I was looking at the results and entry lists for a few of the SCCA National/Pro Solo events and don't see any 350Z's at all.

Is the general consensus that they will not be competetive? Has anybody seen one at an autocross? How'd it do?

Just curious. For the price, that is a tough car to beat, and I'd think it would do pretty well between the cones.

 

I bet i could convince John (dunreit) to bring his car out to a DC region event.

I wonder if he'll let me drif... i mean drive it

 

We have a guy in Tucson who autocrosses his on Victoracers. I think he's still getting used to the car, but he does alright.

It sounds great, though

 

We had a complete noob come out and he did very well, 2nd in pax. I am guessing it will be a good fight between the 350Z and S2000 at the nationals.

 

Don't worry... they're coming. There is a local "trophied at Nationals" guy autoxing one. He raves about it, stating it's a "$50,000 car in $30,000 clothing."

He's still on stock shocks and too narrow of a tire (as if 245 was *NARROW*! ), and was half a second faster than the Ft. Myers Pro CSP winner and less than a second behind the 2nd place finisher in STX at a local event.

Not convincing evidence, I know, but I predict they'll blow the S2000 out of the water... espeically at Pros.

 

what stock class would they be in?

 

B

 

There's a guy in the CO region.

 

??? I'm confused. CSP blows STX out of the water in raw time.

 

I know Vazquez911 on here AutoX's his 350Z in the Tennessee region. I personally don't have any desire at the moment to AutoX, as I have enough fun at the track with it. Plus 3 runs for $30+ here at FexEx field is another disuading factor.

 

Yep, sorry. That was PAX.

 

It is.

 

They're heavy aren't they?

A gutted one would make a hell of a car.

 

I think you're going to see more 350Zs in road racing than AutoX. TC Kline is driving a 350Z in T2, and set a T2 class record lap time at Willow Springs.

BJ Zacharias with Schuitemaker Motorsports is running a 350Z in GS2, and I know there's another team piecing together a racecar as we speak.

 

Edmunds.com lists the base 350Z at 3188 lbs. and the S2000 at 2809 lbs.

S2K wins in the weight category, but the 350Z has some nice torque numbers...274 ft lb of torque at 4800 rpm, while the S2000 is 153 ft lb at 7500 rpm.

Base Z vs Base S2000 comparison:
http://compare.nissanusa.com/sidebys...1=614107&comp2=



[Modified by Brett@SoloRacer.com, 3:39 PM 3/6/2003]

 

Carter Thompson has a track package. He couldn't touch Ian Stewart's S2000 at the Talladaga PRO event, but I think it might have been a bit course dependent.

 

With 6 gallons of fuel, my Track model weighed in at 3134 at Summit Point last November. A turbo S2000 weighed in after me at 2800 flat.

 

In that link, it says the S2000 has 48.4 cubic feet of interior room to the 350Z's 6.8. I guess since it's a convertible it includes a couple hundred feet of air space above.

 

well, Pat Salerno has one. Suffice to say at a local event about a month ago he totally annilated me (SM civic) AGAIN! actually, he got a rerun and was able to best me by a second on his 9th run. if it wasn't for the rerun, he would have still beaten me by a tenth! damn, he can drive! look for him to be in the top 3rd easy. fast car, and even though we were both on street tires (very cold event) he still proved it was a serious car. i think he had about 200 miles on it too.... he didn't run it in florida because he drove sam strano's camaro.

 

Carter Thompson just picked up his 350Z today from us with the first prototype set of 350Z KONIs on the car. Look for it to get much better at autocrosses. I drove the car and the factory shocks are horrible and punishing. They are a relatively new "frequency sensing design" (KONI has a muich better version of it for some heavy duty vehicles) but not a very good one. It makes the car really harsh to ride in on relatively smooth roads, on the other hand it will easily go over big bumps that you'd think would knock your teeth out. I can imagine they are really strange and not helpful on an autocross course. Degressivity is a good thing but this is crazy but require difference frequencies to get involved.

With the factory shocks, I hated the car within the first mile. Certainly one of the most unpleasant and unnecessarily harsh cars I've ever been in. After we changed to a good performance valving, the car is completely turned around. Even on the OE tires, it might have the best turn-in of any street car we have driven. The grip and response is excellent but adding very much front end stiffness makes it lose grip easily and simply push. The car has enough power for the street that it will wag the tail with ease. I've never owned a Nissan but this is certainly one I'd be interested in owning (without the OE shocks).

T.C. Kline has already made arrangement to have us make some shocks for his T2 350Z. I talked to B.J. Zacharias and he said in Grand Am their biggest issue right now is lack of power but they haven't done any engine development yet.

The Z4 is also in B Stock and we had Mark Sipe's 3.0 in a month ago doing shock development on it. Those two cars should be an interesting matchup in the class.

 

any car can be competitive with a good driver. not that i'm a great driver but i beat a 350z in a 91 civic std. the larger rear wheel drive cars seem to do better when throttled steered. there is a lady that drives a 89 camaro that tears my *** up. when i let an instuctor drive my car it became pretty appearant to me that it's about 80% driver skill that makes quick runs. here's the results. i noticed that there was one ahead of me and one behind me. i'm in stf 2nd place the guy ahead of me in my class is only a second behind the leading 350 and he's in a 3rd gen civic. i think they'll become more proliferous w/following years as the car becomes better developed. also, i know i sure can't afford one! the results are at the bottom of the soloII page.

http://www.houscca.com/


[Modified by mr. carpenter, 6:58 PM 3/9/2003]


[Modified by mr. carpenter, 6:59 PM 3/9/2003]

 

you got to use the scales? damn. I should have gone over there and weighed my pig

 

Rumor-mill says the traction control is not user-disble-able in the Infiniti coupe and totally kills it for autocross. Anybody know if this is true - and if so, does the 350Z have the same flaw?

 

You gotta know the right people AND be nice to them.

 

Supposedly it is also a problem with the stability control equipped Zs (track model included), the rumor has it that the ECU cuts the timing with wheelspin even with the SC off...

I am not sure if thats the case with the enthusiast model that is only Traction Control equiped...if I does I can't feel it at all...my car seems happy enough driving sideways all the time...so I would like to thing that I made the right choice by choosing only the TC equipped model and not went with the SC...

Matt