Nissan 370Z Forum - View Single Post

Mag350Z · 07-30-2010, 12:34 PM

The BRE Tribute car is a Nissan 370Z built by Stillen essentially to the SCCA’s T2 class rules. As such, it’s not overly tweaked. It has a gutted interior and a cage, plus race seats and belts. The car started out as a 2009 Touring Sport model, to which Nismo bodywork, wheels and shocks were added, the last teamed with Eibach springs that lower the car a bit. Stillen anti-roll bars are fitted to the car front and rear, and the 4-cam 3.7-liter V-6 is untouched internally. It is, however, stripped of its catalytic converter and fitted with a Stillen cat-back exhaust, a reflashed ECU, a Nissan Motorsports oil cooler, an aluminum flywheel and a heavy-duty clutch. Power is in the neighborhood of 350 bhp, and stock brakes (with braided stainless-steel lines and Hawk pads) handle stopping chores. The car also had a stock viscous limited-slip differential, although Nissan plans to fit the car with a tougher clutch-type LSD from Nissan Comp soon.

First up, the BRE 240Z. As Ron Carter is a big guy, I fit in his seat well. With this being the first time the car has run in anger on a track—and it being dearer to his heart than just about, well, anything—I tell myself: Don’t do anything stupid. The car fires easily with the pushbutton starter and a squirt of gas from the pedal. And boy, is it loud! The clutch takeup is simple, and soon I’m out on the track being deliberate with each shift. The Z is spacious but has a narrow feel, and the pedals are placed for easy heel/toe downshifting. Nothing feels assisted. During my familiarization laps, the steering is heavy, the brakes are heavy…drivers really were men back then. I shift at about 6800 rpm, as Ron suggested, and the straight-line power is excellent. In steady-state corners, the grip is great; however, there’s a miss from the engine that only clears out on the straightaway, so I head into the pits.

“Are you channeling John Morton yet?” asks Carter after I shut off the car. “Not yet,” I admit. Second time out, though—after Carter’s crew tweaked the float bowl levels a bit—I pick up some speed and begin probing limits more aggressively. The grip from the Hoosiers is exceptional. I’m shifting at 7000 rpm now, carrying more speed into corners and exiting them with a lot more side load because of the added pace. It felt fantastic, very mechanical, and the Z really came alive when picked up by the scruff of the neck and driven hard. Only then did I begin to imagine what it must have been like to be Morton in a BRE Z, dicing with the likes of Tullius in a TR-6 at Road Atlanta. As I pulled in, it was hard to wipe the smile off my face. Our best lap of the day: 1 minute, 56.27 seconds, a decent effort given that the engine still sputtered a bit in Turns 1 and 2.

Brock, on hand for the test, quickly pointed to a couple of potential causes for the misfire. One, the car needed a shield between the headers and the carbs to keep heat from causing issues. Two, the carbs needed to be isolated with rubber to keep fuel from frothing in the float bowls at high rpm. Carter took mental notes as Brock, a youthful 73, recalled the details from 40 years ago…

The Nissan 370Z Tribute car—with BRE livery personally created and directed by Brock in the paint booth—felt quite different from the old 240. With its full cage it’s actually tighter on space than the 1970 240Z, but it’s much easier to hop in and immediately drive faster. And the first time I hit the assisted brakes, I nearly put myself through the windshield. Although the grip of the Yokohama Advan Neova AD008s, the stock Nismo tire, felt remarkably good, it was still not quite up to the level of the stickier Hoosiers.

All the controls of this modern Z feel Teflon-coated for ease of use, and the adjustable rear anti-roll bar from Stillen (which was set on full stiff and may not be legal in T2) makes the car quite tail-happy, with power oversteer on tap while exiting tight corners. Road Test Editor Jonathan Elfalan (who did the timed laps) and I both agree that the Z was tuned great for the Corvette Loop we were on but would be hairy on a big fast track such as Willow Springs.

Second session in the car, with all driver aids turned off, I’m having more fun. It’s hot, over 100 degrees, and I’m keeping an eye on oil temps as I continue to be impressed with how well the new Z hides its 3300-lb. curb weight and laps with no apparent vices. It’s clearly better damped than a stock Z. Toward the end of the session, though, I notice more inside rear wheelspin on corner exit, an indicator that the limited-slip diff was not working well. Turns out that differential cooler hadn’t been installed on the car yet, and our lapping on a hot day proved too much for the diff. Our best lap of 1 min. 55.53 sec. would have been considerably better had the car been on Hoosiers and fitted with the limited-slip diff from Nismo, with a remote cooler.

So, neither the Nissan nor the Datsun had a perfect day at Spring Mountain, but these siblings—40 years apart in age and effectively on shakedown runs—proved to be remarkably close indeed in performance. More important, they provided me with a sense of what it must have been like to be John Morton back in the day, and perhaps what a modern BRE 370Z might be like, had BRE stayed in the business of racing Datsuns or Nissans.

Will we ever see Carter’s BRE 240Z on the track at vintage races? “Probably not,” he admits. “I put too much energy into building the car. I built it too well. I’m afraid to crash it. And I even put a clear coat on it. Everybody knows you’re not supposed to do that to a race car.” That said, we can only hope to see the Stillen-prepared Tribute car in T2 action soon, keeping the BRE flame alive and putting the Z where it’s repeatedly been since 1970…at the front of the field.

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07-30-2010, 12:34 PM	#8 (permalink)
Mag350Z Base Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: South Florida Posts: 95 Drives: 2011 GS Corvette Rep Power: 16	The BRE Tribute car is a Nissan 370Z built by Stillen essentially to the SCCA’s T2 class rules. As such, it’s not overly tweaked. It has a gutted interior and a cage, plus race seats and belts. The car started out as a 2009 Touring Sport model, to which Nismo bodywork, wheels and shocks were added, the last teamed with Eibach springs that lower the car a bit. Stillen anti-roll bars are fitted to the car front and rear, and the 4-cam 3.7-liter V-6 is untouched internally. It is, however, stripped of its catalytic converter and fitted with a Stillen cat-back exhaust, a reflashed ECU, a Nissan Motorsports oil cooler, an aluminum flywheel and a heavy-duty clutch. Power is in the neighborhood of 350 bhp, and stock brakes (with braided stainless-steel lines and Hawk pads) handle stopping chores. The car also had a stock viscous limited-slip differential, although Nissan plans to fit the car with a tougher clutch-type LSD from Nissan Comp soon. First up, the BRE 240Z. As Ron Carter is a big guy, I fit in his seat well. With this being the first time the car has run in anger on a track—and it being dearer to his heart than just about, well, anything—I tell myself: Don’t do anything stupid. The car fires easily with the pushbutton starter and a squirt of gas from the pedal. And boy, is it loud! The clutch takeup is simple, and soon I’m out on the track being deliberate with each shift. The Z is spacious but has a narrow feel, and the pedals are placed for easy heel/toe downshifting. Nothing feels assisted. During my familiarization laps, the steering is heavy, the brakes are heavy…drivers really were men back then. I shift at about 6800 rpm, as Ron suggested, and the straight-line power is excellent. In steady-state corners, the grip is great; however, there’s a miss from the engine that only clears out on the straightaway, so I head into the pits. “Are you channeling John Morton yet?” asks Carter after I shut off the car. “Not yet,” I admit. Second time out, though—after Carter’s crew tweaked the float bowl levels a bit—I pick up some speed and begin probing limits more aggressively. The grip from the Hoosiers is exceptional. I’m shifting at 7000 rpm now, carrying more speed into corners and exiting them with a lot more side load because of the added pace. It felt fantastic, very mechanical, and the Z really came alive when picked up by the scruff of the neck and driven hard. Only then did I begin to imagine what it must have been like to be Morton in a BRE Z, dicing with the likes of Tullius in a TR-6 at Road Atlanta. As I pulled in, it was hard to wipe the smile off my face. Our best lap of the day: 1 minute, 56.27 seconds, a decent effort given that the engine still sputtered a bit in Turns 1 and 2. Brock, on hand for the test, quickly pointed to a couple of potential causes for the misfire. One, the car needed a shield between the headers and the carbs to keep heat from causing issues. Two, the carbs needed to be isolated with rubber to keep fuel from frothing in the float bowls at high rpm. Carter took mental notes as Brock, a youthful 73, recalled the details from 40 years ago… The Nissan 370Z Tribute car—with BRE livery personally created and directed by Brock in the paint booth—felt quite different from the old 240. With its full cage it’s actually tighter on space than the 1970 240Z, but it’s much easier to hop in and immediately drive faster. And the first time I hit the assisted brakes, I nearly put myself through the windshield. Although the grip of the Yokohama Advan Neova AD008s, the stock Nismo tire, felt remarkably good, it was still not quite up to the level of the stickier Hoosiers. All the controls of this modern Z feel Teflon-coated for ease of use, and the adjustable rear anti-roll bar from Stillen (which was set on full stiff and may not be legal in T2) makes the car quite tail-happy, with power oversteer on tap while exiting tight corners. Road Test Editor Jonathan Elfalan (who did the timed laps) and I both agree that the Z was tuned great for the Corvette Loop we were on but would be hairy on a big fast track such as Willow Springs. Second session in the car, with all driver aids turned off, I’m having more fun. It’s hot, over 100 degrees, and I’m keeping an eye on oil temps as I continue to be impressed with how well the new Z hides its 3300-lb. curb weight and laps with no apparent vices. It’s clearly better damped than a stock Z. Toward the end of the session, though, I notice more inside rear wheelspin on corner exit, an indicator that the limited-slip diff was not working well. Turns out that differential cooler hadn’t been installed on the car yet, and our lapping on a hot day proved too much for the diff. Our best lap of 1 min. 55.53 sec. would have been considerably better had the car been on Hoosiers and fitted with the limited-slip diff from Nismo, with a remote cooler. So, neither the Nissan nor the Datsun had a perfect day at Spring Mountain, but these siblings—40 years apart in age and effectively on shakedown runs—proved to be remarkably close indeed in performance. More important, they provided me with a sense of what it must have been like to be John Morton back in the day, and perhaps what a modern BRE 370Z might be like, had BRE stayed in the business of racing Datsuns or Nissans. Will we ever see Carter’s BRE 240Z on the track at vintage races? “Probably not,” he admits. “I put too much energy into building the car. I built it too well. I’m afraid to crash it. And I even put a clear coat on it. Everybody knows you’re not supposed to do that to a race car.” That said, we can only hope to see the Stillen-prepared Tribute car in T2 action soon, keeping the BRE flame alive and putting the Z where it’s repeatedly been since 1970…at the front of the field. Pages: 1 2 Photos Share0diggsdiggStumble It Yahoo! Buzz Leave a comment @ Controls (Powered by JS-Kit) Last edited by Mag350Z; 07-30-2010 at 12:38 PM.