Project: 2010 solid red roadster

DeusExMaxima

Hi everyone - I owned a highly modified 05 Maxima and most recently an 05 350Z roadster with all the 07-08 Nismo coupe bits on it - complete interior, exterior suspension, engine bracing, frame dampers (or is it dampeners?) etc. I sourced all OEM Nissan parts except the rear spoiler was a replica.

Anyway, it has over 219,000, and is getting a bit "long in the tooth" so to speak. It runs beautifully, but a fender bender with an old lady who shouldn't be driving caused me to decide it was time for something newer. When I bought the car in 2014, I really wanted red but black was fine. Now, my mission was to find a red 370Z roadster. Initially, I wanted a 6 speed with Navi and sport packs. I determined the 7AT was faster, and had paddle shift, and that the sport pack had super heavy brake rotors (30 lbs each!!) and that the Navi was outdated.

Sooooooo, after scouring the country, I found a nice little cream puff of a car 110 miles from home - a 2010 red roadster 7AT touring with 47K miles and in virtually perfect condition. Zero dents, a couple of little scratches on the tonneau cover, no rock chips (!!), some faded leather on driver seat left bolster and thats it. It smelled great too. The top had that last 5th bow issue but they all seem to have top problems. More on that later.

All the fluids looked fresh, and air filters were clean. Tires have life left, top in great shape, headlights not faded.

I want to drive it a bit before I jump into the modding. However, there were some obvious things to be done. I didn't have floor mats so I got some mats from theZstore in Orange, CA with matching red Z logo. Love em. Replaced the silly antenna with a 4 incher from Autozone that looks factory. I removed the front license (illegal here but ask me if I care...no i don't) and found some great hole plugs from Autozone. I also swapped the white license plate LEDs from my 350Z which look great, in place of the boring yellowish ones that were in the 370z.

There are soooo many directions to go with the car but after some research, my initial thoughts are:

Exterior: 2015+ Nismo bumpers front and rear, and side skirts maybe, smallish rear spoiler (not the duck tail), JDM tail lights, paint inside chrome of headlights, light tint for windows and clear for windshield to reduce UV sun rays.

Interior: Red GTR start button, white interior LEDs and GTR clear lense covers and then option 1 - Nismo steering wheel, and M35/M45 AT shift knob or option 2 - Custom carbon fiber/leather steering wheel, carbon fiber shift knob, and a couple of carbon fiber bits like shifter surround and inner door handle areas. The stock radio seems fine but it needs a bluetooth plug in to the Aux to stream music from my phone. I want to have modern Navi and backup camera. The Garmin 65 is nice and big (6.8" ) and would fit in place of the silly compartment above the radio, with the addition of a Garmin back up camera.

Performance: OEM Nismo exhaust with dual output Y pipe (increase in power but not much louder) or Stillen true dual, possibly a short ram intake, maybe lightweight pulleys. A tune would be good too. For rims, the factory 18s are light, but a set of 19s would be nicer, possibly 2015+ rims. I like the style of the Ferrari California turbo rims with the split spoke star pattern. Savini SV F3 or Ferrada F8-FR5 look similar.

I want to get back in SCCA Solo II (Autocross) on an occasional weekend. I have a set of square 350Z Track edition rims I may use for this - super lightweight at under 19 lbs each.

Any suggestions, thoughts, feedback would be appreciated.