I had to get some new Yokohama AVS ES100's mounted on our 330i today. On the way back I was right by the Nissan dealer so I thought I would stop by to see if I could test drive the 350z. They had a Track model and I took it out for a little spin.

The car is awesome. The handling was very much like the 330i sport I drove over to the dealer. It was very refined and had little body roll. I didnt get to push the car hard, but could tell it was very solid. I cannot believe how much this car feels like a Bimmer. I would love to push it at the track.

The engine/drivetrain is top notch too. Of course all of us being Maxima fanatics love the VQ. In this application it feels perfect. The power is linear and the engine has a nice spread of torque. Even in higher gears it still pulls nicely. The transmission offers real short throws and the shifter clicks in real nicely. No need for a STS here IMO.

Overall, I love this car. I plan on ordering one early next summer. The only thing I dont like is the HUGE blindspots. It would take me a while to get used to it.

 

I have heard some mention of blind spots but as bad as you pointed it out to be. Are they really that awful?

SuDZ

 

How's the power compared to the 330i?

 

No contest....350Z is the clear winner.

I dont know about the brakes though. I couldn't judge which car stopped better. The Z was equiped with the Brembos and had very nice pedal feel, but I couldnt judge which one stopped quicker.

 

BTW.....If anyone is looking for Ultra High Performance tires. These Yoko's are REAL grippy. They replaced Dunlop 8080E's, which are a sticky tires and there is a noticeable difference in dry grip. I picked them up for $105 a tire (245/40/17) from TireRack.

 

Did the Z stop pretty quick though?

SuDZ

 

it should have - 119ft to stop from 60-0
the 330ci does it in 120 - so its almost the same

 

the track 350Z i heard stops in 113 feet

and they let you drive one at your dealership???

 

are you freaking serious, you are really saying that your 330i sports handling is remotely close to the 350z????? and I repeat myself, are you freaking serious??????

350Z is a track bread car, the track version has Brembo Brakes, you can drive the track on it all day long w/out any fade, bmw on the other hand needs brakes upgrading for any serious track. suspension wise, can you really compare a 330i w/ 350z, yeah, maybe if you drive like my mom, on the track 350z could eat 330i on a cold day on a cold engine for breakfast. the handling of the 350z is much superior then 330i

and when it comes to the power, you can't even compare 330i and 350z, w/ the power that the 350z puts to the ground 330 would be way behind in any cattegory.

what you do get in the 330i is the comfort leather and buttons that make the women in the 30's feel like they're driving a comfortable race car (which they are)

I'm not saying that 330i is by any means not a great car, I would LOVE to have one of 'em, but when comparing to the 350z, I would rather have that on the track then 330i

peace

friend "your IQ must be lower then a ricer"

 

Great post...I can tell you talk out of your @ss. The car DOES feel like a BMW. The steering and suspension is BMW caliber. Again, I speak from actual track experience. The garbage that you posted is all wrong(330i Brakes fading..LOL). Next time you try and flame some one do the research..

 

I must admit that the BMW brakes are good. I race the Maxima (not drag) and BMW 330 are in my class. I was competing against this one 330 and he entered as stock. I noticed he wasn't having any brake fade issues (well, after 6 hot laps and still going I was impressed) so I asked him how his brakes were holding up. He said fine. I asked him if he changed the pads (allowed in stock category) and he answered no, he just purchased the M3 brake dealer option on his 330.
That obviously helped but still, I have an upgraded brake kit and I have trouble doing 5 hot laps. He was doing 6+ without any problems. I was impressed with BMW brakes on that day.
(The 328 I also race against never seems to have brake issues either).

 

I would take BMW over Z any day. They tested BMW 330ci and G35 coupe and 0-60 and 1/4 times were almost the same. I think BMW even got better 0-60 times.. It it not all about power, BMW geared very good. And G35 and Z are overrated as well, so there you have it.

Z does handle well, I drove in my friend's new Z. I wouldn't drive hard in the rain in Z, with those POS tires they put on it. My friend hit a curb in it, because rear started sliding in the corner.

 

Not to flame the BMW but I remember tests where the G35 sedan was faster 0-60 than the BMW (like 3 different mags) so I'm curious what the times were for the G35 coupe (which should be faster than the G35 sedan due to its 6 speed transmission and higher hp).

...?

 

They tested 330ci 5-speed and got 5.9sec 0-60 and for G35 coupe 6-speed they got 6.0sec.

 

Cool, thanks.

Makes you think as to how efficient the BMW is and how its gearing is setup. I don't know what the weight difference is but I can't imagine it to be that huge. 50 hp less and still kicks ***.

 

first of all, I'm not talking out of my ***, I will put $$$ on the fact that if you take a 330i and a 350z and just have them do 100-0 mph then bmw pads will go before 350z pads, allright, if you put the same pads the both will do well, but I'm talking about stock pads

you're talking from the track experience??? fine, lets say you've tracked your car, great, bmw stock suspension is not made for racing, the least you have to do is put a huge *** sway bars on it, 350z track is already setup for TRACK, not for street driving

I'm not saying that you can't make both cars handle EXTREMELY well, what I said is stock vs stock 350z is a better car, out of the box I would guarantee that on the track it would have faster times

and unless you take the z on the track, I don't want to hear any of the "you're talking out of your @ss"

 

\

the weight on the 330i is different depending on the year, on

2001 the weight is 3,318 lbs
2003 the weight is 3,285 lbs

 

I never said that the Z is slower around a road course. Maybe you need to take a reading comprehension course. From how you talk, you are repeating what magazines have to say about the cars in question. Ask anyone with racing experience and they will tell you NO CAR under 50k (Z06 is the Cutoff) is really setup for the track. The Z understeers very badly and needs a little tuning of the suspension and stickier tires. The stock brakes on the 330i are just as good as the 350z's. Every valid test I have seen they pull nearly identical distances. The brakes are designed for a 4200 lb car (E38 7), which makes then very efficient in a almost 900 lb lighter vehicle.

 

Calm down guys. He only took the Z for a test drive...... I don't think we can expect 0-60, track times, 100-0 braking times, in depth handling characteristics etc...
As far as the brakes. One would expect the huge brembos to perform better. But "perform better" might be misleading. One stop from 100 mph? Both cars might stop about the same(depending on well the car is setup in other areas(ie.. suspension, abs, rear bias etc.) But if you took both cars to the track and asked both to perform severe braking time after time, you would probably have to give the nod to the brembros on the Z.

 

How about this:

Acceleration: Z is the clear winner.

Handling: Z is the winner slighty....Both cars feel very similar. Remember our 330i has the sport package with sticky tires.

Braking: A Toss-Up.

 

hehe, you funny man, don't take everything I take serious I actually haven't read the magazines, I'm still waiting for my stupid subscription of road & track, I know 330 is a nice car, just 350 is nicer hehe, bmw's are track bread also, and specifically, they tried to make the 330 as close to an M3 as $$$ possible

 

I take things seriously when someone says my IQ is lower than a ricer.

 

hey I didn't say that, I just typed what my friend said, I thought it was funny

k

 

0-60 times are a joke....the only thing they tell you in cars that are similarly matched is which driver was able to launch better.

You can't estimate the overall power and acceleration of a car based on a 4-7 second time measure.

 

true, what's important is how it accelerates from 85 (exit of the turn) to 130 (end of the straight) on the track

 

I dont know of many tracks where the Z will hit 120 at the end of a straight.

 

My butt accelerometer is pretty accurate The Z was definetly faster than my Maxima and the 330i.

 

you might be surprised, at the NHIS I hit about 100-105 on the straight, and I exit the turn on the 2nd gear (very high), so pretty much as soon as I exit I shift, now if you take the Z which with increased power would exit faster, lets say 70mph vs 60mph, then I'm sure 120 would be very possible. hehe

K

 

Actually maybe thats true....My friend said he hits ~140 in his 02 Z06 at Road America on the long straights. He a few mods such as PF 01 Race Pads, Intake, and DOT racing slicks which help out a bit.

 

Just not with you, you dont know how to drive

SuDZ

 

haha, just because you're afraid doesn't make me a bad driver

K

p.s. did you get the VI

 

I was afraid during my first ride at the track. I let my friend who has being racing many times drive my Maxima to show me the proper line. He was pushing the car extremely hard. I wasnt used to it so I thought we were going to lose it. Once I got the wheel, it wasnt scary at all, but pretty relaxing. It seems like your going faster than you really are when your in the passenger seat.

 

yeah, that's understandable, my instructor (same one twice) went easy on my car and didn't really push it, so he didn't scare me I wanted to be scared hehe

but I know what you are saying, my portefields aren't that great so I was afraid going above 95 on the straights, and then being able to break on time, well, when I get a real car that I can race things will hopefully be diffrent, but untill then I will race my grocery getter on the track and have poeple ask "what have you done to this engine "??????

 

Tommorow my friend, the VI comes in tommorow.

SuDZ

 

very nice, I wanna borrow your g-tech still, interested on the gains I got from exhaust, it feels faster, but you know how feels is, it can just be in my head

 

I think you're talking pretty much sense. BMW is living proof that not everything is about numbers. Some of their drivers choose 175 hp when they could have had 260 in a CL-S for thousands less. BMW has a great road feel, that's almost a given. When they compromise it, BMWCCA steps in and boom BMWNA is retrofitting 3-Series' steering racks at a huge expense to the car co. But as we know, the looks are quite dated as it came out in early '99 I believe. I got a friend that has a 323i that he loves, only got 40k on it and it's a '99. The flip side is there's no question whether a 350Z or a E46 BMW is better looking. C'mon now. And given that the 350 is a 2-seater, it'd be hard to believe that it couldn't outhandle a 5-spd E46 hands down. I'd even overlook the 53% weight bias on the 350. Can it take an E46 M3? Probably not, but guess what, yes, the 350 is better looking and will turn more heads. Lots of folks don't recognize the M3, but they can see the 350 coming a mile away! It's really bizarre to me at least to say I'll just buy them both. Are people that really wealthy? yikes

 

AMEN!!! 350 = Bia-tches!

 

Sure no prob, hit me up on AIM later or what not.

SuDZ

 

that's 53% when parked in my garage (I hope), hehe, when it's at power the distribution 50/50

amen

 

Hey *******, you're comparing Nissan's biggest baddest performance car to one of BMW's commuter cars. Even if the BMW didnt quite stack up, it's amazing that it still competes with the 350Z, even when the 350Z is equipped with the track pack with better brakes. How about you make it a better comparison, say throw the 350Z up against an M3 (you know, the performance version of the 3 series ) and then see what happens... oh wait, we all know what would happen, the 350Z would get owned in just every catagory, by a long shot!

So quit your