Hello from a new user!

[astro3x]

Originally Posted by blah its cool if you dont mind the exhaust note it makes, sound very loud int he car.

The Z or the FX?

I changed my exhaust first thing because I wanted something with more balls. Nothing will take the place of a good hearty v8, but knowing this ahead of time I installed the most pissed off sounding exhaust i could get hold of for the Z. The Stillen true dual catback exhaust. Usually when you see exhausts, they have claims and then when you dyno, the numbers are nowhere near. With Stillen, they were. I gained 13hp and 8 pounds of torque.

BUT....

I also gained 28 pounds of weight because it's a stainless steel exhaust. grrrrr. Truth be known, at the time I bought my car, there were limited exhaust choices and I was eager to have something different. In the spring, I plan to remove the Stillen (I hate Stillen, but this was the best choice at the time, as I said earlier) and get myself a Amuse R1 Titan exhaust system. It's the lightest exhaust available for any Japanese car, being titanium and the power/torque numbers it puts out ate crazy. It's 27 pounds lighter than the stock set up so I'll shave 50 pounds off the car right there. Price... sadly... $2000+

Until then though... the Stillen will do. I have had guys with Chargers and old Camaros pull up and ask what's under the hood. I tell them it's a stock v6 (for now anyway) they're always like... "WHAT??? That thing sounds like a beast!". Makes me smile, because we all know there is no replacement for displacement so if I can sound like I have something beefy under the hood, until I get my custom twin turbo engine putting 550hp+ to the rear wheels installed in the Summer..... the exhaust will have to do.

It is loud in the car, without doubt but if you have a good stereo system... dynomatting etc... you near nothing. Then again, in the spring/summer my windows are usually down because I love the sound it makes.

This shot shows my personalized plate... if I get the FX as planned, it'll read BIGBLUR.

[TT]

As always very nice shot, can I ask you exactly what camera do you use? In the reflection is seems so small, almost an Ixus, but I suppose it is a digital one, maybe the reflection is jsut "wrong"

And small request.. can you make a small clip to make us hear the sound of the Z?

[zevolv]

The Borla system is really nice for the 350Z I helped my buddy put his on in my garage we also di dnew headers (not sure who) and customed up some high flow cats, now the thing produces a really nice tone. Just for the hell of it we tried the thing without the cats or exhaust (fabbed up some pipes from the heads to the side to hear what it sounded like and it was a nice sound with the popping and everything really freed up some HP too). BTW you've got a really nice car and trust me the FX45 wont dissapoint.

[gr]

Originally Posted by astro3x No, I bought the Track model, it comes with 18" RAYS (Volks are made by RAYS) made custom for the 350Z. They are loosely based off the Volk racing TE37. That's what these are.

A-ha. Looks good!

Originally Posted by astro3x 19" Gunmetal Volk TE37's wrapped with the only tire that matters, the Toyo Proxe T1-S. I have a new set of wheels coming for the spring, a set of 19" Volk Racing SF-Challenge. I'll be adding them to the car along with slotted brake rotors and a Nismo suspension upgrade. I was going to go Tein but for the dollar, Nismo is better for me. I keep trying to not spend much on the Z because I am looking into getting a black Infiniti FX45 right as well. It's winter where I live and I can't drive my Z so I am hating life. lol

Sounds like some nice upgrades.

But - about the tires. The only tire that matters you say. What kind of tires are the Toyo Proxe T1-S? R compound?

I don't think I've ever seen Toyo tires here in Norway. Common tires among enthusiasts are Bridgestone Potenza S03PP, Dunlop SP9000, Michelin Pilot Sport and Michelin Eagle F1. Michelin Pilot Sport Cup* and Bridgestone Potenza RE540S are usually the winners among those with R compound tires.

* The tires BMW M3 CSL comes with stock - and which it does 1.4G turns on Nürburgring with

[gr]

Originally Posted by brembo PS "gr" you can get them in Norway too you know.

Yep, but I don't think I've ever seen a car actually using them.

Also - we don't need to have e-marked (or whatever it's called) tires here in Norway like you do in the states...

[gr]

Originally Posted by brembo Thats wrong you got to have E-marked tires its not enough with the dot-marking.

Nope - we don't even need dot-marked tires. I know several people which has been in contact with the authorities about this. Even some rally-guys, I think Martin Schanche's son was one of them - Martin Schanche Jr., he's an insurance agent at Gjensidige.

According to the authorities, these are the requirements:

- The tires needs at least 17% pattern
- ... and at least 75% of the pattern must be within legal pattern depth
- The pattern has to be casted, it can't be cut (like when someone cuts pattern into slicks to make "R tires" - it's not legal even though R tires are)

That's it. We can for example use cheap tires from Thailand and it's legal. They're really good in dry conditions, but sucks in wet conditions. Some dealers claim we need E-marked tires, but that's only because they earn more money on selling those, cause they're a lot more expensive.

[astro3x]

gr... I think the reason you might not have seen many cars using the T1-S is that they are among the most expensive tire out there. You get what you pay for though, as they say. The Bridgestone S03 Pole Positions are a great tire, but loud and not as sticky as the Proxes. Not sure on the compound but I bet www.toyo.com might have info.

TT.. I used to use a Canon D60, but then I picked up a Canon s400 and found it actually shoots better and crisper images than the larger d60 so that is what i use now. It is far and away the best digital camera I have ever owned, it's just great. Always makes it easier to hang out the window when you're driving. Two years ago, I was in California doing some prototype work with Nissan and I was asked to take a prototype 350Z for a few days and give them my feeling on the car when I returned. At the time, I was freelance writing for a few publications but obviously because of what I do now in the adult biz, shooting models, I am not at liberty to say the magazines for fear my identity might get out to the wrong people. No big magazines though, other than one... lol. I always worked in the adult biz... but as I said, I freelanced as a writer as well. Many of us have online identities... this was no different.

Anyway.... the camera is great because you can hang it out the car, it allows you to takes shots like the one below. This shot was actually taken with the Canon s200, the s400's little brother. At the time, there was no s400... I was happy with the s200 so I kept it and thens old it when Canon released the s400. My girl snapped this photo by literally holding it out the window, above the roofline of the 350Z and clicking. The camera is so small and light, you can do this easily.



460k high res image of same photo here.

[astro3x]

That shot was taken on the Pacific Coast highway, just outside of Carmel, California if anyone was curious.

[gr]

Originally Posted by astro3x gr... I think the reason you might not have seen many cars using the T1-S is that they are among the most expensive tire out there. You get what you pay for though, as they say. The Bridgestone S03 Pole Positions are a great tire, but loud and not as sticky as the Proxes. Not sure on the compound but I bet www.toyo.com might have info.

Looks like they're regular tires. The Proxes seems to be like 20% more than a Eagle F1 GSD3 tire. Oh well. I need new wheels for the summer. I'll consider Toyo.

[TT]

Wow, at the moment I use an Olympus C-3000 ZOOM.. pretty old model but it was pretty good when I bought it.. Now I wanted to buy one of Canon "EOS", but they're not really cheap
1600x1200 is the biggest size the S4000 can shoot?

[zevolv]

Originally Posted by TT Wow, at the moment I use an Olympus C-3000 ZOOM.. pretty old model but it was pretty good when I bought it.. Now I wanted to buy one of Canon "EOS", but they're not really cheap 1600x1200 is the biggest size the S4000 can shoot?

EOS Rebel is a really good one I got one for free from cousin (she worked on the advertising for the new EOS line) It's worth buying one

[TT]

Do you mean the 300D? http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos300d/

[zevolv]

yeah that's the one, on the label EOS300D/Digital Rebel

[gr]

Originally Posted by TT Wow, at the moment I use an Olympus C-3000 ZOOM.. pretty old model but it was pretty good when I bought it.. Now I wanted to buy one of Canon "EOS", but they're not really cheap 1600x1200 is the biggest size the S4000 can shoot?

You probably mean S400. And no, it's a 4.0MP camera, so it can take bigger than 1600x1200. I believe the max res is 2272x1704.

The Powershot S400 is called Digital Ixus 400 here, and it's a really popular camera. I've used one for some time, and it's really amazing for its size.

[TT]

Yes I was meaning that one the 400.

I'm really battled.. the S400 seems very good value, but I'd also need an addition lense and you can't have it for the IXUS:. so I think the way to go is the EOS 300D.. still not out of this world and 6 MP ... but I guess my Olympus will be enough for another while