Filed under: 240z,350z
by Forbes @ 9:51 pm on October 29, 2009
Nissan’s competitor, Big T, has just released a new supercar and it is all over the blogs and what not. I’m not too keen on most of their products but when I saw how the A pillars were made I needed to share it with you guys and gals, I could watch this for a long time on a loop. Supposedly this is one of two machines in the world that can create carbon fiber structures in this manner. I want a Z car that is made entirely in this fashion. hahaha, a $35mil 240z!!
Filed under: 240z,350z,370z,Events
by Forbes @ 12:31 am on October 26, 2009
I know that I have been posting quite a few videos lately (and I may catch some grief for it) but I thought this was worth it. Plus videos make for good weekend posts when there is nothing going on. This movie trailer from Japan seems to be a Fast and the Furious style movie but with a couple real cars in it and not some trash with glued on canards. So why is it hear on ZCarBlog? Watch it and find out
Update: I did a little research and found out that it is a movie version of a popular comic in Japan. I wonder if it will be available in English subtitles…. More pictures HERE
If you were wondering where the 350z that you have seen lapping Thunderhill, Laguna Seca (twice), and which received a MotorDyne single exhaust has gone….. it blew up! This car has seen HARD use at the track since the first day of his life and the engine finally let go. It looks like the crown above the rings on cylinder five had just had enough and decided to bounce around the chamber for awhile.
A “new” VQ35DE was sourced and swapped in with all the goodies that were taken off the old engine. We then went off to the dyno and we seemed to have found seven more horsepower and eight ft-lbs of torque at the wheels. Unfortunately the track-day season is mostly over but keep your eyes peeled for this car in your mirrors at the first events on the calendar next year. DOOT!!
Many of you know the huge impact that Mr. K has had on our lives. For those who don’t, Mr. K is the person responsible for the both the original Datsun 240z and 510. Holding those credentials makes him a very important person in my book. So when I came across an article on Autoblog the other day I was astonished to read that he preferred driving his Nissan Versa over the 350z that he owns or even the new 370z!!
Most of his feelings seem to stem from the fact that modern day sports cars have gotten too heavy and are now overly controlled by computer systems. At one point he goes on to mention that the Mazda Miata is more of what a modern 240z should be like.
Another point that he makes against modern Z cars is that they have gotten too expensive. The high price point really drives away the customers that the Z was initially designed for. The original 240z had an MSRP just over $4,000 back in the early seventies before options, now the price can regularly top $40K!! I can see his point.
The article goes on to mention that he would like to see the “Datsun” moniker return to future sporty cars from Nissan. I haven’t really thought of Datsun ever coming back, but why shouldn’t it!? It would be a great way for Nissan to branch out and offer cars at a lower price point in the future, sort of like what Toyota did with Scion. Seemed to work pretty well for them. Maybe we will see a lightweight sedan come back to the market and channel some vintage 510 styling. I’d buy a couple of those, rear drive of course.
Thoughts?
Side note: Mr. K’s 100th birthday was on the 15th of this month, so happy belated B-day to him. He’s still a feisty old dog isn’t he!? Good for him.
We have done a couple of these modifications before to other HR equipped 350Zs with great results. This round of upgrades differs in two areas. First off, this is the first set of headers that we have done on an HR car, and secondly, this car is an automatic.
The other changes we made to the car were the tried and true Injen intake system and a pair of Stillen high-flow catalytic converters, both of which we have installed on numerous cars that have come through the shop. Both of these parts have made nice gains in the past so we pretty much knew what to expect here.
Looking at the dyno graph you can see that the automatic transmission is certainly using up a little more power than in the manual cars but the power gains are more than noticeable. The car is now more powerful throughout the entire rev range and the torque curve in the middle is now gonna give that push in the back that we all love when you stab the throttle.
I have a feeling that we will be seeing this car again for another round of modifications. Now that we are an Up-Rev software retailer maybe we will get the chance to play with the fuel and timing tables to get the car where it needs to be. We can’t wait to get the chance.
