Well, after my run in with the Evo 8 and thunderbird, I was content and continuing down on the road until I see this blue thing coming up pretty fast...wow, a 350Z...he passes by me (it's 3 lanes now) .... and I think,should I chase his ass down .... no, this is a pretty heavily populated area and with cops around, not smart ... so, the 350Z goes by and then I see the Evo 8 blow by me as well giving chase to the 350Z...damn, there is a uhaul truck blocking my view ... I can't see what happens but decide to continue on my way and start thinking of Tila Nguyen's ass ....
and I start entering sam eig hwy again, a long right hander that turns into a left merge ...

I merge into the right lane to go back onto sam eig when the 350Z comes across the two lanes and cuts in front of me :mad: ... like 3 inches from my front bumper .... and then he starts pushing it hard, I'm stuck in 5th gear at 2000 rpms .... and decide to mash the fun pedal again ..... VROOOOOOOOM goes my tachometer ... jesus, i need that clutch ... and I grind my teeth in frustration ...

The 350Z is accelerating hard in the straightaway and has about a good 50 yards head start on me and is merging into the left lane by the time I hit the straightaway portion of the turn. I say screw this and downshift .... into fourth...and I start accelerating into the straightaway ... and I'm looking at the turn and picking my line and the 350Z is pushing hard....I hit about 85 mph coming into the left hand sweeper merge and I keep pushing and shift back into 5th and the 350Z is pretty far ahead...so, I downshift into fourth and decide to go after him ....

WOW ... this guy is pushing it .....and I KNOW he is keeping it floored ... I'm closing the gap quickly though, 110....120 ... wow, my car feels very stable on snow tires... I wonder what speed they are rated for.......and I'm gaining on him like a cheetah chasing a gazelle on the serengeti .... and I get within 30 yards of him and keep my distance and let off the accelerator to match his speed ... wow, 95 mph this guy is going ... hmm.. I should go straight since I still need to goto Sears' ... but, decide, nahh.. I'll chase him for a little bit and I continue behind him ....

And then I finally catch up to him very close to where I can see his face in the sideview mirrors really good on the merge onto the road for 270S from Sam Eig... it's a pretty sharp left hand turn ...

Thus, I catch up and just kind of coast and pick the line I want using no braking at all ... I'm probably around 60 mph now and he starts to brake through the whole turn and I get within a foot of his bumper :D. He has no line whatsoever. He looks at me in his driver sideview mirror and I smile at him. We hit the straightaway portion and he punches it, I punch it right behind him merging onto 270S. Wow, his 350Z is pretty damn quick. I keep behind him a good 20 yards and he swerves across two lanes and is charging hard....I merge and just keep accelerating.
Then, once again, I get behind him and match his speed .... wow, he's still moving, 95 mph ... on 270 no less .... and I'm just content to stay in 5th behind him....

All i have to say is this .... I definitely think the 350Z is a quick ass car. This was my real first encounter with one. I dont' know of all these M3 owners killing the 350Z, BULLSHIT. The 350Z has excellent acceleration, great moving speed. It seems to hit a wall at 100 mph though ... just my two cents. So, maybe that's how M3's are killing them; but, 0-100 mph, I would say the 350Z gets the nod in this manner. With a few bolt-ons and maybe a turbo kit for $3700...the 350Z is no joke. Very cool ... props to 350Z owners.... very good-looking car ... very quick .......

For 350Z owners, I am at 6.5 lbs of boost, 322 rwhp and 297 ft*lbs of torque. This is LOW BOOST for me, if you make me upset, I'll hit the button for hi-boost and spank your ass harder than Ron17 spanks his monkey! :D ....So, even with your Greddy turbo kit, you won't beat me :evil2 ...

But, it's definitely a quick-ass car. For an E36 M3 owner to beat a 350Z owner, I think the M3 owner better bring his A game .... I mean, no sloppy shifting .... etc..if so, you'll get owned. I definitely think the 350Z is going to see quicker 1/4 times than the e36 M3. I personally think it's faster than a stock e36 m3. Just my two cents from following the 350Z guy. Maybe he had some bolt-ons, (not sure what they add); but, it's a very respectable car. Props to Nissan on this one.

Your recollection was kind of like watching a movie where the camera bounces around a lot during the car chase scene :D

Anyhow, fun story. No real good bolt-ons yet unfortunately, and those that are of questionable gains. All kinds of talk about our ECU negating exhaust, headers, etc, but someone will finally get it all figured out. So far the only mod that is on the street that produces more than peanuts horsepower is our good friend nitrous.

It's funny, but I have to agree about the 100mph wall somewhat. It feels like the wall was worse when my car was newer, at 4200 miles now. When my car was at around 1000 miles it seemed to pull worse in 4th gear than my 2000 Eclipse GT. From 80-120 in 4th that Eclipse pulled pehnomenally well for a car with it's power, perhaps it spoiled me. I think part of it is our peak power falls off before redline and the Z can only do about 115-118 in 4th. This would also make sense as to why the Z has pretty lackluster trap speeds, and why those running even small shots of nitrous are seeing really nice gains in the quarter. There is an automatic with a 100 shot very close to dipping into the 12s, in fact, I need to go read the board, he might have done it last night.

Originally posted by Rob Nance
<snip> So far the only mod that is on the street that produces more than peanuts horsepower is our good friend nitrous.

Ahem. Give Kyle at www.sgpracing in Houston a call. There are mods out there, unless you strictly wanna go bolt-ons for now.

Originally posted by Aquineas
Ahem. Give Kyle at www.sgpracing in Houston a call. There are mods out there, unless you strictly wanna go bolt-ons for now.

What mods? There are a few things like turbos, superchargers, plenums, etc, in development, but the only real things that I have heard of are intakes and exhaust. Mine's has a NA internals stage 1 and stage 2 kit, but nobody has actually seen them. Tanabe supposedly has a cam, but that is grey market stuff I believe...

Anyhow, stuff is almost here, but unless you count importing at huge costs, there isn't much if anything.

Originally posted by Rob Nance
What mods? There are a few things like turbos, superchargers, plenums, etc, in development, but the only real things that I have heard of are intakes and exhaust. Mine's has a NA internals stage 1 and stage 2 kit, but nobody has actually seen them. Tanabe supposedly has a cam, but that is grey market stuff I believe...

Anyhow, stuff is almost here, but unless you count importing at huge costs, there isn't much if anything.

Internals... Higher (and lower) compression forged pistons, cams, titanium rods.

http://store.yahoo.com/sgpracing-store/electronics4.html

According to Kyle, these are available now.

I disagree about the whole 350Zs are as/too fast for an e36 m3 comment. I ran into a new 350z on the way through downtown Tampa which I proceeded to play with for about 10 miles as we both went to Tampa Palms. We couldn't pull on each other significantly from any speed, from the interstate to stoplights. Cool guy, we talked at a stoplight. He had a 6-speed with a chick passenger, I had 300-400lbs of construction tools & materials in my stock auto E36 M3. It's a nice car and a worthy opponent for an E36M3 but the only time it looked like he was pulling me with 280hp was fraction of a second before he shifted and I pulled after each of his shifts. I know on paper it shouldn't have happened but I just haven't seen it after various 350Z run-ins.

Nosoup, I think you're underestimating the beatdown you will hand to a 350Z on the open road or you're just being polite to Rob. You are pushing 70rwhp more and GOBS more torque throughout the power band. You gotta love new Z owners though, they love to play. I think Rob was a former SE-R.net member too which makes him a certified Nissan freak. I came to the dark side.

Originally posted by Icecream ///Man
I disagree about the whole 350Zs are as/too fast for an e36 m3 comment. I ran into a new 350z on the way through downtown Tampa which I proceeded to play with for about 10 miles as we both went to Tampa Palms. We couldn't pull on each other significantly from any speed, from the interstate to stoplights. Cool guy, we talked at a stoplight. He had a 6-speed with a chick passenger, I had 300-400lbs of construction tools & materials in my stock auto E36 M3. It's a nice car and a worthy opponent for an E36M3 but the only time it looked like he was pulling me with 280hp was fraction of a second before he shifted and I pulled after each of his shifts. I know on paper it shouldn't have happened but I just haven't seen it after various 350Z run-ins.

Nosoup, I think you're underestimating the beatdown you will hand to a 350Z on the open road or you're just being polite to Rob. You are pushing 70rwhp more and GOBS more torque throughout the power band. You gotta love new Z owners though, they love to play. I think Rob was a former SE-R.net member too which makes him a certified Nissan freak. I came to the dark side.

Nope, never been to that board, or owned a Nissan before this.

Nice story. I still havent had the chance to play with a 350Z yet.

NoSoup, when I read your stories I always feel like you're not giving it all that you've got. I feel like you hesitate to push your car as hard as it should be pushed. I dont know, maybe its just me.

James, cool story, but I gotta stick to my "depends on the driver" comments...

My 198 rwhp Z3 3.0 ran 13.89 on OEM Tires, and 13.65 on DR's, color me less than impressed with the 350Z in terms of strict straight line performance...

I am more content just following vehicles or seeing if I can keep up, rather than just flat-out beating them. Plus, since I'm debadged, I'm sure it makes people go :confused: when I keep up with them.

For myself, I find it more annoying when a car follows me closely than if a car tries to pass me. I stayed close enough to see his eyes keep looking in the rearview mirror :biglaughb. To me, that's good enough. Because he KNEW he could not pull away since I stayed right on him and I gave him the thumbs up when he looked in the rearview mirror. So, maybe he is posting/thinking he owned me ... but, I don't care. I know I could lay the smackdown if I chose to :D -- that's even a better feeling than laying the smackdown on a car ... KNOWING you can get medieval on his ass whenever you want to ... :D

Plus, I have a slipping clutch right now -- and I'm trying to baby it until RPS can fabricate a new one for me.

This is great stuff, now I am really ready to start another week! :buttrock

James, stop picking on these cars (no offense to 350z guys). ;)

With the 350z and e36 m3....DEFINITELY...down to the drivers... I think the only reason that everyone is eatin up the 350z on this forum is the fact that we are all enthusiasts and are moderate to good drivers... and then theres the "dave level" of driving...and as to the people buyin the 350z's....I know for a fact that the majority of the consumers purchasing the cars dont kno how to drive.... in my opinion the Z with a decent driver is a formidable car and one we shouldnt blow off too lightly

Perhaps also there are a lot of new 350Zs out there meaning:
+ one they may not be broken in fully yet and therefore a bit toit
+ two the owners may be taking it realtively easy on them
+ three the owners may not yet be fully sorted in terms of how to get the best from their beast

Having said that, bring it on! I fear no 350Z! ;-)

I see a lot of women driving them around here... :dunno ;)

very good points also... I think dave is saying that girls cant drive..:devillook

Well, now that you mention it, I've never lost a race to a woman... :devillook :D

And you almost never lost to a man... not that we know of at least! :D

Except for that Cobra guy with 477 hp or something...

In the Z3, correct ;)

But I've lost plenty of races in my day, trust me... :D

Of course, you used to drive american cars! :D

*putting flame retardant suit on... now* :eek:

I was gonna say, I've only had the Z3 like 18 mos and I don't drag race at the track as often as I used to...

But I've lost plenty of races in my day

Yeah, :rolleyes: ...when you were a passenger maybe .... ;)

Originally posted by NoSoup4U
Yeah, :rolleyes: ...when you were a passenger maybe .... ;)

HA! You don't drag race every weekend for 17 yrs and not lose once in a while, trust me... :D

With the supercharger on my M coupe, I destroyed 2 350Zs. But they were fast no question.
I then got a chance to race when the supercharger was taken out, and I was bone stock. We were dead even for a bit, but then I drafted him, and was able to sling shot past him over 120mph. If you have an M3, make sure it's an E46, or a boosted E36, cause they move...

Originally posted by SilverStreak
I see a lot of women driving them around here... :dunno ;)

I still don't get this, or the old man comments. We at my350z.com are always confused by it also. Out of 16,000 registered users we have maybe 10 tops, women owners that post regularly. Nobody in Austin knows of a women 350 owner, and I've only seen maybe 2 owners that were over 40. Not doubting you at all though man, just curious why it differs where you live. I have noticed that in the rich neighborhoods around Austin I see more kids driving nice cars, and more women in nice cars. Most of the M's, AMG's, etc, I see in the really wealthy areas have 30 something women drivers.

Go figure *shrug*

Same thing with Mustangs and BMW's, plenty of female owners, but I think female owners are less likely to go nuts with mods, and less likely to join Internet Message Boards to talk about cars, etc....