2004.5 350Z
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A Nissan found at a Durham Volkswagon Dealership, bought from a Black Mountain Ford Dealership and financed through GMAC. I suppose that's what you get when you find your first "new" car by accident. The entire process took a week, if you don't count the 5 seperate test drives I took or the months of staring at photos on the computer. It all began at the Charlotte Merchandise Mart where I was attending Hot Import Nights 2004 with a couple friends from Work. We spent the afternoon walking through row after row of cars, gawking at the women and just having a pretty good time in general. As they're wont to do in these type places, the various booths were giving away bags of free stuff. Little did I know that one of those bags would change my fortunes. I took everything I was given home that night and tossed it on the couch before going to bed. The next morning, as I had nothing in particular going on that Sunday, I decided to go through what I'd been given. Most of it was junk...flyers and advertisments...but I found that I'd been given 2 copies of Auto Guide - One for Charlotte and one for Raleigh/Durham. I looked through the Charlotte one first and didn't see anything that caught my eye, so I tossed it aside in favor of the Raleigh/Durham issue. Sure enough, the very first entry under "Nissan" was for a Daytona Blue 2004 350Z with a hair under 11,000 miles. I thought about it for a little while....and didn't know what exactly to do about it. The price was very good for this particular car compared to all the other cars I'd seen. But I wasn't entirely sure about it. Anyway, so moving forward to Monday. While I was at work, I pulled that magazine back out and decided to give my Uncle a call. At the time he was working at a Ford Dealership out near Asheville doing all the financing stuff. He'd been helping me a bit to this point, so I gave him a call and told him what I'd found. I asked him to call the other dealership and see if he could do anything. Turns out he could. He got the sales manager down another $2,000 and reported back to me. I thanked him and mulled it over for a bit. The workday ended and I got in my Volvo to head for home. On the way I thought hard about what I wanted to do...and even called my parents to discuss it a bit. They seemed a bit skeptical at first....but after a few minutes saw that I'd done my homework here. So...as I was sitting at a stoplight I called my Uncle back and basically did the deal. About 15 minutes later I put a deposit on the car. Over the next few days, we worked it so that my Uncle's dealership would buy the car and then I would buy it from them. That Friday I went up to Durham and got the car.....and drove it back to Charlotte. Saturday, I took it out to Asheville and signed all the paperwork.
So yeah....that's how I got my Z. I haven't regreted it for a second and don't ever plan on letting it go. In fact, I've got plans for this car once it's paid off and I can make it my play car. Some people might call it a hunk of metal, glass, plastic and fabric....but I call it the justification for my higher education. In the time I've owned my Z (4 years now), the purpose behind the car has evolved. When I first picked up the car I thought surely I could drive it every day while keeping it up well enough to win car shows. Turns out that this proved to be harder than I had originally thought....and it was made especially so when in 2006 I competed in my first SCCA Autocross. SUddenly I no longer cared for car shows and the like...I simply wanted to drive fast. And just as suddenly I realized I couldn't drive the car I so loved. But I kept at it and finished out the second half of the 2006 CCR SCCA season and then competed for points in 2007. By the time the 2008 Autocross season rolled around, some things had changed for me. I was having difficulty making events and rapidly became disillusioned with the sport. I was tired of driving around cones in a parking lot. I knew that what I had learned was valuable and had made me a much better driver....but again the need for speed kicked in. It was nagging at me....Autocross simply wasn't fast enough. It was as if the car itself was actually telling me that it wasn't intended for parking lot racing. The proverbial straw that broke the camel's back came in October 2008 when I went down to Carolina Motorsports Park to hang out with my friends Bryan, Morris and Graham while they were doing a Lapping Day and HPDE that weekend. Stacy King and the Tarheel Sports Car Club were also offering the skidpad up during the event and I decided to give that a shot (since it didn't give me the sticker shock that the HPDE did). Who knew that a single weekend could change someone's outlook so much. The skid pad was incredible. The car control I'd learned while I was autocrossing was finally meeting some higher speeds....and the instructor there taught me to drift the car (beyond the throttle steering I was notorious for among the CCR crowd). It was during that weekend that I knew I had to figure out a way to do this for real. I wanted on track. Only problem was how to prepare the car to do it. I knew the car as it sat wouldn't be able to handle the increased stress of a high speed track session. Being able to stop over and over was something I felt was pretty important. So I turned to my friends....and picked up a set of Brembo brakes off Graham's new G35. Those were installed by the end of January and I did my first HPDE at VIR in February 2009. I had an incredible weekend and all I could think about when I got back to work on Monday was how I was going to afford to go back? Well..I found a way to do that too....and I managed to do 5 track events this year. All I can say is Thank You to Morris, Bryan, and Graham for keeping after me. As I've heard them say before....this really is the most fun you can have with your clothes on and I would encourage anyone to join us on track. You bought a Z Car....road courses are in the car's genes. So c'mon out and play. Specs: Year: 2004.5 Color: Daytona Blue Trim Level: Enthusiast Engine: VQ35DE 3.5 Liter V6 Transmission: 5 Speed Hybrid Estimated Horsepower: 255 RWHP @ 6400 RPM Estimated Torque: 241 ft-lb @ 4800 RPM Note: HP and Torque numbers estimated from Mustang Dyno results Modifications Engine & Drivetrain:
Suspension, Handling & Braking:
Show:
Audio:
Coming Soon: (in the garage and waiting)
Future Mods:
Awards:
Performance Numbers: Best 1/4th Mile Time: 14.482 seconds (Rockingham Dragway - 06/13/2005) Best 1/4th Mile Trap Speed: 96.07 MPH (Rockingham Dragway - 06/13/2005) Best 1/8th Mile Time: 9.227 seconds (Shadyside Dragway - 01/13/2006) Best 1/8th Mile Trap Speed: 79.112 MPH (Shadyside Dragway - 01/13/2005) |
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