Ok, everywhere I've read, it says a 2000 Maxima SE (fully loaded) weighs at around 3200lbs. Ok, that's fine and dandy. What about an optionless 2000 Maxima GXE?
I can roughly assume the rear spoiler is worth a good 10lbs or more (including wiring). The 16s (or 17s) weigh 10-20lbs more per wheel than the stock 15s on the GXE. The fog lamps and assemblies weigh a good 5lbs (for both). Leather... 75lbs? Sunroof +100lbs? Etc....

So, with a rough and uncalculated sum would put the GXE under 3000lbs. Now, 3000lbs and 222hp is pretty nice.

Now, there's the 4th gens. They weigh... 3100lbs (SE) and have 190hp. Ok, my math isn't the greatest, but, how is a 4th gen se (5spd) going to beat a 5th gen gxe (5spd) in a race?!?

Or, am I just totally wrong with the weights?!?

 

u gotta aslo remember to factor in driver error, body weight, how much gas is in the tank, and the octane levels. some may go to the races with the gas light on and fill the tank with 1 gallon of 140 octane or was it 114 iforgot. others may roll in with a whole gas tank full of 87 octane gas. and some with fuel octane boosters. so it really varies. weight helps alot but the driver is still the most important

 

Ok... I keep hearing driver this, driver that in drag racing. Granted, I may not be the best in launching, but, how does one in a 4th gen pull 14.9 stock when I'm doing 15.4 stock? Shifting is not a difficult task nor was it ever considered a defining quality of a "good driver". I had some alright 60' of 2.2s, 2.3s, but... half a second difference?! Am I losing my mind here?

 

I've run 14.9 in my stock 2k, my 60' times were same as you, 2.2's and 2.3's. I'd have to say that with the same 60' times and the same car your's should be just as capable as mine to run sub 15sec. You're launch can't be where you need work if we've got the same times...all I can say is tach it all the way up! Meaning shift AT redline and as quick as possible and you should be golden. Oh yeah, don't go to the track with a full tank of gas either...

 

It comes in more like 3400 with an auto where the 4th gen was around 3200. Thats why with 32 extra hp the 5th gen is faster....but just by a little.

Mike s.

 

Now I am no expert when it comes to technical stuff, so I will just throw in my $1.25, I could be very wrong.
The way I see it, the 32hp boost(from 4th gen to 5th gen) might not be a solid boost. What I mean is, it's not as solid as gaining 32hp from increasing the displacement. In my opinion, modifying headers/exhaust to free some ponies is a cheap way out. Also the 227 on I30 compare to Maxima, supposely they modified exhaust to get 5hp, to me that's just all horse ****, they do that so they can claim I30 to be the most hp entry level luxury import sedan(I think some competitors have 225hp). This might be why 5th is not much faster than 4th gen.
If they wanna some real gain, Nissan should drop some 3.5L in, like the BMW is replacing the 2.8 with 3.0, that's real power gain.

 

so yer too good to drop 2 cents eh? hafta drop a buck twenny-five eh? bah! but anyways, i believed it is planned to have the 3.5l vq jammed under the max hood before the current body style is retired. but for now, we rev like ricers!

 

However they really didn't "cheap out" on the new VQ. You can't just up the size everytime you want more power. By tweaking the engine as they did they got much more high end hp out of the new VQ and some extra midrange torque. See....the max didn't need a major hp boost. It was fast enough. The P funk on the other hand was a pig. So they HAD to bump up the hp and torque big time. Result....Awsome engine, pretty darn fast suv, but by far not the fastest, and a super smooth engine....maybe the smoothest suv engine next to the X5 v8(but thats 20k more...YIKES.

Anyway....I don't think they were ready yet for a new engine in the max. I'm not really sure what the status of the Vq-k's lowend is. We KNOW the mid range gained....217 vs. 205 and ofcourse the high end kicks *** but did the low end suffer or is it the same low end now just moving a heavier car?

In closing.....anytime you get 32 extra hp out of an engine without hurting the lowend, which they basically did, its NOT a cheap out way.

 

If anyone things Nissan cheaped out on the upgrade of the 2k VQ they're just plain wrong. Look at the dyno cherts!! The power and torque are there, from idle to redline the 2k VQ makes more. It's not like they added some black magic ECU adjustments to spike the power at one point of the rev range, the new VQ makes more across the board (and ALOT more from 5k to redline). This should not even be discussed, take a look at this mulit car dyno plot, the highest one is Mehran's SC'ed Max but the next one down is mine and 2 other 2k's...and what's that below the 2k's? oh are those modded 4th gens. Come on now the weight surely cut some of the performance gains of the added power but it IS there. If you dropped a 2k VQ in a 4th gen it would run circles around any other 4th gen.

http://www.his.com/~wc/maxima/

 

I never said the gain is not there, I am saying I would take extra hp from increasing displacement rather than modifying intake/exhaust.
Btw, isn't the 2k Max makes peak hp right before redline? I remember Andi or someone was talking about it before.

 

yup, the 2k makes its peak at 6400 and our redline is 6500. i notice that it's more sluggish at the lower rpms even though there's more h p there. that is due to that 200 some extra pounds in there. its definitely the weight, cuz i feel it lag even more when i add a few hundred pounds of family riding with me. but once i hit 4500+ rpmm, the **** flies better than the 4th gen ever did.