Had another good day out this past weekend, dry with temps in the 80's so it was near perfect. I beat my previous personal track record by 4 seconds and was hanging around with some prepped spec Boxsters, they were faster in the corners I was faster in the straights. I am going to have to go to different rear brake setup though. The 280zx kit has been giving me issues with dragging/sticking that is causing me to miss some track time to adjust and bleed, keep warping rotors. I don't think they can handle the heat and abuse of slowing the car from 140 mph so I am gong with the kit I probably should have in the first place, Wilwood 2 piston.
Other than that I am really happy with the car's balance still.
@heyitsrama I am running a fairly stock rear end with just KYB struts and German springs. I am planning on A-arms and coilovers this winter mostly for alignment tuning. I am not sure if you consider a suspension mod but I have a welded rear tower brace that ties in to the roll hoop I replaced every bushing with poly stuff. Also running no rear bar. In the front I have the same strut/spring combo with T3 NCRAs and the triangulated brace, and 280Z bar. The last two, and to answer your question, are mandatory in my book on a Z that gets driven hard. Those were my two latest additions and completely transform the car for a few hundred dollars. The best way I can explain how the car felt before is vague, disconnected, and unpredictable which I would attribute to poor suspension geometry (after lowering) and very weak suspension connection in the front. I think you could get to the same place with control arms but those are 3-4x the price of the NCRAs (comes down to how much adjustment you want) and . I don't know that the brace actually increases grip but it makes the car FEEL better and respond more consistently corner to corner which is worth way more that a few seconds off a lap to me.
I have two conclusions (which are much the same as those before me) the S30 needs major help in front suspension connection (side to side) and frame to frame connection (front to rear) once you start eliminating the unibody as the main carrier for suspension loading the car feels much better. Second the front suspension geometry is a mess when you lower the car, I would wager that given the same spring rate a standard ride high Z is faster around a track than a lowered one, all other factors being equal.