Project Nissan 370Z- Kinetix Racing Suspension, Enkei Wheels and Continental Tires

We think the Kinetix upper arms were designed more for street use where you would want to reduce negative camber on a heavily lowered car rather than what we wanted do do, gain negative camber on a mildly lowered car for track use.  When we first installed them we could only get about 2.5 degrees negative camber out of them.  We put a thinner lock nut on the spherical bearing and machined the stub on the arm down, eventually yielding 3 degrees negative camber.  For pure track use such as Time Attack we would prefer even more negative camber than this.

With the modified front arm we aligned the car with 3 degrees negative camber and 1/8″ toe out.  Since the Kinetix arm is currently the only adjustable upper arm we know of on the market, this will have to do for now. For pure street use we would probably do something like 2 degrees of negative camber and zero front toe.

For wheels we chose the super light Enkei PF01 in 18×9.5 with a 35mm offset for the front and a 18×10.5 in the rear with a 15mm offset.  The 370Z has big wheel wells that can accommodate big wheels and tires!

Although the Enkei PF01 is a cast wheel, it uses Enkei's MAT technology.  MAT is a process where after casting the wheel blank has its rim section roll formed to final shape.  This cold works the metal providing grain refinement much like forging does.  This allows for a stronger, tougher and thinner rim section like a forged wheel with some of the cost savings of a casting.  Since the outer part of the wheel has a higher moment of inertia, saving weight on the rim makes a much bigger difference than in the spokes or hub.  This makes the wheel effectively lighter than the overall weight can suggest.

Even though its a light cast wheel, the PF01 is also strong.  Its design is optimized using finite element analysis and the wheel is designed to Enkei's in house standard called Spec-E which is over 20% tougher than the already tough JWL standards.