DreRX8

HICAS will make the car slower--especially if they don't turn up the power **** on the VQ again. Remember why the Z32 turbo was the slowest of the comparable Japanese sports cars at the time--weight. HICAS is a mess--hopefully they make it optional.

Christianv

The HICAS system in the 1990-1993 turbo Z's was hydraulic and it ran off the main power steering pump. In 94, they moved to an electric unit. The computer tells the servo to fire up and by how much to steer the rear wheels.

Most Z32 owners that remove HICAS are model year 90-93 owners and they do it because it's extremely expensive to fix once it's broken. Once they moved to the electric unit, long term reliability on the system improved.

The sensors that you speak of are already in place on the G35's and most modern cars; yaw, steering angle, wheel speed, etc, so all they need to do is alter the suspension to steer the rear wheels.

The Z was all over the place as far as 0-60 stats, but trap speeds seemed to be pretty consistent at ~ the 102-103 mph on the 1/4 mile. The Supra and the 3000GT were right around the same weight as the TT Z, if memory serves. 3000GT VR4 was the slowest and heaviest of the bunch until they dialed up the boost a bit to produce 320 hp, but by then the Z was off of the market anyways.
From owning the Z as well as some BMW's I can tell you that HICAS will slow you down on certain corners until you learn the limits of the system and the car.
From personal experience and for comparison, BMW's tend to be super easy to drive fast, right up to the limit. The Z takes some getting used to.

shelleys_man_06

I'm sure Nissan's new four-wheel steering setup will be nowhere near the crappiness of the original Z32's. I guess electronics are good for something.

termigni

did you say Projector headlights?? they are finally getting rid of that ugly traditional headlights! yay.

how bout a new set of seats so people don't break their backs?

DreRX8

I just read a review of the M45 vs. GS430--I forgot that the M45 has the rear-steering assist. I am assuming its the same setup that will be going into the G35 coupe; they commented in Autoweek that it is much better than the HICAS setup of the Z32 and. The rear wheels will turn a max of 1 degree to increase grip and stability. Me personally, I think its another mechanism to counter the weight that is gained by the device; I wish they would make that type of stuff optional.

Shiri

Spoken like a true ignorant.

What's the next best 4 wheel steering available out there then? Honda? Mazda?

Shiri

Depends on the model, Z32 2+0 TT (2 seater) was actually as fast as the Supra Turbo, which was 4 years newer (same as the RX7 and 3000 GTO).
HICAS was set up to prevent tire slipping when cornering hard, thus the reason why the Z32 "acts" a little slower around the corners. Its a safety feature, not something that will improve cornering speed when taking an autoX course, and it is certainly not something that will help drift a car either.

For this reason, the HICAS was a non-benefit to those wanting to track the car. HICAS would actually "twitch" the rear end of the car when exiting a corner, thus delaying power until the car maintained balance (which was after the twitching).

The solution was of course to remove it or buy the Stillen HICAS eliminator. Removing the whole thing was a much better idea since it saved weight. Traditional track racing doesn't require the use of high technological features like these anyway since it is so driver dependent (different case for the GTRs, EVOs and STIs where their AWD serve as a strength on the track).

Also, HICAS can perform differently depending on how they were programmed.
The Nissan kicks in when the car is in high speed, on the Honda it only activates when the car is trying to park. Not sure what the MX6 did, probably the same as Nissan. The strangest thing about the Mazda MX6 was the fact that it was a turboed FWD with 4 wheel steering. Not sure what that translated into.

So for the new G35 to have HICAS, it wouldn't be so much of an issue since the G is more of a GT where luxury, safety and cruiser ability are more important. It will serve as safety feature just like VDC.

Red Devil

Never saw or witnessed anything to substantiate a factory Z32 put up similar numbers to a factory Supra Turbo. They always seemed to be a few tenths slower.

DreRX8

Yeah--300ZX TTs were always a few ticks behind the RX7 and Supra TTs--they usually were quicker than the 3000GT until those models got the 20HP boost.

Umbra

So did they fix the "grampa" interior issue?

Morgan

i like the interor a lot!! the BF bitch's about it all the tome...but i love every aspect about the car (i got to drive it to tampa last weekend) and loved every min of it.

playdoh43

http://www.infinitinews.com/multimed...35_coupe.shtml here are the official pics of the 06 coupes

playdoh43

HICAS is on the new M45 and most magazines are very positive about it, autoweek especially mentioned that its nothing like the old 300ZX version in their GS430 vs M45 comparison. Im not a huge fan of it though, because G35 is a fat boy to begin with its already got better skid pad and slalom numbers than 350Z, i much rather they take off some weight, and give it the full 300hp engine instead of 298hp.

shelleys_man_06

It's called sarcasm little lady.