On May 9th, 2001, I acquired my Z. It is a stock 91 300ZX Twin Turbo, with every available option. The exterior is bright red, and the interior is black leather. The interior is in nearly perfect condition, and the exterior is now perfect thanks to the new paint job and body work that happened at the end of August. The Z is reasonably quick in stock form, as indicated below. However, as is the case for many cars out there, there is lots of room for improvment. It is fairly easy to get the Z to 320 rwhp without any major modifications.
All stock, the Z is equipped with:
- 3.0L (181 cid) 60 degree quad cam V6 in front, rear wheel drive
- 5 speed manual transmission with 3.69 axle ratio and 3.21 first gear
- Dual Overhead Camshafts (hollow), four valves per cylinder
- Variable intake cam timing
- Twin turbochargers (parallel, one for each bank, 9.5 psi stock), electronic wastegate control
- Twin air to air intercoolers (parallel)
- Dual intake, with twin throttle bodies and plenums
- Multicoil direct ignition (no distributor, seperate coil pack on each spark plug)
- Forged aluminum internal engine components capable of handling over 600 hp.
- Fully independent suspension, multilink front and rear
- Electronically adjustable suspension stiffness, sport/touring switch on center console
- Four wheel steering (HICAS), turns the rear wheels up to 3 degrees in hard cornering
- True dual exhaust all the way back, with dual cats and dual mufflers
- Wheels: Brushed Aluminum, 16x7.5 front, 16x8.5 rear
- Black Leather interior
- Electronic Climate Control
- Z32 2+0 (2 seat) hatchback body style
- 300 hp @ 6400 rpm, 283 lb ft @ 3600 rpm
- 0-60 in 5.0 seconds, 1/4 in 13.7 @ 102 mph, according to C/D 8/91
- .91 g of lateral grip on a 300 foot diameter skidpad
- Top speed: governed to 155 mph stock, capable of 170+ mph when the governor has been dropped at stage III
Unfortunately, the Z is not a strong quarter mile performer. There is a good deal of antisquat geometry in the independent rear suspension, making the car VERY difficult to launch well off the line. This effect is only magnified on high horsepower examples with upgraded turbos. A massive top end makes up for the lack of quarter mile acceleration. From a 60 mph punch, the Z leaves most cars for dead. It will pull to 170 mph on stock power with the governor removed, and is ultimatley limited to a little over 190 by the tranny gearing.
A front quarter shot.
Another front quarter. Due to the recent paint job, the exterior of the car is literally in perfect mint condition.
Note the custom body work in the picture on the left. From the factory, the strip where the "twin turbo" decal lies is black. When I aquired the car, the black material had been deformed over time, probably from the sun. While the car was being painted, the bodyshop custom made a metal strip to put there, attached it to the new stock spoiler, and painted it red. This is the ONLY cosmetic change from stock on the entire car, and although it is not easily noticed, it makes the car quite unique.
Links (note that some of the Z information on the Clemson page is out of date and inaccurate, as I have not been able to update recently):
Z32.org owners group
www.twinturbo.net
www.300ZXforum.com
Bryan's RiceBoy Page
My Clemson University Page
