370Z.com Staff Report
Big brake upgrade specialists, Fastbrakes is pleased to announce their upgraded high performance super light two-piece rotor for the Nissan 370Z Sport Models with the Akebono 4 piston caliper. Although the 370Z is blessed with great brakes, they can be made better.
|
By Mike Kojima
Robispec is a Southern California tuning shop who’s specially is a rather unusual one. Instead of the typical shop in search of speed via the quest for more and more power, Robispec’s game is increasing lateral G’s, of the cornering kind. The proprietor of Robispec is Robert Fuller or Robi, one of our favorite people. Robi is always willing to lend a hand or give advice to whatever project we have asked him, either formally as our Project EVO IX or by helping us swing wrenches at the track. Robi is on our short list of people we call for help if we have a problem that needs solving.
About six weeks ago we got a call from Robi telling us he would have something special, a Nissan 370Z he was building for the SEMA show and the annual Source Interlink Super Lap Battle. As there has been a lack of serious Nissan 370Z parts development due probably to its sluggish sales, we eagerly awaited checking out what Robi could cook up in short order. |
370Z.com staff report
Jim Wolf Technology has released in oil pan spacer for the Nissan 370Z and Infiniti G37 with the VQ37VHR engine. The spacer fits in-between the upper and lower oil pan assembly's giving the sump an additional quart of oil capacity. The oil pump pickup is also lowered |
By Mike Kojima We recently evaluated a set of G-Spec lines for the Nissan 370Z. The G-Spec lines also fit the Infiniti G37 Sedan and Coupe. We installed them on the Killer B which is starting to become our official 370Z Project demonstrator vehicle. The Killer Bee is a Sport Package 370Z with the standard factory big brakes. Although the Sport Package 370Z has exceptional brakes, some improvement can usually be found by installing braided steel lines. This is because stiff braided steel lines do not expand with pressure like the stock rubber lines |
370Z.com Staff Report
Although the Nitto NT05 was released a few months ago and is now somewhat old news, we would still like to report on it as we were part of the team that help conceptualize the tire from when it was proposed a few years ago. Because of this attraction we are proud to see it on the market. Although Nitto has always had good product in its DOT Race and street tire market classes, Nitto was notably absent in offerings in the highest niche of ultra high performance near race, street legal tires. |
From a performance standpoint, the Nissan 370Z probably is one of the best candidates for performance improvement from a lightweight flywheel because of it's extremely heavy stock clutch and flywheel. The stock flywheel weights a stout 32 lbs, the pressure plate 16 lbs and the clutch disc 3 lbs. That’s 51 lbs of rotating weight that must be spun to speed at the end of the crankshaft! Why is the stock 370Z’s flywheel so weighty? In an effort to reduce NVH (That’s engineers speak for Noise Vibration and Harshness) to extremely low levels, Nissan made the stock flywheel very heavy. The heaviness of the flywheel helps to smooth out power impulses of the VQ37VHR engine.
|
By Mike Kojima
Our test 370Z is a six-speed manual transmission sports package model equipped with a Stillen cat back exhaust, Stillen high flow cats and a Technosquare ECU reflash. For this test we used the Superflow AutoDyn 30 chassis dyno at Technosquare Inc. As we have explained in previous tests, the AutoDyn 30 is a dyno that uses both inertial and static loading with weighted wheel rollers and an eddy current power absorber. This is a very different method of measuring power from the common Dynojet dyno which is purely an inertial dyno.
From our sister site www.motoiq,com |
By Charlie Barnes
After sketching up the body kit, I traced it up with the PENTOOL in Adobe Illustrator. As you can see, the body kit has raised wheel wells compared to the stock ones. This was necessary to give it a more JGTC look suggested my Nissan Genius Mike Kojima. I also added a splitter and wide flared fenders for that awesome wide wheel look. Louvers for the front fender flairs added a nice touch as well. Now that we have the design, I saved it and opened it up in Adobe Photoshop. |
I am excited to announce that our sister site www.motoIQ.com is live! motoIQ is the merge of magazine quality journalism with the nimbleness of the internet. Check out our in depth tech, interesting features and stories from the tuner world like you used to read in Sport Compact Car and Turbo, the stuff that you miss reading and can't find. Best of all its free with no subscription cost. If you are interested in the 370Z you will love motoIQ! Sign up today
Hope to see you there!
-Mike Kojima Editor motoIQ.com/370Z.com
http://www.motoiq.com/Home/tabid/37/Default.aspx |
Nissan 370Z 6-Speed Manual Transmission Parts Dyno Test, We Test Stillen's Exhaust System and High Flow Cats With Technosquare's ECU Reflash
by Mike Kojima
For our test mule, we used the Killer Bee, the yellow 370Z that was our May feature car. The Killer Bee is a sports package 6-speed manual transmission 370 that was returned to stock for our evaluation. We will be evaluating more parts on the Killer Bee in the near future so stay tuned! In stock trim the Killer Bee slung out 262 whp at 7000 rpm and 210 lb/ft of torque at 4600 rpm. The VQ37VHR engine exhibited the typical wide flat torque curve and nice linear power curve that the VQ37VHR is becoming renowned for. |