StephenG

I had the Nismo exhaust but it was far too loud in the cabin. This is the Invidia G200 true dual; works great with forced induction and is beautifully quiet in the cabin (in comparison to the roar outside!)

Front bumper - Kaminari Poly Urethane (can't recommend PU enough - Fibreglass is far too brittle up front) Sides - Ings +1 Rear - Speedracing (ask Val!) Wing - Spoiler Depot

No, it's not - but it's the same rear as Val's.

Well, I felt this was a Christmas present I could get for myself: a few hours of tuition and lapping of the Top Gear track in the 350Z, care of plans motorsport. The circuit is at Dunsfold aerodrome, only 30 minutes from my house* (see later). After a week of studying the bbc weather page for Guildford, I depressingly accepted that it would be raining a bit. Any thoughts of getting a nailed-on time on the Pistonheads leaderboard were put to one side; and not to worry, some 350Z owners told me; at least that way I'll get sideways nice and easy and I won't wear down the tyres. Fair enough. I picked a Friday afternoon for the day, which includes much more than just learning the track and going for it all whistles blowing. Darren & Toni from Sussexcarz.com came up too, as the track was an even shorter distance away for them. In fact, they got there before me, as it took me over 45 minutes to find it. Why? Well, I navigate everywhere by postcode, which is actually a very bad move when trying to find an airfiled, apparently - as Dunsfold aerodrome was originally the secret base of the Harrier Jump Jet and as a result, it was given a 'secret' postcode that actually directs you to a retirement village in Cranleigh. Clearly, the Russian spies would have never suspected anything when navigating by postcode alone. The pensioners of Essex Drive, I might add, clearly did not suspect me to be dripping with Polonium 210 and gave me directions to the Aerodrome. Of course, they were mostly wrong, and their advice took 2 minutes to hear as they had to gulp in huge pockets of air just to speak; some of those gulps I guess would have been their last. I could have phoned Darren for directions, but alas, the village of Dunsfold itself has no mobile phone coverage. When I finally turned up I was in a foul mood, not helped with the skies opening. Thankfully, Graham from Plans is an ideal tutor for this sort of scenario. After a quick pre-brief of what we were going to do, Graham (my track mentor for the day and overall good guy) asked me what my objectives for the day were. To be honest, I wasn't sure. I know I wanted to have fun but I'm too competitive to enjoy myself usually. Thankfully, with the weather making a competitive lap time impossible, the pressure was off somewhat. I wanted to learn where I could improve the car, and how much the supercharger would make a difference, but Graham explained that in the wet, grip levels were going to be down to 10%. I asked, "down by 10%?" and he said, no down TO 10%. Ouch. I find my car isn't the most grippy at the best of times, so I was beginning to think I was going to come home in a converted ice-cream van and my car was going to arrive later that day in a hoover bag. Anyway, after signing the 'when you die, its your fault boyo' sheet, we were off to the track. Darren and Toni followed with my camcorder and Darren's camera; we were going to need something special to see in this weather, which was getting quite tricky. So, first things first, Graham took my car round the track, to show me the different exit and entry points, and the 'method' of driving the car. Firstly, the track. It's identical to the Top Gear track - not at all modified - and it's much more challenging than you'd expect for a converted airfield layout. Surprisingly, it's a figure of 8, and the edges are marked in thin white lines that slowly disappear in rain. Hmmm. Graham's got good experience with the 350Z having driven the Palmersport cars, so for two laps he pushed the Z hard and was really impressed with the supercharger. He said he much preferred it to Turbo cars as the power delivery was smooth and predictable, making it much easier to 'dial in' the power wanted coming out of corners and to not overcook it. So yah boo, turbo boys :lol He was stupidly impressive in my car, and was confident in dry conditions he'd knock a huge chunk off the lap time of a normally aspirated Z. When you consider my car still has stock clutch, suspension, and brakes, I thought this was pretty surprising. Then I jumped in my driver's seat and took over. Cue some buttock clenching moments even at low speeds. At first the rain wasn't too bad - light drizzle, with some dry-ish patches on parts of the track, and I was taking things lightly. Immediately, I discovered so many things I was doing wrong - as to where I was braking, steering when braking, weight transfer, everything. However, I was learning quickly, and even though I wasn't able to put all of his suggestions into place, at least I was working out why I was doing things wrong. http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-2191371868274686228 Interestingly, he kept the traction control on. Why? Because if it's coming on, you're doing it wrong. This is a smooth, fast circuit, and you should be able to do it at top speed without triggering any driver aids. It actually *helps* to teach you what you've done right and wrong (alongside Graham, of course). Laps were much easier earlier on as the weather was bad but visibility wasn't so bad you couldn't see edges. And this is the problem with the aerodrome - you really can't see the circuit until it's too late. The white lines disappear and there are no other features. While waiting for the rain to subside, we had a go at doing V-max on the runway itself. Wow. This car never ceases to surprise me. At 120, 130, 140 it was planted, actually hunking DOWN as the speed increased. Graham was mightily impressed with how stable it was - me, I was shocked. He thinks the front damper is helping to push the car down and is having a strong aerodynamic advantage. Still shocked. At 150, I ran out of balls long before I ran out of runway (it just wanted to keep going) because over 120, the rain meant I couldn't see anything - literally, I was driving blind. I slammed the anchors on - and it stayed perfectly straight. According to Darren and Toni, the noise of this V-max run was something else, but unfortunately, they didn't get it on Video. Here's me coming back the other way, when I got to 130-ish (had less runway). http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-3497411432686540278 After some more tuition to show me where I was failing to get the braking/turning/balancing process right (it's difficult, so much more than you can imagine), I had a go at my timed laps. I was pretty pleased by this, as the brake-turn-accelerate practice was actually leaving me feeling physically sick (I had to go for a walk outside the car!). Unfortunately, it was a bad time to do the laps. Regrettably, by now it was torrential rain and a bit of mist as well. I'm astonished Darren got as good pictures as he did. And here's my attempts - My standing start on my first lap http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=4196937070630393845 and me overcooking my 3rd lap. http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=8931619105361925913 In the end, I managed a 1:46.7, just over 7 seconds slower than another 350z in the dry, but oh well. I only did 3 laps as it was becoming pretty ridiculous in the weather and with the exception of the hammerhead and gambon, you couldn't see where any of the corners where. When the weather was slightly better I did an unofficial 1:43 - not going faster, just being able to see where the corners were. In summary, it was a superb day, and so much better than a track day in that I had all the track to myself and a dedicated tutor. Amazing value at £190. I've learnt so much more about the car; and respect it hugely now. I thought the problems I were having were problems with the car; not at all, it's my inability to distribute the weight correctly. In his expert hands, the car was a demon; and so *extraordinarily* fast. I'm going back in the Summer to do it again and put down a proper time. Which I'll probably overcook, too.

I thought the majority of those posts on the BMW forum were complimentary, and none were overly derogatory.

.... which it won't be http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?id=2040 I can see my time having a 'w' after it

It's historical - most of the Jap marques had long-established forums and user clubs already.

No. I'm a pretty ham-fisted driver. I imagine I'll have problems beating Sarnie's time.

I'm off there on Jan 5th

To answer the original question: Don't know, I can't see the images!

From that auction: * wrong *

Happy with mine

That's a cool video - nice! What did you edit it with?

I can't help feeling the Z driver had to fight a lot harder to keep his car on the road!

Well done - sounds good. But add to your shopping list a new clutch because if your target really is 440bhp+ it'll struggle, especially on standing starts.

Yep

OZ Superleggera III's on mine - forged, 3 piece

Nope - but the weight of the supercharger does seem to bring the front down slightly!

Not down here. Everyone's getting meters installed. £2000 fine if you're caught.

Hosepipe ban - have to go elsewhere

A friend from sussexcarz.com did these. What a nightmare is what getting the car ready though! I went off to a hand car wash that was closed - so was another one - so I turned up at two garages where it wasn't working, and at the final garage, the previous customer had *wrapped the hosepipe around his wheel* and as he reversed off, he ripped the wash system from the ground - pulling a 10 foot high pump and all the attachments out of the concrete But anyway - here they are.

Absolutely I have some issues with stability at very high speeds though, but they're not SC related (with the exception of the fact that it's the Vortech that is making me want to go at those speeds :D ) PS - if you'd have come to Newbury on Friday I could have taken you for a blast in it

There's some decent audio amongst the video clips I posted just before last week, showing it idling in the engine bay and the noise from the cabin. This was *prior* to swapping exhausts so it's a fair bit quieter in the cabin now. You'll find it's the thread in 'Videos' that Val locked

Nice to meet you matey

Nope, never been. You have email btw!