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Why is the Z so damn heavy?


manphibian

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Thats where the weight is for me, a patch to solve a wobbly body. :bangin:

Whilst this is probably somewhat true - why do we really care? At the end of the day Nissan needed to make a car that had certain handling and performance characteristics - which it did and we all bought them. If it wasnt good enough we wouldnt have bought them so they've done their job. They could have spent more on R&D and materials to bring this down, but then the car would have cost more and probably either cost too much for us or just sent us to Porsche who wouldnt then cost much more.

 

I fail to see why this is still a hot topic. Do you not think if there was something we could simply "remove" to reduce the weight then Nissan would have done it already? :lol:

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I fail to see why this is still a hot topic. Do you not think if there was something we could simply "remove" to reduce the weight then Nissan would have done it already? :lol:

 

As we all know, there are very simple things (plenum spacer, HFC, decent sounding air filter, throttle controller doobery) that should have been standard, whats to say a diet shouldnt be included in that list? ;)

 

Id have thought they would have developed the 370Z with a view to weight saving a bit more TBH. The biggest problem the 350 has is weight, plain and simple and this is why this is an interesting topic to me. If it was a 1250KG car then it would go, stop and handle a lot better and would be frankly awesome. :)

 

If you can find out what creates the weight then you can consider how to remove it, which will improve the car, no question. :thumbs:

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You can save a shed load of weigth stripping it and replacing panels, but it will cost a fortune and as above might make the handling unbearable for roads as Nissan have designed everything to work together for the weight it is.

Also the bonnet being aluminium weighs almost nothing, and is pretty much lighter than any CF option. :thumbs:

 

I met a French guy and his son in law some weeks ago, they had stripped their Zs and replaced most of the body with carbon parts - they said they has lost 400 kgs!!

So I guess a lot ow weight saving is possible - but the French guy was now trailoring the car to tracks as it was too uncomfortable for cruizing.

Couple of our guys with full race car 350's over here have done similar, but probably to a more extreme extent, but then added in the equation of the weight of a very full on cage, counters some of the loss.

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If you can find out what creates the weight then you can consider how to remove it, which will improve the car, no question. :thumbs:

Depends on your definition of 'improve'. You could end up with a car that's incredibly skittish and crashy and noisy, which isn't going to improve the car at all IMHO. The Zed was designed and engineered with the weight very much in mind, and the final tuning tweaks to the suspension, NVH and steering would've taken all this into account, so when you start altering things you run the very real risk of making those £M's spent by the finest minds at Nissan a waste.

 

Sure, most of us do that anyway by changing the brakes, swapping the suspension to aftermarket stuff that's stiffer, running larger ARBS etc, but none of that really removes a serious amount of weight. Once you start taking 100's of kilograms out of the car, you might find the end result isn't quite as good as you hoped for. Half of the Zed's charm is that it is such a lardy lump but one that can also be hustled and thrown around big-hairy-chest style into some outrageous slides, which would be lost if it ended up the same weight as an Elise. Different strokes for different folks and all that, but I just wanted to make the point that losing huge amounts of weight won't always make for a better road car.

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Aren't we missing the point here somewhere?

 

The Zed is a GT car hence thearge fuel tank. It's filled with all your creature comforts, and that signifies it's purpose was not to be super quick off the mark, and handle like an Elise in the corners.

 

As others have said, had the weight issues been taken care of, it wouldn't have the luxuries or huge fuel tank.

 

We are discussing a car that was made as a GT and turning into a slim tuned track car. Personally I chose the Zed for it's ability to serve a number of purposes, looks, power, price and luxuries. It's served it's purpose very well. It's not too difficult to reduce the weight of the car but it depends on what type of car you end up with. I've reduced the weight by 66kg and haven't compromised the comfort of the car. If you want to lose 200kg from the car it's not that difficult to work out how to lose that weight. Same applies for adding power, not difficult to understand how to add this.

 

I don't think we should ask why Nissan made the car, or how it should have been better. I bet you could name a large number of cars and how to make them better. Although if that be the case the choice of cars out there dictates you've bought the wrong car. I have changed the cosmetics and tweaked performance and handling. If I wanted a super light super agile car I would have thrown in another 40k and bought a Porsche. :shrug:

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If I wanted a super light super agile car I would have thrown in another 40k and bought a Porsche. :shrug:

Nah, who'd be stupid enough to do that??!! :lol::blush:

 

I absolutely agree with everything you said though fella, spot on :thumbs:

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The fuel tank is hardly huge. It's the same size as a 986 boxster and my mums c class. A boxster IMO has a worse engine smaller too. Less bracing but cos it's mid engine and weighs as my 172 it's quick. Although IMO anything less than 3.2/3.4 is a waste the chassis can handle much more. Boxster is comfortable to drive to albeit slightly small for me.

 

I can see what your saying about the money put in development but nissan designed this car on the cheap. IMO in standard guise it's horrible. Until I modded this car I didn't actually like it. It's like the plenum spacer why didn't they put that in design the strut brace and bonnet around it? Cos they cheaped out. IMO weight is the biggest letdown on the 350z

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Aren't we missing the point here somewhere?

 

The Zed is a GT car hence thearge fuel tank. It's filled with all your creature comforts, and that signifies it's purpose was not to be super quick off the mark, and handle like an Elise in the corners.

 

As others have said, had the weight issues been taken care of, it wouldn't have the luxuries or huge fuel tank.

 

 

Yes, but compared to cars with similar GT credentials (a 200SX is not a sportscar, neither is an RX8) its heavy. Thats all Im saying, its not because of big fuel tanks or heavy duty hubs :bangin:, the car is heavy in the first place. Ekona might be right, for it to work dynamically it needs to be 1500KGs, but Ive mever known a car you cant make better by making lighter :)

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I have just read Ekona's reveiw of the boxter s. In it he mentions the boxter s weighs in at 1450kgs.

 

I dont have any 350z weights to hand apart from what I can find on the net, so lets go for a 2004 gt @ 1463kgs taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_350Z

 

It seems the Z my be heavy but not too bad in comparison to some of its competition when the price of the boxter s is taken into account.

 

:shrug:

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Or, to give you another reason why manufacturer weights are a load of rubbish (Porsche included), I had my old Zed weighed on a proper weighbridge. Full tank of fuel give or take the 10 min pootle to get there, myself @90kgs, K1 exhaust on so much lighter there than stock, all on a revup Roadster... 1860kg. Work backwards and that's still stupidly heavy.

 

No chance in hell a normal coupe weighs anything less than 1550kg minimum. Nissan themselves claim (via here) a weight of between 1528kg and 1550kg, and I can promise you it's nearer the end of that.

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