bernmc

was slightly sceptical about this stuff... my z's exhausts had a very thick crust of black stuff around the edge - I'd tried everything in the garage to get it clean - engine degreaser, citrus degreaser, meguars scratch X etc etc. - the before pic below is what it looked like after all that. Then tried the autosol.... and went on to do the Legnum too...

oops - messed up the url. Anyway, go to mytyres.co.uk, do the tyre search, and click on the link

Pretty good review linked from mytyres.co.uk Better than potenza re050A's and Goodyear Eagle F1's...

Very interesting. Their comments about the K&N panel filters are borne out by my own experience - I've had my engine oil analysed in the lab at the last two changes, and both times there has been silicate contamination which is usually a result of an air leak in the intake system, or poor filtration. I've been over the intake system carefully, and haven't found anything, so I can only put it down to the K&N. I'm going back to a normal filter, and we'll see what the lab says in 5000 miles...

mmmm. BIt odd... If you go to the 350z pages on funky ( http://www.funkystyling.co.uk/category.php?carNumber=30&carMake=350z and click on the 'electronics and electrics' link, the delimiter is listed the blue E0022 one). They only appeared a few months ago (I got one for the mitsi), so I wonder if they were sourced by Funky when they needed to delimit their Z? Hopefully he'll let us know here...

I remember seen some dyno graphs for the Z somewhere, but can't find them again.... does anyone have, or know where I can find graphs for: [*:yg8dc07y]The standard Car [*:yg8dc07y]APS Twin Turbo [*:yg8dc07y]Supercharger I'd perfer dyno dynamics graphs if possible as they're standardised and reproducible, but anything will do at a push! Ta

I'd be very interested to hear whether your new pads make a difference - my one disappointment with the Z so far has been the brakes. The calipers and discs are only very slightly smaller than the ones on my VR4, so I suspect that it must be the pads (DS2500's on the VR4, std on the Z). As the Z is the wife's day to day car, I'm not sure whether I should fit a set of DS2500's - may be a bit of overkill for her, or try some DS Performance (used to be DS2000) pads. Not keen on brembo named brands - usually overpriced!

£150 Yow moost be barmy! I don't know z-specifics, but generally on jap cars all you need to do is interupt the speedo pickup from the gearbox. Contact Funkystyling - they do a delimiter/convertor for under £30 - they should be able to tell you if it'll work with the z. Four wires to connect - positive, earth, speed sensor in, speed sensor out. 30 minutes work and you're done.

On a car as heavy as the Z, greenstuff pads will last about a week. They're designed for mondeo man after all . At the very least use reds, but DS2500's if you drive properly

Below is the sort of lab report you get back - this was from my VR4 before its latest service (Amsoil 10W-30 Turbo fully synth). I made a mistake when I wrote the oil grade on the sending slip, which is why the viscosity is flagged (anything in a black box is serious, grey is a caution, and white boxes are normal -viscosity is actually normal for 10W-30, but I'd written 0W-30.) We're supposed to change oil in the VR4 every 4500 miles - This oil was 5600 miles old and is still in spec - ie no change necessary, so a 40 quid saving. (Although I changed it anyway - the 0W-30 Amsoil this time, so we'll see how that does). The silicate level is a bit high, but we've tracket that down to the K&N panel filter - I'll be changing back to a regular filter. Keep away from thos thin oily things!

Following on from this thread, I have spoken to Don at Performance Oils Ltd, and TheMinel here about organising a discount for 350-z-uk members. Amsoil ATF is about the only oil that my VR4 gearbox likes, and I've got numerous lab analyses of the engine oil if anyone wants me to post them here (also from the VR4 though - too early to have got anything from the 350z). I've always had excellent service from Don - hugely knowledgable, good advice, and very quick delivery of everything I order. My family now has A VR4, a Pug, a Fiesta, and a Hyundai coupe all with Amsoil oils in their engines and gearboxes, and also amsoil oil filters... the 350z is next in line. The other nice thing about Performance Oils is that they can supply Lab Analysis kits, so you can take a sample of your engine oil and get it properly analysed - no more of this 'oil x is better than y' - you can prove it with science magicary! I was changing my VR4's ATF at every service - 4500miles/3monthly-ish (10 litres a time at close on 10 quid a litre). Put Amsoil in last time, tested it before this service - found to be well within spec, so no need to change... 100 quid saved already. (So if anyone wants to rise to the challenge, and supply me with their favourite flavour oil (free of course!) for the z, I'll put it in and have it tested after 5000 miles - then we'll see just how good it realy is! Put your money where your mouth is.) There's a huge amount of info over on ClubVR4 if you want to find out a bit more, (do a search for 'amsoil') but I hope to duplicate most of it here - I'll be having the z's oils analysed and I'll post the results here. My wife doesn't do a huge amount of mileage in the week though, so it'll take a while to get the info. I've pm'd Don, and he should be along within the next few days with details - it's typically 10% off and free delivery for orders of over 100 quid (if I remember correctly). Hope it proves useful...

A bit too Porschesque for me.

In fact, here's don's reply to my original enquiry about the Z. I've linked the oil references so you can just click to see what he's talking about: The three letter codes are at the bottom of the oil descriptions on the Amsoil web page (So eg, TSO is the code for 'Amsoil Fully Synthetic 0W-30(2000) SERIES 2000 Severe Service Engine Oil'

There is only one decent oil in all the earth ... AMSOIL! I've used it in my Leggie since I've had it (and they're very fussy cars with 4500 mile service intervals ), and the Z will be getting it soon. I'm just waiting for it to have done 5000 miles on the rubbish that Nissan put in at the last service (before I bought it) so I can send a sample off to the lab for analysis. Expensive stuff, but awesome. Website here. Superb advice and excellent service. I'll speak to Don and see if I can arrange a club discount - I'm sure he'll be happy to. CulbVR4 gets 10%; free delivery if you order more than £100 worth.

Hee! You won't be going anywhere fast sitting behind the other 100 000 other spectators they're expecting! Mind you, might be some cows to look at...

down souf... a long way! map

you can get them from fleabay, otherwise google for 'porter cable 7424 site:uk' and it'll come up with a few retailers. Just remember it's an american import, so it's 110V - you'll need a transformer and 110V extension cable (add another 50 quid to whatever you get it for).

Why, this of course! When I was there for the dyno day, I mentioned that we were seriously considering a 350z to Allan. "ah yes", he said, "pretty car, but they're a bit gutless in standard form. What you want to do is this..." and proceded to wax lyrical about the APS TT. Made me drool a bit...

The DS2500's are racing pads, so I'd be wary of using the bedding in procedure for a fast road pad unless they specifically say so. For the 2500's you need to perform 25-30 4sec brakes at 50% "racing pressure" on the trot. Then pull over and have a look - if you do it right, the discs should be blue with the heat. That's all there is to it. I amble up to a nice long, quiet road when there's not much traffic about, and get cracking. 15-30 minutes later, the pads are bedded in. No mucking about with 'easy driving' for 200 miles etc. You do need to make sure that you've got decent brak fluid though, or the heat will boil it and it will never recover. I use motul RBF600, but there are plenty of alternatives out there. The Motul seemed to offer the best price/performance ratio.

I'd recommend DS2500's too - don't have them on the Z yet, but have them on the VR4's brembos. You'll pay a bit more than EBC though. Huge stopping power and no fade (provided you've got a decent spec brake fluid). I always put copper grease on the pad back and shim - the DS2500's in particular wail like banshees on the VR4 and EVO's - not sure if this is a problem with the nissan. The Ferodo's have a fairly aggressive bedding-in procedure, so make sure you follow it if you choose them over the redstuff.

We had a clubvr4 dyno day at wrc-tech. Very nice bunch - knowledgeable and very enthusiastic. Happy to talk about anything car/performance-related. They had two z's on the ramps that day - one getting a supercharger, and one getting two turbos (like a proper car!). If I had 6K, I know where I'd be spending it

A couple of other comments: Don't try the zaino z14 plastic magic on the Z's interior plastics - leaves great big white blotches (I think the plastics must be quite porous). Told the wife to try it on a small inconspicuos spot first, but of course she knew better... near disaster! Fortunately had some Meguiars that rescued us. I'm not sure about the Z16 - for tyres, ext black plastic etc - yet. I'll use it a bit more before deciding, but think I may stick to Meguiars for black bits.

Got the Z this weekend. Bought £200 worth of Zaino stuff after reading the threads on this forum. Unfortunately advancecarproducts don't have any Z5 at the momnet, and they seem to have forgotten to pack my Z-PC as well , but the car needed cleaning, so I'll have to treat those scratches at another date. Did the usual prep - degrease/wash/clay/dry/Z16, and then two layers of Z2. This stuff is actually very easy to apply - I found it a lot easier than the Meguiars I've used before. Pics of the bonnet pre and post:

Some quick snaps in a gallery now - here, complete with tacky NISMO stickers (ugh- they'll have to go!).

Ha! Traitor! Whatryoudoingherenowthenwnowthenwotsgoingonherethen! About to go out, so not much time to sort pics. Had a lovely drive, and spent the rest of the day polishing while England didn't! Pics and first impressions soooooon!