A fun technical talk with a 350Z driver
11-01-2005, 03:54 AM
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A fun technical talk with a 350Z driver
After the Halloween outing, I stopped by Zippy's in Waipio to get a snack and I parked next to a really nice Silver 350Z, naturally it was dropped with nice wheels, tires and exhaust from what I could tell. I thought it was worth saying hi to the guy and complimenting him on his ride.
Naturally he starts to tell me what he did to the car, when he got it, what he planned on doing to it, you know... the usual car stuff. Then he asked me what I did to my car and I told him that the car's basically stock w/ a different exhaust and a common tube-style intake (I found it unnecessary to talk to him about the other mods as I don't think he'd understand the benefits they provide the S2000, like the Mugen ECU/Headers, Hondata, blah blah blah.)
He got to the topic regarding suspension and he asked me why I didn't "drop" it yet. Well, the simple answer to that was, I was on stock rims and tires and I didn't think it'd look too good, but I could be wrong. He said to me that he was on his 4th suspension because he didn't like the other 3 that he had. I asked him what he didn't like about them and he said "everytime I get the thing professionally tuned, it'd be good for one condition and not another and that pissed him off."
Well I couldn't help but offer him some ideas and theories behind his findings. I said to him that when you choose any performance suspension system, they are designed to specialize for a narrow range of conditions, meaning just because you have it tuned, doesn't mean it'd perform ideally for perfectly paved roads and bumpy broken asphalt. In that respect, the OEM suspension (in good working condition) often offers the widest range of performance for most realistic daily driving conditions. It'd be incredible if there was such a car that'd perform the same way all the time, remain totally balanced and neutral regardless of the conditions, however there's no such car. If he tunes his suspension for hard circuit driving and expect those settings to work for him in Solo2 autocross, and driving in the rain, he's out of his mind. So I basically told him that he needs to simply ask himself what was most important. Most people tune their cars moderately so it specializes in nothing, but will adhere to most variety of situations. For most street driven cars, the spring rate and damper rates should be sufficient enough to prevent bottoming out to ensure safety above all else. Another thing that I left for him was his comment regarding camber adjustments for maximum performance. All I had to say about that was even if the performance shop thought that having say -4 degrees camber up front would improve his cornering stability, it's going to affect his straight line braking performance (less contact area from tire to road surface) so he needs to again, think about what's really more important. IMHO, safety on the roads > performance risks.
Naturally he starts to tell me what he did to the car, when he got it, what he planned on doing to it, you know... the usual car stuff. Then he asked me what I did to my car and I told him that the car's basically stock w/ a different exhaust and a common tube-style intake (I found it unnecessary to talk to him about the other mods as I don't think he'd understand the benefits they provide the S2000, like the Mugen ECU/Headers, Hondata, blah blah blah.)
He got to the topic regarding suspension and he asked me why I didn't "drop" it yet. Well, the simple answer to that was, I was on stock rims and tires and I didn't think it'd look too good, but I could be wrong. He said to me that he was on his 4th suspension because he didn't like the other 3 that he had. I asked him what he didn't like about them and he said "everytime I get the thing professionally tuned, it'd be good for one condition and not another and that pissed him off."
Well I couldn't help but offer him some ideas and theories behind his findings. I said to him that when you choose any performance suspension system, they are designed to specialize for a narrow range of conditions, meaning just because you have it tuned, doesn't mean it'd perform ideally for perfectly paved roads and bumpy broken asphalt. In that respect, the OEM suspension (in good working condition) often offers the widest range of performance for most realistic daily driving conditions. It'd be incredible if there was such a car that'd perform the same way all the time, remain totally balanced and neutral regardless of the conditions, however there's no such car. If he tunes his suspension for hard circuit driving and expect those settings to work for him in Solo2 autocross, and driving in the rain, he's out of his mind. So I basically told him that he needs to simply ask himself what was most important. Most people tune their cars moderately so it specializes in nothing, but will adhere to most variety of situations. For most street driven cars, the spring rate and damper rates should be sufficient enough to prevent bottoming out to ensure safety above all else. Another thing that I left for him was his comment regarding camber adjustments for maximum performance. All I had to say about that was even if the performance shop thought that having say -4 degrees camber up front would improve his cornering stability, it's going to affect his straight line braking performance (less contact area from tire to road surface) so he needs to again, think about what's really more important. IMHO, safety on the roads > performance risks.
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11-02-2005, 04:09 PM
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Originally Posted by kent-k,Nov 2 2005, 02:50 PM
^i think he was talking about the S
I'm guessing they also sell tires 
Of course shedding about 500 lbs will also help handling...... 
