My 370z "unicorn"

filip00

Okay, it's been exactly 1 month, time to tell the Nürburgring story.

So, I've been a big fan of the Nürburgring and last year I made a decision to go to the Ring this year in Spring. I chose end of May, as I expected nice weather but not too hot. The Ring is super hard on the car, there's no need to torture it with additional heat outside. Late May proved to be really *the best* time of the year. No crazy traffic, and we hit the week of sunshine every single day. Kinda pity, because I really wished for at least a shower or some rain, because I really wanted to try the ring in the wet as well, but eh, next time.

The plan was 1 week of travel to the Ring (stopping in München and Stuttgart, visiting museums), and then enjoy 1 week on the Ring, and then go home.
We traveled with 2 cars (370z and M2) with walkie-talkies which are absolute recommendation, as it makes communication so much easier.

In München we went to the BMW museum and BMW Welt. Welt is kinda meh, contemporary cars, nothing special to see really. BMW museum however, is amazing. Several floors of everything to see; from classics, to prototypes, to incredible new stuff.

Check some of these pics out:










There's PLENTY more, but I'm not going to be uploading pics endlessly, can't be bothered, sorry �� also, museums must live off of something, so go there and see for yourself! There's a whole huge tech part where you can see all engines BMW made and how they're developed etc. It's really worth it.

Beside the BMW stuff, we went to the Museum of Technology, which is also fckn awesome. I didn't make a lot of pics there, but trust me when I tell you, it's fantastic. Just a couple of pics here:



full resolutions of these two panorama pics - worth checking:
https://imgur.com/mbRR9sR
https://imgur.com/ww9eOGH

In one of the garages where we parked, we also saw a small carpark by obviously the same owner - very separate spaces, all cars with nearly the exact same license plate. What's interesting is that the cars are.....a perfect choice for every occasion. You've got the big jeep, little jeep, cheap sportscar, expensive sportscar, a rally sportscar, a PDK sportscar, a manual sportscar....



That guy has good taste, no question about it. Anywho....



After that we went to Stuttgart. On our way there, we meet these dudes:



Bought a car somewhere in Germany, something broke, so they had it brought to the Porsche specialist in Zuffenheim (porsche HQ), and now they're on their way back home to England. Lovely 356 there.

So, Stuttgart. The plan there was of course, to check out Mercedes Benz museum and Porsche museum.
Mercedes has a huge museum, 8 floors IIRC in total, you can be there the whole day. The museum is not just cars cars cars, it's basically everything that somehow included Mercedes. First world war, second world war, industrial revolution of sort, everything. It's a really interesting place to be and to see everything. The security is super tight and they are very strict. I'm saying this, because for some cars, they don't allow you to come close at all. Not saying that I should be allowed anything but looking, but in Porsche museum, you can sneak a peek inside anything, you can almost sit down in some legendary cars - it's ridiculous how relaxed and laid back they are there. But more on that later. The Mercedes security might be so tight also because of the fact that some cars there are ridiculously expensive (1 out of 2 MB300SLR, that's worth 135M euros - yes, 135 million euros!).
So, some pics from the Mercedes museum:





This thing may not look that way, but it's HUGE. Also, Apparently it could hit 190km/h




All of these are quite big, people in the background are actually standing pretty close to them






And this car...the original SLR



This thing is worth €135M. For this one, I'm amazed you can basically touch it, if you dare. Security is right there next to it, but you may come quite close to it. It's crazy. Made in 2 pieces, one is bought by some sheik who knows what, and the other one is here in the museum.






Grids like these are particularly interesting, because they made sure to put the correct type of asphalt as on the track here beneath the cars - an actual fact lol.







Landspeed record vehicles are especially interesting






After Mercedes Benz museum, we go to the edge of Stuttgart to Zuffenhausen to check out the Porsche museum. That museum is small, but man, they made it SO GOOD. You get in, walk around looking at porsche history for maybe 1,5h, and you get out thinking - "Porsche is the best car in the world and I will sell my kidney to get one". Not sure how they made it, but that's the feeling you leave with after you go through their museum.
Some pics....

Yes, these are actual cars:



Beneath every car there's a plaque with a story behind it. Whether it's "the first XXX model" or it's some curiosity about the particular model...






The first turbo:




This car actually has 35km from new. That's cca 20 miles in freedom units. 20 miles from new!!!









The 911R, manual, naturally aspirated 500hp.




Not sure what a Subaru Impreza is doing in a porsche museum, but still, it looks nice



Part 1 complete. Preparing part 2 now.......

filip00

Part 2.

So while in Stuttgart, one evening we were drinking with the night guard of the hotel, who is one very interesting dude, let's just keep it at that. We tell him our plans, our next stop being the Nürburgring, and he hits us with
"Oh really? If you're going north, you guys gotta go see the Sinsheim museum."
-Sins-what?
"Sinsheim museum! It's the best museum ever!"

Okaaaay, let me make a note. So I check google reviews, the museum has 4,7 / 5 rating, out of 24k reviews. aaaalright, so let's check it out then.

Before going to the ring, we go to Sinsheim museum. Little did anyone know, this would be *THE BEST* museum we've ever been to.
The museum is huge. They've got a huge outer area, and several halls.

From the parking lot, you can already see a lot airplanes, but two that immediately stick out are the Concorde and Tupolev. These aren't just models, those are actual plans and you can go inside them!







Inside the Concorde:






Inside the Tupolev:





There's plenty of other planes, but I didn't take pics inside. So let's go inside and see what we have there....

Brutus, the car with a 46 liter engine....














This room has so many classic Ferraris and Lambos that it's just incredible to see them all together like that.







What the hell is this thing





Well that's an Alfa Romeo Aerospider. Made in the 1930's! 1934-1937. 2,3l 6cyl, 105hp







And other classics....









There's a whole part dedicated just to cycling, a lot of bicycles and history, but again, not gonna spend eternity uploading all pics, sorry here's a sneak preview...





Then there's a huge large hall with war stuff. Cross section of a half blown tank is interesting to see






So let me also tell a short story here. We go into one of these endlessly huge halls, and we see locomotives, steam ones. They're just huge, probably 25m long. And I'm looking at them, and there's trays beneath them, some full of oil that's been dripping in them. So I'm confused - there's oil dripping from them, yet some are 100+ years old. What gives? And then I see.....not just locomotives....some tanks as well, and other stuff. They've got 1€ slot near it - you can throw in a coin, and IT WILL TURN ON FOR A SHORT BIT OF TIME. That's just amazing. So of course - it will not blow steam, but you will actually see it move. Seeing a huge tank turret move, or a 100 year old locomotive run its wheels - that's just amazing. And Sinsheim delivers with everything. Apparently next year they'll be getting a submarine! Just AMAZING museum. I didn't show 1% of actual stuff you could see there.


But let's move on. Our destination, Nürburgring, awaits. We finally get there, and go to the Fan shop. There I spend way too much money but hey, if you drove the ring, you are allowed to have a ring sticker on your car and wear the merchandise without being a poser, right?

While on the ring, we came just in time to see the Nürburgring Classics races. One day they were driving on the Nordschleife, the other two days on the GP track.
There are many different classes, but what's interesting - you can freely go to the drivers paddock and see the pits/boxes and how the cars are prepared. Some pics from various classes:









So, let's come to the main point of the trip, THE Nürburgring Nordschleife.

I could write endless posts about it, but I'll try to stick with just the important/interesting stuff.

Before coming to the ring, I did around 1000-1100 laps on the simulator (Assetto Corsa). The track in the game and real life is *the same*. Exactly the same, everything, every curb, every inch. So that helped A LOT. The track is very difficult, very long, you're not alone on it. there's a whole bunch of guys who are so good and who drive so fast, that you wouldn't believe it. You think you're fast in your GT3RS, then all of a sudden, you see flashing lights behind you - a beat up e36 needs to run by you, because the dude in it is making sub 8min laps like it's a joke. So there definitely is no room for error, and you definitely don't want to lose time and concentration by thinking where you are on the track, is the next corner hard or not, whether a particular corner is slippery, what's the camber, if there's a blind jump, etc etc. You want the track layout to be last of your concern - so that you can focus on everything around you, and your car. On our way to the Ring, we drove the autobahn - speeds at 220-250km/h for quite a bit of time. But that's straight line. I have a lot of experience with that, sure, but I never drove 150-180km/h in a corner before. And I mean real corners, not just a curved road. Driving dynamics are completely different when you skid along the track at 60km/h and 160km/h-

That being said, if you don't have a well prepared car, you're in for a bad time. Every day we've seen cars get towed from the track. Whether it was a mechanical issue or it was a crash, you could see everything. The track is ruthless. I saw a dude go out after one lap in his RS4, smoke from all four wheels wells, he panicked as he was leaving the carpark due to so much smoke he was creating.

My 370z - man, that thing rodeo'd the ring like it's a joke I did 10 laps in total - no problem whatsoever! I guess I'm not a bad mechanic at all so what's worth noting - oil cooler is a must. Upgraded brake lines, brake oil and brake pads are also a must. Knowing how to setup your suspension is a must (ARBs, camber, tyres).


Onboard footage:



Only thing that would improve the experience is if I had better tyres. I had all 4 new tyres on the car, almost a square setup (245-255) but they overheat very quickly and they aren't the best in the grip compartment. This last lap could probably be improved easily by at least 30s if I had better tyres. But I'm not complaining, I chose these tyres specifically to be just OKAY, because I like throwing my car sideways, and if the tyres are too sticky, 370z doesn't have that much torque in the low revs, so it's struggling a bit and I'm not on this type of track often, if at all. My local track is a small curvy one which I like to just have fun on, throwing the car around. But anyways, I digress.

Some more pics from the carpark:






E36 gang going to lunch:




A couple of nice NSX's





Maybe this 1 minute video actually shows best, what it's like to be on the Nürburgring. I shot this literally after a lap, after we had coffee, before going for another lap. You quickly become immune to being amazed by nice Porsches because....there's an endless supply of them. Them and all other nice cars.




While on the Nürburgring, maybe it's only OK to visit the Nürburg - the castle itself, right?







On the way back, the car hit another new milestone, 30k km.



After a great week on the Ring, we have a multiple day trip back home where we stop in Nuremberg - a nice city, homeplace of Albrecht Dürer, after which we also stop at the Red Bull Ring - where the missus had a Porsche Cayman S training course. We had great fun there, but that's a story for another time.

Over and out.

ZontheRocks

Awesome write up and great photos!

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'16 Pearl White Sport | Stillen Gen. 3 | Motordyne ART | Motordyne Shockwave | ZSpeed | Powertrix | EVO-R | Aeroworkz | Nismo | Z1 | EcuTek | Tuned by Seb @ SpecialtyZ

filip00

Had a silly idea to film the sounds this car makes and I made an ASMR video.

filip00

A bit of updates on the Z. Stock suspension allows virtually no adjustability which sucks, so a few weeks ago I installed adjustable rear camber arms and adjustable rear toe arms. I first did only camber arms, but they were heavily closing the toe, so it was necessary to add those as well.

Sorry for very dirty pics...





This allows me to set alignment a bit more than what stock allows, so right now the rear is set at:

Rear:
Camber -1°20'
Toe 0°02'

The front comes in at
Camber -2°
Toe 0°00'

This alignment seems very good to me, perhaps I'll close the rear toe just a bit more to about 0°04'. But I'll do this next season.

This season was full of great adventures, driving, we did quite a bit of mileage in the Z, about 7000km in total (~4500miles). Most of the mileage (almost 2000 miles) was spent on the trip to the Nürburgring, which I'll repeat in a few years for sure. Otherwise there were several trips to the local tracks, including Grobnik (the track in Croatia) during rain, which proved an awesome challenge to practice driving with all electronics switched off. The tires are completely busted, which is funny, as I put on a complete new set in the beginning of this season...but that's what they're for.

So today I gave the car a thorough wash and concluded the season





This winter's plans are quite humble, as the car is almost completely done in the way I wanted it to be. Plans are:
1. change oil and fluids
2. install a servo oil cooler
3. install brake cooling ducts
4. replace the final drive gear with a shorter one (3.69 out, 4.08 in)

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Zerkster

What factors made you decide on the 4.08?

I recently went with the 4.08. Debated back and forth between a 4.08 and a 3.90, but after deciding that I was primarily looking to use the car for back country twisty roads and some autoX, I went with the 4.08.

Makes the gears pretty short ngl.. lol

70mph in 6th, the engine is somewhere near 3500rpm and 80mph encroaches on 4krpm. Might want to keep that in mind depending on how much highway driving you do.

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filip00

One question tho, do you think you'd rather go to 3.90 if possible now, or you think you've made a good choice?

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Zerkster

For what I use the car for, it's perfectly fine. I take it to work, 30 min back roads and quick elevation changes and then weekends around town. Once I get to a certain point I plan to do some light autoX and such.

My main focus when I chose gearing was weight, braking, and handling. Z's really do have enough power after flow and tune mods unless your really going crazy.

Only you truly know what you want from the car and what the likelihood is that youll drive it on the highway a lot. Another consideration, if you ever plan to really start making power, you'll quickly "overpower" (for lack of a better word) the 4.08.

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filip00

Alright, I think I completely understand what you're saying thank you!

My idea behind the shorter diff was also the fact that I do like the gear spread to be 2nd gear to ~60mph, third to ~93mph etc. After very much thought, I ditched the idea of any forced induction to get more power - maybe a tune to get a few extra hrsprs, but nothing more. We have super strict car policies here and there's virtually zero chance of me having a street legal car if I do any forced induction. Shorter diff will, I believe, liven the car up just that tiny bit more to get rid of the sluggish low rpms in second gear with the stock 3,7 diff. I can't wait to try the Z with the shorter drive...

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filip00

Hey, thanks for the input. Two factors played a key role in my decision.
First I watched many different videos with Z owners, as well as read through the forums here to hear what people have to say.
Next I played in my simulator (Assetto Corsa). The stock Z in it has 3.9 ratio and while it's definitely shorter than mine, it doesn't seem short enough. I then tried similarly powered cars with shorter ratios, as well as even shorter ones (drift cars) and they are surely way too short. This 4.08 to me seems like the perfect fit for driving. The only thing that might be different is higher gearing on the highway....but seeing as this is primarily my fun car / road trip car, I'm OK with that. I'm not in a rush, I can drive it slower on the highway with the cruise control. So yeah, I really do appreciate your input. I'll post updates next year once it's installed and I make a drive with which I can then compare and comment.

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filip00

Winter action again - changed the oil, filter, put a new oil pressure sensor in, as the old one wasn't always precise. Blew one fuse, replaced that too.

Next upgrade I installed was the servo oil cooler. Not an upgrade that I ever thought about doing, but last time I went to the track for some fun driving, I opened the hood to let the car cool quicker and I noticed my servo oil boiling so apparently althought Z's have servo coolers, they're not big enough.
I bought a universal Mishimoto transmission oil cooler kit: https://www.driftshop.com/universal-...ooler-kit.html and installed it in place of the old one. No problem, not too much hassle - I even managed to do it without removing the front bumper. I do recommend removing it, as it will be much easier - but it's not a must. I then filled with oil, did some air bleeding and now it's good.

I also did some minor adjustment to the handbrake. So, whoever tried to actually use the handbrake, knows that it's pretty dreadful. Just tightening the screw inside the cabin will not resolve the problem. But what will resolve it, is to remove the rear wheels, open the porthole on the disc, and spin the disc until you see a small screw that preloads the brake shoes within the disc. Spread these out until they almost touch the rotor - and then tighten the handbrake to also engage on the first notch. And that's how you get an actual really good working handbrake

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filip00

One tiny little update more.....so, as soon as I purchased the car, I wanted the ability to turn off all electronic assists. And I installed the drift switch....but it was a "close-enough" switch. It looked OK, but it wasn't 100% fitting in the interior design. So.....in the meantime, I got a Nissan switch, not sure from which car or for what, but now my drift switch looks completely OEM. Here's the before and after:



Click here if you want to see a high resolution photo

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ZontheRocks

Nice switch upgrade. Even the little things count.

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'16 Pearl White Sport | Stillen Gen. 3 | Motordyne ART | Motordyne Shockwave | ZSpeed | Powertrix | EVO-R | Aeroworkz | Nismo | Z1 | EcuTek | Tuned by Seb @ SpecialtyZ

filip00

Yesterday finally had some time to work on the car so I installed the differential back in the car. Before installing it, as I had the broken breather tube, I fixed it with JB Weld. I was skeptical if the fix was OK or not, but then I figured out there's a simple test I can do to check....

I blew into the breather hose and it built up the pressure inside the diff. When I removed my mouth, it blew all the air out again. I then removed the oil filler cap on the diff, covered it with my finger and I again blew into the breather tube. Again built up the pressure but this time removed the finger - and it relieved the pressure immediately. So - the breather tube is still very much operable, nothing is blocked and I believe this should be OK.

Completely unrelated - my battery died - AGAIN. I changed it exactly 1 year ago, and the car has been sitting for the last 4 months - what the heck? I will go to the shop tomorrow and ask for warranty to cover it, I can't imagine this being normal.

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Rusty

Did you have the battery on a tender?

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