Here are some pics of the bar installed with the CF engine cover. Enjoy!

 

Here are some up close pics of the fitment and clearance between the STB and the engine cover.

 

sweet man....you dont have the K&N's on yet? I'm worried about getting this bar b/c after putting on the K&N's, it seems as if the C/F cover sits higher on the pass. side I'll probably try it out though. Is it rubbing on the hood insulation?

 

I also made sure that the STB wasn't hitting the underside of the hoods heat-shield by putting some baking soda on top of the STB and then opening and closing the hood several times. As you can see, there is absolutely no baking soda residue on the underside of the hood cover even after openening and closing it many times. The baking soda on the STB was also undisturbed afterwards. Here are a few pics.

 

Nope, no rubbing at all and I still have room to move the bar up or down a little if needed.

What is your worry with installing the K&N? You worried it will rub the STB or the engine cover?

I haven't had a chance to dyno the car yet, so that's why the K&N isn't installed yet (is still sitting in a box in my garage waiting for me).

I'm going to try and get to the shop to have the car dyno'd on Saturday and then I will put the K&N on. Will definitely let everyone know how it fits.

 

it looks to me like you don't even need the recessed area on the engine cover? :S

 

I'm worried that the cover might be sitting high on the passenger side now, and would rub on the strut bar. I'll probably just get it, only one way to find out! (btw..you'll love the way the K&N's sound! this weekend i opened it up on the parkway and my g/f's like.."babe...did you do something to your car?"haha)

 

Looking good, to bad the bar doesn't go in the grove of the cover has.

 

You are correct... There is aleady plenty of clearance without the recessed area (I believe that recessed area is placed for the 350Z fitment and not our cars anyway). I could probably even lower the bar another 1/8" ans still have clearance between it and the engine cover.

 

Gotchya. Well, if the K&N is causing the engine cover to sit slightly higher on the passenger's side now, then it must be rubbing somewhere. I would just look and find out where it is rubbing and just trim the enginer cover a little, so it doesn't rub anymore.

Hehe... I'm betting my wife will say the same thing once I get it installed. I can't wait to hear it!

 

Yeah, I agree, but there is plenty of clearance without the groove anyway. I'm not sure if that groove is placed for the 2007+ 350Z, since they use the same cover, or if maybe (hopefully) NR>G plans to make a CF front strut bar that will sit down in that recessed area... Now that would be sweet and I would quickly be selling my GT Spect STB!

 

That groove is actually for the 350Z strut bar as its tower sit further out than the G.
However i was looking at the 370Z cover OEM and saw that the groove is quiet a bit wider than this which could allow for the GT bar to finally sit in place of the groove, lets see how its goes when they come out with it....

 

Yeah, I noticed that too when I saw it at the LA Auto Show. I'm actually looking at the possiblity of having a 1 piece CF engine cover made in China and importing them. This would be a single piece unit (rather than 2 piece unit like on the NR>G unit) with the wider recessed area to fit the strut bar on any of the fitments and would fit the 2007+ 350Z, the 2007+ G35, 2008+ G37, and 2009+ 370Z. I'm currently getting a tooling estimate from one of my vendors over there. If the tooling costs are reasonable, then I will most likely send out a feeler thread to see how much interest there is for this product. It would most definitely be much cheaper than NR>G's as well.

 

That would be nice and in that case you could count me in...

 

Woohoo... That makes one!

I probably won't have an answer until January on the tooling, so it would take a little while to get this off the ground, but I will definitely keep you posted.