cobramatt

Happy New Year to all my Z Lovin family. 2012 was an amazing year and hope that 2013 will be equally successful on and off the track. I really have to thank MTI Racing, AAA SignCrafters and Classic Livery for their sponsorship and continued faith they have in my efforts to promote motorsports and the products and services they all offer. When we win, we win as a team, I do my best as does everyone else and the cumulative effort is one anyone would be proud of. Let's go and win another championship this year........... Here's a couple of great shots to start the year off. You gotta love Road Atlanta Turn 3............ Matt

I know that she is not a Datsun but I wanted my friends here to at least know about this and if they were interested they would have the first shot. My beloved Eleanor is for sale. I've had her for quite a while and did all the work, (with a lot of help). She is the real deal and way too many options to list. If I made a list of what was upgraded or custom, I would just say everything. This is the car I won the "My Ride Rules" show on the Speed Channel with. This is not a fire sale but a once in a lifetime opportunity for someone to experience a car like this. I've owned Lambo's, Ferrari's, you name it. No car has ever turned heads like this one. If you are a serious buyer please PM me. I'm a car Builder/Driver/Racer not a car collector. Matt

I hope you get it all done. If there is anything I can say to encourage you is that in the end it is all worth it. I know you have tasted it and remeber it clearly, I'm just reminding you that the juice is worth the squeeze. If this was easy you'd just go back to tracking a Porsche..........

I did my rear and side quarter windows just as described above. I also agree that if you plan on using windshield wipers Lexan is not the way to go. I am doing it for a few reasons. Weight reduction being the biggest. It is also above the center of gravity so this translates well in any race car. In a race car the windshield gets pummled with all sorts of debris making it very prone to cracking. This solves that problem as well. I have a product that is a three stage liquid that cleans, polishes, and even removes scratches in lexan. A must if you plan on keeping it clean and scratch free. The product name escapes me but if anyone needs to know I can get off my ass and go look. Matt They do make a wrap for abs BTW.

Corvette C5 fully caged and ready to go $20 -$24K. Buy it, put gas in it, put it on a trailer, take it to the track, race it........ Best deal going. I still have work to do on this but its coming along nicely. On another note........I had my windshield broken in three places this past weekend in the race. I wanted to replace it with a nice Lexan piece. I asked a friend of mine if he knew of anybody. They have a Rolex Grand Am team and order quite a few. He gave me a number of SHIELDS windscreens in Indiana. 800-554-7527. I didnt think they would have a 240Z lexan windshield but maybe they would know someone who did. Called them and told them what I had. The person asked me what was the address I wanted it shipped to. That easy.......They have the mold and they will make it and ship it out, I'll have it in two weeks. It was I think around $450. $30 shipping. 32#'s to 10#'s. I Like...... Matt How do you like the new Bob Sharp wrap on the golf cart?

Noted......... I actually did not think it was as blatant as it actually was until I watched the tape two days after I got home. When it happened on the track it was the blink of an eye and I dont mind hard racing as I'm gonna race you just as hard. I just remebered that when I went to pass him out of T5 he came over on me pretty good and I nearly lost it going into T6. That was the part that I felt was a little much. I looked over and we almost touched, the tape doesnt do it justice. After I looked at the tape I started thinking Damn.....he turned into me and had to have seen me. Hell he knew I was behind them all the time so its not like I just popped out of nowhere and surprised him. I'll let my race director decide whether he wants to take the video to the powers that be. Its past us and it wasn't like he put me in the wall. I'm a believer in Karma and if it was intentional then he will get paid back in his own way. Just got the Corvette back from paint and Vinyl............This is the one I put in the wall and had to re build. I'm taking a 100% race car and turning it into a track / street car. One that I can drive to the track, have fun and drive home. My Datsun is way too high maintenance to do track days. What do you think? Matt

It certainly went through my head whether or not someone would try and break in with the picture on the back. I dont store the car in the trailer and leave the trailer unsecured ever, so we will see. I wonder if I had done a picture of an empty trailer a thief would leave it alone. My trailer is insured by Smith and Wesson anyways.

I appreciate your love for my car or any car for that matter. It's just racing. From F1 to Go Karts your gonna have close quarters, high speed, action. There is no way to avoid it. I think that TT would be a great place for you to push the car to the limit and get track time at the best tracks in the country. In Time Trails people dont race each other they race the clock. Its all about who is fastest in your division. You get lots of seat time but you dont get the trading paint thing. There are really fast cars and lots of competition, its just a different kind of racing. You could also come out and work your way up through the HPDE system. If its seat time and as safe as conditions can get this is a great place to run. DE1-3 have a point by system. DE4 allows you to adhear a neon yellow 4 sticker to your bumper that signifies you dont require a point by as you have situational awareness and want things to be as close to the PRO race group as possible. Most of these people are aspiring to get into the NASA Pro racing circuit.

I also didn't know if I had posted this before but I knew you guys would get a kick out of it. I saw a trailer a while back with this done to it and said one day I would like to do that as well. The first week I had it my neighbor was walking his dog at night and called me and asked if I was in for the night. I said yes I was going to bed soon. He said he just wanted me to know I had left my trailer door open. I laughed and said "No Ed, its a picture of my car in the trailer on the door." He said, "I don't understand what your saying." I said, "Its a wrap, a vinyl wrap of a picture of my car loaded in my trailer on my trailer door." Ed........"I,m sorry Matt I just thought you ought to know your trailer door is open." I said thanks..........

The mustangs were all built by the guy in the red one. They are all seasoned dirt track guys. They have the money and dont mind repairing their cars after a race. I wish I had a rear facing camera as you could have seen the silver one on my bumper for the first lap. All three cars have 427 Roush Yates engines. After a good race every car usually has some battle scars. Sometimes its nothing but a bunch of tire rubber all over the car, some paint chips or a broken windsheild. Some times, like this time, I have body work to repair. The more I watch the footage the more I'm wondering if the Black car hit me on purpose as he does a real good job of blocking me but in my opinion there is no way he did not see me in turn 1. I have clear position on him and he turns into my front left fender. The wrap on the car is what held the flare on. When I go to pass him just after T5 he comes over on me pretty tight. I had my hands full keeping the car on the track going into T6 but I had to slam the door on him or he would have dive bombed me. I then had to make the pass on the red car in only one place where I could make it stick. 10a. It was the last lap and only one turn to go. He bumped me coming out of 10b and almost turned me around. After all is said and done you can see how he shows his appreciation of racing him hard. If you let me or any one of these guys push you off the track or intimidate you once, they will know you are going to give way and they will do it again and again. I took second place and loved every second of that race. If your going to win or be top three out of 37 cars you better be ready to pay attention.......and a little body work.

Thank you....... Here is an incar video with data overlay. This is from Sunday's charity race, its all for "fun". I dont think everyone at the racers meeting got that memo.............

This year was a great year for the Z. We finally were able to take our hard work and R&D to the track and compete in a pro race series and have much success. This past weekend at Road Atlanta was our season ending Championship race. I am very pleased to say that the Datsun and I were able to take home the NASA SouthEast Pro Championship in our unlimited division. I have made more friends simply by them coming over to our camp after a session and them asking was that a Datsun that passed their IMSA cup car or Viper or Vette.....It's a great feeling of accomplishment and it does our beloved Datsun Z brand justice. She is tired and ready for her winter nap. Our next outing is in March. She has battle scars and wounds that will be tended to over the break but she'll come out lookin like a shiney penny. I think she is the definition of HybridZ.......... Here are a few laps from the race. I put the camera down on the splitter and it gave it a real nice view. Matt

Why cant I post photos any more. The format has changed and I cant figure it out. Please advise.........

I have my last race of the year next week at Road Atlanta. We took advantage of a Chin Motorsports event at Road A this weekend to test and tune. I had some serious problems this weekend. I think there are going to be some extensive winter projects as I am taking the next two months off from any racing. I hope my tranny makes it through the race next week. The syncro for 3rd is just about shot. My coolant crossover came off during hot laps and I didnt notice the alarm light on the AIM dash, the damn light is as big as a pin head. Well the engine shut off and went into a cripple mode. As I was pitting the water temp was at 342. Yes, that is 342. We think thats a record for temp and the engine not frying. Took it apart overnight and fixed the little crossover hose and it fired right up. I'm a damn lucky guy. That was about a $25K mishap. We will be installing idiot warning lights on the dash over winter. The CV boot issue is re occuring. They were not meant or intended to go 170 mph. There are some other serious items that I will get into later but need to get all my notes to properly describe what we had to do. One being, where the coil over is bolted to the knuckle. There are 6 bolts holding it together. All part of the original "Track Pack" Arizona Z stuff. Well needless to say Dave didnt design it with a car with 335's on the rear 600hp and 550 lbs of torque. We had to re engineer that....or death was emminant. Here are a few laps until the CV boot failed right at the end of the video. I always keep extra boots, grease and boot ties on hand. Matt

Its quick..but there is always someone quicker. With the roll bars, smarty cam mount and camera, the halo racetech seat, in a helmet with a Hans device its not exactly that easy to see out the back. This gives me 170 degrees of vision and I dont have to even move my head. I appreciate the witty humor but the thing really does work. I need all the help I can get. It also doubles as a Blu Ray player so I can watch my favorite new releases going down the back straight. Matt

I have not checked in a while but have added an item that I think a few of you will like. A rear view color HD monitor. In my race this past weekend I found it to be very helpful..... The pro's and con's. 1. I have been checking my mirrors for 28 years on track and its a very hard thing to change. I actually forgot I had installed it for a long time as it was just natural to check my mirrors. I covered the rear view mirror with black tape and it forced me to check the new monitor. That was not my idea BTW. I was going to take the mirror out and a fellow racer said why didnt I just cover it, because maybe I would not like it and I could just take the tape off. (Giving credit where credit is due) 2. I think you really need to get used to more than just where you look to see where someone is behind you. There is the fact that if someone has a bright painted car and they are on your bumper it can distract you. Once again, something I need to get used to. 3. I was a little more comfortable in my race on Sunday with the setup and found its location to very helpful in keeping my situational awareness and not having to actually take my eyes off the track in front of me. 4. It cost a little over $200 in parts. A rear back up camera (mounted in the rear fascia) and a 7" monitor (made for a head rest). The wiring took around 5 hrs. We had to install a few more switches to our dash panel to accomodate the on/off of the camera. Now we will have a few extra lines when they are needed. 5. I think the cost is justified and in time will be an advantage over my competition. If all else fails its really easy to back in to my pit stall now. Matt

Mike sorry for the delay I have just not been able to check the forum in a while. I have everything fixed and it was the pinion that was sheared. We reconditioned a few and had the new pieces treated with hardner then installed. It just cant run flat out for that long. If I really want to fix the issue I need to work in a Ford 9" rear end. Possible winter project....... I ran at CMP this past weekend and won my division but more importantly took second overall. That is huge considering the depth of the field and amount of cars in our race. Here is a little clip from the start of the race. Pretty cool that we had two Vintage cars P1 and P2. That Porsche 914 6 was fast and its his home course. I eventually was overtaken by a GT1 Trans AM Corvette. He should have won anyway with that car. Here are the official results...... http://www.mylaps.com/results/showrun.jsp?id=2530501

Mike, Yes it does have a cooler on it. I was running a Q-45 pumpkin with a 30 spline r32 carbonetic skyline diff. part #ACNRA109121. Any advice would be appreciated. Matt

In any race car especially in any extended session, the diff is the weak link. I would say without question that in endurance racing, like Le Mans, the diff is probably the most looked after and developed piece on the car. In my case I ran the car for an hour and a half and was very hard on it. It just couldn't take the extended abuse and wasn't designed to, so I kinda got what was coming to me. I'm glad to know what sort of life span I can expect. My car develops 550 Lbs of torque at the rear wheels. After almost an entire season and it not breaking already is a miricle. I'm glad it did it during practice and not during a race. I think what we are going to do is over the winter we will retro fit a ford (Cobra) rear end in the car. It's going to be much larger and be able to stand the acceleration and abuse. Thats the plan anyway........ Green socks are Guuuuuuwwwwd............... Matt

That sounds like a productive get together. I'm sure we have some WC Vettes that would like to share the cost. Let me know. Here are a couple of keepers from this past weekend. BTW.......My last session I blew my diff in a million pieces. Very lucky it did'nt lock up and turn me into a passenger on the way to wallsville. Should have it fixed for our next NASA race at Carolina Motorsports Park in three weeks. $$$ Matt

Was at Z Nationals this past weekend at Barber Motorsports Park and was able to put down a few quick laps. Car balance is really starting to come together. I must have given 10 people ridealongs, each one of them smiling ear to ear as they got out of the car. Here are a few laps........ Enjoy

In trying to create more downforce and modify a 42 year old aero package I made some canards out of carbon fiber and installed them up front. This will allow me to increase the rake on the rear wing and balance the back. I have to admit that when a car gets to this point everything is fun. Plain and simple. Ever since I was a kid I have always loved dive planes on a car, functional ones that is, not the stick on kind from the auto parts store. There is something about them that just makes a car look faster, more agressive. I understand enough about aerodynamics to not do things that cause more drag and not increase grip. There is a trade off. I have a race on Saturday and will provide feedback. Matt

Did you still want me to make a copy of this splitter for you? You just want a template or one just like it in Carbon Fiber? It is effective and we balanced it with the rear wing. I am adding four canards (dive planes) to the front nose this week so I can put more rake in the rear wing. Matt

Found this and thought I would post it as someone besides me will enjoy watching it. Had tons of fun in this race at Road Atlanta.............