Steve’s fair lady is finally ready for action again.
[Not a valid template]| Driver's Log | |
|---|---|
| Date acquired: | August 2011 |
| Total kilometres: | 87,621 |
| Kilometres this month: | 992 |
| Costs this month: | $27 |
| L/100km this month: | 11.7 |
A few days after writing last month’s article, I got the Nissan 350Z back with brand-new everything. And I do mean everything. The guys at Lap57 managed to replace basically the entire front end of my suspension minus the shock absorbers: upper arms; lower arms; compression rods; the works. I only asked for the one arm to be replaced, and they quoted me a very good price that I thought covered the cost of that one arm (I get there and receive almost an entire box of suspension). The bushing issue is fixed, the steering wheel no longer sits five-degrees off-centre when driving straight, and I’ve even thrown it around in anger.
I was at the GTZ Wet Drift event in late February, shaking down all the hard work that’s been put into the car. The culmination of months of effort from many different fantastic people (and some not so much) and a bucketload of cash meant I could finally drive my car the way she was meant to be driven: flat out. Drifting with the Quaife differential was so silky smooth: even transitioning from the wet area to the dry area felt so natural, with the power being put down exactly where it needed to be to keep me sideways.
The rest of the month was quite uneventful. I polished and waxed the Nissan‘s new black bonnet (it took ages but it looks so beautiful). Then it rained so heavily I went out and finally bought some new windscreen wipers: the old ones were scratching the windshield whenever they were inadvertently turned on. Then it stopped raining as soon as I installed them. Fantastic.
I finally received my KW Clubsports in March. Turns out though that I can’t use them yet because I wanted the coilovers on the back wheels and these are a spring and shock combination. I spoke to chassis/suspension savant Mike Kojima of MotoIQ (Formula Drift engineer for Dai Yoshihara’s Nissan 350Z) about my issue and he recommended the SPL Spring buckets with some Swift springs, which will be ordered next month. I also spoke to KW USA’s Chris Marion about the problem. They were both so helpful my brain almost exploded with information.
As she sits now, with new parts in the front, there is still a measly 10mm wheelbase difference that I will fix to finally get the RTA off my back. For now everything is on hold until I get back from vacation. She’s back with a vengeance!
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