LS400 vs. 350Z

[JBrady]

Went to the track for the first time in a long time this past Friday 12/10/04.

Buddy of mine brought his 1999 Corvette FRC (fixed roof coupe, lightweight predesessor to the Z06). He had never been and needs some more practice before he gets the most out of his runs. He is a very good street driver but the drag strip is another thing and definitely takes time to learn to launch.

Temperature and air were excellent. Not quite as good as when I made my best passes but still very good. I thought I had my car set up the same as previous but the scale said 4070 pounds (with me) and it was 3975 previously. The only thing I can think of is different tires and maybe a little more gas... should not be 100 pounds though.

My first pass of the night was my quickest at 14.409 @ 97.53mph. My fastest was 98.59mph on a 14.460 pass on a 2.192 60 foot. Best 60ft was 2.177.

My WORST run was against a new Nissan 350Z. Beautiful car, deep blue with black chrome wheels. Didn't sound stock. I had a good light, .093, leaving slightly ahead of the Z, he stayed in my blind spot the whole race till the very end as he edged by me to win literally by a nose. VERY close race. I am certain he was embarrased. I ran my slowest pass and lowest mph at 14.507 @ 96.78mph. Any of my other passes would have one the race... oh well, thats racing. Pretty good showing against a modded 350Z.

Air temperature was about 60f with about 30.1 Hg barometer. My all time best 14.22 @ 99.38 was with 44f air and 30.4 Hg barometer and 100 pounds lighter. Pull off 1 tenth for each 10 degrees air temp, 1 tenth for barometer, 1 tenth for the 100 pounds and that could have been a 14 flat. Could-of-should-of-would-of doesnt matter. I ran what I did but looks pretty good overall when comparing to previous runs.

 

[Lextreme II]

John great runs... even u lost to the 350Z, morally you won the race. A Nissan Sport car just barely beat an old Lexus LS400. In the spectators eyes, you are the clear winner.

Now for the 100 lbs. What have you been eating since last year?

 

[gowest]

350z with VQ engine is not quite fit into sportcar class, but more like GT class. Nissan true sport car come with RB26dett engine... Godzilla... aka.. Nissan Skyline GT-R.

Still consider great run, almost beating 350Z, what is your technique on launching? Many people tell me to step on brake and rev the engine up to about 5000 when launching. Is that bad for engine and tran.

Your 14.22ET will easily beat my MR-2 turbo. It run 14.5 on average(stock engine), with my best time is 14.11 but with EVC set at 1.2bar of boost. It will very surprise me if the sedan of this size will run side by side with MR-2 on the dragstrip.

 

[400ZED]

In an auto it won't rev to 5000 not with the stock 1800 or what ever torque converter. all you can do is rev it just until the rears want to light up keep the foot firmly on the brakes when it is time to go get off the brakes and get on the gas. when nervous i tend to light up the rears and completley muff the launch as you are on and off again while trying to straighten up that doesn't help.
to get that 60ft down you will need a stall converter.
If you have a manuall please disregard my ramling.
All in all sounds like a nice day at the strip.

 

[JBrady]

The stock 225/60-16s combined with an open differential make 60 foots very tricky to maximize. My LS400 has an electronic throttle which is slow to respond. If I loose traction is it likely to spin very hard and the throttle is too slow to modulate, this kills the pass.

Holding the throttle against the stall of the TC (brake torquing) creates a lot of heat in the fluid... not recommended and this should be minimized. I will brake torque to about 2000rpm and then roll off the brake and roll onto the throttle. This is very delicate as to not loose traction. I try to keep time under brake torquing to the absolute minimum and go from about 1000rpm at the start of the 3 yellow lights and roll it up and launch on th last yellow. Stickier tires a limited slip diff and a higher stall converter would do wonders for my 60 foot. I think just drag radials alone would get the car into the very low 2.0 60 foots.

 

[Peewee]

Does the 99 LS400 vvti not have traction control?
Or isnt it that efficient?

 

[400ZED]

i was at the strip last week ran 13.826 @101.6 with a 2.124 60 ft
that was my best
for those that don't know that is a 260Z running managment and exhaust putting out 233 rwhp with the auto and a shift kit and manuall control

i was pretty happy with that

 

[gowest]

i was at the strip last week ran 13.826 @101.6 with a 2.124 60 ft
that was my best
for those that don't know that is a 260Z running managment and exhaust putting out 233 rwhp with the auto and a shift kit and manuall control

i was pretty happy with that

Very impresive number.... Wow... how you do that. What year is your LS? is it 430 or 400?

 

[400ZED]

it is a 1975 datsun 260Z running a motor out of a 1993 soarer with managment and extractors you can't get a lexus down the strip with anything like a stock motor in a time like that. the datsun weights something like 1100kg

 

[JBrady]

Does the 99 LS400 vvti not have traction control?
Or isnt it that efficient?

The traction control is miserable. Slight wheelspin is met by complete loss of power and a delayed response and even then short shifts. It MUST be turned off to run well.