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That Brickyard belongs to Dr Bonz (Ed) -- orthopaedic surgeon in western PA. The photo is not really photoshopped, just a slight enhancement. His 350 really does look like that though -- over 100 coats of Zaino (he's the king of Zaino). For a long time back in '03 and '04 the two of us were in a little mod competition -- our 350s have a lot of similarities, but we diverged a bit when I continued to pursue horsepower and he took a turn to looks (lambo doors, etc.). I beat him to the supercharger by about a week in September '03 but he made it to 9 psi just before me. His 350 is really a sight to behold. The second pictured 350 isn't Brickyard, it's Interlagos Fire -- slightly lighter and more of a brownish cast. Only 2081 Brickyards were made and the color only lasted for the '03 model year. The Doc's 350 began as a Track model, and mine as a Performance model. Don't know if you can get access to this without joining, but here is a link to the Doc's photo gallery over on 350Zfrenzy.com. You can see photos showing the entire evolution of his 350 over the years. http://www.350zfrenzy.com/gallery/showg ... &ppuser=11 This one is exceptionally good for showing all the Brickyard color variations in one photo. http://www.350zfrenzy.com/gallery/showp ... &ppuser=11

Only in his own mind. Even non-Z owners would like to throttle him (or worse) for trashing out a perfectly good Z.

The visual I keep coming back to is the guy doing about 150 and shedding the stick ons one by one. Poof -- no blower, etc., etc. Just the thought has me rolling on the floor. Copy and paste the following into a Google search if you want an idea of the guy's notoriety on the Internet. K&M supercharger 350z

The guy has become pretty infamous here in the States -- the epitome of stupidity. The car is pretty much bone stock except for all the fake stuff stuck on the outside.

You can also shoot these folks an e-mail. They have a huge inventory including hard to find fitments, and great prices. They're great folks to work with. I've bought about 10 axel sets of Hawks from them. Very customer service oriented and will answer any questions you have about brake pads. The also sell PFCs and Ferodos. All three are excellent pads. http://www.raceshopper.com/ PS: They're also a StopTech dealer, and sell all kinds of pads, fluids, and brake accessories. Be sure to go to the customer car section and catch the UK Mini doing some big air.

Hawk HPS are street pads, they can be used for an occasional week-end auto-cross, but I don't recommend them for more than a couple hot laps on a race course -- they will begin fading after that. For an everyday street pad, they're excellent. For heavy duty track use (run hot laps all day), the Hawk DTC 70/60 are great for the 350 (70s front and 60s rear). When paired with big brakes with cool running rotors such as StopTechs, your corner entry speeds start going up dramatically because you can significantly delay coming on the brakes and you slow a lot quicker while still having total vehicle control. The Hawk DTCs are a relativley new technology pad, generally replacing the HT-14/10 combination. DTC stands for Dynamic Torque Control because of the pad's modulation characteristics. A lot of race pads are very abrasive, but the DTCs seem to be fairly rotor friendly as race pads go.

You're bedding the pads specifically to your rotors -- you're laying down a fine coating of pad material on the rotors and tempering the pads by heating them up. I do it a little differently depending on the pad -- race pads need to be heated up higher than street pads during bedding. Street pads: About five hard slow-downs (brake force just below where ABS would engage) from around 40-45 to about 5. Cool by driving normally for a bit (in an area where you don't have to stop). About five hard slow-downs (same technique) from 60-65. Repeat the cooling process. Be sure not to come to a complete stop or set the emergency brake until the pads and rotors have cooled to normal temperatures. Race pads: Add a third set of hard slow-downs from over 100. Bedding generally gives much better brake performance over the life of the pads.

The problem with F/I, is once you've had a taste of it, you always want more boost! Which rapidly translates to more money!

Hawk HPS for the street. Virtually no dust, no squeal, 30-40% better stopping power than stock, and great modulation. I use these on all three of my Z cars and the Altima. Hawk DTC-70/60 for the track (quite a few NASCAR and SCCA cars use these). Stop on a dime, no fade, great modulation, allows deep corner braking and higher entry speeds. I use these on my '03 350. Strictly a track pad, not for street use. Regardless of the pad you use, be sure to bed them in properly.

Didn't mean to try to turn you into a contortionist!

Exactly! Since I have a left-hand drive, it's a little different but essentially the same concepts of variations in hand placements for shifting. Once you practice with it, it becomes very natural and you'll run it right in the gate every time, even with all that adrenaline pumping.

At 6-7 psi I wouldn't think there is much of a mileage factor, provided it's done correctly, and the engine wasn't beat to a pulp in the first place.

It feels like something catches on the right of gate, not always but certainly when cold. As for turning my hand 180 degrees, I'm not sure I can do that without some pain! Not quite sure what you mean.... I was assuming you shift with your hand on the left side of the shifter (most do), so it's about 180 clockwise so your hand is now on the right side (or right side of center), thumb facing down. This forces the shifter to ride the guide plate down to the gate. If your hand is on the left side of the shifter you're almost guaranteed to hit right of the gate, particularly if you're getting a little spirited (basic ergonometrics) because you will naturally pull the shifter more toward the 4th gear gate. Less shift force almost always gets you cleaner shifts. Winter time before everything has had a chance to warm up, yeah, the tranny will be a little notchy, but everything should fall into place in a mile or so.

If you're having trouble with first to second, something's not quite right. Are you hanging up to the right or left of the gate? Left of the gate might require adjustment of the guide plate. Right of the gate, and presuming a right-hand drive, try rotating your hand 180 degrees clockwise so the shifter rides the guide plate down into the gate (the technique will also work for downshifts from 3rd to 2nd). I use this technique on left-hand drive going from 5th to 6th.

The US market GT-R price gouge: In December, the average US sales price was $15,000 to $20,000 above MSRP ($70,000). In January, it went up another $25,000 to $30,000. At this rate, by June the GT-R will be going for $250,000 in the US. That's in US Lambo and Ferrari territory. It will be interesting to see just how many $$$ the US GT-R market will bear. Supercar for the common folk? It's not looking that way. The US Nissan dealers selling the GT-R are rubbing their hands with glee. If the going rate goes to a quarter million it would be around $190,000 clear profit for every GT-R sold, or just short of 1 million profit for an allocation of 5 vehicles. Meanwhile the US Inifiniti dealers are really ticked because they won't be able to cash in on the GT-R bonanza.

I'll take some photos when I get them installed -- hopefully, this coming weekend will be a good work on cars weekend (winter time weather is a mite unpredictable).

I wish... I have a couple incomes and get paid a fair amount, so that keeps me in Z parts and cars.

Dang... Deja vue my own little spiel. Nice to see he agrees with tuning closed loop first. Talk to most folks about this and all you get is a blank stare. That's a great tuning article -- really lays it all out.

I haven't added up all the nickels and dimes, but I'd guess about the same as the Z originally cost. And it's not over yet. My Pi-Thon hose locks were just delivered today. They work like a compression fitting -- look like no other hose clamps you've ever seen. Pretty trick. http://www.pi-thon.com/products1.htm

I wish. It's called learning by necessity. Today's computer controlled cars are a pain in the patoot. I long for the good old days of tuning by ear -- not a stinking computer or sensor in the whole car. Shoot the timing light, twist the distributor a bit, maybe adjust the carburetor jets a little, and you're good to go. And you could crawl in the engine bay with the engine. I tore both arms up today just replacing the thermostat (the old one was sticking). It's an easy job with a normally aspirated Z, but with the supercharger hanging there it's a challenge. Had to get a little creative with swivels and extensions for one of the three bolts.

I have three additional gauges (mine are all A-pillar mounted) that I consider essential with forced induction. Wideband O2 -- air/fuel ratio Vacuum/Boost Fuel Pressure -- varies with vacuum/boost and used for making pressure regulator adjustments Readings from all three gauges are inter-related. Improper fuel pressure can really throw the ECM off in closed loop operation. The ECM expects about 51 psi at idle. I have the fuel pressure set to go to 65 psi at WOT at redline.

Oh, I forgot to add another variable. Open and closed loop engine operation. In closed loop, the ECM is constantly toying with air/fuel through short-term and then long-term fuel trim. Tuning for closed loop is trying to get short and long term fuel trim to be as close as possible, and both being as close to zero as possible (perfect map with no ECM adjustment needed--in reality an impossible "holy grail'). Mapping closed loop can get a bit testy since the ECM plays with everything in your map. This mapping takes a lot of patience because you have to wait for the ECM to settle down after every map change -- the ECM tends to hunt a bit for air/fuel before finally settling. Open loop (basically pedal to the metal) is much more straightforward since the ECM runs purely off the map and doesn't try to play with it. This is the mapping that most tuners do -- the infamous hours of dyno runs at WOT for peak HP bragging rights. Few folks mess with closed loop tuning because it's so time consuming. If you do it right, closed loop tuning should be done before open loop. You can also data log your short and long-term fuel trim along with throttle position (the clue for open or closed loop) directly from the ECM. GReddy e-Manage also maps based on throttle position and RPM. I have real time gauges set up on my tuning laptop for RPM, intake air temp, throttle position, and short-term fuel trim for banks 1 and 2. Then we have timing and mass air flow charts. With forced induction you have to trick the ECM by clamping max voltage on the MAF (done with e-Manage).

Temperature is a huge difference. Cold air is much denser than hot air and requires more fuel; conversely when it's 95 degrees (F) you require less fuel, so I have my average seasonal temp maps. Local pressure variations have a lesser effect; low pressure, less fuel, and high pressure more. If you change locations, say go to Denver, Colorado where you're at a higher altitude, less fuel is required because the air is less dense. Humidity is also a factor: more humid is denser, so more fuel, etc. Hey, UK in the winter near the coast is more HP! Cold and wet! Where the million maps come into the picture is racing, where you want everything optimized. You may even switch maps during one day. In the morning when it's cooler, use one map, and then switch to another in the afternoon, particularly if it's a 30-40 degree (or more) variation. The ECM provides intake air temperature readings which are really more significant with forced induction, because intercooler efficiency seems to decline a bit at higher ambient air temperatures. On those 95 degree days (hotter still out on the asphalt), you can be running an intake air temperature at 150-200 degrees at 14-15 pounds of boost on the track. You can see that your engine and fluid cooling systems become pretty important to prevent heat soaking the engine. Nowadays in racing they can remotely monitor (and log) all performance parameters in the pits and it's even possible to tweak the maps real-time while the driver is on the track. Really some cool high-tech stuff. Once you get a few key maps built, you can build and save other maps through interpolation without even being hooked up to e-Manage. I don't know how many maps I have built (I never counted), but it's a bunch. Mostly I just use my average seasonal maps -- daily driving maps. I'm not sure how you would map NOS since it depends where you push the button. Forced induction is much more predictable for mapping. One of these days I'm going to have to build an in-car PC. I've already designed it (about 4 years ago), I just haven't built it.

Actually, I have my oldest son drive while I log and tune. He keeps one eye on the road and the other on the air/fuel and he calls out the A/F so I can richen or lean at the point on the map (it's highlighted). Once we get key points set then it's just a matter of interpolating between points which e-Manage does automatically. We name the map with temp and pressure so it's easy to identify. It doesn't take too long to build a complete map, but it's definitely a two person operation.

Actually it is a couple pounds lighter. I haven't weighed them but I have picked both up, and there is a slight difference.