Jez @ H-Dev Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I thought I'd start a thread about our 350Z - just to show what we're up to. A bit of background: Our 350 is a 2004 UK GT model and was bought as a cat-c write off from a friend of mine The car had hit a post while traveling along the motorway - the post went through the air con radiator, the engine coolant radiator and smashed a hole in the sump. Luckily the body work and everything else under the car wasn't damaged at all. So all we had to do was to find and fit a replacement engine. Pretty straight forward. This is the replacement engine - just a completely standard VQ35DE We're going to be tracking the car so main priorities are sort the brakes out, get the suspension uprated and try and get the weight down. I'd already tried some Performance Friction 01 pads in our other 350 and they were exceptionally good. The only down side was the amount of dust they produce and the cost - they're very expensive. This time I though I'd go to the other end of the market and try some yellow stuff pads. Although these weren't as good at the PF pads, they actually held up really well on track. And value for money wise they'll be tough to beat. They do tend to wear the disks quite quickly, but as we're only using fairly cheap standard discs it's not too bad. We fitted a set of Racing Logic coilovers - these aren't a very well known brand but we wanted to give them a try. They're actually very good for a fast road car - I'll probably end up swapping them out later on for something stiffer and more track focused. We fitted Superpro full alignment kit - this totally transformed the handling of the car - strongly recommended. Superpro kit: Some rear bushes fitted: Old bushes: As well as using the car on track, we also use it to develop products. We've tried and tested our grounding kits, de-cat pipes and plenum spacers. I've also remapped the car using the Uprev system. Just these mods took our car from 279 to 309bhp - which is around +11% - not bad at all for an NA engine. We've also fitted an oil cooler: We currently are testing some H-Dev high flow cats - at the moment they don't fit properly (they hang too low - see pics) - when this is sorted and we've checked that the car will pass an MOT they'll be available for sale. Our current supplier is messing us about at the moment so we don't have a lead time yet. Next up is to get some weight out of the car. As standard it weighs 1471kg - bloody heavy We've started to strip it - it'll be getting a full cage soon. We've also got bucket seats to go in and will probably go for a carbon boot and plastic windows. I'm hoping to get around 100-150kg out of it. Not sure if that'll be possible yet though. I'll stick up more pics as we go - Kyle is fabricating mounts for the bucket seats at the moment. When they're fitted we'll removing all the interior bracing and fitting a full weld in cage. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jez @ H-Dev Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 I thought I'd start a thread about our 350Z - just to show what we're up to. A bit of background: Our 350 is a 2004 UK GT model and was bought as a cat-c write off from a friend of mine The car had hit a post while traveling along the motorway - the post went through the air con radiator, the engine coolant radiator and smashed a hole in the sump. Luckily the body work and everything else under the car wasn't damaged at all. So all we had to do was to find and fit a replacement engine. Pretty straight forward. This is the replacement engine - just a completely standard VQ35DE We're going to be tracking the car so main priorities are sort the brakes out, get the suspension uprated and try and get the weight down. I'd already tried some Performance Friction 01 pads in our other 350 and they were exceptionally good. The only down side was the amount of dust they produce and the cost - they're very expensive. This time I though I'd go to the other end of the market and try some yellow stuff pads. Although these weren't as good at the PF pads, they actually held up really well on track. And value for money wise they'll be tough to beat. They do tend to wear the disks quite quickly, but as we're only using fairly cheap standard discs it's not too bad. We fitted a set of Racing Logic coilovers - these aren't a very well known brand but we wanted to give them a try. They're actually very good for a fast road car - I'll probably end up swapping them out later on for something stiffer and more track focused. We fitted Superpro full alignment kit - this totally transformed the handling of the car - strongly recommended. Superpro kit: Some rear bushes fitted: Old bushes: As well as using the car on track, we also use it to develop products. We've tried and tested our grounding kits, de-cat pipes and plenum spacers. I've also remapped the car using the Uprev system. Just these mods took our car from 279 to 309bhp - which is around +11% - not bad at all for an NA engine. We've also fitted an oil cooler: We currently are testing some H-Dev high flow cats - at the moment they don't fit properly (they hang too low - see pics) - when this is sorted and we've checked that the car will pass an MOT they'll be available for sale. Our current supplier is messing us about at the moment so we don't have a lead time yet. Next up is to get some weight out of the car. As standard it weighs 1471kg - bloody heavy We've started to strip it - it'll be getting a full cage soon. We've also got bucket seats to go in and will probably go for a carbon boot and plastic windows. I'm hoping to get around 100-150kg out of it. Not sure if that'll be possible yet though. I'll stick up more pics as we go - Kyle is fabricating mounts for the bucket seats at the moment. When they're fitted we'll removing all the interior bracing and fitting a full weld in cage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M13KYF Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 great post and interesting read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M13KYF Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 great post and interesting read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris`I Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Look forward to the progress of this. Really should pop over and see you chaps, even if its just for a natter as the car doesnt *need* any work atm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris`I Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Look forward to the progress of this. Really should pop over and see you chaps, even if its just for a natter as the car doesnt *need* any work atm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jez @ H-Dev Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 Pop over any time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jez @ H-Dev Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 Pop over any time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ebized Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Will watch with interest how this progresses. This thread might help the weight reduction ideas : viewtopic.php?f=25&t=55133&p=795848#p795848 (I'm always one for not 're-inventing wheels' when its not necessary, and searching MrLizard's threads might be helpful ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ebized Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Will watch with interest how this progresses. This thread might help the weight reduction ideas : viewtopic.php?f=25&t=55133&p=795848#p795848 (I'm always one for not 're-inventing wheels' when its not necessary, and searching MrLizard's threads might be helpful ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishmanboy Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Great work, I shall follow with interest Just out of interest how much do those racing logic coilovers go for? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishmanboy Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Great work, I shall follow with interest Just out of interest how much do those racing logic coilovers go for? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
introspect Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Will watch this with great interest. Looking good so far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
introspect Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Will watch this with great interest. Looking good so far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evilscorp Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I do enjoy a good build thread, nice to see some new/less used parts too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evilscorp Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I do enjoy a good build thread, nice to see some new/less used parts too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
introspect Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Jez, have you considered using carbon doors instead of a carbon rear hatch? Maybe better to take weight off there than the rear?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
introspect Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Jez, have you considered using carbon doors instead of a carbon rear hatch? Maybe better to take weight off there than the rear?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jez @ H-Dev Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 If I could afford to do both I probably would - I think I should be able to lose a fair amount of weight out of the doors and just leave the skins. Carbon doors are probably out of budget. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jez @ H-Dev Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 If I could afford to do both I probably would - I think I should be able to lose a fair amount of weight out of the doors and just leave the skins. Carbon doors are probably out of budget. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishmanboy Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I'm sure this is an obvious newbie question but has anyone thought about cutting that massive rear girder out and replacing it with some lighter bracing? Just wondering that's all lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishmanboy Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I'm sure this is an obvious newbie question but has anyone thought about cutting that massive rear girder out and replacing it with some lighter bracing? Just wondering that's all lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris`I Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I'm sure this is an obvious newbie question but has anyone thought about cutting that massive rear girder out and replacing it with some lighter bracing? Just wondering that's all lol I dont think it actually weights that much. Mr Lizzard and djtimo have both removed them IIRC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris`I Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I'm sure this is an obvious newbie question but has anyone thought about cutting that massive rear girder out and replacing it with some lighter bracing? Just wondering that's all lol I dont think it actually weights that much. Mr Lizzard and djtimo have both removed them IIRC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maccaman Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 This is going to be another project/build to watch, bring it on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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