Bank holiday weekend and i'm stuck at another red light. A queue of cars has formed behind me and some boy racer in his Vauxhaul Astra VXR is revving furiously next to me. I raise the engine of the Nissan 370Z to 4000rpm and, as the red light extinguishes, I slip the clutch and accelerate briskly away.
But this is unlike the normal traffic light grands prix. The car I am in is eerily similar to the PH fleet 370Z: the seating position is the same height; the dash has all the dials in the correct place; and the gear stick is still slightly too far to the left.
But I am strapped into a Sparco race seat with a five-point harness and I have a helmet on.
The car around me is a stripped-out RJN motorsport race-prepared Nissan 370Z in the Dunlop Sportsmaxx Cup, and the boy racer on my right is this year's champion-elect, Adrian Churchill, and he isn’t exactly a boy. We are racing side by side through the first corner of the fastest race circuit in Britain – Thruxton – in the third race of an exciting weekend. Behind us a gaggle of Astra VXRs, BMW 120ds, a Ford Focus ST, and other hot hatches battle in this stepping stone series to touring cars.
Another pesky VXR in the hands of Tom Carnaby gets up the inside in the run to the Campbell/Cobb complex. As we exit Seagrave I tuck into third place and the convoy accelerates out into the Thruxton countryside. As I push through the gears the similarity with my roadgoing Zed is striking. Usually when you jump in a full race car the engine mapping or cams mean a much sharper response, but the race series has been careful to keep the cars to their originally manufactured specification.
Despite the reduction of fluffy mats and internal luxury, the roll cage and safety devices puts the car at around the same weight as when it left the factory. But the ECU is unchanged, and there's only a mild horsepower increase through the gorgeous-sounding custom Janspeed exhaust, so the power to weight ratio is comparable to my own car's.
The standard ECU does cause a little problem, however – the inbuilt limp-home mode. Around fast race tracks, the team has had to do some fooling of the internal temperatures to stop the ECU from throwing a tantrum – and like I experienced in race two of the weekend,
sometimes it can still try and kick in on parts of the circuit.
Back in the race, I'm still in third place and I watch the two Astras battle as we approach the fastest corner in motorsport, Church, dangerously close to bouncing off the rev limiter in fifth gear. As I lift slightly, then power through this super-fast right-hander, the Nissan wants to move around a lot. The Bilstein damper kit and slightly uprated coil springs are working hard, but with the retention of production anti-roll bars the car feels as soft as the road version. The tail-happiness is still there and it is keen to drift - to the detriment of the tyres.
Changing up into sixth gear, the car is approaching 140mph as I look for an opportunity to put the Zed ahead into the Club chicane. The RJN boys had been busy de-glazing the production discs just before the race and, thanks to the fitting of racing pads, I gently apply the brake pedal knowing this will stop better than my road car. It certainly does that, but even with the ABS turned on the off-loaded tyre briefly locks up and I realise stopping this 1500kg car takes a lot of effort from such speeds. Being previously used to racing sub-1000kg cars, the extra lump requires a more delicate tactile approach to the braking process than I expect.
With the foot flat to the floor as I accelerate to keep up with the front boys another difference to the car I have parked behind the garages becomes apparent. On the dash I am only an open boot light away from having the full set of warning lights – due to various ECU trickery – but the two that are brightest are the traction control ones. On the road car the ESP button transforms the vehicle, but in this race version it is turned fully off and I don’t have a slipping wheels warning light flashing at me; just one that's permanently on. This is done by replacing the fuse for the traction control, and it is nice to have full control over the car.
The first five cars after lap one are separated by two seconds, and I am determined to win this one. In race one the previous day I had set a new lap record but, after leading the whole race, was pipped on the final lap. Race two had been a limp affair for both me and the ECU, but luckily I grabbed another podium. This time I was determined to stand on the top step.
Approaching Church for the second time the two Astras are busy occupying themselves and I spot a gap up the inside. in a held-breath, closed-eyes, remove-my-brain moment I dive up the inside without lifting and hold onto the car as it skips and jumps through the apex crest. It works, and I have the lead heading up to the chicane.
As I apply the brakes at the end of the lap I have pulled a little gap and there's no need to defend. A little glance back in the mirror to see where everyone is and suddenly the picture isn’t so rosy. The sister Nissan 370Z has ended up on the damp grass and is heading towards me. A loud whack on the rear sends me sideways into the path of an Astra and, as I look out the side window, the car hits the 370's side, showering me with glass and bending the door bars on the roll cage (
Are we to call you CrashingPete now? - Riggers
As the car comes to a rest I climb out of the passenger door (the driver's side is unusable), and reflect on 2 minutes 30 seconds of flat-out, adrenaline-filled racing. It is testament to the quality of the production Nissan 370Z that the race car feels so similar, I am just slightly peeved I didn’t manage to prove it on the track… though I am glad there is one major difference between the two cars – a roll cage.
Photo Credit: Oliver Read
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