I am trying to turn the thread into something positive. After all, the comparision should be useful to many of you.

I got the funny feeling someone else might feel it necessary to throw a couple of more shots at me so stay tuned if you like that kind of stuff.

Jeff

(The 2003 bald version of "mister Bill" for those old enough to remember the old Saturday night live skits).

 

i could really care less who won or lost........what i really, really wanna know is..........did the ATI car have any "problems"?

 

Zland - YOU SUCK!

Just kidding of course; I figured I'd get the flaming out of the way.

In all seriousness, let me say this:

Zland, from what I've seen you have done a fantastic job. You have calmly explained your situation, taken the flames in stride and not flamed back, and been thankful for those who have supported the test.

As a current non-subscriber, I was looking for that one kicker that would push me over the edge and get me to subscribe to this magazine. I was eagerly following the pre-test hype and was hoping for some tidbits that would give me an idea of what the article would turn out to be like.

Unfortunately, based on the posts from "publisher" I have learned that SportZ is one magazine I don't need to be buying for a while. Anyone who uses the "our customers wouldn't like it" excuse to not release data, when we can all plainly see that the majority of customers feel the opposite (granted this is based on people who just say "yeah I'm a customer" - but I know how I'd feel if I was a customer), is not being honest - either with us or with himself. Furthermore, to begin flaming the very people you'd like to buy your magazine seems to be very shortshighted. It's unfortunate that you were not honest from the start. If you had flat out stated the truth - that you wanted to make sure people bought the magazine to find out what happened, then I think everyone would have had much more respect for your publication (I know I would have). Obviously your decision to suppress the results makes sense from a short term business perspective, and we can all understand that. It's too bad you resorted to poor excuses instead of being honest. That attitude has definitely influenced my purchasing decision, and has made a poor impression that will take a while to change.

So, if "publisher" had an attitude more like Zland's, I'd be ready to buy. As it is, well, I guess I'll have to wait and see what's happening with the magazine in 6 months. Maybe I'll be ready to read about the DW S/C or some turbos.


Happy holidays.

-D'oh!

 

skk 100 and D'oh -

You are both more charitable than I, especially skk, who lent his car for the test and was treated like a smelly homeless person on Rodeo Drive.

zland -

I know you mean well, but you got suckered into organizing an event that is like a premature ejaculation in reverse (think about it).

bob the publisher -

post the supercharger data now, or cancel my subscription.

 

To all the readers of this post, my name is Art Singer, associate publisher of Sport Z Magazine. I want to let you know that I have read all the posts and would like to comment on them. I've decide that since it is 2am in the morning, I'm going to sleep on it and post a response by tomorrow afternoon or actually later today.

 

decided

 

Thanks for my concern JJ!

As always, I am optimsitic and I should be in this case. We finally got a side by side comparision of all the SC kits on the market today. That has not been done before and now it will be out soon. Maybe not as soon as you might like but as soon as the next issue.

You of all people should know the importance of having one dyno doing all the testing for these 3 cars on the same day. Remember how they trashed you not long ago over a dyno they felt was not as accurate as they wanted?

Actually, I am not upset with all the negative posts at all. What I see is a lot of Z owners like myself excited to find out about something they are intereted in knowing more about. What would concern me is if I worked so hard on something and no one was interested in it.

I am sorry to all of those people that are frustrated in having to wait for the article to be printed. I, like all of you wish we could publish a magazine every month but the volume of readers does not support that as a possibility as this point in time.

Guys look at it this way, think of how bad I want to talk about all of this but have to wait for it to print! All of those results are flying around in my head but I cant tell anyone. For months I was debating how each product performed, now I cant talk about it after knowing how they stack up (yet!).

As some know, a word of wisdom is to focus on the things you can change rather fixate on those you cant change.

Things I cannot change:
1. I cant change the fact that we produce a mag only 4 times a year (at least for the short term) thus long waits between issues.
2. I cant change that we cannot print these articles and data on line right away and still run a mag that stays in business.

Things I can change:
1. I can try to influence and produce articles of high interests with high quality.
2. I can listen to customers needs and try to learn from their concerns.
3. I can learn from my experiences and do better next time. I have been taking note of all your concerns. Hopefully are future articles will always reflect customer feedback. Again, if you got ideas for articles or anything else, just pm me.

Remember, I am leaving soon for a holiday. I will be back on January 5th. Until then, take care and happy holidays.

good night everyone....Jeff

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but SportZ isn't sold "off the rack" is it? Anyone who reads it must get it via a subscription right? If that is the case, they ALREADY have us don't they? We have already paid for our spring edition of the mag and telling us some results now doesn't lose them any money. I understand that they may not sell NEW subscriptions from now until spring based on this test, but for anyone who wants to know the results and who does not already get the mag, all they'll have to do is wait as well since we subcribers are SURE to post the results here when we get our mag!

In other words, those without the mag now will simply have to wait until we who do have it, read it and post the results. They DON'T have to buy the mag. Thus, no big $$$ increase to SportZ by holding out on us.

 

Wow, I'm sorry to hear the way things turned out. When one of the participants in the event is unhappy with the way he was treated, something is not right. Sport Z should've definitely been more appreciative of the time and effort these volunteers put in. Maybe they are internally but apparently didn't show it externally and that leads to bad publicity.

I guess I'm a stickler for making sure people have a great time at events and I've never heard at events that I've been involved with like I've heard here.

I'm also SHOCKED that Bob the publisher wasn't at the event. Am I wrong here? If anyone should've been at the event it should've been him.

Not having all the results at this time doesn't bother me that much as I understand what they are doing but I think the volunteers should've been treated better and it sounds like it wasn't as organized as it originally appeard to be.

Something is going to have to be done to patch this up because it will be very difficult for Sport Z Magazine to get the support from Z members from this forum for future events.

 

>>Guys look at it this way, think of how bad I want to talk about all of this but have to wait for it to print!

Oh yeah, I bet that makes everyone feel better. You know something they don't know. Thanks for the fresh perspective.

I was there for all but the dyno, and anything you guys want to know, just ask. I'll try to keep up with this thread, but it is getting long fast.

I think EJ asked if there was any problem with the Procharger, I didn't see any problems. They said they put in octane boost because of the poor gas available in CA. Hard to argue with that. The Procharger car also had made a trip from Kansas City, so it had more than a few miles on it. BTW, the Procharger rep was friendly, knowledgable and helpful.

One variable I don't know is if all the cars had roughly the same amount of gas, 20 gallons weighs quite a bit. Maybe would change the 1/4 mile by a tenth or so. So few runs from the supercharged Z's that it is probably lost in the noise anyways.

 

This is a hot topic but I paid 18 bucks and ordered some back issues. I got one thin Winter Mag and no back orders and haven't publicly complained until now.

FI is the hottest topic on the board.

Release enough to keep us happy. I mean what was the highest Dyno, fastest 1/4 I'm sure the video of the smoke will be on EBay soon anyway hehe

As for ATI having to use CA gas I say this.


Phhhffffftttt.

I live in CA and was sold the kit am I supposed to import my gas from the East Coast, I missed that part of the manaul hehe.
The way the Vortech(?) owner was treated and the way Bob didn't get back to me yet about my back issues is unsettling.

Send me the final results issue then cancel my subscription too.

What good is it? 3 months is ridicoulous there will be 3 more kits out by then!

 

>>Release enough to keep us happy. I mean what was the highest Dyno, fastest 1/4 I'm sure the video of the smoke will be on EBay soon anyway hehe

fastest 1/4 mile was the Procharger @ 13.1. There were some factors though, one guy drove all three FI cars and best was a 13.4, then the guy who drove the Procharger car from Kansas City ran the 13.1, so you have the two driver variable. he didn't drive the other two so conceivably he could have shaved a few tenths off their times as well. Wish I had been there for the dyno. To be honest though, all three kits have been dyno'd by various members by now. If we want to know dyno results we could start a thread titled "FI dynos" and it will be populated with info within a few days.

>>What good is it? 3 months is ridicoulous there will be 3 more kits out by then!

I agree, which is why I'm trying to help.

 

Thanks, tossing in a driver invalidates that time if he only drove one car. I think we should start a FI Dyno thread that is a very good idea! I will have one in about 3 weeks over 400 for sure!

 

Man, I wasn't sure if I wanted to jump into this, nbut for what it's worth, there has to be a better way than to hold this info until Spring.

I get all my info off this forum, and I am just as interested in more performance as the next guy or gal. I guess I just assumed that we would all know what the results were soon after the 15th.

My opinion is that this has all gone in a bad direction. If you want to do a shootout and hype it for weeks (at least) all over this forum, then you have to expect all the negative comment s you are getting.

PS. This is remiding me of that guy that was supposed to do the Z DVD from a meet in NJ. That must have been almost a year ago, and all I remember is being annoyed with all the "teasers" that pop up everytime you start to forget about that project.

PPS. This is not to say that I expect SportZ to givre anything away for free, but maybe you should have considered the responses you would get after all the hype. Don't you know how rabid we are for any good info to improve our cars!?

 

I know this is getting off the subject of this thread but if anyone is interested we had a dyno day in November and we had 4 Procharged Z's tuned and dynoed. The results are on this thread.

https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....threadid=50180

BTW, the dyno was done on a Dyna Pack machine which is bolted on to your rear chassis with your rear wheels removed.

 

Awesome link thanks, going to go read it this subject has been beat to death. Wait we must.

Nice tires by the way!

 

wow if the best 1/4 mile time was a 13.4 then there is no way in hell any of those kits are worth the 4 grand. I ran a 13.9 on 19" wheels with injen intake and exhaust. You can buy a 500 dollar n2o kit and be in high 12's easy. I'm sure a decent set of cams will also net you a 13.4 or quicker and be a hell of alot more reliable.

my 2 cents

 

Tires weigh more than the wheels. Figure a pound per inch with a good quality wheel (like Volk or Racing Hart). The tires are the weight in MOST cases - unless you spend a sh%tload of money on performance and buy Alcoa Wheels...

 

The Vice President of ATI spilled the beans in another thread. If it is true, he said the ATI won the 1/4 and the autocross but that he didn't know the dyno results.

 

Well no one can really know who won the dragstrip or dyno. The autocross went like this: The driver was getting more and more accustomed to the track and was pulling better consistent numbers.

Dragstrip: We only saw the printout of one run. THat run was the ATI, driven by the ATI tech, and the Vortech driven by the Sportz driver. Those results are posted 13.1 (ATI) vs. 13.4 (Vortech). Mind you both takeoffs were not great. I never saw a single slip from my 1/4 mile times (Stillen). THe driver would rattle off numbers but these numbers would change . He was obviously not trying to give out too much information and i do believe no one saw any other time slips.

Dyno: Non one has any clue on this. Only Stillen techs and Sport Z have those numbers. None of us got to see the monitor during these pulls.

My 2 cents: No one was declared a winner and no one could have been declared a winner based on the info we get. Also when the magazine comes out or when they divulge all the stats from the shootout I will comment on their testing procedures.