My 370z "unicorn"

filip00

I NEVER wear jeans when driving this car. It's most often just sweatpants or some super light pants. I condition the leather once every month or two, and I make sure to NEVER sit on the side of the seat. I was taught loooong time ago to not make those mistakes

vtec to vvel

You have the cleanest seats I've seen, like brand-new-out-of-the-box clean lol.

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filip00

They really do look like new but to be honest, the car itself has just 16k miles, so it wasn't that hard to take care of them...

vtec to vvel

True, but considering your car is a 2009 AND the previous owner(s) seemed to have taken care of it (at least the time they drove it when they were in town anyway), so props!

I remember back when I got my '07 350Z, the car had maybe 8K miles when I got her, and the seats looked like some fat@$$ sat on them and never moved.

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filip00

That's why this baby is a unicorn

Lith

Thanks for the confirmation! Now I have to find a pair of mirrors and replace mine. Are they also heated?

filip00

Not sure how I can tell, other than feeling with a hand? I don't have the specific button to activate the heater. I do think they are heated, because they never fogged up, even after entering the garage on a rainy day. I suspect they are heated.

filip00

Few more updates I didn't post yet.

So, during winter hibernation, I also said I'll refurbish the wheels. I felt too lazy to go over full wheel refurbishing, then complete repaint, so I just did a quick fix.

This is what the worst wheel looked like:



It's not just a surface scuff or scratch, it's PROPER curb damage. I asked the tyre shop if they can fix this, and they said that it would take some welding and additional work, and it seemed too much for my taste. So I looked into alternatives and found that there's a metal epoxy that can be used for fixes exactly like these. So I ordered JB Weld - being a metal epoxy resin which when hardened, should be virtually the same as metal. So I decided to give it a shot and see what happens.

I first used a very rough sandpaper and roughened the surface, then added some metal epoxy, then next day I used the sandpaper again and made sure it's smooth. I didn't document that process, nothing special there - just the smoothened surface:



Then I did a complete shot in the dark and bought a rattle spray can color that looked the same as my wheel color.



And once out of garage, this is the result......





In normal daylight the end result is actually alright! It's not perfect by any means, if you look very closely it actually looks horrible....but it's better than it was. It'll have to do for this season. Maybe next year I'll take some time and do a proper refurb of the wheels.

filip00

Another update, but this time more meaningful - I installed steering rack spacers. I got them from GKTech, they weren't too expensive, but it did involve getting new tie rods as well. The end result is not crazy, but it's a bit more degrees of angle than original. Check pics of before and after.

filip00

Another few bits checked off the list today:
-RBF Motul 600 brake oil
-braided steel brake lines
-EBC Bluestuff brake pads

Just one more piece of the puzzle remaining - the brake cooling ducts. Haven't gotten around to installing them yet, I was always a bit discouraged until now, because I'm not *entirely* sure where to put them. I was looking at how to route the pipe but I can't find the optimal way. I also looked through several solutions that I found on the internet - but none were clear enough. Any tips?

vtec to vvel

Hopefully these can help:

DIY - Brake Cooling Ducts

DIY: Oil Cooler AND Stillen Brake Cooling Ducts (Lots of Pics!)

Z1 Brake Cooling - Install with Pictures.

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filip00

Was a bit busy these days so didn't post updates.
The trip is on! Yesterday we reached out destination




On our way here, we drove the Autobahn and I had a chance to freely test how the car performs at high speeds. Reached 250km/h a few times, it could probably go a bit faster, but the traffic was too busy to force such speeds. At cruising speeds of 180/190km/h, the car can be calmly driven with one hand, oil temp stuck at 90°C, all perfect. After 1000km checked the oil, not a drop missing. So far so good!
The brake pads I installed - EBC blue stuff, behave fantastic, strong bite and absolutely no fade.

JARblue

A magnificent destination! Enjoy your time there

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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.