Raced a 350Z yesterday and I had him off the line up till about 60-70ish till my Xfire hit 3rd gear. 3rd gear (Autostick) is way too tall for a sports car. That's when he started to gain on me and once the RPM's in 3rd gear got up we were matched all the way up to 110-120ish then he once again pulled away from me but not more than a car's length. Anyone else annoyed with 3rd gear's gearing, or any other racing experiences?

 

My guess is you raced a automatic, and that guy/woman couldnt drive very well or didnt launch it. A 350z should have no problem beating us. I raced a 350 Z track on the highway and he walked me like a dog. I could not keep up for the life of me. 6-speed 350z's can hit well into the 13's stock while the best time i heard for our crossfire is a 14.6@96. While the auto 350'z's are running in the low 14 area.

 

Actually there are a number of people on here who said they've beaten 350Z's. They can't all be lying. Straight off the line I'm sure we'd lose, but if you get a little jump on them, that's probably all you need. A little extra speed and a couple extra seconds are all you need.

 

It caught me when I was in third but I had him till then. I'm pretty sure it was a stick cause his *** end was all over the place on the launch and a good friend of mine has a 350 Track version and he can attest that the rear ends are squirrely too. Just admit it we don't have the raw HP but our gearing on our cars is not bad, other than a tall 3rd gear. The proper gearing and weight distibution on our cars allows our little 215HP to go a long way.

 

I'm glad someone else pointed this out. I beat a 350Z with a stick (the driver's a friend of mine, so I know his car well). I wouldn't say he's an expert racer, or even an amateur racer, but he's not a moron either. I never posted it because I didn't want to hear people screaming at me about how there must be something which mitigated the race. The xfire isn't a viper, but it can handle most cars if it can get a jump, and it's light enough that it can a jump quite often.

$0.02

 

a couple extra seconds? any close race is decided within thenths of a second, not a couple. correct me if im wrong but anything more then a second is a beating in my books, just my 2 cents

 

Anything happens on the street NJ, but that is not a case of car beating car that is a case of driver beating driver plain in simple. I am not a bad driver at all, quite the opposite and i could not keep up, thats whats happens when a good driver with a faster car races.
I beat a STi due to the driver drove worse than Ray Charles on ex. Missing a gear is all it takes, and combined with horrible shifting, put me in the lead. So I do believe that we can beat a 350z just saying its driver related not car.

 

I think that hits it on the head perfectly. All things being equal, the Z would win 100% of the time.
Of course if all things were equal, Ryan Leaf would be the best quarterback in NFL history and the New York Yankees would never lose a game. When I beat a car in the race, I don't give the xfire all the credit - I take some of it too. A driver who is comfortable with his car and knows the ins and outs of his car well can pretty much alwasy be competitive.

 

I second that...............

 

Ryann Leaf isn't he self retired to much money in pockets ?Or was it the blow?

 

I can attest that the 350Z is not much faster than an XFire. When i test drove a 350Z first gear is not impressive at ALL. It's only when you shift to second that the car moves. Granted 350Z has more torque however at a much higher rpm than the XFire, so at the same 3,000 rpms of the XFire where its making 229 lbs the 350Z should be close around there with its torque. Also the 350Z is heavier almost 180 lbs. When i drove the XFire manual right after the 350Z, the XFire's first gear was impressive (Yeah its a launch gear really) but i was really amazed the car felt nimbler and almost identical as the 350Z with advantages in certain areas with 72 hp less and 45 less torque. People think the 350Z is automatically a Viper next to a XFire and guess what guys ITS NOT. And the handling of the 350Z is nowhere near the XFire. It might have a take of about a car length or so in second gear but on first gear and hi end the XFire will be right there with it with no prob. Yeah drivers expertise helps alot too, so when people sit there and say "oh a 350Z is faster than the XFIRE" or the Kiddish Crap "Oh if you beat a 350Z is because the driver didnt know what he was doing" thats BULLS**T, those are just lame excuses. The reason I say this is because i drove that 350Z alot side to side to the XFire before i made my decision and dont even let me get started with the unrefined engine sound and feel above 4,000 rpm.

 

It doesn't take much time to say 1/2- 1 sec.That's how much it really is.

 

exactly a blink of an eye worth of time.

 

i say the 350z is no doubt much faster. however, if you have two manual's racing, it can end up in their hands.

 

We actually did the math in another 350z thread by comparing quarter mile times. I'm not going to do all that again, but lets say the Z is an entire 1 second faster 0-60, which it probably isn't. So to beat a Z in a quarter mile (using this number) you'd need to beat it off the line by one second. Thats nothing. When I said "a couple of seconds" I was referring to a race on the highway.. you pull up on a Z and floor it a couple of seconds before he did, yeah, you'll definately win. To whoever asked, 1 second or less, a tenth of a second like you mentioned, wouldn't be enough in really any instance. The real race is up to 100mph or whatever.. it's hard to keep racing someone for any period of time if your both going 100+ on a public road. Even racing from 0mph off a line... by the time you go a quarter mile you'll both be going well north of 100mph.

 

not neccarily over 100, Crossfires and 350Z's have been known to not go over 100 for the quarter.

 

350z's can trap at 102. If you don't see em trapping over 100. The guy can't drive or its a auto.

 

i know they can, im just saying that not every run ends in a 100+