So you want to modify your 350Z? Read this first!
1. Define your goal. Are you simply trying to make your car look nicer, building it for street racing, drag racing, autoX, track, or a show car. Maybe it is a combination of more than just one of these, if so, be sure which one is more important because they may conflict each other.
2. Set your budget. You could easily spend in excess of $25, 000 on mods if you went with upgraded suspension, wheels and tires, and a Twin Turbo alone. Someone recently asked himself why he was spending so much money on modifying his 350Z when he could have purchase a Z06 Vette that will out perform his Z and the Vette would still have the factory warranty. Know what you want to achieve and how much you are willing to spend before beginning to modify your car.
3. Determine if you are willing to void your warranty from Nissan. Many suspension mods void anything related to suspension so if you spend $2000 on coilover suspension, be ready to accept that Nissan will not fix your tire feathering problems found on many 350Z after 5000 miles with anything but stock or NISMO S suspension.
4. Determine how much of a risk taker you are. A lot of people would love to have 500hp but how concerned are you about reliability. Your car has been designed stock to provide good performance with reliability. Nissan told their engineers to design the 350Z motor to last 200,000 miles. As a general rule, the more hp, the less reliability although some would argue that fact.
5. How long will you keep your 350Z? In many cases, most modifications do not bring higher resale and in many situations depreciate the cars value. I have already seen several nice 350Z’s with modifications of over $10,000 and then be sold off for parts bringing penny’s on a dollar due to people selling their 350Z months after modifying it. Ask yourself how long you plan to keep a 2 seater sports car. For most young couples, when the baby comes, the 350Z goes.
Once you have considered items 1-5 above, now you are ready to begin modifying your car. The list I will make below is just a simple overview of each category. You should read up on each area using the search option and get a lot of good advice in many threads. There are many experienced members on line that have specific expertise in areas such as stereo or wheels and tires. Use their knowledge and leave your ego off line. All of us can learn from someone else. If you need my opinion on something, feel free to pm me and I will do what I can to help you. I suggest you begin modifying your Z in the following order:
1. Protecting your paint job: In case you did not know, the 350Z is known for paint chipping in the front bumper. It will happen within the first 1-2000 miles and I doubt you will get it covered under warranty. I strongly suggest you think about protecting your paint. I do not personally like black bras on the front. I like the clear bra type product which provides a clear film of protection to prevent chipping, just like provided in front of your rear wheel well by Nissan from the factory but this is a thinner material. Go to http://www.clearbra.net/home2.html and check out this product. There are different brands of course and I picked one and I am happy with it. Maybe you will pick another product and find it is excellent as well? My only suggestion is get it from a certified installer of this type of product. That does not mean a window tint installer. Just because you can tint windows does not mean you can apply a clear bra.
2. Tinting windows. Do a search on find out what percentage of tinting is legal in your state. This is another cheap modification that can be done right away.
3. Tires and wheels: This is a great place to start doing the bigger type of modifications. It will enhance the appearance and performance of your car and for the most part will not negatively affect reliability. If you are adding a body kit to your car, it would be wise to decide which one and how if any this affects your wheel and tire selection. You don’t need to know as much about wheels and tires to select them (as compared to designing a twin turbo for your car) although there are many issues to consider but even if you make a choice based on personal taste, you wont blow up your motor!
Wheels: If you are most interested in looks, 19” might be your best bet. Just remember the 2 negatives of 19” tires. Negative #1 is you will run a very low profile tire thus more likely to bend a wheel (and ride a little rougher). Negative #2: weight of wheel is greater and for every 6lbs you add to a wheel/tire, you lose 1 hp.
If you want a combination of looks and performance, then 18" wheels might be a wise choice. You get a slightly lighter wheel thus a little more hp but it does not have as aggressive of a look as the 19” wheels.
If you want the maximum performance then 17” wheels put the most hp to the ground. For those that want optimal appearance for the street and optimal track performance go with 19” street wheels and tires and separate 17” track wheels and tires. Again, what is your goal and budget?
Tires: The most common tire size upgrade is to a 245 ft tire and 275 rears. Notice the rears are larger than the front to maintain the understeer/oversteer issue. Your stock wheels will not accommodate this big of a tire thus read up on what size wheel works for the tires you want to put on your car. I strongly suggest you use this website http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html This site will tell you how much difference there is between your stock tire and tire you desire. If you increase or decrease your tire size over 3% of stock size (in outsize rolling diameter) it will affect your ABS braking system and VDC. Simply put, your car will sense the back wheels are rotating too quickly for example and the ECU will think you are spinning your tires/losing traction which will possibly cause your car to brake or cut off the throttle. I recommend you keep the margin within 1.5%. I went with larger tires, 265 fronts and 295 rears. This is not as wise a choice for performance if you plan on maintaining the stock motor however if you plan on adding at least 100 hp, it might be something to consider. You need to be careful going with this large a tire combination. Your wheel offset must be just right or your tires will rub against the fenders. Mine don’t but I did my homework.
4. Suspension: Now that you got your wheels and tires, you might think that gap between your fender and wheel is too big! In addition, most of these suspension upgrades tend to get rid of that annoying freeway hop found on stock 350Z’s. For many, the biggest added bonus is improved handling. If handling is important to you, add stiffer sway bars while you are adding suspension. Again just as with Wheels and tires, suspension options are on the market now so why not start here before adding hp. Here are your options:
Springs: Companies like Eibach and B&G have springs that will lower your car and make it look great. Costs on these springs are about $200-$250. There are strings attached. Eibachs lower your car 1.2” in the rear and .8” in the front and remember, anything over .8” drop will make your camber impossible to be within factory camber specifications. You can drive it with springs only and lose up to 20% tire life (inside edge of tire will wear out first) or get camber kits. These kits will cost you in excess of $400 for just rears or fronts. If you add these camber kits to the cost of the springs, this option is not as cheap as you might first think. Another negative of lowering beyond .8” is going over speed bumps and bottoming out. This option is good for those whose priority is looks. Make sure to get a 4 wheel alignment after installing springs.
Spring/shock combo: Right now, the number one option in this group is NISMO S suspension. Cost about $1300-$1800 depending on the vendor and most will ship them to you. The suspension lowers the Z about .8” thus no camber issues, no need to get alignment after install either. This gets rid of fwy bounce as well. NISMO maintains factory warranty and handles very well on street as well as track. The negative of this option compared to Coil-over springs is lack of adjustment in height, ride hardness, etc.
Coilovers: Cost varies from about $1600 to over $2000. You can control ht and ride. Teins even have a feature called EDFC which allows you to adjust ride hardness within the car as you are driving. You can preset it to 3 levels too such as casual driving, aggressive street, and track. JIC’s seem to be the choice of those with track being their number one priority but remember it is stiff so if you don’t want to feel the road, consider something else besides JIC’s. These are just two options, every month new coil-overs are being introduced to the market. Maybe SportZ magazine will have a shoot out on different suspension systems later like they did on exhausts and it might make the choice of selecting a suspension system an easier task then it is right now.
5. Stereo: The stock stereo is weak, many are not happy with the Bose as well. Many good options on stereos are available right now so you can’t go wrong. This might be your first choice to modify your car. After all, what is better than listening to good tunes in your new Z?
There too many speakers, amps, and head units to list and compare in a brief overview. Again, read up on the options you have, and ask questions. Many people have upgraded their stereo already including me and would be more than willing to advise you. I had a sub woofer enclosure made that I feel is one of the best modifications I have done to date. Again, do your homework to get the desired effect.
6. Brakes: Before adding a lot of hp, you might want to consider being able to stop your car better. Both the stock brakes and the brembo's found on the Track model are excellent brakes. If all you are planning on doing is driving on the street and braking hard only during emergencies, than your stock brakes are as good as you need. With that being said, then why should you consider upgrading your brakes? Two reasons; the most important being if you do repeated hard braking on mountain roads or on a track, you might experience brake fade which simply means that as the brakes heat up, they take longer to stop. The more they heat up, the less they stop.
The best way to determine if you need brakes upgraded is to track it. I drove my Z at the track for 30 minutes on, 30 minutes off all day long. Even after that, it took all day for them to begin to fade. In other words, who might need better brakes but unless you brake hard frequently, you most likely don’t.
Another reason to upgrade brakes has nothing to do with stopping, it is for looks. Many of the people that upgrade to 15” brake kits are doing so for looks. As I stated before, 17” wheels are optimal for tracking your car. 17” wheels can only accommodate 13” rotors thus adding 14” or 15” brake kits force you to track your Z with less than optimal tires and wheels. 13” rotors on most after market brake kits will meet all your stopping needs on the street and track. If you are never going to run 17” wheels, knock yourself out and get those bigger kits if you like, they look awesome.
Brembo, Stoptech, AP, and others all have kits starting at about $1700 for front brakes. You can get a 4 wheel brake set but the front brakes are the most critical. You might want to consider changing your brake lines and fluid as a cheaper alternative than an entire brake kit.
1. Define your goal. Are you simply trying to make your car look nicer, building it for street racing, drag racing, autoX, track, or a show car. Maybe it is a combination of more than just one of these, if so, be sure which one is more important because they may conflict each other.
2. Set your budget. You could easily spend in excess of $25, 000 on mods if you went with upgraded suspension, wheels and tires, and a Twin Turbo alone. Someone recently asked himself why he was spending so much money on modifying his 350Z when he could have purchase a Z06 Vette that will out perform his Z and the Vette would still have the factory warranty. Know what you want to achieve and how much you are willing to spend before beginning to modify your car.
3. Determine if you are willing to void your warranty from Nissan. Many suspension mods void anything related to suspension so if you spend $2000 on coilover suspension, be ready to accept that Nissan will not fix your tire feathering problems found on many 350Z after 5000 miles with anything but stock or NISMO S suspension.
4. Determine how much of a risk taker you are. A lot of people would love to have 500hp but how concerned are you about reliability. Your car has been designed stock to provide good performance with reliability. Nissan told their engineers to design the 350Z motor to last 200,000 miles. As a general rule, the more hp, the less reliability although some would argue that fact.
5. How long will you keep your 350Z? In many cases, most modifications do not bring higher resale and in many situations depreciate the cars value. I have already seen several nice 350Z’s with modifications of over $10,000 and then be sold off for parts bringing penny’s on a dollar due to people selling their 350Z months after modifying it. Ask yourself how long you plan to keep a 2 seater sports car. For most young couples, when the baby comes, the 350Z goes.
Once you have considered items 1-5 above, now you are ready to begin modifying your car. The list I will make below is just a simple overview of each category. You should read up on each area using the search option and get a lot of good advice in many threads. There are many experienced members on line that have specific expertise in areas such as stereo or wheels and tires. Use their knowledge and leave your ego off line. All of us can learn from someone else. If you need my opinion on something, feel free to pm me and I will do what I can to help you. I suggest you begin modifying your Z in the following order:
1. Protecting your paint job: In case you did not know, the 350Z is known for paint chipping in the front bumper. It will happen within the first 1-2000 miles and I doubt you will get it covered under warranty. I strongly suggest you think about protecting your paint. I do not personally like black bras on the front. I like the clear bra type product which provides a clear film of protection to prevent chipping, just like provided in front of your rear wheel well by Nissan from the factory but this is a thinner material. Go to http://www.clearbra.net/home2.html and check out this product. There are different brands of course and I picked one and I am happy with it. Maybe you will pick another product and find it is excellent as well? My only suggestion is get it from a certified installer of this type of product. That does not mean a window tint installer. Just because you can tint windows does not mean you can apply a clear bra.
2. Tinting windows. Do a search on find out what percentage of tinting is legal in your state. This is another cheap modification that can be done right away.
3. Tires and wheels: This is a great place to start doing the bigger type of modifications. It will enhance the appearance and performance of your car and for the most part will not negatively affect reliability. If you are adding a body kit to your car, it would be wise to decide which one and how if any this affects your wheel and tire selection. You don’t need to know as much about wheels and tires to select them (as compared to designing a twin turbo for your car) although there are many issues to consider but even if you make a choice based on personal taste, you wont blow up your motor!
Wheels: If you are most interested in looks, 19” might be your best bet. Just remember the 2 negatives of 19” tires. Negative #1 is you will run a very low profile tire thus more likely to bend a wheel (and ride a little rougher). Negative #2: weight of wheel is greater and for every 6lbs you add to a wheel/tire, you lose 1 hp.
If you want a combination of looks and performance, then 18" wheels might be a wise choice. You get a slightly lighter wheel thus a little more hp but it does not have as aggressive of a look as the 19” wheels.
If you want the maximum performance then 17” wheels put the most hp to the ground. For those that want optimal appearance for the street and optimal track performance go with 19” street wheels and tires and separate 17” track wheels and tires. Again, what is your goal and budget?
Tires: The most common tire size upgrade is to a 245 ft tire and 275 rears. Notice the rears are larger than the front to maintain the understeer/oversteer issue. Your stock wheels will not accommodate this big of a tire thus read up on what size wheel works for the tires you want to put on your car. I strongly suggest you use this website http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html This site will tell you how much difference there is between your stock tire and tire you desire. If you increase or decrease your tire size over 3% of stock size (in outsize rolling diameter) it will affect your ABS braking system and VDC. Simply put, your car will sense the back wheels are rotating too quickly for example and the ECU will think you are spinning your tires/losing traction which will possibly cause your car to brake or cut off the throttle. I recommend you keep the margin within 1.5%. I went with larger tires, 265 fronts and 295 rears. This is not as wise a choice for performance if you plan on maintaining the stock motor however if you plan on adding at least 100 hp, it might be something to consider. You need to be careful going with this large a tire combination. Your wheel offset must be just right or your tires will rub against the fenders. Mine don’t but I did my homework.
4. Suspension: Now that you got your wheels and tires, you might think that gap between your fender and wheel is too big! In addition, most of these suspension upgrades tend to get rid of that annoying freeway hop found on stock 350Z’s. For many, the biggest added bonus is improved handling. If handling is important to you, add stiffer sway bars while you are adding suspension. Again just as with Wheels and tires, suspension options are on the market now so why not start here before adding hp. Here are your options:
Springs: Companies like Eibach and B&G have springs that will lower your car and make it look great. Costs on these springs are about $200-$250. There are strings attached. Eibachs lower your car 1.2” in the rear and .8” in the front and remember, anything over .8” drop will make your camber impossible to be within factory camber specifications. You can drive it with springs only and lose up to 20% tire life (inside edge of tire will wear out first) or get camber kits. These kits will cost you in excess of $400 for just rears or fronts. If you add these camber kits to the cost of the springs, this option is not as cheap as you might first think. Another negative of lowering beyond .8” is going over speed bumps and bottoming out. This option is good for those whose priority is looks. Make sure to get a 4 wheel alignment after installing springs.
Spring/shock combo: Right now, the number one option in this group is NISMO S suspension. Cost about $1300-$1800 depending on the vendor and most will ship them to you. The suspension lowers the Z about .8” thus no camber issues, no need to get alignment after install either. This gets rid of fwy bounce as well. NISMO maintains factory warranty and handles very well on street as well as track. The negative of this option compared to Coil-over springs is lack of adjustment in height, ride hardness, etc.
Coilovers: Cost varies from about $1600 to over $2000. You can control ht and ride. Teins even have a feature called EDFC which allows you to adjust ride hardness within the car as you are driving. You can preset it to 3 levels too such as casual driving, aggressive street, and track. JIC’s seem to be the choice of those with track being their number one priority but remember it is stiff so if you don’t want to feel the road, consider something else besides JIC’s. These are just two options, every month new coil-overs are being introduced to the market. Maybe SportZ magazine will have a shoot out on different suspension systems later like they did on exhausts and it might make the choice of selecting a suspension system an easier task then it is right now.
5. Stereo: The stock stereo is weak, many are not happy with the Bose as well. Many good options on stereos are available right now so you can’t go wrong. This might be your first choice to modify your car. After all, what is better than listening to good tunes in your new Z?
There too many speakers, amps, and head units to list and compare in a brief overview. Again, read up on the options you have, and ask questions. Many people have upgraded their stereo already including me and would be more than willing to advise you. I had a sub woofer enclosure made that I feel is one of the best modifications I have done to date. Again, do your homework to get the desired effect.
6. Brakes: Before adding a lot of hp, you might want to consider being able to stop your car better. Both the stock brakes and the brembo's found on the Track model are excellent brakes. If all you are planning on doing is driving on the street and braking hard only during emergencies, than your stock brakes are as good as you need. With that being said, then why should you consider upgrading your brakes? Two reasons; the most important being if you do repeated hard braking on mountain roads or on a track, you might experience brake fade which simply means that as the brakes heat up, they take longer to stop. The more they heat up, the less they stop.
The best way to determine if you need brakes upgraded is to track it. I drove my Z at the track for 30 minutes on, 30 minutes off all day long. Even after that, it took all day for them to begin to fade. In other words, who might need better brakes but unless you brake hard frequently, you most likely don’t.
Another reason to upgrade brakes has nothing to do with stopping, it is for looks. Many of the people that upgrade to 15” brake kits are doing so for looks. As I stated before, 17” wheels are optimal for tracking your car. 17” wheels can only accommodate 13” rotors thus adding 14” or 15” brake kits force you to track your Z with less than optimal tires and wheels. 13” rotors on most after market brake kits will meet all your stopping needs on the street and track. If you are never going to run 17” wheels, knock yourself out and get those bigger kits if you like, they look awesome.
Brembo, Stoptech, AP, and others all have kits starting at about $1700 for front brakes. You can get a 4 wheel brake set but the front brakes are the most critical. You might want to consider changing your brake lines and fluid as a cheaper alternative than an entire brake kit.