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HybridZ

clarkspeed

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clarkspeed last won the day on February 5

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About clarkspeed

  • Birthday 04/22/1965

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    Downtown Orlando Florida
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    Building and racing cars. Anything automotive. Guitars. Local music played in local clubs.

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  1. Exhaust blasted and coated. Decided to go with Cerakote in titanium. My first time using it. It's not a TBC coating but hopefully looks good for a long time. Its an air dry ceramic coating that hardens out once you run the engine. Easy to spray, and 5 day for full cure. Just wasn't in the budget to do a true TBC. Getting closer to first fire.
  2. Another Z in the shop. 280Z with a Rebello 3.0 turbo setup and full TTT suspension. We put a new TTT steering rack in last weekend. Really nice new bolt in rack.
  3. All the Z iterations can look good with minimal modifications. I personally think the z32 had perfect proportions not surpassed since. So simple but so exact. For this build as all of my builds, I am sticking with stock half shafts and Spicer U-joints. Never had a fail road racing yet. Cheap and effective only if you limit the angles generated and minimal power loss. I currently plan to raise/lower the diff as required to keep them in their sweet spot. They even withstand high power drag racing if you can keep them close to straight when launching. If it looks like I will struggle with this when I final assemble the rear, I will be scrambling for some CVs.
  4. And here are a few shots from the Mecum Kissimmee auction. Impressive cars.
  5. I suppose it is time for some updates. Lots of work accomplished since holidays but not much to photograph. Finished all the strut builds and got them bolted up. Completed the clutch build and mated the tranny. Dropped engine back in and found if I raise the engine mounts 1/8" on each side it will clear my steering rack. Yeah. Finally caught up from my last minute changes and medical setbacks. I feel 10 years younger now and kicking ass in the shop. Getting closer to first fire. Have a 2nd Z car in the shop now and a 3rd coming. More on that later.
  6. To fit the struts I had to get creative. I already had camber plates welded and did not want to modify those. The BC setup is nice but not a large amount of camber adjustment. Not much problem for the front. I only needed a 1mm thick bushing to fill the gap between the shaft and camber bearing. After I tried to drill something several times I ended up just 3d printing one. The rear required some fabrication. I had slotted the towers and built my own camber plate/spring perches. To retify I duplicated the plate in aluminum and bolted the BC bearing holder from the bottom.
  7. On a side note, I went to the ZMECCA Xmas party last weekend in Tampa. Some cool Florida Z cars for sure and got to see some old racing buddies. John Thomas and Bill Coffey representing. A few old HybridZ guys there also.
  8. Back on track so to speak, in a big way! Last weekend I suddenly felt like jumping back on the car work 100%. Building up the new suspension with the redshift coilovers. Once I get the camber plates figured out, final assembly.
  9. You got it! My timing plate is marked with a range for typical Datsun cams for the 4 timing events. Makes it a little easier wrap my brain around it. i like to look at it like this. Intake valve opening is the most important timing sequence. In the end you are really just trying to get that point to match what you engine needs. Not to early and not too late to maximize power. I set the cam to the CL like you described and then adjust the gear a little on the dyno to max out power and torque.If you plan to adjust at the dyno with a high compression engine, I always check valve to piston clearance with the cam gear in min and max settings.²
  10. Nope. But I could probably come up with something if financially motivated. Of course it would not pass at a concours show. Not even close. It would need to be printed in multiple parts. I am currently working on a fairly large airbox using a big rectangular Audi filter element and a 4" hose inlet. Could easy adopt it to a SU's if I ever finish it.
  11. I think I posted this on Hybrid before. Here is a good video on how F1 cars use vortices to seal the sides and do lots of other things.
  12. Thanks for your comments! Cool job. I know virtually nothing about vehicle aero but i am a mech engineer so I can grasp the concepts. Even with my meager knowledge, Edgar's book seems to have some funky conclusions. I just reread the flat floor section again last night. What he recommends is a slightly rounded panel roughly starting at bottom of the front bumper to a smooth rounded transition knee point in front of front axle. Then totally flat section back to where the diffuser starts. And the diffuser being the minimum of another flat panel angled upward at 10 degrees or more to the rear bumper. The start of the diffuser section seems to like being as far forward as possible. With this arrangement, you want as much air as possible flowing under the car and no airdam. So no extra drag and net downforce like a reverse wing. I am still struggling with this. It seems like what interference you do have with suspension arms and maybe wide wheels would screw this up. Also it seems ride height would be a critical factor. For an S30Z I assume this would look like a short full width airdam, with the curved floor section attached at the bottom lip.
  13. Well I am about 40% through this book now and it does not necessarily match what I have read in magazines, Internet, or anywhere for that matter. Many of these concepts are not intuitive. I will try to list out some of the salient points I am tracking. I don’t think Mr. Edgar would mind since I am only scratching the surface and promoting his book. In my own words..... Cd, coefficient of drag, is not an exact measurement. Almost impossible to measure without only the best wind tunnels. Most manufacturers quote a number from less accurate wind tunnels and no one can prove or disprove what they post in their marketing material. Coast down testing is a disaster at best, not repeatable. Way too many variables come into effect at speeds below 60mph and a perfect consistent environment is impossible to achieve. Edgar proposes just measuring the change in drag rather than trying to quantify it. Vehicle aero is complicated. More complicated than CFD analysis can fully cover. Even if you can simulate the flows over a car, the flows under the car and side winds (yaw) cause unplanned effects. Even the best OEM aero specialists have to experiment, measure, and rent wind tunnels. And for OEM’s, style often takes precedence over aero. Every standard vehicle shape creates lift. Air speeds up when it is required to change directions quickly so the transition from grill to hood and window to roof speeds up the air and creates low pressure. The amount of lift depends on the area of these surfaces. Some lift is created in the rear transition from roof to rear window. So most all cars without any major aero features create lift. The lift/downforce can be different at any point location front to rear on the top and bottom surfaces of a car. The overall lift is the sum of all the points. Really the only exceptions are supercars with splitters, flat bottoms, and diffusers. Not Camry’s. Since most all cars create more lift the faster you go, then obviously it is not such a bad thing as long as it is not excessive. Counterintuitive, more lift in the front than rear gives a feeling of stability. Yes, you read that right. Drag and lift are related but totally different. Decreasing lift usually comes at the expense of increasing drag and visa-versa. Race cars obviously want as little lift as possible or even downforce. The performance gains usually outweigh the increase in drag when done correctly but you have to be aware of both. I will not go into all the aero tricks available to reduce drag and increase lift. Edgar goes into pretty much any mod you can think of with pictures and suggestions to make more effective. However he emphasizes, modification to the underfloor, adding a flat bottom, is the best place to start and gives the most benefits. He has plenty of examples on how this should be done. Air dams are basically a crutch to prevent as much air as possible from going under the car and hitting all the "stuff" hanging down there. A flat bottom is more effective and can make negative lift. Most newer OEM designs exploit this. Even small splitters can make large downforce but it is in front of front axle, which creates lift in rear. Same problem for rear diffusers and spoilers. They create lift in front because they are behind rear axle. You have to be careful with these mods to get a balanced car.
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