Growling

After all the track time, and back home after the competition, the Z just became a road car, and what a beautiful road car it is. I love how special it feels. With the M3, it feels like a souped up saloon, but the Z feels like a focused, purpose built sports car, and I like that. I took the car on the 600+ mile round trip to Plymouth for a weekend away, and it really didn't miss a beat. So comfortable to drive: The track time took its toll, so I set about making the car as close to perfect as I can afford to.. It deserves it after being so great on track. After buying a new centre cap for the Rays after I lost one at Silverstone, I did the first mods.. A stainless Y pipe, and a quick wiper delete, and boot weight removal: Next up was suspension. I decided to really treat her to HSD Coilovers, and Driftworks Camber arms front and rear. After a bit of fiddling, I got them on in an afternoon. (You can see here what proper hard braking does to the paint of your Brembos!): This left me with a low car with rediculous alignment settings: A mate of mine kindly gave me a great deal on his JDM rear bumper, Diffuser, and a set of 18x9.5 wheels.. in a hideous red : I also ordered a Mines style lip. here is is after a bit of trimming: After a chat to the guy who does all my painting, he took my front and rear bumpers for a fresh coat. the front bumper had some serious stone chips, and I lost the little tow eye cover, so I grabbed a new one from Nissan before it went into paint: Eventually I got my bumpers back, and I'm well chuffed with them! I had the front bumper smoothed, and the front grill done in gloss black (You'll see the theme eventually). Front end fitting: Booty before and after: While I was at it, I baked the rear light and removed the red from the fog: I found a Japspeed backbox for cheap, so I had to grab it. After finding some bright spark has welded my mid pipe to my back box, I sourced a 30k mile mid pipe in great condition to complete the exhaust system. I havent fitted this yet. Dirty: All polished up: That brings me about up to date. Here she is as of today: The wheels and lip are currently in the paint shop, so I'm eagerly waiting to get them back and get the car in for alignment! There's plenty of plans for the car, mostly tidying and pampering. Thanks for reading

This leads me onto the Z. I was driving the M3 and playing a lot of Gran Turismo to try to qualify for a competition called GT Academy. If you haven't heard of it, have a google. It's basically a competition where the winner becomes a pro works racing driver for nissan. Long story short after a lot of hard work I managed to qualify, so the prep began. I decided if I was going to prepare I'm going to do it properly, so the M3 was sold, and the hunt for a 350Z commenced. The car was just be bought to use on track to get used to the Z cars as that's what they use most in GT Academy. I eventually settled on a 2004 Gunmetal with 104k miles. the car was solid, and after a full service, brake overhaul (Black diamond discs, Ferodo DS2500 pads and ATE Racing brake fluid) and a fresh set of Nankang NS2-R track tyres it was ready for the track: Unfortunately I never made it. The car blew a coil pack on the way to snetterton and came home on a tow truck From that day on, I've carried a spare coil pack in the car From then to the time I went away for GT Academy in October me and the car had a great time on the track. There's no pictures of that time, but we did Silverstone, Snetterton, Brands Hatch and Bedford Autodrome. Learnt a hell of a lot, and embaressed some serious cars. Even though they're heavy, man they're great to drive and very capable on track. After just 2 months, I'd used most of my new tyres, ruined my 5th gear, blew out both the flexi's on my Y pipe and did this to a set of Ferodo DS2500 pads in under 1000 miles: GREAT FUN!

Hey guys and girls..I bought my 350z back in August, and now things are happening I thought this would be a perfect time to start my project thread.I'll start with my car history.First up was my Civic:Left like this.. Sold to and crashed by my best mate and broken by me 6 weeks later :After that, I had an FD for a year. Very odd this one.. I think it's the most beautiful car i've owned, especially after i'd changed the wheels and suspension and stuff, but I just never really fell in love with it..:After that, came a 19 year old BMW estate.. Haha. Everyone I knew thought I was insane, until it was finished. it even got a little feature in PBMW. Before bags:After bags:Then after wanted to get something to drift after having a dabble in the rx7, I got an old R32 skyline. It had an RB25DET, cusco cage and some other stuff. Done a couple of drift days and a lot of streeto, but I couldn't leave it alone. Ended up spending 1500 on suspension, some half decent wheels, tubbed rear arches and over fenders and vinyl wrapped it myself. After my mate crashed his rx8, I decided I didn't want to trash a 5 grand car, so I sold it.How it came to me (rough) :And how she left me:Next was my Integra type R track car.This one was a full build from a shell up. It ended up with an engine swap, cage, decent suspension and brakes and I even had a play with aero. Was a very capable car by the end, with some decent lap times.How it was:And finally My daily while the Integra was in the garage was an E46 M3. I absolutely loved this car, and i wouldn't have sold it if I didn't get a life changing opportunity. These really are fantastic cars:I'll start with the Z in the next post!