My wife had me clean out some boxes and I came across a time slip from one of my old cars I had and wanted to share it with some thoughts.

I'm a little sick of seeing so many threads of-
"my friend, or whatever has a Civic SI, Saturn, some kind of ricer or whatever and says he can beat me. Is my G fast enough to beat him. Blah, Blah Blah"

Wake up and realize that we have a "performance luxury car", not a sports car, not a ricer, not a musclecar.

It seems that people are spending big amounts of money to make their G's faster. Supercharger, twin turbo, etc.
Something I think that we all need to keep in mind is the fact that it really does take big amounts of cash to get decent increases in performance from the VQ engine, not just simple things such as, intake, exhaust, etc.
Adding a supercharger or TT setup you are looking at what, about 5-10K?
It's a little sad to me the fact that the VQ engine does require so much money to be put into it to get a somewhat reasonable increase in performance.

One thread I came across here, a guy with a 350Z partially stripped it, I think to about 2800lbs. and with some mods, slicks and nos was running in the 11's and 12's. In my opinion those are good times from our car, and brings me to something that all "old school" racers know well, that is, weight vs. horsepower.
For every 100lbs. of weight you can remove or reduce from the car, you can decrease your 1/4mile time by a .10 of a second.

I had a '67 Shelby AC Cobra replica that I built, it weighed 2300lbs, 2500lbs with me in it. Fairly light weight car. Add to that, that I put in it a 427 that I had built to 450HP and you have a combo for a very fast car.
I spent just a little over $20,000 to build the whole car. Not $20,000 to just build the motor, but to build the entire car. Not very much money in my opinion for what I ended up with, which was a "hell of a fast, head turning car".

When I lived in San Diego, I would take it to Carlsbad Raceway on the weekends to race.
The time slip I came across was from one of the best runs that I had ever accomplished in that car.

1/4 et. 10.539
1/4 mph. 129.55
60ft. 1.573
That was with drag radials.

I would never spend $5k to $10k on performance mods on my G35, because the increase in performance to me just wouldn't be great enough to warrant that much of an expenditure. I would just buy a different car that would be easier to make it "go fast".

I raced my Cobra against a couple of Vipers, heavily modded Eclipses, Mustangs, Corvettes, etc. and beat 'em all. I'm not saying that I had the fastest car ever, just the fastest against those guys.

I like my G35 very much, and I like to enjoy the luxury that it has to offer along with the performance. And in my opinion if your looking for a really fast car, your money would be better spent on a different car.

 

IMO, "fast" is entirely dependant on the car. People will say things like "lower 14s are slow". Well, in a Mustang or F-Body, then yes, that's fairly slow. In a $34K V6 sport/luxury sedan with lots of room and creature comforts? That's fairly impressive. I've always found more enjoyment out of racing my sedans at the track then racing my old 94 Z28. My modded Z28 was far quicker (mid 13s) but there was nothing impressive about it because mid 13s is far from impressive in a car of that caliber. People aren't impressed by F-bodies until they start going 11s. In the 11s people say it's quick and when it hits 10s, then it's fast. Same goes for Supras, Vipers, Vettes, etc. Those cars are sports/muscle cars and they are focused heavily on speed and there is a lot of compromise that comes with those cars. I constantly get people in much faster cars coming up and asking about what's been done to my G35. It's typicaly 2 seconds slower than the fastest street car at the track, but for what it is, people consider it pretty fast. I feel the same way.

As for adding $3K+ in performance mods to the G35, I would never do it. If I've learned anything over the years it is the following:

1) More power often equals more noise and vibration
2) Adding forced induction to a motor that was orginally NA means you'll constantly be tinckering with slipping blower belts, exhaust leaks, constant tuning issues, stuck wastegates, and shoddy aftermarket assembly.

For me, I don't want to be dealing with all these headaches in my daily driver and I'm not willing to compromise comfort. I'd much rather add some performance mods and make the car a lower 14-second ride along with adding some style mods like wheels, Aero bumper, etc.

I love to go fast hence the reason I'll be spending $5-10K on a 89-93 Mustang LX 5.0 and making it into my weekend strip/track car. Going mid to high 12s NA is easy and that should be decently quick for me. With that car, I'll be happy to accept the crappy steering, poor brakes, vibrations, and a rather loud exhaust note. It's in character with the car.

 

Nice car Proporio. I pretty much agree with what you're saying. That's a wicked time you put in. An ex neighbour of mine used to sell the replicar kits for Factory Five. He had a 302 in his and it felt plenty fast to me with about 300 hp.

DaveB I also agree with what you're saying and I like the idea of building that vintage of Mustang. Cheap and available parts, fast and reliable. You get a lot of fun for your money. Enjoy.

 

Proporio, wut you wrote is the EXACT same thing i've been thinking the past couple of days. Sure its cool to have a G thats turbo or whatever but what i have been thinking is why throw 5-10k for build of the VQ when I can go and buy a house. Hold it a year sell it and have 40k or more in equity. Im in the process of doing this right now because my little brother is getting his licence next winter. So i wanted to buy him a car that he can learn on and i can beat on . Then throw that motor out and build it with him so he can get a hands on of what it is to build a true 10sec. race/show car. By then ill have a nice home a luxury sports car and a car we can both enjoy on weekends.

 

What you're saying is all relative to each persons situation. I spent the $10k to go the turbo route and it gets even more expensive BUT there was nothing like it for the money I spent. I had a great daily driver with gobs of power that was luxury and still turned heads.

With that said I already had my G paid off and bought my house so at that point it was either trade up for something faster or make my G faster.. I like the G35 more than any car up to the $50k range and I wanted more power so that was a no brainer for me.

Everyone has their opinions and each situation is different, its just a matter of what works for you. I seriously dont think anyone should knock a turbo'd G and say it doesn't make sense if they have not owned or had a good amount of seat time in one.

 

Tony,
I'm glad you enjoy your car as much as you do. but I will state again, in my opinion, if I wanted to have a car that was significantly faster than a G35, I would have bought a different car to begin with.

after you spent the $10k+, what is the best time you have done in the 1/4?
Are any G's or Z's running 10's in the 1/4?
When I was in high school, my Z28 (all motor) was running 10's in the 1/4.

I've owned about two dozen cars so far, and I can say with certainty, that the bang-for-the-buck that you get with mods on the G35 is significantly less than you get with many other cars. In my almost 25 years of working on cars (turbo and NA) I've not had another car where it has cost so much money to get just slight increases in performance.

Through the years I've owned a couple of Z28's, a Camaro SS, '69 Jaguar XKE, '67 corvette, Porsche 911, and assorted other cars which all cost me less money to get bigger increases in performance from them. In other words the bang-for-the-buck with mods was greater and cost less money.

Tony or anyone else,
What is the most horsepower that you know of being produced from a normally aspirated (non-FI) vq motor?

Yeah, and I know that many people put a 100-150 shot of nitrous on the car.
What does that cost, about $1K to $2k to do? I've played around with nitrous on a few other cars that I've owned, but for some reason I've always felt that using nitrous was somehow taking the easy-lazy way out.

I believe that without going to forced induction, you really can't get a significant increase in horsepower from the vq. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Don't get me wrong, I think the G35 and vq motor are great and that they are a great combination, my point is that in my opinion it just costs too much money to get a significant increase in performance from the vq.
We all have our opinions and this is mine.

 

That can be said for just about any late model NA car on the road. Sure, you can gain some serious NA power on a GM LS-series V8, but it's still going to cost you an arm and a leg to gain 40-60whp. Remember, this isn't a choked up sub 1990s car or classic car. In this day and age, automakers have really pushed motors to the point that they're just about as efficent as they can get for street driven motor.

 

I'm in total agreement with you.

 

Your're right on the money with that one. This is my DD and I don't mind a few light mods here and there.
I don't think of your typical 4 or 6 cyl. engined cars as fast. As you said, it takes a good amount of $$ to get these cars to go. Typically the newer V-8's don't need very much to get into the 12's. I see a 12 second car as average to fast. A "fast" car to me would be 11's and below. Those are the ones that really throw you back into the seat. Even though considering that a low 12 second car is quick enough to beat about 99% of what's out there; having a 12 second car and being surrounded by 12 second cars makes you think that 11 seconds is the next best "fast". So I would think that most people with cars in the 14's would think 13's or 12's is fast and so on. Then maybe to them 11's is more like "holy ****!"

 

my car is FAST!! but it is also an extreme case of a Z.


right now i am/was clutch limited to right over 500 hp. i have the car all apart now, getting in a full cage welded in. it was running high 11s at right over 120 on tires i drive on everyday. i smoke C6s like they are sitting still. havent gotten in many good races out on the street cause i dont drive it that much.

its scary fast for sure. even at 14 psi.

FYI, i have a 2900 pound, darton sleeved, greddy tt Z, had it running at 13-14 psi (clutch wouldnt hold any more), i am putting an american th400 tranny in it as soon as it gets back from the welding shop, its good to way way over 1000 hp, i will be running 20 psi fully tuned and a 150-200 shot of nitrous on top of that under 12 psi. it will be very very very fast soon.

these cars can be fast for sure, all motor running high 12s all day with bolt ons, on nitrous i was running 11.8s, all very easy to do...

if anyone needs or would like any info on what i am doing or any help in any way, please let me know, i will be more than happy to help, i am in process of opening a shop in orlando doing custom installs on our cars...

 

PS...

Fast is a very relative term also, just like making a lot of money...

both are compared to only what you know and what you are surrounded with..

 

Great points Proporio, you hit it right on the head. As I've said tons of times, our cars are QUICK but definitely not fast.

What is fast? When your head gets snapped back and you feel your stomach drop like youre on a rollercoaster. When you have trouble reaching forward to grab ahold of something cuz youre half scared sh*tless.

Thats fast.

 

I agree, these cars are not fast. But as others have mentioned, it's all relative. This is the fastest car I've ever owned, and nearly the fastest car I've ever driven.

I'm not going to spend the amount of $$$ required to make this car the level of fast that other enthusiasts would respect. However, I do have a goal to drive this car to a 1/4 time that is one of the top 5 for NA g's, period. I've been very selective in my purchases, and for my go-fast mods(stillen intake, mrev+, crawford cats, and stillen exhaust) I've spent right at $1000. These mods haven't given me a lot of power, but enough that I'm quicker than the average g.

I'd like to have a separate project car that isn't my daily driver, but I'm just not there financially. Until such time, I'm going to continue modding/enjoying my daily. Even if I did have a project car, I wouldn't have any clue how to drive something with more than 275whp.

 

give me month and anyone in the orlando area can take a ride with me, then see if you say our cars arent fast, it scares the hell outta anyone thats ridden in it at 14-15 psi. it is 600-700 pounds lighter than the G

wait till its 200 shot and 20 psi...

 

You are totally insane--I love it!
That is some hardcore Sh^t your doing.
Keep it up and keep us posted.
Just don't kill yourself in that car, be careful.