Track Vs. Street
 

This is the only differences? A little hard to believe. If that is the case I am not doing too bad. :tup:

http://www.the370z.com/members/chknh...comparison.jpg

I would imagine there might be some minor other upgrades, from the picture alone you see different wheels & modified body panels.

Looks like TCIIIs? I imagine a real rear diff makes all the difference.

rollcage, diff, brake pads, and seats don't justify the $100k difference in price.

It's not 100k difference. Gt academy does not use the nismo rc car. They have modified versions of the coupe sport models.

ah, my bad...yea i was referring to the nismo rc car which is actually $164,000 :shakes head: And it isn't much different as far as changes as the GT Academy's car.

Nismo RC has a lot of difference though.
Off the top of my head:
"stripped" interior (never done I guess)
Racing bucket seat
race control panel area instead of the radio
Race exhuaust
Different wheels
Brake cooling ducts
Those two coolers with the radiators in the back. I'm guessing oil and diff? or perhaps one is for trans.
Racing brakes
Cage
And i'm just gonna guess there's different suspension.
So there is quite a lot of difference.
130k more is pretty ridiculous though.

GT academy's could probably be replicated with 5k of mods and labor.

yea, you could probably get everything you listed for $15k or less.

You guys are forgetting the point of the NISMO RC, though.

It's designed to go straight from the factory to FIA GT4 or World Challenge GTS competition. With some small tweaks it can run in the Continental Tire GS class.

Good luck building your showroom Z into a competitive (and legal) FIA/SCCA/GrandAm competitor for $15k. :)

The NISMO Fairlady Z RC has the following:

1. Full race brakes including Bosch motorpsort ABS figure $6K and $10k each
2. Body pulled out of the assembly line pre-paint - lacks seam-sealer, underbody paint protection and undercoat - $15K
3. Full FIA spec cage - to fit it, the roof panel is unpicked and removed
4. Once cage is fitted, body is seam welded, that would be 100+ hours of labour, figure $10K in labour alone, more if you are paying race fabrication hourly rates
5. Air-jacks supplied and plumbed - $10K
6. Diff and gearbox coolers supplied, installed and plumbed - $10K
7. Custom wiring harness - $5K
8. TE37 wheels and Yoki slicks - $6K - additional wheel sets @ $4K
9. Custom interior - seat, harness, switch gear, dash changes, FIA electrically controlled fire-bottle - $10K
10. Titanium exhaust and headers - $3K
11. Engine - $12K
12. Gearbox, carbon fibre tailshaft, diff, half-shafts etc - $10K
13. Suspension bits, hubs plus Ohlins TT44 shocks - $ 15K

The total is north of $120K easily .............. and there are lots of things I've omitted

I have built a couple of race cars, and it is surprising how expensive it is ... and the most expensive way is to start with a new car off the showroom floor as you pay to remove stuff (HVAC - interior strip, pull redundant wiring - there is 40Kg of wiring to get rid of for instance).

The most cost effective way is to start with a shell, but that means putchasing all the "bits" you need (suspension, steering, driveline, etc), and then cosider CF guards (fender), doors, hatch - there is another 6-7K alone.

The NSIMO Fairlady Z RC "retails" at 12.5Mill Yen and IMHO that is a realtively cheap race car eligible for FIA GT4 championship. Note that the negine in this car is quoted at "more than 355ps" and according to my research the GT4 MISMO VQ37 engine makes around 440hp at 9000rpm with a 30-hour time to rebuild. Makes it a pretty good option in my book.

You need to comapre apples and apples ...

Good stuff, BG. Thanks for going into detail. :tup:

good info, i've always wondered why it cost so much. I find it funny though that they charge $15k for NOT putting those things on for #2

:tiphat: great info

I looked into the Ford Focus RS? I think that was the designation, anyhoo, its the same concept as the Nismo RC, a pure race car, thining it would be around 40 and make a great track day car before I converted my 370 over. It is 100k.

Just spend $200K on a GT3 Cup and call it a day, plenty of racing series for it

Yeah sure piece of cake, wait...how many of us have $100k - $200k to spend on a car we're not going to drive very often?:ugh2:

People with that much modifications on their cars often let it sit anyway

What's the best way to make a small fortune racing?





Start with a big one.

Dis is true. Wish I had the fortune to make it happen. Perhaps one day in the not too distant future.


Sad but true. It's a waste in my opinion to do that to any car whether exotic or modified.

Do you mean 30 hours to do a rebuild or 30 hours of racing in between rebuilds?

Best bet with that Porsche car is to go in with a shop or build a reliable team behind it, with some good sponsors to help cut costs. Going big can return some good rewards but need to prepare across the board, just buying the car is not enough. Need a team to support the car, sponsors to help provide wear parts (tires, brakes, etc.) or low cost, and more.

Pretty sure he means that racing is mostly a money pit and not a way to make cash.

It reads that an engine rebuilds takes 30 hours. To me anyway.

That is the way I see it also, 30 hours to rebuild the motor.
Then again, it could be 30 hours of run time at that higher output. Depending on the race length that could be a few races or 1-2 long endurance races.

I understood the same, I guess I was just expressing how I wish I could throw my money into racing without worrying about it much and just enjoy the sport. But I've got bills to pay like most people. So...yeah.

Thanks for your input on the engine rebuild question, was just looking for clarification there.

Given your answer and that of the others, how long would you say this engine could run between rebuilds?

I've heard of professional race teams rebuilding after each race regardless of the length/distance.

tracking means lots of sponsor and brand stickers

why do people who drive their car around on streets put stickers on their cars? if you don't track it then it makes you look like a tool/poser

note i'm not talking about my child is an honor student type stickers, i'm talking about stuff like nismo, TRD, etc

They want people to know they bought X item and are cooler than you.
There are some people who drive on the street who have sponsors & go to shows and have to have the stickers.

The way I read it. It's 30 hours of run time. So every 30 hours. It needs rebuilt. That seems about right. Don't forget, you're talking about an engine living at 9,000 rpm for most of it's life.

You are correct - full race-spec engine life is measured in engine running hours.

For instance, Carillo rods in my race car engine (5-litre aluminium block V8, makes ~530 hp @ 6800rpm) are lifed at 80 hours. Time between short rebuild (bascially rings and bearings for the short, plus service for heads) is 35 hours, so every second re-build I need to replace the rods, same for pistons.

Fasteners get replaced each major rebuild (rod bolts, main cap studs and nuts, head studs, yadda yadda).

The alternative is you break a rod and cut the block in half and junk a $40K engine.

Crank is steel and lasts 2 major rebuilds.

Rocker gear gets replaced every major rebuild, valve springs and retainers every minor - my cam runs 600 thou lift at the seat and seat pressures to avoid valve to piston interference are substantial, which means cam wear is significant ... it just goes on and on ...

A full race engine is a marvellous thing, but is an expensive beast.

That said, assembly time for a minor rebuild is still around a day and a half and a major, where everything needs to be measued and involves a dummy assembly can be more than 2 days, and assumes someone has done the cylinder head overhaul (reface valves, recut seats etc).

Never let anyone tell you a race-spec engine is cheap. I;ve done the numbers on a race-standard 4.0 litre VQ build and you'd not get change out of $45K given the need for dry-sump, at least 14.5:1 on E85 to make torque at 7000+rpm (which is where the power is), a steel crank, good rods and pistons, a pair of trick heads, lumpy cams with at least 550 thou lift at the seat (assuming you get rid of the VVEL - which has no place on a race engine IMHO) and individual throttle bodies like the Jenvey stuff from the UK.

Such an engine would make comfortably in excess of 500 hp but would require a close-ratio gearbox to make it work, and engine life between 25-30 hours.

So, when I talk about 30 hour engine life - that is the time between rebuilds ....

30 hours of engine run time should give you a season ... in my case, because I don't run the national series and our state-based race series runs shorter events (bascially 20 minute sprint races), if I am careful, I get 2 seasons between minor rebuilds, but the supposed minro rebuild this past Christmas discovered 9 thou piston to bore clearance at the bottom of the bore, so the block was junk ... a $4500 bill .... gets expensive real quick .....

In the Australia GT series for instance, there are 8 race meetings per year, with most events offering 2 x 20-minute practise sessions, a quali-session and 2 30-minute races, with 2 major events involving a 30-minute sprint and a 1-hour race, plus the 12 hour in Feb. you plan on 2 hours per meeting, plus the 12-hour which (roughly) uses your engine life between rebuilds in a season.

Most semi-professional teams will carry a spare engine in case the primary goes bang, and the amateurs may or may not carry a spare.

30 hour run-time between rebuilds .... which is how race engine life is measured.

Expensive indeed. I got to do some work with a top NASCAR team for a school project several years ago and the engine program was amazing. Nothing but the block gets reused after a race weekend, and even then it is once or twice if at all.

Just to LEASE an engine from them for one race is around $75,000. Granted that comes with an engineer attached but still... 75k and you have to give it back.

Sweet jaybee heezus

But 800hp out of 366 cubes turning at 9000rpm for up to 2 hours ... the stresses are enormous ...