scottishpedro

So the 600 mile, 3 day highland road trip was amazing, so lucky with the weather and the car was superb, really impressed with how it drove and i'm so glad to be back in a Zed! I had one minor issue (see post in technical section forum) but otherwise it was one of the best road trips yet. We drove up the west coast on Friday, it was so much busier than usual up until Fort William, then after that the roads were mainly deserted. We camped on the beach at Gairloch, then headed up and round the North before another night of camping/burgers/beers/midgeys just north of Grantown on Spey. We also passed a nice silver coupe and yellow GT4 on our travels, right up the north west. Already looking forward to the next trip Cheers Pete

Hi all I just picked up my new Zed last week after a 10 year hiatus. I got a great deal on a 55 plate roadster with 42k on the clock, and embarked on a 600 mile, 3 day road trip of the Scottish Highlands. The car was amazing, drove really nicely and I forgot how good it sounds even with the stock exhaust. There was one issue I did notice; it hardly interfered at all but I would rather look into it. Around half way into the trip I noticed the ESP kicking in (light came on occasionally) when turning to the right only, it was only on some of the sharper corners but it was definitely coming on when it shouldn't be. Its hard to tell if I was getting some ABS kicking in also, it just felt like the car was a little twitchy in the right bends. Any ideas? Cheers Pete

Thanks for the welcome everyone I'm collecting the car tomorrow, then have a week of checking it over, service etc before the trip. Will post some pics of the journey! Cheers Pete

Hi all I owned a 350z coupe and then a 370z coupe 10ish years ago. Both amazing cars that I regret selling. I have been browsing auto trader recently to help a friend find something sporty (a dangerous move for me; I need no encouragement when car shopping) and I ended up finding a car for me and not for him! It's a 2005 350z roadster in black, only 42k miles and interior is perfect. Bodywork needs some attention but it was a great price and I couldn't say no. Collecting the car this weekend before taking it on another 700 North of Scotland hoon that I used to do write ups about circa 2008-2010! Cheers Pete Edit: found the link!

Hmm, not for now, if anything I'd maybe get a milltek back box for a better sound but I have a mk2 golf GTI which is too noisy so it's exhaust is on the shopping list first!

Cabin noise, no digital speedo and quiet exhaust are only negatives. Improvements are higher quality interio, speed (rapid), bigger and better tyres = better traction, brakes are stunning (350s good too though) and the synchro rev match (effectively the perfect heel and toe downshift every time) manual gear box is class. Nissan have done well with the 370, however I was never disappointed with the 350. You keeping yours standard or you got any plans? Pete

Just immense, loving it. What about yourself?

Me again Bobby, thought it was your car.

As title suggests! Left the 370 at my parents' house and went out for dinner, came back and car won't start. No turning over, the intelligent key light was on. My Mum took my wife home and she returned with spare key but no luck with this. I have been reading around and it seems the steering lock may be the problem but I guess I won't know for sure until it's at Nissan. It's annoying timing as I'm back at work tomorrow. It appears the Nissan breakdown cover is only included for a year but at least I have my own cover Has anyone else in the UK had this problem? From browsing the following thread it appears that the only reported cases are 2009 models; mine is 2010. http://www.the370z.c...ng-light-7.html Thanks Pedro

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=22108&hilit=D%27ecosse

The first was taken on the mountain road to Applecross, one of the steepest ascents in the UK, my Dad is planning to cycle it next year! The second is near North Ballachulish. You can 'lap' the loch, it's 14 miles or something. My pal refers to it as the Scottish nurburgring and regular drives there's from Glasgow just for some laps! The 3rd one is on the road towards Skye, maybe the most scenic road in Scotland The 4th is a bit North of Ullapool, towards Durness which is at the North West tip of Scotland. It's my favourite road in Scotland; it's got huge fast bends, stunning scenery and this random amazing bridge. Best of all it's in the middle of nowhere so is usually deserted. All the Z pics were taken on the 2009 or 2010 'tour D'Ecosse trips that I did with my pal who has the yellow z. (I will copy and paste my write up i did for those who are interested or a route/guide) Pedro

Agreed. They're all great, especially the first one and the 4th one. Can we put in votes for 2013 now. It may have been this forum or **REMOVED**, but I got all my best photos ready for calendar entry a couple of years ago when the criteria was changed to only allow photos from forum meets! Pedro

Hi all Well I just got myself another z; I bought a 2010 370z 2 weeks ago. I was looking back at some of my photos of my and my mate's 350s which I took on one of our tours of Scotland. Included is 370s new pal 'Dino' Hope you all enjoy, Pedro

Yeah winter tyres are a good idea, I had them for my Clio 200 and the car changed from being a slippery fish to a go anwhere snow mobile. Obvioulsly the FWD helped it but even on RWD the difference is unbelievable. I took my 350z out in the snow once and never again on summer tyres. I looked into getting some for the 370 last week but the stocks are low and I would have had to buy the premium dunlops at over £300 a tyre! That equates to about the same as I paid for my Golf! I managed to source steel wheels (for £25) and winters for 300 for the GTI so that's my winter plan. Pedro.

Yeah it's a monster. Definately looking forward to the spring (you too I imagine being a new z owner) so I can really see how it performs. You will love the 350, best car I have ever owned, here's hoping the 370 is just as special. How are you enjoying it so far? Pedro.

Ha weird, I came on here to post that i'd seen you at Asda today. I haven't used the forum since I sold my 350z almost 2 years ago - coincidentally it was more or less identical to yours - gun metal with rays, only it was 276 version. Loved that car, so much that I just had to get back into a z! I got my 370z last Sunday and fancied a spin today. I have a mk2 golf GTI with winter tyres which I have been commuting to Forfar in and so was keen to get the beast out today after a sub zero week. Pedro

Quick question, have been searching for ages but haven't found a definitive answer on the forum I want to install a new headunit with ipod/usb connectivity because i'm fed up of not being able to use my iphone in the car with decent sound. I am planning on getting the wiring to allow me to use the steering wheel controls. Would I lose the function of my bluetooth? Thanks, Pedro

+2 That's as good as I've seen. Great pics and a great write-up. Can't beat Scotland when the weather's good (which is not often!). Thanks for your comments, if anyone wants full resolution copies let me know.

It's the custom TDE livery. Meant to be sad but funny!

I have a real thing about things rattling in my boot, and so I packed all my stuff really tightly in half my boot. I have a tanneau and managed to use my half boot anf glove box to good effect. I took 3 single use bbq's. One thing to remember is that there is always a shop available if necessary, not like le mans last year!

Hi, thought i'd posted this in general, anyway: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=22108&p=316957#p316957

Myself and my friend John decided around Christmas time to plan a road trip in April which would more or less be a complete lap of Scotland. Day 1: Meeting point - Tarbet. I left from Dundee to meet John, who was coming from Glasgow, at the hotel in Tarbet where the tour would begin. The forecast a week earlier had been for snow showers but luckily (infact almost amazingly) it was 17 degrees and the sun was shining. The A83 from Tarbet to Lochgilphead was a good warm up, however I suspect the tail end of the school holidays made the road much busier. From there we followed the A816 all the way up to Oban. A fantastic road which really began to test the Z (and driver!). For the first time ever I felt a long brake pedal on the open road. John was very impressed with his new all round DBA discs and performance friction pads, with braided brake line. The A85 and A828 took us on to our first destination, Loch Leven. We had planned to stay in Kinlochleven, however the locals did not seem to appreciated 2 noisy zeds. We lapped loch leven (the Scottish equivalent to the Nurburgring? without the Armco), and stayed in the Glencoe campsite, which had a quite stunning view at sunset. Some beers and too many burgers before bed. The next morning we awoke to another rare but beautiful West of Scotland sunny day. Another quick lap of the loch and we were off up North. The A82 took us up to Fort William, where we stopped to fill with some super unleaded, sadly the last available on our trip before Inverness. On past the rather imaginatively named 'Loch Lochy' then onto the A87 towards Skye. For me this leg of the trip provided some of the most stunning scenery,and also some amazing long sweeping bends that the Z just tears up. Eilean Donan, as those who have seen it will know, provides a great photo opportunity, and we couldn't resist! The later part of this long day's driving involved some single track action, however the scenery and uniqueness of the drive made it well worthwhile. The following photos were taken on the mountain road to Applecross; we had lunch at the Applecross Inn. Some more sinlge track road took us beyond Gairloch and on up to Ullapool for the night. In hindsight we may have camped in Gairloch, which is a very picturesque little place, but we wanted to press on to make the 3rd day more manageable. Our night in Ullapool was a cold one in the tent, but enjoyable none the less. Day 3 began on possibly the greatest stretch of road on the Scottish tour, the A835. The Z really was in it's element here, and the road was completely deserted. Again some single track road but very few cars. The main obstacles are the sheep who seem to favour the roadside,however they are generally very well behaved and let you pass by safely (unlike the bastard deer that some of you will know ran head first into my car in a frenzy a few months ago). We drove all the way along the north coast, through Tongue which is somewhere John was very keen to visit; it is just out of reach for his day trips up north in the Z from Glasgow! It turned out to be a largely uneventful wee place. What amazed me most about the North west was how sparse the population was. I knew that there were 10 times as many sheep as people, but most places were accessed by single track road which shows how remote they are. We visited the petrol station for about 40 miles and had to fill up with satin's own 95. The lady in the shop remarked the only thing rarer than sunshine and people in the north west is petrol! Stunning scenery of course is plentiful. Day 3 ended with a rather more 'normal' drive down the east coast to Dornoch. On route we passed Wick,which seems to have a large 'cruise' culture. The place was full of horrificly modified corsas and the odd jap tuner, driven by spotty 15 year olds. They did seem to appreciate the Z though,as did many 5 year olds and pensioners on the trip. We stayed at Dornoch and I'm convinced this is the nearest i've been to death. It must have been below zero degrees, and 2 pairs of trousers,2 pairs of socks, 4 t-shirts, a jumper and big jacket inside a decent sleeping back was not enough to keep me warm - I duly defrosted in the car in the morning. The final day involved an hour of boring A9,some super juice in Inverness and a final blast down the A939 from Grantown on Spey to Glenshee,which also proved to be a contender for road of the tour. The tour finished in Blairgowrie Mileage: 902 Petrol cost: £174 (amazingly) Total other cost inc campsite,food etc: £80 each Total number of traffic policemen: 0 Total number of speed cameras: 0 Number of (bastard) deer: 0 Flies collected on front bumper: almost full coverage Number of bbq'd burgers consumed: 13 each! Total number of driving hours: 24 What an amazing trip, and mostly outstanding roads. Jeremy Claskson once called Scotland the greatest driving country in the world. Without driving in many, but by experiencing all of one, I think he could be right. Cheers all Pedro.

Yeah way too high I got my Z a year ago aged 23, 2 years ncb, no points or claims. Insured with elephant with my older sister as a name driver and was £450 for 10 months.

The last month has thrown an unbelievable set of unfortunate/could have been worse events at my z. A month ago - hit a deer at 50mph. Expected the whole front to be caved in but only damage was a bonnet dent (popped out very nicely by a chap I have used a few times for £30) and my bumper was slightly bashed. A week later - was drving back from my parents house, just washed the car so wondered if the brakes would be a tad wet; and out of nowhere, appeared 3 identical (I swear they could have been triplets) jack russels into the middle of the road. I slammed on the brakes and stopped 3 inches short of what could have been a giant jack russel soup. The owner didn't have them on the lead and they all ran together between parked cars. Another week later - booked my car in to have my new yellowstuff pads fitted and got a call at work from the mechanic to tell me there was a very large screw in the sidewall of one of my tyres. I can't believe I didn't notice, this was the sort of bolt they use to to tie ships down. Anyway now have 4 new Falkens which are rather good. Tonight - just parked back in my space outside my flat and a rather worried looking young chap came up to me to 'have a word'. 'I'm really sorry but I scraped your car earlier'. I got out for him to show me a scrape along the right hand side of my front bumper. The really weird thing is I finally gave up the search for a replacement gun metal bumper 2 days ago and got a decent quote for a place to reshape and spray my front bumper, tomorrow! What are the chances of someone scraping the only panel of my car which is to be completely re-sprayed in 12 hours time! To be fair he was very concerned and honest enough to stand outside and wait for me to come back so he could own up. I suppose he deserved a bit of luck for that alone. So a weird month of motoring for me. Fingers crossed the next one will be less eventful! Pedro.

It would seem that many of us have the same stiff gearbox when it's cold. This week I have learned that my 350z can tell me the outside temperature very accurately (without using the digital thermometer!) -1st and 2nd gears very stiff, 1st very hard to engage - tells me it's less than 2 degrees -2nd gear ok, 1st gear a bit tight - around 5 degrees - All gears ok but not great - around 8-9 degrees - All gears lovely and smooth - 12 degrees plus! I've heard of summer and winter tyres but never thought i'd need a winter gearbox!