370z sports car?
 

Is the 370z really a sports car? It's fast and agile but it is extremely loose over rough pavement. I was at the "track" doing about 110mph and when ever I hit a patch of uneven road the car felt so unstable I was afraid 2 go any faster. It handles like a dream. Where ever u want it 2 go it goes. The problem is when u hit bumpy pavement the car doesn't give u much confidence. I'm going 2 talk 2 my mechanic and see what can be done about this problem. Anyone else have any suggestions. The car is amazing but it is nothing worst then getting passed by a Sentra at 110mph. Don't worry I didn't allow that 2 happen.

So a car isn't a sportscar if it's unstable over rough terrain? I think that makes it 'not a rallycar'.

We aren't talking about sand dunes or the Baja. I'm talking about a few bumps on the road. I just feel it shouldn't be as unsettled as it is over uneven asphalt. Am I the only 370z owner who is having this problem?

no i know what you mean i feel that two but jut on the main roads like if im in a turning lane and i go and the road is bumpy it gets unstable but i dont think thats something that you should worry about i mean it isnt a hummer its a sports car your going to feel the road

Trust me, the Altima you're comparing was way more "unsettled" at the same speed on the same patch of pavement. This is a sportscar, and that means grip the wheel tightly and expect to feel (and react to) every little nuance in the pavement surface. Unpredictable surface can lead to the need to react to unpredictable handling. That's why tracks tend to have very good surfaces.

Oh, and for the love of dog, please type in english. Are you worried about wearing out the keys on your keyboard spelling out the words to, too, and two, or just concerned you'll always type the wrong one?

Just trade in your Z for a Sentra.

haha im such retard i just realized that i spelt too as two

I mentioned in a recent thread the Z felt "skittery" driving 100mph in rain with a 15mph side headwind. Had the opportunity to drive that same stretch on a sunny day, recently ... and it was just bad road, with the curves cambered to the outside of a turn to improve water runoff. The car never slipped, but felt as if it wanted to ... I had no interest in seeing where the particular boundaries of adhesion were, since the Jersey barrier was only 20 feet to the side.

My neighbor who's retired from racing advises you can improve road grip a lot even before springs, etc. by adjusting the alignment: toe-in and camber. This can tend to make the car more of a handful for an inexperienced driver, but is far better for driving at the limits.

OTOH, he also rotates all 4 tires on his daily driver every two weeks, and most of us wouldn't do that (even if we could).

So to answer the question, "Is it a sports car?", I'd answer it definitely is within the limits ... in this price range.

You can spend 10K in improvements and will still be constrained by the fact that it's a V6 RWD in a small frame. You'll never beat a V8 Corvette; you'll never lose to a Miata. If you have to turn the steering wheel on a race course, you'll probably never lose to a Mustang, Camaro or Charger, either. :)

I think it's just the general question that bothers me.

If it's not a sportscar, then what is it? A compact? A 2 door midsize? Family coupe? Come on guys...

You could spend double the money and get a Cayman S - this is the exact circumstance where the Cayman will outshine the Z. Or you can adjust your suspension to make the car work better in those situations. You'll have to ask one of the real racers on here but swhat I know from other racing we would adjust the rear droop for better contact on rough surfaces. The downside (and there is always a compromise in most of these situations) is that your car will not transition as quickly say in a chicane where you need to go from left to right quickly (or vice versa). I don't know what adjustments are available from stock (likely not much if any) but if you are tracking the car you are likely going to want an adjustable suspension. Toe and caster are going to affect tracking, turn in, etc but I don't think they will have much of an affect on the rough surface. The spring rate and the valving/rate of your shocks as well as the suspension travel will affect how it handles the bumps.

Other than the other blazing hints that this is a sports car the ability to feel the road and feedback as to when you are close to loosing traction is a good indication that this car is a sports car....

Maybe the question would be how to get my car to handle rough surfaces rather than is this a sports car.....

It'll loose traction if you're applying power to the ground or braking too much in a turn....just about anything will!

That said, I do feel teh car doesn't quite stick as well as I would have thought - mostly because I think the car is too stiff in the suspension and/or the tires don't grab as well as they could...

Well did you ever think just maybe YOU think wrong???? :wtf2:

Well considering that 2 objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time then it stands to reason the pavement under the Sentra must not have been exactly the same "roughness" as the pavement that was under your 370Z.

I had a 350z for 5 years and tracked it. (entirely stock suspension down to the tire)

The 350 handled bumps in the twisties leaps and bounds better than the 370. No questions asked, no room for debate.

Bumps that you wouldnt even notice in the 350 send my 370 sailing.

I guess it's a result from the changes in the suspension... it feels more like a buick than a sports car, and the wider tires probably contribute as well.

Don't take the question literally. Of course it's a sports car. It's amazing. My only gripe is how it handles bumps. I also know someone who had a 350z and he said he never had that problem. I wanted 2 see if anyone else felt the same as I did. I'm taking the car 2 my performance guy soon 2 see how I can alleviate this problem. The 370z should be represented correctly. It's an incredible automobile. I don't want 2 hafta hold back on the "track" because of this minor issue.

No, because for whatever reason, I can take corners with my 97 ford ranger faster than I can with the Z without the rear end trying to swing out.

My truck USED to do it, then I put new shocks and tires on it...

I've been suspicious for a long time that the sport Bridgestone tires have some issues. First I thought they needed to be broken in a bit. Then I thought they needed to be warmed up more. Finally I'm thinking they just plain suck for street driving.

They don't have the grip during daily that I would expect. My best guess is that they just don't reach the critical warm temp needed to get nice and sticky. When I had the car on a track a few weeks back, they performed great once I had them nice and warm. On the street, they stay so cold that I usually spin them like I was driving on hockey pucks.

Granted the suspension setup is quite stiff so bumps are not the Z's friend. I too had read that the Cayman is much better in this respect, but I don't have the automobile acumen to explain why the Cayman setup is better. It does seem the Z suspension could be loosened up but likely at the expense of road 'feel'.

first thing that i noticed with the 370z was its "soft" suspension.

in the 350z i had more left and right "body roll" but no bouncing up and down over bumps, i would feel like a go cart stifness.

with the 370z i have like no body roll but on bumps for its soft and bouncy for the average user to feel comfortable.

This is what i would attritube to the unsettling of the car over rough road, but i could be wrong. I perosnaly if i could would switch my suspension to something a little bit more stiff or 350zish with out lowering the car. I have no need to lower the car its 100% street driving, going lower wont help me to much.

Dude, if your truck corners better than your Z, something is very wrong. :icon14:

Punctuation and capital letters are your friends.

I think what he's saying is that he's used to driving vehicles with a longer wheelbase. These will always tend to track better in a straight line.

It could be that I'm just way more used to driving my truck too...

What I'm speaking of specifically is when you hit a bump, the Z loses traction (and the rear swings out) easier than my truck due to the wheel hopping off the bump.

My truck does it too, just it grabs again quicker...

That's something I've not even considered - lol...

It could also be weight distribution too...

My truck obviously rolls more in corners - but I can take a highway interchange near here at 60...and it'll freak me out a bit when I hit the bridge on the exit ramp (and it's bumpiness)

Do the same thing with the Z, and I'll be trading paint for cement.

Smooth-flat surfaces, Z corners WAY better.
Rough surfaces, toss up.

I see, you start your thread with a sensationalistic title to draw attention and responses, but there are many misunderstandings among people. Some might view it as you denigrating the 370 while implying it is subpar relative to other "sports cars."

But "sports car" is an equivocal definition to many. A Porsche 911 is a "sports car" though it has 2 impractical seats in the rear. The reason for the 2 rear seats is to lower insurance costs. My friend who works at an insurance agency told me this; because a GT3, a car I once considered, is noticeably more expensive to insure than the run of mill 911.

So while you're mentioning that you should also mention that the 370Z on a smooth surface will out corner the 350Z. Its all about configuration. Do you want handling over rough surfaces or smooth. Do you think every racer uses the same set up for every track? Not a chance! You tweek to optimize for your conditions and when you optimize one thing you comprimise another but its a matter of the overall benifit.

I personally would love to see the pickup truck at 110 MPH in the rough corner... should be entertaining....

Forrest are you confusing the 370Z being "soft" in the bumps as loosing traction rather than being soft? Typically a car with little body roll is stiffer than the one with more body roll. The 370Z is stiffer and more like a go-cart as you were describing than the 350Z.

Anyhow this is all pit racing - we need a real racer to chime in here....

True, but the Z is not a race car, and never will be. It's a street car. Unfortunately the street is not smooth, nor some tracks for that matter. I'd rather have a car that handles well all around like my old 350, than one that only handles well on smooth surfaces. Then again, that's just me.

I know this is hard to explain, but if i went over a bump in my 350z, it did not give me a soft bounce, it would shudder like the car did NOT LIKE THAT BUMP. I would assume thats a hard suspension.

In the 370z i admit it has no body roll compared to the 350z, BUT why do i feel like when it goes over a bump its soft and gushy like my previous altima?

And no i dont mean loseing traction as my previous post about the traction light going on, ironicly enough when that traction light went on, i felt NO bumps what so ever which confused me as to why it lost traction. But that could be due to the suspension is so soft i didnt feel the bumps and didnt even know i was losing traction. Maybe in my 350z i would have felt the crappy road due to that hardness; I feel the 370z does not have.

My 350z was 05 PPW Enthuisast AT 100% stock.

That's a great point. With that said the 370z is utterly outstanding on smooth surfaces.

My wife has an Altima which I drive regularly. The 370 and the Altima suspensions are COMPLETELY different. The Altima floats and doesn't have much feel for the road. The 370 lets you feel every bump and I've certainly found plenty that jar the teeth out of my head if I don't avoid them.

Doesn't sound right if you think the 370z has a soft ride over bumps in the road...it doesn't.

... and what exactly is a race car? This car is definately built to take onto a race track.... in fact that is where we would recomend people take this car - people who want to drive this car to and within its limits...

My son said to me last week - "Dad why would they make a car that can go over the speed limit?" I think the responsible answer is a car that is also able to be driven on a race track - that's what my reply was.

Well, what the heck, time to jump in....

Original question was: Is this car a Sports Car.

Well there is pretty simple answer to that question and this answer is " Absolutley "

2 seats, 2 doors, pretty to look at, spirited, rear wheel drive, low to the ground.

The question really should be..... " is this the best handling Sports Car you have ever driven".

This answer is " NO, but it sure is engaging "

As in any SPORTS CAR, each has it's own characteristics, you've just got to learn what each car is capable of doing and keep it within those paramiters.

Simple. I love the Z. I loved my MG. I loved my Lancia. I loved my Jag E-type ( the brakes SUCKED ) there all sports cars, they are all different.

So go out and enjoy it !!!

I did not spell check my work...thank you. :)

The only thing really wrong with the above statement is that the ideal of a "true" sports car has very much changed through the years. Especially when you consider how many sports cars have gone the way of steel bodies (well, aluminum got real expensive in 2007-08 here in the states), gaining lots of weight, having more than two seats, weight-to-power ratios, etc.
Then you have to consider what truly separates a good sports car from a "supercar." In more ways than one, those names have not become what the cars are, but just general terms to separate different target markets.

For example, the Z is for the sports car market; an affordable, fast, stylish, long standing race heritage that can make it on the street without a single hitch and probably take to a track stock (for a little) or mod it for the track. Then you've got the GT-R, which went from a high end tuner as the R34 to a complete purpose change, as a higher end sports car that could arguably compete with low end super cars and the race/track bred cars, specifically like the 911 GT3. Then you've got the Spec V (no idea why they flipped it from VSpec, lol).

Now, my opinion varies greatly from other people, and there is not a single doubt in my mind that people on this forum could argue the specific meaning of "sports car" for years on end.

I'm by no means an expert, but I'll give it a try. The wheelbase of the 370z is relatively shorth and for it's size, it's not a particularly light car. So to keep body roll in check, the suspention has to be rather stiff. Stiff suspention combined with short wheelbase make for a jumpy ride over un even pavement. I only had my car for a week but already experienced the backside stepping out on a bumpy
highway onramp. I had a friend who owned several lotuses ( or Loti as he would say) and I had the pleasure of trying them all: old Esprit Turbos, Excel, Elise S1, Elise S2. All these cars felt more comfortable and less "jumpy" then the 370Z. I am convinced this is due to the fact that all these cars are significantly lighter then the Z. And therefore could "get away with" a relatively softer suspention set-up.

When a sports car skids or drifts a bit because of rough road surface, thats not always a bad thing. most of the time, its predictable enough that you can continue to keep the RPMs where its at and it will drive through the surface, and not lose control, and straighten itself out.

this was the case on my motorcycle, if i gave too much gas coming out of a turn and skidding a little, i would just keep the gas going at the same rate and it would just bounce me until it straighten itself out. letting go of the gas or giving brake would have resulted in a crash, just as doing that on the 370z would as well.

In addition to the stiffer suspension and shorter wheel base, the 370Z uses tires that meet the OEM requirements, but have less than ideal traction. But I may be biased spending most of my time on track driving on Hoosiers!

Not sure which model you're referring to, but 370Zs sold in the US don't have run-flats. Hence the donut spare in the back.

I stand corrected!

Wow, on a bike, losing traction on either wheel would result in a low-side at best.

^^ not always, going overboard will crash you yes, but there is a fine line of being able to control the traction out of a turn.