350Butcher

100% the ones fitted to Ferrari/Mclaren are designed specifically for those cars but those manufacturers work alongside each other and all that data and tech regarding every aspect of the tyre from tread patterns/carcass construction etc all gets fed down the line and run out in the "lesser" p zero (in this case) to little me with a humble Focus........who wouldn't want company's like that having input in the rubber on their car and not to forget with the Corsa and Trofeo R......Pirelli definitely know how to make good tyres. As you have said tyre reviews and others opinions make it very hard to choose, one persons ability and view will be a completely different level to another/ the review in question might well have been funded by one of the tyre manufacturers taking part etc etc and like you (and I'm sure everyone else) once I've found something that works I tend to want to stick to it! Just to play devil's advocate you'd have to admit by your own logic that unless the p zero you'd tried in the past wasn't fitted to a Z and was in fact on something else then you might just be missing out on the best tyre in the world for your Z!!

I don't believe it is a big claim to suggest that a tyre that performs well on one car would be good on another at all, obviously there are many variables from cars weight to how the engine delivers its power, widths for aqua planning performance and so on........I'd say its a bigger claim to suggest the same tyre (in correct specification for the chosen vehicle) would give a totally different performance when fitted from one car to another. I have run p zero on my DE 350z as well as my current Focus estate, 2 completely different cars in almost every way and on both their performance was plenty good enough for fast and safe road use in all conditions. Would Ferrari and Mclaren really use Pirelli if they were rubbish? Would they ruin their chassis for the sake of being paid from a tyre manufacturer? Or did they make that relationship because they're good? I've never read a review of these marques and the article mentioning anywhere the chassis being let down by the tyre its on...............and they do mention from time to time about cars that do come from factory with poor tyre choices Same story with the Yoko AD08's I've run on my Evo and Z's again totally different cars and yet the same great performance from the same tyre in correct spec for the vehicles...........so should you ignore tyre reviews because they don't use your car.........I don't think so, a good tyre is a good tyre. Regarding the OP's issue........I'd go with geo being out, bushes/sus worn. Be interesting to see what's found when it goes in. Hope you get it all sorted

With the greatest of respect I’d rather take the experience of a full time motoring journo and racing driver regarding the quality and performance of my tyres. Evo do tyre reviews every year, they’re a really good read and agree or not it’s fact from some seriously fast guys.

So much hate for a tyre that I currently have on my focus st and have run before on road cars and always got on with. To unsettle these on the road you lot drive a LOT faster than I do!! I know it’s a 2017 test but Evo ranked it second against opposition that I read people saying are miles better than everything else. It was so rubbish it set fastest outright lap times both in dry and wet conditions............terrible, lethal tyre all a sudden 2 years later?? Really?? https://dsonqtq9c1uhr.cloudfront.net/document/global/280/190/95006-Evo-TyreTest2017-1505470066031.pdf

Sticking with the DE engine, you want to follow what Rob's doing with his car as he's putting up some genuinely good and truthful info about his modifications and the gains on offer in both terms on numbers and subjectively changing the driving of the car. I'd definitely swap out the rods and not just change bolts as the rod itself is weak and will be your limiting factor.......there's weight savings to be had as well as the strength benefits. Look forward to following your progress with it when you've got your plan and ready to get building

GTR is a brand in itself and has given Nissan a ton of exposure so I'm not sure waving goodbye to that would be a great idea. Especially if the plan is then to build another 4 wheel drive, high hp car to replace it. I know hybrids are the way to go and that the results of combining electric with petrol engines gives incredible results however massive torque isn't really great for being a great drivers car so the whole lot needs to be mapped correctly to give a steroided up n/a feel and therefore you're not needing to go all wheel drive purely to contain the torque on offer and you can keep it a purer drivers car again by remaining rear wheel drive and a honest modern day Z replacement that drives great and has a proper sound track still. Been reading about the new Gordon Murray's T.50 and that ticks all the boxes for a true great drivers car without being drawn into a HP/Torque war and headline grabbing numbers........only wish I had £2.4m to put my order in!!

Not sure on numbers but Mk1 seem a lot more limited and by a mile the best looking!! I do think that the right n/a manual cars in general will hold their value better as electric and restricted vehicles will become more the norm in only a few years.........scary and very sad! Just a thought but will Nissan even bother replacing the 370z or just end it altogether?

Firstly good luck with your build, as you say £ to Hp the trades not good but £ to driving pleasure I think n/a tuning is the way to go! Like you I think 400hp is the dream target however don't get too obsessed with the numbers as their is so much rubbish written about hp gains especially from the states, just accept you'll be making huge gains over stock otherwise you could be very disappointed! The plan you've listed above wont work as the blocks are completely different. The journals on the VQ37 crank are larger than the DE uses, you could get the block line bored to enlarge them however I think you'd may well hit issues with running the oil pump etc The VQ37 block's deck height was also increased over the DE's so you'd have to work out rod lengths and piston pin heights to work with that. It can all be done but you're not going down an easy route there. The later 350z HR engines use the same block as the VQ37 so it makes the conversion easier. (assuming you'd then use the very good VQ35HR heads) The crank is a drop in and you could use the VQ37 rods but the pistons don't offer the valve clearances you'd need so a custom piston would be required. Using a HR engine in a DE can be done but that itself would require a few modifications to the car itself and obviously the ecu loom......think Mark at Abbey carried this out on his car so could fill you in with what's required there but overall I'd say a 3.7lt HR engine conversion is the way you wanna go. Re cams I went with the Tomei 272 10.8 cams purely as they are the maximum you can run for piston/valve clearance, they are still a mild cam although a great upgrade over standard specs. If you're doing a build you'd go with the 282 11/11.3 Tomei offer or as you say try and speak with JWT Not so poor man stroker kit after all!!

I know all too well with our 7 month old what you're saying! Makes it very hard to make a case for having it when it's not getting used........even harder still when its nearly £50/month in tax to sit in the garage not turning a wheel! Also understand putting safety higher up the list of priority's with the new car. Would you consider the weird saloon version they did of the primarily hatch version? Weird but so rare kind of cool.......quite like it!..............and Tommi Makinen did a good job with it on his 'Ring lap too!! (worth a watch on YouTube)

Got to admire it being done properly. Well done. The look is crazy!! What shop installed the kit and carried out the paint job? Looks quality

It can be a lack of rebound damping that makes shocks like pogo sticks and throws you up in the air, are the BC's adjustable separate for rebound/compression? That's one main reason I wanted separate this time round as sometimes I had to wind up the adjustment to get the rebound but on road you don't always want the compression too! Sounds like there's plenty of room for improvement there then, ultimately if the tyres are the bit touching the ground so if they're old and gone off it won't matter what you do with the sus you'll have no grip.........just get rid and put on some new tyres. I'm the same, although I setup the chassis to be very neutral/slightly oversteer bias for the smallest rotation and then I'm the one who decides about when to get more sideways or not and not the car. The damper adjustment is great too so can really change the balance and attitude of the car easily at track. Also means its pretty safe when tracks wet too. Any ideas what geometry settings you have or are aiming for when setup? Dropping as much as you are will definitely make a difference and should hopefully give the car some manners on the road too and you can start putting some air back in your tyres!!!.........good luck with it all!

Yes I converted the rear to coilovers on 300lbs (5.3kg) springs, the front uses 600lbs (10.7kg) springs. Over very bumpy roads its not great but copes well given the setup, over the usual road surfaces that you expect in the UK (so far from perfect) it rides fine no thumping and banging and plenty good enough to keep the tyres on the ground and be able to press on down B roads. Don't underestimate the difference the damper makes though, despite nearly doubling the spring rates of my old Bilstein B16 kit that I ran before, the MCS's offer better ride comfort, control, adjustment and ultimate performance and by some margin. Those 14/12kg spring rates are ridiculous! Unless you're running aero and slicks........so yes definitely not a well judged fast road/track setup. As you've said the cars so stiff you'll have no grip..........coupled with flat tyres it must be horrendous! What tyres do you run out of interest? Good that you've got all the adjustment in the chassis so can dial in some suitable geometry as there's so little from stock. The 8/6kg is much better but that's still a much softer front end than me with a stiffer rear end so it'll be a bias oversteer car still which is fine if that's the setup you like. So our cars will actually handle very differently I would say but how a car handles is very personal so there's no right answer to it all..........there's plenty of wrongs though so make sure you get someone good to set it all up as that will make all the difference to your car.

So following the screechy rear brakes situation I decided to pull them apart to take a look. Can see by the fact that the pink/red Brembo logo is brown/black now and the new bright yellow pads aren't anymore that things are getting bit toasty! The fix, ordered up some Stoptech grooved discs, these give somewhere for the gases to escape and gives a cutting element in operation to the pads to keep the faces fresh.........if I need to go further then I'll hole cut the back plates and run some ducting to the discs but hopefully just adding the grooved discs will get them sorted, performing even better..........and doing it all quietly!!

It was weird hearing the news he’d passed away while we were there as he’s very much someone you think about when at the ‘Ring. He was from the breed of real hardcore drivers!! Speaking to one of the instructors and he was saying Niki lost control on that bend at 200kmh and these days road cars are going through there in the same conditions faster than that.........crazy is the progress!! Not sure there was to much bravery on my part, kept it very safe and steady and when the rain came I know I’m not good enough to hunt out the grip and push so again safe and steady all the way! Prioritising having fun and getting home safe is the way to do it!

Well we got back late Tuesday from the trip over to Germany. Reminded me just how awesome the Nordschleife circuit is and how good Destination Nurburgring is at organising these events. A little extra treat was the opportunity to get on a bus that toured the circuit the evening before stopping at a few choice points to walk a little section and have an instructor talk you through some pointers which proved to be really useful the following day and also quite an eye opener to the gradients and cambers..........things that look flat honestly are far far from it! It even looked flat when I drove it the next day and I knew it wasn't. If you get the offer do it! The bus driver wasn't hanging around either.........fully loaded he had a drift on at one point.......priceless! On to the following day and the weather wasn't too great, cold, foggy and damp in the morning, drying out mid morning with foggy patches. I thought I'd get a few laps in to blow off the rust as I've not been for a couple of years but it starts to come back to you! Part of the DN package includes the offer of free tuition, I wasn't too sure of the format but as they have careers to worry about they just climb into anyone's car and start lapping! Instead they drop a radio in the car with you (which there is no chance of hearing when you get going!!), then jump in the new 4 door AMG GT and then you follow them out and they gauge your pace on 1 lap then step it up the following lap. The first words that crackled over the radio is "its getting wetter and wetter and more slippery!" just what you want to hear! Then 10mins later is the vid I've linked too. I certainly wasn't chasing lap times but it was unfortunate it was slow to get going as we let some quick guys through then caught some slower traffic (and recovery truck!) in the faster sections as its would've been a better reflection of the comfortable pace the cars capable of without that........but still a great opportunity to be out 1 to 1 with an AMG test driver and racer who does "1000 laps a year". Good to note we were on pretty much the correct line with only a few places having a wider line (to ride camber and avoid bumps) than I was on previously. His comments were good on returning which will do for me!! Sadly that was the last of the drier track and the rain came so I wasn't able to build on what I'd done in the morning!! Its rained to the point of standing water and rivers crossing the track! I kept lapping and it was good to be out on the greatest circuit of them all but obviously disappointing as I really wanted more dry time! The car has changed a lot since last visit and I was happy to feel it all come together there from the 3.9FD which I'd say is perfect for the 'ring to the suspension and brakes (although the rear oem discs are running too hot and causing the pads to glaze and, as you can hear, causing that horrendous screeching!!!) The engine delivered a welcome boost over stock easily pulling to over 140mph where it was asthmatic getting there before. So all in all really happy with the car and where its at!

If you look at the pic of my fronts the side wall is going in towards the wheel so I think its just the construction of the tyre is designed for being mounted onto a wider wheel. I probably would have gone with 245/255 40 sizes if I had of known this before hand. 40 profile works really well, car handles much better than it did with the 35 on 19" wheels before. There's better then there's 5seconds faster over a 2 1/2 minute lap and I suspect most of that time was made up over the first half of the lap as its more technical as opposed to the last have giving more time with hp. If your hill climb runs are 1min and you could get 2secs off using these tyres think you'll be more than happy I'm sure! Yes good 'ol England does serve up every weather within a day of occasion.......that what we call summer!

Haha thanks for the vote of confidence mate!! The AD08's sweet spot was 34psi hot so I'm gonna start there and see how I go, I've also got a new infrared thermometer to take with me so I can see how they're getting on. Anglesey last year finished them....Silverstone then killed them!! I'm expecting them to be very good indeed. I've used the AO48 in the past and they are the best tyres I've ever used and these are the successor to them developed from their tarmac rally tyre the A051T. I'd be surprised if they went "off" quickly, I've always found Yokohamas to take a lot of abuse and stay very stable over a good length track session. Most times I hear people talk about tyres going "off" is when they've not set tyre pressures as they get hotter and end up running at 40psi and so only on half the foot print and wondering why grip drastically drops off. I'll obviously let you know how I get on but I suspect you'll be ordering a set!......worth noting they come up large on the sizes and also look at the wheel widths for tyre size they recommend. I'm on the minimum of what they allow and 1.5" off the front and 1" off at the rear what they recommend as best which was a bit of a surprise! Hard to find decent tyre comparison vids as most people telling folk how good tyres are on YouTube don't actually seem that good at driving!! This very Japanese vid shows a handy Jap wheel man in a RX-7 at Suzuka with the AD08R vs AO52 (with the same 255/265 widths I'm using).........lap times 2:29.8 to 2:24.98 so its a very quick tyre! Looks like the attitude in car is quite similar just at a higher grip level.........win win!

Not much of an update as opposed to some maintenance required! Rather ashamedly the car went off to Silverstone with the pads in far worse condition than I'd usually allow but I'd not realised they were so worn after its last use so had to nurse them on track but still good enough to have a good time.......to add insult and more cost the tyres all round were looking equally as sad! So with the 'Ring up next (sadly forecast is looking very poor!) I needed to get some new pads on it along with a new set of boots! Also diff oil was replaced and a quick brake bleed with PFC665 fluid just to get it all back to top fitness New pads, all installed..................as you can see were very much required!! Then for team boss and head mechanic to help on the pedal while I bled the brakes And then finally sorted tyres......wont bore you with the whole tail but was going for a set of AD08R's again as they're great but Demon Tweeks let me down/stitched me up a treat!!..........quick call to Yokohama and luckily on the shelf was a set of AO52's with my name on in 255/40 and 265/40 so me trying these great tyres one day was fast tracked somewhat to right now! Looking forward to trying these out..........especially as my spring rates were actually chosen for this level of tyre. Lets just hope its dry enough to see what they've got..........that said they're meant to be a step up for wet use also. Re engine build.......its all collected and looking good. To be honest I think juggling using the car and doing all the work required at the standard I'd like to do it to is going to require me taking it off the road at the end of the year..........got some weight loss planned for it too while its out of use so think it all makes sense to do it that way.

Thank you!! I have to remind myself sometimes how far the car has come and how much work has gone into it.................and continues to do so!

Agreed! and yeah good to put a face to the name...............in fact you met half the family! Cheers, appreciate the comments! Yeah new engine will be a while coming but will be worth the wait.....not really necessary for the road but great for track work......will hold those 3rd gear slides for a bit longer eh!! Your car also has a really nicely set up chassis and the improvements over the stock DE with the cams etc were great for track work! Credit to you and all the work you've put in to it...........makes the late nights in the garage and no skin on your knuckles all worth it! Yeah me too.......think we both took a couple of sessions to blow off the cobwebs but there wasn't much wrong with the pace after that.......still not sure I took Stowe corner the same way twice all day!! Hope the tyres do turn up........you need em!

Yeah crazy isn't it........been to Donington loads and its a running joke as the drivers briefing has to be halted repeatedly as aircraft go overhead and you couldn't shout over the top of the noise its so loud. They have equipment that "only picks up circuit noise and not aircraft noise" though.......not sure how that's even possible!! Out of interest in your experience would you say Donington is still one of the strictest noise limits in the country or have others come down further?

Oh I'm sure you're right on that! Maybe I should be careful what I wish for! Amazing that you can buy a house next to a motorway and there's no noise limit 24hrs a day, council won't listen to any complaints and its just tough...........buy a house near a race track and the council will close it down due to noise restrictions during less hours. Its always been my opinion that the councils should be encouraging track days/driving and making them more accessible in an effort to improve road safety and get people to use there performance vehicles away from public roads but sadly this is a point missed by all of them.

On Sunday I headed off to Silverstone where I met up with @RobPhoboS and had a great day out on the International Circuit! Both Z's ran really well from first to last sessions...........great way to kick off 2019 track days! I did make a bit of a error though and didn't realise/forgot my front pads were about 2\3rds done and down on their ass so had to nurse them a little throughout which was a shame but still enjoyed the day and great to be out driving the car properly again! Didn't actually take too much footage but here's a few clearer laps from the day

I bought a pair of these as recommended by @RobPhoboS https://www.advantage-motorsport.co.uk/decibel-devil-exhaust-noise-reducer.html Sadly I needed the 5" version to go over the exhaust tips and of course x2 so it starts getting pricey!! They work well though, my Z is 102dB drive by but with these fitted it gets me out at Donington Park without issue (98dB drive by). I did ask the staff there what it actually is with them installed but they can only say its at or under 98dB as its not tripped the meters and not give a reading, which is a shame as it would be useful to know. I'll have a system made on the car one day that runs it quiet enough to satisfy all circuits

Noise limits is a big thing that’s not going away and only getting stricter and for me the most frustrating thing is knowing how one circuit compares to another. As your article says 98dB driveby at one circuit will be completely different to the same level at a different venue as the distance it’s measured from will be different. Would be be great if they could all come to an agreed limit that is enforced the same at each track so you confidently have a system that meets that and therefore meets them all. I’ve rang circuits and all they can say is if it’s meets the static then it “should” pass the drive by but cars just don’t conform to that logic. With the cost of some track days it’s way more ££ than you want to gamble with before knowing you won’t get thrown off.