Bought my Z about 6 months ago and took the advice of the forums and drove it to get a real feel for the car as suggested. Being a professional go kart driver, I cut my learning curve in half and I'm able to get a real feel for the car. I'm ready to start upgrading and I'm relatively happy with the handling as is. I'd like to start getting some speed to be able to keep up with some buddies. I don't have the biggest budget in the world but upgrades at or under $1,000 is roughly what I'm looking for. Suggestions are greatly appreciated!

 

If you already know how to drive, than you know the Z has a lot of understeer engineered in. For your budget, a good set of adjustable swaybars are your best bet. If you're looking for more horsepower, a grand won't get you any significant gains, but maybe a used LSD would help put what you've got to the ground.

 

so like I said I'm relatively new, so it's a little embarrassing to ask what a LSD is..

 

It's cool man LSD is short for "Limited slip differential" it splits the power from the driveshaft to both rear wheels.
If you still can't quite wrap your head around it look up some youtube videos on differentials there are different types but basically an open differential will actually let one tire spin and one tire keep traction, and a limited slip will only let one wheel turn a little bit faster than the other for turns (to not wear out tires, if they both spin at the same speed the tires will wear out on turns when on or the other starts rubbing/skidding on the street) but keeps them relatively the same speed for traction/performance purposes.

 

this won't give me any gains, just better traction in theory right?

 

Yeah, but it will help your times when racing from a dig and on a track

 

ok cool, yeah idk if I wanna track the car but I do want to gap my buddies, any other suggestions for relatively cheap gains

 

After you do a tune with a new intake and exhaust that will wake it up a little more.
You can also gear the differential so that you accelerate more but lose your top speed, I would say only to do this if you are going to stay naturally aspirated.
after that your gonna have to start modding the internals of the motor which isn't gonna be cheap.

 

suggestions on an intake and a place to get it tuned?

 

any K&N/Spectre/AEM intake they are all different branding but same company. To get it tuned your gonna have to do your own research on local shops and call around, you can buy a tuner for your car too but I don't know a lot about those I myself would take it to a shop to tune at least.

 

Ay, I would actually recommend that you keep your OEM intake box. Especially, if your is an 2006. 2007-2008 I would also suggest keeping your OEM stocks.

This is all based on your budget range.
LSD sounds like a good idea. I would suggest breather mods, so you can do exhaust and test pipes/high-flow-cats.

You won't get a lot of power gains, but it'll have a better response/feel.

+1 for adjustable sway bar.

 

nothing on this car, other that FI, is going to give you considerable gains. hell a tune alone will be about $700, and you may get 10 whp from it being all stock.

 

This has been discussed countless times on this board; there's NO significant gains to be made with just bolting on a CAI (cold air intake) or an exhaust. Both will easily use up your $1K budget and will need a tune, which will blow that budget completely. As Trav has already said, a good UpRev tune (BTW- they're in Austin) will easily eat up $700. Do a little more research on this topic and you'll find TONS of posts on this subject- you're not the first (and unfortunately not the last) to ask about cheap upgrades. They're simply not there- Nissan did their homework before releasing this Z.

 

I spent $2500ish on intake, plenum spacer, high flow cats, exhaust and a tune and dynoed at 249rwhp. I wasn't really going for performance as much as I wanted it to sound good. You gotta pay to play.

 

How could you have only dynoed at 249 if the car comes stock with more..?

 

The problem is, dyno results always depend on the day and conditions. It helps to get a baseline dyno, but even then, a different day can yield different results. Comparing different Zs on different dynos at different parts of the country is probably the worst way to compare.

 

wheel vs crank..... its called drivetrain loss

 

So in other words, without spending 10k, my 03 350z that's At and has a De motor in it won't be able to keep up with other "a little bit more than stock" street cars?

 

Sure it will.

There's always that Hyundai Accent with the coffee can muffler.

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

Wait, I coulda but I didn't.

 

ouch..