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Hi! 370Z GT Edition :-)


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Hi everyone,

 

Signed up, put myself down for the Wales meet and then forgot to jump in here to say a quick hello, so erm, hello!

 

Had my 370Z GT Edition a couple of weeks now - absolutely loving it! A proper brute of a car, yet with all the gadgets (reversing camera, full iPod integration, nav, etc, etc). I've added (currently unpainted) mudguards in an attempt to protect the side stripes and have an Evo-R carbon front bumper cover on order - in part for the looks and in part as a descent way of protecting the most vulnerable part of the paintwork from chips! Think I'm going to leave the mudguards unpainted as they kinda go with the stripes and darkened wheels well enough to mean I don't have to worry about the guards themselves picking up chips and the like!

 

Extras that I'm considering are wheel spacers, an (OEM-looking-ish and only subtly louder) exhaust and some kind of blackening to the lower part of the rear bumper (either a black/carbon diffuser or a vinyl wrap).

 

Previous cars of note were a black Mazda RX-8 PZ (1 of 500, Prodrive tuned suspension, wing, lightweight dark alloys), a red/cream leather BMW Z4 M Coupe (great car to drive, marred by an only half-fixable iffy clutch and the engine Vanos units dying just before the warranty ran out, resulting in 2 weeks of labour!) and a BMW Z4 sDrive35i (incredible interior, folding roof, but amazing just how poor it was to drive compared to the 370 now looking back... Oh, and it had a fairly lengthly list of issues by the time it was 2.5 years old, including escaping coolant, an 'Engine problem! Reduced power available' error after 3 laps of Oulton Park, a boot leak, some broken heater elements in the rear window, chipped rear lights, lots of rattles from the boot/roof probably caused by a naff dealer having to fix it after 2 weeks of ownership, constantly hot-then-cold air con and a dodgy bonnet sensor..!).

 

As much as parts of the Z4's were great, assuming the 370Z proves to be as reliable as it could be (being a Nissan), it'll blow them both out of the water!

 

Can't wait to meet many of you at the, um, meet... and other events after that! :thumbs:

 

Mike

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Out of interest, how did the Z4M compare to the 370z? There was a discussion on here a while back about the subject and some people felt the Z4M would have miles better performance, but others felt there wasnt much between them.

+1

 

Have been looking at the prices of Z4Ms seems tempting.......

 

:welcome:

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks for the replies and kind welcomes, everyone! :yahoo:

 

Sorry for the delayed reply... long few weeks of work! :doh:

 

Welcome :thumbs: from another GT Edition owner :teeth::teeth: (but I have the better colour B):lol: )

 

:rant:;) Must admit, I've always been a fan of dark grey on black, so that was very tempting here, but having had a couple of black cars before, I'm happy with the change. I quite like the contrast of the white and grey (plus, I get to coat certain bits in carbon for added effect), I love the white's pearl finish and I'm hoping I won't quite want to get the whole car resprayed after every 2 washes having seen all the hairline scratches that black seems to attract/show! That said, as with most cars, the black does just look plain good, doesn't it!

 

Welcome!

 

Out of interest, how did the Z4M compare to the 370z? There was a discussion on here a while back about the subject and some people felt the Z4M would have miles better performance, but others felt there wasnt much between them.

 

It's a bit difficult to give much detail having had the newer Z4 in between the M and the 370Z, but I can tell you that there's very, very little in it. The 370Z definitely has better grip (I seem to remember an issue of Evo comparing the Z4M against a tuned version of a 350 and their verdict being that the tuning had brought the 350 up to the BMW's engine performance, while they were surprised at the M's lack of rear grip - so as a result, the 350 was quicker overall) - the easy test for me was some fun in the Trafford Centre's overflow car park :D The Z4M would relinquish grip easily, even on Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric's, whereas the 370 on the standard run-crap Bridgestone's really, really has to be persuaded! My guess as to why would be that the Z4 uses trailing arms, whereas the 370 does it properly with multilink cleverness.

 

In a straight line, I can't tell the difference at all, although having not come from one straight into the other, I can't be 100% sure... The stats for the Z4 were 0-62 in 5.0 seconds, which is a bit quicker than the quoted times for the 370, although a few of the US car mags have done it in 4.8 with the Nissan (

), so there's probably not much in it there, either.

 

Welcome :wave:

 

We are checking out the Wales drive routes tomorrow and Thursday. :teeth: (well some poor sods have got to do it :lol: )

 

Oooh, how'd it go?! Can't wait to stretch the car's legs properly on some of those great roads :drive1 and meet all you guys :wave:

 

Have been looking at the prices of Z4Ms seems tempting.......

 

I wouldn't bother - go for a 370 instead B)

 

They're certainly no nicer inside than the 370 (the newer sDrive ones are by a big margin, but then you lose the driving experience) and the reliability just doesn't cut it. On top of servicing and other repair/parts costs (around double Nissan's rates, I'd have thought), you've got to factor in a replacement of the Vanos units every 3 years ish (it took Williams Liverpool 2 weeks with my car, so that won't be cheap - mine was JUST under warranty) and replacing the rear springs every 1 or 2 years as they snap at their base. The springs themselves were £100 I seem to remember, plus time or cost for fitting them. :bang: Nowhere near the same levels of kit, either.

 

Good to have you on board and top marks for putting your name down for the Wales weekend from the off :thumbs:

 

Great colour choice BTW B):lol:

 

Hehe, thanks Colin! The moment I came across the forum, I knew it was a great community, so decided there was no point waiting around when you'd got a meet planned up this way! Other similar things might be a nice excuse to see other parts of the country, too.

 

Thanks to Maccaman, Ian, flexib, CS, EH 370z, NeilMH, DoogyRev, ATTAK Z, Will370z, Pr1ngle, dragon, Ken, bronzee, Keyser, Ruddles, Beavis and Sarnie for the welcomes, too! :wave:

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Have been looking at the prices of Z4Ms seems tempting.......

 

I wouldn't bother - go for a 370 instead B)

 

They're certainly no nicer inside than the 370 (the newer sDrive ones are by a big margin, but then you lose the driving experience) and the reliability just doesn't cut it. On top of servicing and other repair/parts costs (around double Nissan's rates, I'd have thought), you've got to factor in a replacement of the Vanos units every 3 years ish (it took Williams Liverpool 2 weeks with my car, so that won't be cheap - mine was JUST under warranty) and replacing the rear springs every 1 or 2 years as they snap at their base. The springs themselves were £100 I seem to remember, plus time or cost for fitting them. :bang: Nowhere near the same levels of kit, either.

 

 

Thanks for the info, always good to hear from some one whe has been there. :thumbs:

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