Thread: 350Z Opinions and Much More

Man how did this blow up like this. Tell ya what 350z lover? Go race an s13 or s14 sr20det swapped car and report back with how you did? I play with 350z all day everyday and it wouldnnot matter if you had twin turbos. I got there brackes? Check got their horsepower? More check and 1000 lbs less check.


Your just butt hurt cause no one is showing your car love, what don't you hop over to the nx forum and see how they trashed my nx. The only one at the end of the day that has to be happy with your car is u.

I have all the love for S cars.. I have two B1rs a U13 and a V35. If I had room I'd own a '95 S14, but 6 cars already. Pls don't mistake my defending the Z as hating any other car. LOVE Scars
The OP shows us a nice trio of Zs here just show some respect or don't post. Member rides not cool to dis their cars out of bias.

That's all. I've driven S cars and like them a lot. Would love to turn one into a trac car and love it even with the KA24DE.

I am an extremely aggressive driver, Steve lives in my town and hands down has one of the fastest NA stock cammed SE-R's I have driven. I push my car hard but Steve is one of those gifted drivers. He doesn't even own the Z anymore so a race is out of the question. However put Steve on any track with a 350Z vs a S13/S14 with a SR swap. Assuming they had similar mods and power levels and a non-pro driver and ever time they would lose.

Edit: All the cars are to my liking your father has great taste.

Pls don't mistake my defending the OP's 350Z as no love for S-cars. If I had room and time I'd own a 1995 S14, nice rides, even pre-swap. But track-worthy, no, not "as sold" here. Soft, roly-poly, sluggish stock motor until you make a lot of changes. We're looking at this from different angles I suspect but I never said a word of disrespect for the S13/S14. The only car I find totally laughable is the Lada, I didn't out down anyone else's car.

IDK what you mean by "play", but taking a wild guess straight-line speed is where you're going; the world is full of roads with curves, and when I talk "race" track I mean Road Race Course. The biggest, most technically advanced and by far most popular series on the planet is F1, and last I checked Button and friends don't thrown down for slips to see who wins - they race road courses. Winning the F1 Championship arguably is only available to the very best drivers on the planet.

Stock off the floor the 350Z is a joy to drive. Cars rarely live up to their pre-release hype, but I ordered mine and took delivery in Nov 2002, it blew me away how much better than expected it was. Strong and very rigid chassis that I had to load up heavily in an 80 mph corner to ever feel it flex. Very balanced handling and stick tires. Drop in a new clutch, better brakes, change out the trans/brake/clutch fluids, run the rest stock and you have a pretty reliable and fast track car. Mine dyno'd 242 whp @6000 with a stock airbox and no mods, 232 ft-lbs @5500 rpm. Over 200 ft-lbs off practically idle - 1800 rpm.

Power and brakes is a pretty limited measure of a car. Chassis rigidity and many other factors make a car potentially truly fast. That's one area I've noted a stock S-car needs some help - soft chassis. Power is as much about usable power as who is using it. High peak SR20DET hp does not automatically translate to fast car overall, road courses are full of rising and falling engine speeds, big boost can work against you sometimes. You could have 400, 500 whp and a huge power to weight advantage, yet still not quite be as dominant as you might think when most of that power comes on in a rush, and below 3000-4000 rpm power is rarely impressive. I've also run with cars with twice my B13's hp that just didn't handle well or at least their driver wasn't getting the potential out of the car, in any case they were moving blocks in my way.

The OP's family car has about a 20 hp bump over my old car plus stich welding, some other pretty trick stuff off the floor. People can draw their own conclusions, I think the OP's black 350Z is a sweet ride. I'd love to take any of those out on the track. I'm an equal opportunity car guy too, don't think my relating my experience with the Z has me delusional about the merits of many other cars.

when you say S car what do you mean??

cause the 240z-260z-280z were s30's and the 280zx was a s130..

or are you talkin about s13/14's?

hehe sorry not tryin to thread jack, jus understand what he's sayin hehe

That's very kind of you to say, I guess I would say yes, it would likely come down to driver, neither one is going to be inherently superior, but I like the Z's chances

Go look at Redline Time Attack results for 350Z's in the Enthusiast RWD classes, they do consistently well. S2k often bests the 350Z, too. Some really well prepped 240's do very well in the street tire class, but really the difference there is setup and driver, and as anyone else knows who competes, some luck. Steve Mitchells' Z, probably one of the fastest in the country for Time Attack is right on the top of my list. A DET swap is going to pitch an S-car into the SMod class where it had better be one kick-ass driver, or it will get slaughtered.

+1 for the Dad, that's a killer stable of cars and hopefully in the long haul, there will be trickle down to the OP. My son is already practically written his name on my second B13, he will likely get it. That's a sweet car I cannot take a lot of credit for, other than fixing some broken stuff, it was pretty dialed in with serious suspension (SHig/Progress/Koni) and all the usual bolt-on mods when I bought it. Just S3 cams and JWT tune, it's also one quick corner carver.

I have the same feelings about the Z as you. Way more advanced suspension technology. Don't get me wrong I love my B13 to death. But Even with coilovers its not what a 350Z with just upgraded springs and struts. And you can beat the F#@K out of a VQ all day long without a hiccup.

I took it to mean S13/S14, good point.

hehe thanks for explaining

Hey Steve, mind creating a new thread about the 350Z so we can talk about it without destroying this guy's thread? We can have the posts moved there. Or I can start the thread if you prefer.

Edit: New thread created and posts moved.