This is not a typical war story. Not what we are used to any ways. There was no racing on the streets of Mexico. No no, this war was done today on the rollers of a local dyno. I was told about a $50 dyno day at a fairly local shop. I figured yeah I need to see what the 300ZX is putting down so sign me up! I was scheduled to be on the rollers at 9. However this place was in complete disarray this morning and I didn't get on they dyno until almost 10.

I was car 2 to run, nobody there paid any attention to the lowly little ZX sitting before them. After all its just a junky 80's car right? Well my first pull had everyone's attention, especially the guy doing the pulls, the first pull it squatted so hard they had to re tighten the straps. The turbo was loud enough everyone came in from outside to watch. By the 3rd pull the car had put down 371whp and 367wtq! Not bad at all for what it is!

Well with these numbers being displayed it inflated many ego's. 3 BMW owners, a Supercharged 323i and 2 M3's were quick to get big heads. My my! If that old Z can do that we are going to be 400whp for sure! But alas the dyno broke their hearts. The most powerful M3 made a mere 307whp and 220ft/lbs. He then loaded a new tune and made less They were less than impressed and there was a lot of cussing and blaming the dyno for being wrong.

The little Z was bested by a 2006 Viper, which made 508whp and 460tq, I ain't even mad though. My nearest competitor was a Mazdaspeed 3, the owner was humble and predicted a mere 280whp but then went on to pull 329whp and 340tq. After seeing this the M3 guys demanded to be put on the rollers again because the obvious dyno flaw was fixed! Alas it was not fixed, not for them anyways as the strongest one only put down 303whp and 220tq. After that the M3 guys left.

Two Volvo S60 R's showed up with their 2.5L turbo I5's. They too seen the little Z's numbers and happily gloated about how they would beat it. Poor Volvo owners didn't stand a chance with 246whp and 264tq. They too had the wind sucked out of their sails.

The rest of the cars were pretty lack luster, you can see their numbers in the picture below. Overall it was a very fun day. It was nice to see so many peoples ego's get shot down because of my crappy little car.

 

very nicely written. Congrats very nice numbers! Im butthurt

 

Thank you sir!

 

Of course the civic has the lowest numbers on the torque department.

 

So whats done to it? I always loved the 300zx, mata fact it was between that car and the cobalt when i was in the market

 

Wat civic lol

 

One of them did pretty decent actually

It's a stock bottom end 86 engine with 7.8:1 compression,
home done porting,
Schneider cams and springs,
HX35 turbo @ 20psi,
23x11x3 IC with 2.5in piping,
3in turbo back exhaust,
gutted plenum,
60mm thottlebody,
Tial wastegate,
a JWT 3BAR ECU (canned tune basically),
93 Mustang Cobra MAF
420CC Bosche injectors from a Benz.

 

14. 93 Civic hp 175 tq 129

 

O didnt see that

 

Not a bad day at the dyno.

 

Yeah it was a pretty good day. It kept me amused and out of trouble.

 

That's alot of pep for how light your Z is. What baffles me is that stockish type cars roll up to the dyno thinking, not even close to stock numbers. Did they know what they bought? Did they understand it was going to be WHP not BHP on the dyno read outs, lol. Mind blowing!

 

Yeah it was pretty enlightening to see how many people over rate their cars in their heads. The trend seemed to be the guys that spent a lot of money on their high end cars were the ones with the biggest ego and overconfidence.

 

Most BMW owners are douchers just like subie guys. Hard to watch a cheaper car make more power when your new subie with 10k under the hood makes 350 wheel and already ate 3 trannys

 

Hell ya. Good job.

 

That solstice must have been stock . The M3 owners are hilarious. I can't wait til this local dyno shop near my parents' place has their dyno days so that I can put my solstice on it. Should be fun to lay down upper 300's with just a little 4 banger bingo getter .

Nice numbers for the 300zx. A buddy of mine used to have one. They were nice cars for what they were.

 

Sweet numbers. Besides my 335, I also have a 323 and I'm pretty sure that only makes like 180hp stock.. So that was a pretty nice bump in power for that guy.

As far as the M3 drivers.. lulz 400hp on the 3.2 s54 without boost? It's not an s65..

 

Yeah Solstice was pretty much stock. Said he had a 3in downpipe but with the ECU's torque management still enabled it really didn't do him any good.


Oh they were definitely a trip. They kept us all entertained. I think the dyno operators even found it amusing.

 

lol congrats. my sedan got the same welcome and the same reaction at a dyno day. the BMW owner before me said hye dyno was broken as well. the dyno operator asked me to go show him my slip but i'm not one to start ****. haha

i made the best numbers of the day for a 4cyl.

 

It must be a common thing with BMW owners lol

 

BMW is the ultimate driving machine. Any model will decimate all, after spending about 15k or more, if they have to, with over night parts from Japan.

 

Today I learned Bavaria is a hidden place in Japan

 

wow thats funny, I would love to go to a dyno day like that with the cobalt lol. So funny how dumb founded people are. Those numbers all look correct to me

 

good numbers for the speed3 as well. what'd he have done, did you talk to him at all?

 

He told me he has done everything he can. He says this is the limits of the stock rods so he can't get much more out of it without doing a build.