Project Nissan 350Z- Making the Chassis fully Adjustable and Getting Rid of Flex with SPL and Whiteline

The easy to adjust SPL links really speed the alignment process.

We used SPL's toe adjuster lock out on the toe arm, which puts all of the adjustment in the link itself. This eliminates a possible slip point. For the bottom arm where the camber is primarily adjusted, we retained the stock eccentric. By the time you read this, SPL should have an eccentric to replace the stock part that has a wider adjustment range than stock. To reduce rear suspension compliance we also used SPL’s traction rod, which replaces the rubber bushings with a spherical bearing. This arm will reduce toe change under acceleration and braking.

Darrin Nishimura of West End Alignment adjusts the camber and caster of Project 350Z. West End uses old fashioned alignment tools because they are way more accurate than the newer laser alignment machines.

To set up our chassis we took our car to West End Alignment in Gardena. Darrin and Chris Nishimura of West End are renowned for their Motorsports chassis setups. Darrin set our car up to our specs, which were largely derived from our work with Dai Yoshihara’s time attack 350Z. In the front we ran 3 degrees of negative camber, 8 degrees of positive caster and 1/8 inch toe out. In the rear, we ran, 1.75 degrees of negative camber and 1/8 in toe in.

Chris Nishimura checks and adjusts the rear camber.

Driving the car home we could immediately tell that the car was greatly improved even on the street. Turn in was greatly improved as well as steady state front and rear grip, probably because the suspension was no longer moving around by large fractions of an inch as before! The car was a lot more stable and you could step on the throttle a lot harder. The wheelhop was also gone. The already good car was now a lot better! The car had a little more harshness and vibration being transmitted to the cabin but it was only a slight amount more than stock and not excessive at all. Anyone that can tolerate a sports car as a daily driver would probably not find this excessive.

The toe is measured with this trammel bar on a thin scribed line on the tire, this is super accurate!

A few days later Sera took the car to Buttonwillow for some on track testing and was amazed at the difference. Understeer was totally eliminated and she could get on the gas in every corner harder and sooner. When sliding the car it was much more predictable and she reported that she could stay flat on the throttle in many places where she had to lift previously. She was now totally pleased with the car's handling and is going to take it drifting soon to report on how well the car now drifts.