steering and brake feel

[lilskirk23]

this kind of sounds like a dumb question but ive been wondering.the other day i drove my dads corvette. first time driving an actual sports car and it was pretty different from anything i ever drove.the steering was REALLY tight and the second you tapped the brake pedal the car came to a stop. it was really nice and i know a lot of sports cars have tighter steering and a lot of brake feel. whats the 300zx like?i think im FINALLY going to be buying my car soon because my permit is going to be expiring and i have a job now plus my bdays coming up in aug just before my permit expires. hopefully ill get my liscense and ill be doing everything possible to get a 300zx.

[Zak427]

alright bro. the z is a great car. the non-turbo is no corvette. your best bet is to drive one.the only opinion thats worth your time is your own

[lilskirk23]

yea i know its no corvette... i didnt expect it to be... not to mention i dont really like corvettes too much to begin with. i could care less about his car i just wanted to drive it because ive driven just about every other type of car (sedans, coupes, trucks, suvs). i liked the way it drove and thats all.i just figured i would ask because i problably wont start test driving 300s until august.

[mtcookson]

I've enjoyed the steering on the Z. Its neither too loose nor too tight to me. I've never driven a Vette but I used to own an MR2 Spyder and you'd be hard pressed to find anything that turned and stopped as good as that and coming from that I have no complaints about the Z... minus the weight difference.

As far as braking though... that type of braking that you described with the Vette is actually just the opposite of what you want in a sports car. Very fast initial braking like that gives you no control over the braking at all and would make spirited driving boring or even down right scary.

What you really want is very linear braking, meaning if you step on the pedal light you get light braking and the harder you press the harder it stops. That gives you very good control of the braking.

Coming from a regular setup where you have a lot of initial grab to a linear setup it feels like the car doesn't stop as good, but you'll get used to it and end up liking it much more. I went from a Maxima to the MR2 and was that way, I didn't think the MR2 felt like it stopped as good since I didn't have a lot of initial bite so one day I decided to see just how well it would stop... yeah, that was intense to say the least. Felt like my eyes were going to pop out of my head.

[evildky]

well you didn't mantion the year or model of the vette, I've driven a lsightly modified C5,a nd the turn in a breaking are beyond that of a Z32, the wider tires likely has a lot to do with the turn in, but the vette has got awesome brakes, the M3 is the only other car I've found with such good brakes

and the MR2 si a whole differetn ballgame, forget about power, is a handling machine, it's brakes don't need to be great, you just tap the brakes to load the front end and turn and get back on the gas, absolutely one of my favorite cars to autocross, just a bit scary on the street as yugo's look huge from the drivers seat of a first gen mr2!

if i had it all to do over again, the c5 z06 or the TT would be excelent dual purpose cars, of course they are both a bit slow for my liking

[mtcookson]

Yeah, I've been disappointed with the Z32 brakes so far. They have the linear feel that I like... but just no power at all. I think once I go with bigger brakes, some meaty tires, and some non-blown suspension (it'll help a little) it would be much better.

[lilskirk23]

fyi i did forget to mention that it is a 2004 convertible... not a z06. i only really posted the question to see what peoples opinions were on the braking and steering feel. i just used the vette as comparison because ive really only driven your average cars, not a sports car.

but thanks for your answers they were very helpful. mtcookson brought up a good point about the braking and i never really thought about it that way. thanks.