^LOL now that I'm thinking about keeping them, everyone wants to buy them. Always works like that.

 

i agree , i shoulda jumped on them when you wanted to sell them , lol

 

your car has been really clean along the years!
And now the new wheels are killing it!

loving the new rear... exhaust + diffuser

 

Looking good as always

Keep it up!

 

This thread makes me happy.

 

Car looks great. Really like the wheel choices throughout your journey.
Quick question... how was the comfort level or ride quality of the hotchkis springs? I know you mentioned earlier that the coilovers are a bit less jarring. I've currently got the s-techs at a much higher spring rate and the ride is too stiff for me. Looking at the hotchkis for a softer, less jarring ride...

 

Thanks man, it's definitely been a work in progress.

As far as I can remember, the Hotchkis springs felt about the same as the stock springs. For whatever it's worth, I have a 2006 which had revised rear shocks (among other things? not sure) versus 2003-2005 and to my knowledge Hotchkis never revised their springs accordingly. I think the end result was that the Hotchkis rear springs ended up being softer than the stock 2006 rear springs, so it was not really an upgrade in the handling department. If I had to do it again, I would have just saved up and bought coilovers from the start.

 

^ Appreciate the feedback. I might just wait it out until i need new shocks and just replace everything with a comfortable set of street coils. Thanks again.

 

Been about a year since I updated this thread, so I thought I would consolidate all my recent photos in my original post.

 

Looks good man! You definitely change your mind a lot lol. Surprised you never went FI with all the money you spent on looks.

 

My warranty just ran out in March, so now FI is on my mind. If it wasn't for getting married this coming October and having to pay for all of that, there would likely be a supercharger sitting in my engine bay right now : )

 

FI? Sounds promising. But you should consider spending a ton more and just going the NA route. A motor with a 9K redline instant power, for instance, would be addicting. I'm a firm believer that NA cars should remain NA, and FI, well ... .

 

I see what you're saying, but after experiencing the behavior of the 3.0 liter supercharged engine in my other car....I'm thinking that strapping a blower onto the VQ35 isn't such a bad idea.

 

Sounds good to me!!! Are you thinking about going with a vortech? Why a SC over a turbo or TT?

 

Yep, considering Vortech although I honestly have not put a good deal of thought into it yet....because once I start thinking about it, I can't stop thinking about it until I do it....and right now I don't have the time or money to do it.

I like the idea of a front-mounted, centrifugal type supercharger because it's essentially a bolt-on installation so up-front labor cost is down, and it can be tuned conservatively get me to the ~400 HP mark (I think? again, no real research done) without having to replace any of the stock engine internals. A new clutch will be inevitable regardless of which direction I go, but I don't really like the stock clutch anyway so I'm just looking for an excuse to change it. I'm ruling out single turbo....been there done that in my old DD (2004 STi), which was a blast to drive but I would really rather have all my torque at lower engine speed. And a twin setup is just so invasive and inherently less reliable, I imagine, than a conservative SC setup that I would rather not embark down that path.

 

Sounds like you've put a good deal of thought into this. Excited to see the final product whenever you get around to doing it.

 

Very tasty modded Z, love it!!

 

After 11 years the Z has been sold, but I'll never forget this car and all that I learned from working on it! Some final photos added to the first post.

Thanks for everything!

 

Very nice, well cared for..somebody will be very happy!

 

Interestingly, Steve's was one of the first cars I saw on this site when I joined just a few years ago. It always remains a model for "subtle and clean" for me. Sorry Steve, didn't mean to give you any seller's remorse. Lookit it this way... you'll have plenty of time for car stuff after grad school.

Then again, I thought I would too but then search engines and the web came along (with kids in the mix) and that theory went out the window. Haha. No regrets though.