So after killing off the old 350Z, I bought a new 2010 Monterrey Blue 370Z Touring. It's an odd story actually. The insurance company totaled my 350Z after the accident. It was worth about $17k. So I started looking around for used cars, or maybe a new car in the $30k range, and there were some options, but none I was ecstatic about. I knew the 2012 370Z's were going for about $45k (for the ragtop), which wasn't really in my budget. So for giggles I decided to see what the lowest price I could get from AAA and Cars.com on a new 370Z... and the first three that popped up were only $30k! What?!
So I knew that had to be wrong, so I looked at them more closely, and they were 2010's. So I called the dealership, in Houston, and asked if that was just a misprint and they were really used? No, they were simply unsold.
Well when does the warranty start? Warranty starts when the car is purchased.
So long story short: I flew to Houston and drove back and got a brand new 370Z, for less than a used Z! It was a bit of a leap of faith in the dealership (Tom Peacock Nissan), but they treated me right, and less than three hours after getting off the plane I was headed back!
Apparently the manager ordered a bunch of convertibles thinking they would sell, but apparently no one in Houston wanted manual convertibles, so they couldn't sell these. But I also had really good timing, because of the three they had left, they sold one of them between when I started inquiring and when I purchased (less than a week).
History:
This section covers my old 2005 Nissan 350Z Daytona Blue Enthusiast Roadster.
It met it's unfortunate end on February 2, 2012. I was driving home after dinner at a friend's place, and... errr... well:
I was going a tad too fast, not paying attention, and while braking the back end cut loose. This would have been fine, except
for the concrete curb on the right. I clipped it, which basically sent me skidding off to the left, where I hopped the
low concrete divider in the middle of the road. Sideways... and backwards. So after a 360, over the divider, I limped her
into a parking lot. Luckily there was no traffic coming the other direction (that would have been really bad) and I'm pretty
sure I must have phased right through some of the road signs on the divider. But in the end I came out of it completely unscathed.
The Z on the other hand was totalled. I limped her into a parking lot and said a prayer to the car gods....
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 Me and my new ride |
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| Mods: |
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Details:
2008-02-03 (27113 miles) - RedLine Motor Oil
Mobil-1 has changed their base stock for their synthetic oils, so I've decided to switch to a full synthetic and start using Redline for all my
fluids now.
2007-10-21 (24573 miles) - RedLine Gear Oil
The final piece in the synthetic fluid puzzle. I got my car up on the ramps today, drained, and refilled the rear differential fluid. Now, I'm
good to go. No mods are in the future for quite a while (I do need to check and clean the air filter, but that's another story altogether). Rumor
has it that Mobil-1 has switched their base-oil for their synthetics to something not quite as good, so I might have to look into going Redline for
all my fluids. (I'll probably stick with the generic brake fluids though... the regular stuff lasts longer even though the performance isn't as good.)
2007-10-01 (24272 miles) - BFGoodrich g/Force T/A KDW tires
Finally! New tires on the NISMO rims. These things are sweet and have so much better grip than my old Kuhmo's. It cost me about $900 to get them
and get them installed, but they are fantastic. This is my second set of tires in two years (although honestly, the old Kumho's have plenty of
tread left on them)... so hopefully I can go a couple of years without having to do this again.
Now to figure out where to store the old wheels/tires out of the way somewhere.
2007-09-19 (23893 miles) - Hotchkis Sway Bars
Some nice replacement sway bars that are 129% stiffer in the front and 125% giving the body a little less roll in the corners. They are adjustable,
so maybe I'll try lightening up the front or stiffening up the rear a little more to produce a little more oversteer.
I also got my 2 year service done and got the transmission fluid replaced with Redline.
2007-09-06 (23578 miles) - Pure Innovations Plenum Spacer
This is a stealth mod (and hence no pictures). It basically a 5/16" spacer between the upper and lower plenum that increases the airflow
to the cylinders. It adds about 10HP to the high end of the RPM range (which isn't that noticeable on a car with ~300HP already).
Theoretically this should put me at around 303HP total.
What it has done is given the engine a much quicker throttle response in the low range, and a bit more pull in the high range. At about 5k RPM, the engine used to start to bog down a little... now it just wants to keep going till the red line. It's very nice. It was also relatively easy to install. I was a bit nervous because when you take off the upper plenum, you've basically got access directly into the cylinder block. So if you drop anything in there you can damage the engine! But all went well.
2007-04-23 (19202 miles) - G2 Brake Caliper Paint &
McGard Spline Drive Lugs and Locks
A completely cosmetic modification to the car, I painted my brake calipers red. I did a pretty decent job on them,
but they're definitely not professional looking... just good enough to get by. I also got a set of black McGard Spline Drive lug nuts and
locks for the Nismo wheels. After letting the calipers dry, I went ahead and mounted the LMGT4's. Since the tires are almost shot on them,
I'll have to take them back off soon, but I wanted to see what it looked like. They look good!
I also went ahead and swapped out the rear brake pads with Hawk HPS pads, so I now have Hawk's on all four corners.
2007-03-31 (18562 miles) - NISMO LMGT4 18" Wheels
These are manufactured exclusively for NISMO by Rays (Volk) Japan and are fully forged monoblock aluminum. They're each about 6 pounds
lighter than the OEM wheels (24 pounts total). NISMO is short for Nissan Motorsports International. Basically it's Nissan's racing and development group.
So I read only one forum regularly, and that's 350Z-Tech. The mods and folks there are helpful and friendly. So when one of them put a set of LMGT4's up for sale I kept an eye on it. I had just gotten all the money to pay off the home theater and was pretty much broke, so I wasn't really thinking about it. But he was selling them cheap and as pick-up only. So these beautiful wheels just sat there not being sold and he kept lowering the price. Well, when it hit $1400 (including the tire pressure sensors!), I couldn't pass it up. I was practically stealing them from him. So I rented a truck, drove up to North Carolina, and bought them. Only problem is the tires on them are pretty much shot, and I definitely can't afford to replace them now, so they're just going to sit in my garage and taunt me.
2007-02-24 (17954 miles) - Hawk HPS Brake Pads
Well the brakes started squealing a few weeks ago, so I took a look, and sure enough they needed changing. Does everything on sports cars
go out faster, or what? (The answer is unfortunately yes.) Anyway, I ordered a set of Hawk HPS brake pads for my front two wheels (the rear's
seem fine). Today I installed them myself. Not that big a deal except trying to get my car jacked up. The Z is pretty low, so it's hard
to get my floor jack under it. In fact, I have to drive up onto some 2x6's just to get the extra half inch I need to get the jack under there
and still have enough play to move the arm. Anyway, got the new pads installed, went out for a drive to bed them in. I can't say I notice
much difference, but these are low-dust pads and supposed to be much better. I've love to get a big brake kit at some point, but they're way
too expensive.
2006-10-23 (14942 miles) - New Kuhmo ECSTA ASX Tires
Well I went in for my first annual service and got my Z tuned up. Upon leaving the service tech said, "You've got a lot of wear on your
tires, you might want to replace them soon." When I got home, I checked them and what he should have said is, "You really should change your
tires now." I really want to get a set of 18" Nismo LMGT4 wheels, but I can't really afford it right now, so I decided to just get the
cheapest tires I could find to let me get the LMGT4's later. So my Z has a new set of Kuhmo ECSTA ASX's on all four points. So far they
seem pretty equivalent to the Bridgestone Potenza R040's that came from the factory. Not the ideal tire, but not too bad. So in another
fifteen thousand miles, when I burn through this set, I can get my new tires and wheels.
Also when she was in the shop, I got them to take out the minor ding in the driver's door. I couldn't be happier! I only wish the scrape to the back bumper was as easy to deal with. :( Stupid people in parking lots!
2006-01-14 (~4800 miles) - Vinyl Accents
A minor cosmetic change: The interior of my car is pretty much a very simple color scheme. It's black on black with black accents.
It doesn't bother me, but a bit of color might be nice to break things up. I bought a set of vinyl accents for my car that were
color-matched to the car (Daytona Blue). They basically add a bit of blue to the gauges and doors to break up the vast expanses of
black. They look great, but I hope they manage to stick well and are durable enough to take the occasional hit (especially on the doors).
2005-12-30 (~4700 miles) - Short Antenna
Switched the stock antenna with a shorter aluminum one that I got off eBay. The fit isn't quite right so I padded it with a rubber gasket, but it looks
nice enough.
2005-12-06 (4640 miles) - Mobil-1 Synthetic Oil
Switched the Z over to full synthetic oil today after 4640 miles on dino oil. I used it in my Civic and know it's good stuff.
2005-12-03 (~4600 miles) - JWT PopCharger
This is a replacement for the stock air filter and air filter box. Basically it's just a high-end air filter and a heat-shield to protect it
from the engine heat. Theoretically it gives you a few extra horses, but the difference in the real world is practically unnoticable. (This
is true of almost all intake changes, so don't kid yourself that you're getting +7WHP and notice a difference... maybe if you're sitting on a
dyno.) It changes the sound of the car ever-so-slightly when it's in the higher RPMs or the engine is being pushed, but again, it's not much
of a difference. But I like the looks of it, it helps a little bit with both power and gas mileage, and was cheaper than a full-blown
cold-air-intake (CAI): see my note about intake changes and WHP. You can see the stock airbox below in the pictures of the grounding kit.
2005-08-27 (~200 miles) - OmniFi DMP1
This is a freakin' neat gizmo purchased from Audio In Motion. It's a hard-drive based MP3 player. That in itself is pretty cool,
but add on the fact you can plug in a WiFi adapter and sync between your computer and the car without
touching the harddrive, and it becomes way cooler! I've got a factory head-unit (the base audio unit
from Clarion, CY05B stamped on the front) that doesn't have aux-in jacks. Luckily the AUXNISSv2 (purchased
from Discount Car Stereo)
plugs right into the CD changer port and lets you plug in any RCA-cabled devices! I'd also like to say
the folks at Discount Car Stereo really
answered questions and were very helpful.
| The control unit was mounted in the compartment above the factory stereo (where the navigation screen would go on more expensive Z's). I added a felt-covered panel above it so stuff would not fall behind the faceplate. | 
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| I cut a fan hole and a vent into the luggage finisher mask and mounted a computer cooling fan. Hopefully this will take care of any heat issues, before they become issues. Normally you can't see into the bottom vent: it pretty much just looks black, but the flash on the camera went through the vent. You also can't really see it, but the fan grill cover is chrome and a bio-hazard symbol. |  |
| Opening the panel shows the harddrive unit (center) and the WiFi adapter (left). The panel is easy enough to open, so I can get to the drive if I need to. I'm hoping it won't really be necessary often. (Actually it's a bit too easy to open and I'm considering adding a lock.) |  |
2005-08-25 (~200 miles) - MaxGround Original Earth Ground Kit - Blue
Although it was supposed to be simple, it turned out to be a minor
pain in the ass. I had a hell of a time getting the engine cover off because one of the bolts was right
under the strut brace! After putzing around with it for a while with a wrench I finally got it loose enough to
work it out with my fingers. After that is was pretty straight forward, although I dropped a plastic rivet
into the battery compartment and lost it. Grr. Anyway it's installed and I notice no signicant difference,
but hopefully it will help out the electronics and the new audio equipment when I get it installed.
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| The kit | Engine - Before | Engine - After | |
2005-08-09 (0 miles) - 2005 Nissan 350Z Enthusiast Roadster - Daytona Blue
And the adventure begins...
History:
Back in 2003 when Nissan revived the Z-car, I thought it was a nice looking coupe, but I wasn't really too thrilled about
it. I thought the tail end of it looked too unfinished. I looked around and really liked the Nismo spoiler and
thought that really finished it off nicely, so I was seriously considering it. And like the Z's of old, it was a really
good bargain for the price.
The next year, they released a roadster version. I was hooked. Like all convertibles, it looked a little clunky when the top was up, but damn it was slick with the top down! So I started formulating a plan to replace my poor 1995 Honda Civic EX. I really liked my little white car, but I'd put it through hell: I never had a single set of tires last more than 2-3 years (10 years old, 106K miles, 4 sets of tires... you do the math. Yes I drove it hard).
So in July 2005, on a drive to New Orleans, the A/C died on the Civic. It also needed a new set of tires, brake work, and a tune up. So it was spend all that money on fixing her up, or just get the Z 6-months ahead of schedule.
I went down to Team Nissan of Lithia Springs. Now, that's quite a haul for me, but it was the only dealership that currently had the model I wanted. As it was the end of the model year, I got a decent deal on it and got exactly what I wanted for the amount I wanted to pay. I wanted the Daytona Blue model with the Enthusiast trim level. The stuff that came with the higher models just didn't interest me (leather seats? Bose stereo I'd replace? No thanks). So on August 9, 2005 I drove off in my Z.
So that's my newest toy... this page will chronicle the changes I make to it. Thanks for stopping by!