modification, which you could put towards something that will actually help your performance..There has not been one case of driveshaft failure even on a car running 300+ of N2O and slicks...You buddie is full of SHIITT, and no one will buy his product cause it is simply not needed....