Vortech Supercharger Development
 

I've been talking with the sales team and engineers at Vortech and they are actively pursuing a supercharger kit for the 370z. My car will be the guinea pig and is scheduled to be dropped off at Vortech HQ on Sept 14th for the first round of test fitment and development. I can mention only a few things and only what I"m allowed to say, but I will do my best to keep everyone informed as it unfolds.
Now before anyone gets too excited, what I do know, is that based on the amount of room under the 370z's hood, the engineers say that it MAY be a challenge on getting everything stuffed under there. The decision to actually produce the kit will depend on several key factors. Obviously the ability to make it fit properly, reliability, ease of installation, bang for the buck, and of course market demand.
There is no question that Vortech has the capabilities and the reputation of putting out a quality product, my question to you guys is what are your expectations of such a kit and if your expectation could be reasonably met, would you purchase such a kit? I'm going to set up a simple poll on here, all I ask is to please be realistic and honest regarding your questions and votes. This will weigh heavily on their decision to invest more into the development and move forward with a quick release. :tup:

Did they make you sign a confidentiality agreement or something? :confused:

What happens if you say too much? They return your car and start over with someone else's?

Not yet, but it may happen.:icon17: At this point, mainly out of courtesy for Vortech and because it has not been officially green lighted. Once the car is down there for a few weeks I will know a lot more of the technical aspects and weather or not they are going to continue development. They are excited about the car and see the potential the 370z has. :tup:

Well, Nissan sold 200,000 350Zs (and still counting since the 2009 Vert is a 350Z) and a heck of alot of those are modded, so I can't really understand why this is a no-brainer for Vortech.

It's not like this is a car that people aren't modding. :rolleyes:

Worst case scenario is that Nissan discountinues the 370Z after only one or two years, but that obviously won't happen.

If Vortech really gets on the ball, they can be the first company to get a supercharger kit on the market. Jeez, the car has been out for six months already.

In addition a G37 kit should share 90% of the parts of a 370Z kit, so they are almost developing two kits at the same time.

I agree, at any other point in time they probably wouldn't hesitate one bit, but because the automotive industry has been so adversely affected by our economy right now, they are just proceeding cautiously. A lot of aftermarket companies sales are down right now, especially on the big ticket items. I'm sure we can convince them they must build this kit at all cost. LOL :rofl2:

good point, I'm sure it wouldn't take too much to adapt it over to the G37. :tiphat:

If the pricing is right this is something I definitely plan on doing at some point. I require more power than simple bolt ons can give, but don't wan't to go all-out and turbo. I would also do everything myself aside from tuning.

I want to see twin rotrex units, with 2 they could make them small enough to fit.

ask them if they will be @ sema this year

Hell I voted within a year. I wouldn't go TT just because of the lack of reliabilty. I plan on owning my Z soon enough and I would buy the supercharger when it came out. Especially a Vortech!!

450whp for $4500 is my expectation.

Re: the 370Z market stuff, the 370Z production numbers are still kinda small, and even ignoring the overall US economic issues impacting sales of cars, aftermarket parts, and everything else, there's some issues about the future of the auto market in the US in general. With the way things are going, due to govt regulation and/or public opinion, sporty cars could get changed a lot and/or cut back in production a lot over the coming years compared to past history.

All I'm saying is, the 350Z sales numbers from the past aren't necessarily a very sure bet for how many 370Z's we'll see in the next few years. I can understand vendors being a little leery about committing major resources.

I for one would like to do a SC at some point on this car. I don't know when, probably not real soon. It might be later in the life of the car honestly, after I switch to another DD.

But yet, despite a horrible US car market, these guys jumped at the chance to make a supercharger for the new Camaro.

Well the Camaro was probably expected to outsell the Z by a wide margin relatively speaking, regardless of general issues affecting the car market and the sports car market.

I would absolutely love having a supercharger. I would be completely fine with a nice, safe, reliable 450 hp.

It will be interesting to see how they tackle the DTB's. Maybe they will fabricate some sort of intake manifold?

Why? Z sales have been strong since they brought it back. Camaros were discontinued because of weak sales.

Z34 > camaro all day.

"Weak sales" for the Camaro are different :)

These are annual sales numbers for the Camaro in recent times, when they were still making them. They did see a big drop before they killed it, but they're also anticipating a big pickup in sales on the relaunch of the new design. We'll see how that pans out, but still:

94: 119,934
95: 122,844
96: 66,827
97: 95,812
98: 77,198
99: 42,098
00: 45,417
01: 29,009

Edit: looking even further back than that, they were consistently in the 100K-250K per year range up until the recent dropoff highlighted above.

FWIW, I've seen 100x more new Camaros on the road vs 370Zs.


It makes me sad a bit, I want to see more 370Zs.

thats better, so we, z34 owners, stay UNIQUE & RARE in the car world.

idk bout yall, but i love sticking out from the crowd.

Yeah that thought had crossed my mind too!

Personally I get annoyed when I see another 370, makes me not feel so special.:shakes head:

Eventually they'll be as common place as the 350Zs we see. Although I still don't see 350s nearly as often as Camaros so I guess it's all good for us.

Back to topic

a reliable turnkey +150whp kit for ~$5k seems reasonable and would make me take the plunge!

HP #, reliability, low cost, warranty is what im looking for
turbos is in the list of concideration but cost is a big factor why im iffy about them

I would hope so, would be cool if they had the 370z kit available by then.
I'd let them use my car for display :tup: Probably pushing it though, being only 2 months away.

I would guess that would be the range based on their 350z kits. ($4,300 -$6,300)
Since the 370z is a DTB, there may be some additional cost involved, but I'm just speculating at this point.

Do you mean a warranty on the kit itself or a factory engine warranty ala Stillen's stage 2 supercharger kit?

If you want an engine warranty expect weak HP gains...

Vortech offers both, a supercharger warranty and an engine warranty (optional). Well, at least on their previous systems, we will have to wait and see on the 370 kit. I'm sure it will be on par with the others. :tup:

Intercooler one inlet two outlet.

I tried contacting them through their website to offer up my G37 if they wanted to develop a kit for that at the same time - no response.

Mention the new Murano too? :p FM platform as well (I think?)

Judging by your comments, this is the first time you're considering going F/I on a naturally aspirated new car.

Your warranty concerns are legitimate, but I advise you to stay away from anything short of of a quickly removable nitrous kit if you plan to take the car in for service when something goes wrong.

EDIT: Jeez, I just noticed you live in Southern CA. Hell, you even have to worry about CARB exemption (LOL smog Nazi state). I recommend you wait a while. CARB exemption takes months and most companies won't even pay to do it. Even then, you can run lean and still fail with a CARB approved mod.

I am never, ever, ever moving to a state where they can crush your car if you have an aftermarket intake.

This would definitely be an excellent idea. I obviously didn't think of it :tup:

What?! :icon14:

Yeah, that's not how it works. I fail to see how you came to the conclusion that burning less fuel creates more emissions.

I swear...I learn more and more about what can happen to my car in the state I've lived in my entire life from people who don't even live here.

How non-CA residents perceive smog and CARB regulations is quite laughable...almost as much as CA residents who actually care about their mods being CARB-approved. :)

psh flip an APS inter cooler over what do you get?

Did you know California was raped by the EPA and gave birth to AL Gore.

Oh and do you guys really carry around champagne glasses so you can catch your farts and smell them like in Southpark?:inoutroflpuke:

No, that doesn't happen. The few that I know of, were from Riverside county, they were participating in illegal street racing and had multiple vehicle violations and illegal modifications. Stay away from illegal street racing and you'll be fine. :tup:

Yep, that's what I was thinking :tup: Just need to make sure the pressure is balanced, not sure how that works.