scottyp

excellent, thanks for the advice - hopefully I'll have some pics tomorrow if it goes well

Right, dismantled my dash console last night in preperation for some wrapping - pics to follow if it goes as planned! However... lookng at the console, (air con controls especially!) I'm wondering how to start to cover the curve of the panel? Do I start in the middle and wrap down over the edges, or start on the side and stretch over to the other side? and how do I avoid the creasing of the film? (hairdryer?) Any help or pointers welcome - if its any consolation I'm the same with my xmas presents, usually more tape than paper!

actually, scratch my stupid comment - you could run the bose hack alongside this and just have the phono connection on the tape deck output, hmm very tempted again!

hmm, okay - I'll have a look at the weekend and see if the wrapping looks okay first. could do without, but have images of flicking the stereo volume up only to find the cruise speed has shot up!

Now we're talking - that looks good, although not far off the price of a new stereo - doesn't seem to have a phono connection if you just want to directly connect an mp3 player either.

cracking! all the parts I needed and some pics of the head unit i'm after - the forum that keeps giving

Would be intersted to hear about the pioneer one as I have my on eye on it as well do you still need the line out amps to use it with the standard bose equipment?

Be interested to hear the miltek - got a scorpion, berks and cobra y pipe: does sound fantastic on throttle and quiet at steady cruise, however have noticed a slight resonance when easing off throttle in 6th, or between lower gears since the 'y' pipe which annoys the girlfriend!

Looking at revamping my interior soon, including a carbon wrap on the steering wheel panels - can you get the stickers for the cruise and radio functions anywhere though?

Thanks to CS for swift delivery - Y pipe now fitted and the sound is phenomenal!! like the above clip but even better in the metal Pops and crackles now as standard, whoop whoop!

Very nice - makes the v6 sound a lot more exotic than it is!

cool, for the difference may as well order the cobra part. thanks!

Typically after having Berks sports cats and scorpion back box fitted the bloomin' Y pipe section has started blowing Do I need to get a certain brand to mate up to the diameters of the sports cats and scorpion pipes? - or will any of the ebay jobs fit? Cheers!

No, mike pulls like a train in any gear - don't usually redline it as over 5800rpm as its peak power tailed off after this on the rolling road (set the shift light and all! )

thought I'd update this post after doing 500 odd miles with the upgrades Firstly - Wow!! what a transformation, now everything has bedded in and the exhaust has coked up a bit the change is staggering. The car just feels so urgent now, and almost has a turbo/vtec kick around 3000 rpm where in any gear it just seems to over power its bulk and hurl itself towards the horizon with an angry shout, the back even seems to squat down under gear changes as it readies itself for the next surge - couldn't help giggling like a child over the weekend on a b road run with overtaking a plenty! The exhaust note is truly addictive, the combination of pop charger and scorpion cat back with HFC's give the v6 a bit of italian character: its gone from a lazy drone to something reminiscent of an alfa v6's metallic rasp - I'm sure this encourages this extra feeling of acceleration as I regualarly nail the throttle to hear this glorius noise. Unlike other sports systems I've had, its completely silent with the cruise on at 70-75, so you can enjoy some soothing music on motorway journeys. An added bonus is that I now get 35mpg on a steady motorway run - drops a lot lower when enjoying the sound and power of course! Due to this I'm revising the scores I gave this conversion, value for money is still a hard one to argue - but performance is definetly a step up.

Ahh, I'm in Taunton down in Somerset - probably a bit far...

No problem - where are you based?

Thought I'd add my figures to the mix, having had the HDev package fitted last week (thanks again Jez! ) - my first run on the rollers produced 250bhp (for an '05 276 model) and then raised to 270ish with subsequent runs - that was with an uprev and induction kit only - To be honest though I've run about ten modified cars now, and the rolling road figures for them are a lottery, so I don't take much notice of the flat figure, only the gain. For example - had a Seat ibiza cupra 16v with 150bhp from the factory, fitted it with race cams, lightened flywheel,remap, high flow cats and polished fast road cylinder head. This car absolutely flew and embarrased quite a few other high powered cars on bruntingthorpe runway on a trackday. Rolling roaded it for a VW mag feature and it came out as 148bhp!! blatantly wasn't that power - but it did run very hot on the rollers, with only a fan for intake air, and the tyre pressures weren't checked etc. I wonder if a similar thing is happening with the 350's? its a big lump and I wonder if the rollers aren't allowing it enough intake or heat dissapation to provide its true figures? - plus there does seem to be a big variation between rolling roads and the power they record. So to sum up my waffling - yes 280bhp final figure (berks, intake and remap) is a bit dissapointing with the mods (4 over standard!), but as a 30bhp increase over the original 250bhp figure its pretty good for an N/A engine - and drives superbly.

fully edited the first post with mods to date - enjoy

Well, I had a hole on the join to the back box from the centre pipe, and when it was the size of a 5p piece the car sounded unbearably loud! Think quites a lot of the sound is restricted by the backbox, and a fair ammount by the cats.

Right, had the work done last Thursday at Horsham - excellent customer service and first specialist I've visited where you're shown what's going on and the person doing the work genuinely seems interested in it: Thanks Jez! Unfortunately the road to power never runs smoothly and a hole in the rear section was discovered (including some wafer thin brake discs!), which on the way home must have opened up - as car now sounds like a top fuel dragster! Need to get this sorted before its MOT on Thursday. Can't comment on the changes the mods have made so far as it hurts my ears to take it over 2k on the revs, but watch this space!. ..

so, aside from the customer experience - how would you rate the change since the mods?

Thanks! The TT wasn't standard, it was a 180 with sports cats and exhaust, remap and various other engine mods - pumped out about 230bhp and reacted really nicely to the mods, as opposed to the lumpy standard 1.8t. Unfortunately the rest of the car couldn't be saved regardless of what I did to it....

As I’ve used the forum for information and questions, thought I’d put something back in I know the question of Uprev and various N/A questions come up regularly so thought I’d share my experiences in stages: Standard ’05 350z Bearing in mind my upgrade path to the Nissan has gone: remapped Audi TT, Porsche Boxster 2.5, Porsche Boxster 3.2s – 350z, my views on standard performance may need taking in context with these cars. The initial test drive of the 350z is quite special, the noise and grunt is quite impressive and hard not to fall for, however I quickly found the 276bhp engine to be quite lazy and coarse when exercised into the upper rev regions – not as ‘screamy’ as the Boxsters, and not as silky smooth as the TT’s Turbo 4. The initial noise also seems quite tail orientated and the engine seems muffled in volume as standard. I also found the restricted power in 1st and 2nd quite obvious and frustrating as standard and marred the driving experience Standard 350z + Induction VFM:3 Performance: 2 (placebo noise effect!) To balance out the exhaust heavy note and to try and get the engine revving a bit more freely I fitted an induction kit first. From experience a decent induction kit loses a little torque, but does give the impression of freeing up the revs with the induction growl. Unfortunately I bought a Japspeed ebay induction kit (I don’t think they’ve seen a 350z, let alone fitted an induction kit to one...) the fit was poor, but with a bit of garden shed engineering it came good and the result was acceptable. Noise was good as expected, and although it produced no more power, the placebo growl did make it about 5% nicer to drive. Uprev’d 350z VFM:9 Performance: 9 The forum feedback on Upreving the Z proved too much of a temptation and I booked it in with Horsham to get the job done – the service was excellent and the result? – Excellent, I can’t imagine why the car wasn’t mapped this way from the factory. It’s not a 100% change, more 25% I would say. The most noticeable change is the power available in 1st/2nd, I did get the traction light on a couple times on the way home which I’d never seen previously. The power delivery was smoother and the car more pleasurable to drive, again not a dramatic transformation, but more of a showroom car version 2.0. Rolling road showed 276-296bhp, pretty good for an NA car. Downsides: Using the extra power and the onset of summer (Ha!) resulted in the crapspeed induction kit drawing in hot air over longer journeys and making the car seem very lethargic, not entirely the remaps fault but resulted in the standard airbox going back on which resolved the issue. Uprev’d 350z + Hard intake pipe and Popcharger VFM:4 Performance:3 In-between getting it Hdev’d I thought I’d go back to getting a bit of growl from the engine and fitted the recommended Popcharger, along with the alloy induction pipe from the Crapspeed kit – wow! People aren’t joking about the noise these make! Fitting so much easier than the ebay kit, and the full growl returns. Kit has a semi decent heat shield and ran a cold air intake pip from the front of the car to the inlet to combat the above heat soak issue. Power feels a bit better due to the huge growl, but not sure it’s any more than sound – encourages you to rev out the car though! Uprev’d 350z + Popcharger + HFC’s + Plenum Spacer + Standard holey exhaust VFM:5 Performance: 8 (score subjective due to exhaust issues!) Returned to Horsham to let Jez work his magic – disappointed to see the car only made 250bhp on its first run, raising to 270 on subsequent runs. Although not too worried about flat figures as my dyno experience in the past has taught me to read them as a guide (more on a separate thread). All bits fitted and it was noted the exhaust had a hole developing on the join to the backbox – which upped the volume to ear splitting resonance levels. Rolling road showed a final result of 280bhp. Low VFM figure as it is an expensive conversion and power gains are moderately low compared to a turbo car. Would do it again personally though. Car is much more responsive, same difference as the original Uprev on top of the existing power (if that makes sense?). 70 -80mph is now dispatched in 6th with a flick of the toe J. Smooth power delivery still. Due to noise I couldn’t test it fully – which leads too: Uprev’d 350z + Popcharger + HFC’s + Plenum Spacer + Scorpion ‘Y’ Back exhaust VFM:6 Performance: 9 Luckily a mate in the trade got me a deal on a Scorpion exhaust and it was fitted yesterday. What a sound the car now makes! Absolutely gorgeous v8 type rumble on idle and bellows in a subtle(?!) way when rev’d – finishes the car perfectly and makes the standard exhaust sound a bit synthesized. Only did about 30 miles last night, but car feels so complete and nice to drive its won me over again – will be keeping this for a long time! The past and the future! I’ve wasn’t enthralled by the character of the engine – it seemed very lazy still compared to the sharp handling of the car, which actually seems to get underrated against its competitors. The final death nail for the current state of tune was a drive in a friend’s Boxster S – I was reminded how zingy and revvy the flat six is in comparison and knew I needed the HFC’s, and intake spacer upgrade offered by Horsham. Incidentally I was surprised how twitchy and bumpy the Boxster is to drive against the Z – roads I’d normally be flat out in driving the Z resulted in the Box being bumped off line and feeling out of its depth: some would say exciting, but I now prefer the planted heavier feel of the Z. Sorry for the length of post, but hopefully will be useful to someone – fully updated now and I can finally say I’m really happy with the end results. The BHP figures are disappointing, but I’ve been down that route before and the car drives much more as a package than the figures suggest – the power delivery is much more accessible. Any questions, please ask!

I'm tempted to get a splitter to set off the front of the 350 - seems a bit tail heavy with the N1 rear spoiler. Only thing is, which one? Any chance we could have some pics of peoples splitters? My car is grey with a raw carbon spoiler, so ideally looking for something that looks good in a contrasting black or carbon effect (fussy or what!) Thanks all!