MrLizard

im talking to msv about where this is going, the 350z only series was canned due to costs and interest wasnt high enough. However, if people are interested there are definitely some good routes into motorsport from the trackday hero -> trackday trophy. if anyone is serious and wants any help i would be happy to try and direct people to the right places

thanks m8, looking forward to it

I am pleased to announce that Abbey Motorsport and TLM are joining forces once more to go racing. Its been a bit of time whilst i recovered but i have finally passed my medical and have my race license back again! The 350z is going through some changes, some that I can tell you about: New plate diff, replacing the kaaz diff in there at the moment New fuel pickup on left hand side of tank to send fuel to swirl pot on the right New set of Tyres - Going from Slicks back to semi slicks (as per regulations for this race) New front bumper - custom carbon/kevlar n2 - waiting on this before car gets wrapped Mark/Abbey is also doing something with the tuning and potentially multi maps and some TC for the wet but ill let him tell you about that when its done The race is in the format of 1 hour, split between 2 drivers of which the other driver im happy to announce is Mr Mark Gillam himself assuming he remembers how to go round corners Class split into power/weight ratio, we will be in Class A which is 200bhp/per ton @ the wheels, other cars include older BMW M3's/porsches/impreza's/lotus etc. Series is done by MSVr The plan is to continue to develop the car and look to either do a full season of this series next year or find something else similar. Fingers crossed we will get some good data and have a good race, im looking forward to involving the rest of the team even further with making calls on when we switch drivers to take full advantage of track position etc We will be testing before hand so i will report back on that, at the moment we are running off the fact the car is using 1 litre of fuel a minute but we expect this might be slightly less at Brands due to the nature of the track. TLM's website is being rehashed as we talk and i will try and keep putting more updates online Thanks Steve Picture from Castle Coombe last year where we took 3rd place overall on the last lap

in order to get my seat lower in the 350z i got some to remove the metal lump under the carpet, with a roll cage you obviously lose a bit of headroom, im sure in an elise like mentioned above if you get rid of the sliding rail and bolted to the chassis on an adjustable bracket you would gain more head space, either that or get an exige, they have more head room, or a vx220 which have lots of head room, though arnt great in a roll...

I didnt TBH, if I did Id ask why he seems to be so insistent that the Z33 is a great track car when a lot of people with experience of plenty of others dont agree. Surely youve driven plenty of other stuff Mr Liz, do you really rate the 350 that highly? In fairly standard form? If so Id be interested to know what you think its more fun than for future reference as well I think i may have been misinterpreted on a couple of points here. I love my m8's clio williams track car, its a lot of fun and he has removed, well, the spare tyre and the back seats and put r888's on it. The car cost just over a grand and the rest has cost less than that... i am ignoring costs here really as i didnt see the OP mention it (he might have mentioned it, i dont know...) i have driven plenty of cars and i am certainly of the opinion that it can be down to personal preference. I was trying to suggest that in standard form i didnt rate the 350z as a track car, however, that if you spend money on the car it comes into its own, the heavy chassis all of a sudden makes sense as does the v6... im not trying to take anything away from the other cars you have suggested, just that 'if' you spend the money and get the right parts the 350z is a rewarding beast that i, personally, have found difficult to get close too.. in standard form for me an s2000 just tries to do the same thing and fails, id rather have an NSX which i have been fortunate to drive or an Rx7 which i havent had a go in yet but have been overtaken by a few! mx5's i love and personally i dont get much out of 4wd cars either on a smooth surface but i know a lot of people who do, and i own a scooby as a daily commuter, work that out! Pure adrenalin i would say the Ariel Atom is probably my favourite non race track car, 300bhp in something that weighs 500kgs you cant beat, im sure it was the same reason that ZMANALEX suggest a caterham. docwra i am positive that if you had a go in my 350z ignoring the cost that you would find it fun even if only equal to the others you have access too

just sold our mk2 1994 GTi-16 2.0 litre NA. awesome car, brought it for £1200 2 years ago and sold it for £500 last month with 157k on the clock and never failed to start. radio didnt work but everything else was spot on

And I think all of the other cars listed are better in some way, Ive tracked everything else (other than an FD) mentioned here - main reasons that they are lighter and faster which is kinda the point of a track car for me. I would love to take my MR2, 306 and Zed on track on the same day - I already know the other two are more fun and it wouldnt suprise me to find they are quicker too. Im perhaps a little biased, but you can easily find a decent condition track specced 350hp 200SX for £4K now, you dont have to do anything else and theres loads of room for wheels as well. Zeds are great and all, but they are GT cars, not track weapons IMO. +1 Having done a few trackdays myself bang for buck I had more fun in my Prelude which was light as anything after I'd removed all the modcons (aircon, abs, PS, sound proofing, balance shafts, interior) If the post had been "I want a great car for the road and to hoon on the occasional track day" then yes, the Z is almost untouchable, however for a track car and having had one the S2000 would be my number 1 choice for the price - beautiful engine, gearbox, poise and response Depends how far you go with it and how good you are at driving a specific car. one of the reasons the 350z is heavy is because the chassis and sub frames are very stiff for a road car, until you actually get some proper suspension and actually use some decent track orientated settings you have no idea how much fun the 350 can be on a track at the limit (though of course this would render it uncomfortable and dangerour on the road).. in terms of speed although it is heavy the zed is very good in the corners when properly prepared, it is also incredibly reliable (not to say the others are not). In terms of lap times i think you would be very surprised as you say lighter and faster is the point.. for me the point is fun, part of which is overall laptimes and cornering. as for the comment about the zed being great on the road and the occasional track day i think that is entirely wrong personally, weak brakes and horrible suspension if left standard make the car feel horribly overweight and sluggish on a track compared to others.

i think a 350z is a perfect track/race car The car is a lot of fun which is what this is about, im sure all of the cars mentioned are and ive driven most of them, it does however cost a fair amount to sort a 350z out properly. Running costs are also fairly high depending on what you do of course, my car has decent parts on it, so rather than coming in after 10 laps at a trackday i can happily stay out for as long as fuel/tyres will let me (1-2mpg) if you want any advice please feel free to pm me... There is a lot of weight to be saved if you are ruthless, the whole aircon system is quite heavy for example, as is all of the speakers and stereo, seats are heavy too but i think the heaviest was the doors, who needs doors!!!

Lizard... you have an office chair one? And you DON'T recommend it? that is correct, mine has your legs angled up like a car seat so when your feet are lifted off the floor or are hanging straight down it is uncomfortable, if you were sat in it on the floor with your feet infront of you im sure it would be fine it is good but not for 8 hours a day in an office

i think you could have saved £55.90 if you had thought ahead here

i use 18" rota's have a few sets they work well, the suspension/wheel/tyre setup can make a massive difference to this car when its on the limit

i quite like the look of the 720" sony 5.1 headset thing in the pipeline though they look like something from tron http://crave.cnet.co.uk/homecinema/bonkers-sony-hmz-t1-3d-headset-to-enter-production-50004940/

Brakes were the first thing i did, good mod but not cheap!

you can get cf doors which weigh significantly less but not colour matched and in my experience the more you take out from the inside of the car the more intrusive the noise is.... which may or may not be a problem to you. i think the more celery rule is probably good too

the 18" rays are actually quite light, in my experience the doors weigh the most, get rid of those

Martin, i have an 05 as a commute car if you have any more questions drop me a pm

A lot of time/money is in labour for stripping the car down and fitting the safety stuff i think for a fairly boggo car ekona is closer than vik in terms of cost but id reiterate what ekona said about costs spiralling. Id love to see this happen and get involved

Where were you when i started racing my zed!! Id be interested but might need to share a car as i am hoping to race my zed in its current state Do it!!

dont bother, i have one and its great to sit in for an hour but after that its a pain, it is at the wrong angle for long periods of use.

i went there not long ago in my m8s work car, volvo estate thing, was good but i wouldnt take my own car, further to that there are some huge speed bumps to stop people going quick, i guess a standard z would get over but im not convinced...

u made the right choice z4m drives like a peice of rubbish, well the new one does, boss has the 3.5 twin turbo model and its lovely for a quick exec car but on a track there is no feeling

exactly what i did, but i got the ppp model

i went on one of these, absaloute waste of time, but did mean i didnt take the points, i got caught about 5 years ago and the system has changed a bit since then, when i did mine it was a whole day!!! split into 2 halves, 1st half was in a classroom being told how not to speed when you thought it was a 40, 2nd part in a car (skoda) demonstrating how not to drive... 14 people went, 2 people failed 1 guy couldnt see, literally, missed the speed sign, speed camera, and couldnt see the dash, turned up in a beaten up old car and the instructor refused to get in a car with him, so they gave him the points and he tried to drive off. 2nd one was a german lady with a nice Audi S8, having been asked the question, when driving in fog on a motorway where the speed limit is 70mph what speed would you do, answered, "my car wont go any slower than 80mph in top gear" when told she would fail if she wrote that down, she proceeded to write it down.

Ive been using the UpRev map for a while now and the difference was incredible, completely different animal, as i dont care about the fuel consumption and considering what the car is used for Mark eeked every ounce of power he could from it safely and gave me the 1-1 throttle map as well. Great results and the timesheets spoke for themselves, the car is a joy to drive just need to improve the driver now

shameless picture of my old orange wheels until zmanalex had them away now with much wider white wheels