ZROSSA

Howdy Grumpy, Whats with the dual x-pipes? I dont see what it acomplishes? Does it sound better than a single x-pipe? I still cant decide to do a sigle pipe or duals with a x-pipe on my sbc. A lot of the Jet boat guys are begining to run BIG singles and same with some of the muscle car racers I know. I also know that the top trans am guys are running singles. What gives? Douglas

Roger, This is going to depend on you applicaton of coarse. I away read that when road racing, cars with semi trailing arm rear suspension needed to be set up stiff to minimise the camber and toe changes that happen with that design. Some even went as far as changing the inner locating points to make it work more like a trailing arm then a semi trailing arm (Look at the rear of a RS500 or first gen M3). What I am getting at is that spring rate is depending on the extent of the modifications done already. If your locating point are standard then you may want it much stiffer then the front. Becuase the weight is neer 50/50 you will want to run aleast 25 lbs up on the front rates any way to stop a spring frequency imbalance. I would have a bit of a search around on bmw m3 sights and see what they run. Hopefully some of the guys here will have more specific info on the ZX. Cheers Douglas

Aux, Using the spring rate of 175 lbs roughly means that for a 2 inch ride height gain you would have lost 700 lbs of the front end. This seems unlikely to me. What has probably happened is that the tire are stuck high in there travel after the car has been on the jack stands. A bit of bouncing can get them back down, or a bit of a drive around. Douglas

Aux, I dont think spring rate has anything to do with your ride height problem. The installed lenght of the spring is just to long. It sounds as though you have coil overs and i take it you are at the end of your ajustment. You just need shorter springs or modifiy how they are mounted. Lower the bottom spring purch, Get ride of the isolaters and run camber plates, Shorter springs with a helper spring, section the stuts and run a shorter spring. You could run a super soft spring but that wont cut it in the corners. Douglas

Mike, I have a supra 5 speed behind my small block. W-55 Ithink its called. Was behind the 7m turbo supras. Bloody nice shifting trans and you could pick them up dirt cheep in the states. They are rated to 400 lbs torque from the factory, a lot more if you up grade some of the bearings (I think its only the tail shaft ones at that. You can get different shift remotes as well to place the shifter where you want it. I would guess that you could put it in a lot cheeper then the tremec. Douglas

Nic-rebel, I think that the use of unequal lenght headers only really works on 90 degree v8's. Where the firing order discahrges into the exhuast at a equal interval a equal lenght exhuast has got to be better, Particularly on a straight 6. Douglas

Jared, Sent you a pm. Thanks for the complement. Jon. From everything I have read the spoiler on the back can actually improve the aerodynamics (less drag) and provide down force. You cant see it from the photo but, on the spoiler I am making the working surface of the wing goes from the hatch to almost vertical. The sides work as end plates. I made it for funtion first and then blended it in to the body. It looks pretty good on the 2+2. Doesnt make it look so fat the the ass. Usually if you just add a wing you get more downforce and a increase in drag. I would love to put it into a wind tunnel to see yow it works but i think tell tales and a camera will have to do. Cheers Douglas

Old photo. Just starting to make the molds now. http://www.hybridz.org/phpBB2/album_pic.php?pic_id=1204 Probably wont work on the coupe though. Douglas

What about the S&S headers Mike. They looked better in my eye and you could get better collecters for them. Douglas

Howdy, I would not even bother with a auto. Dont like them and wouldnt buy a car with one. But thats just me. I live in the country and have great roads all around to play on. I also have a 2+2. In N.Z they are a lot easyer to get hold of as they were imported as used imports from Japan. I do like the look of the coupe better but as many have said before me the 2+2 s are stronger. They already have full lenght chassis rails so the only real chassis improvements are a roll cage. Mine had a lot of rust in the roof so when I was fixing it i changed the transition point from the roof to the hatch a bit. I now has a lot less of the hockey stick look and is more like the coupe. Wish the factory had done it that way. There are some photos in my gallery but they are pretty old now. The car is now a friends getting molds made up and the body work finished. I will take more photos when there is visable progress. Douglas

We could use a bit of a break from the heat here. Its been around 40`C for about two weeks. Dont know what that is in degrees F. Fxxxing Hot. Douglas

Got to agree with John on this one. For a road car it would be for looks only. In saying that, I have made up a buck for a rear diffuser like shape to go on the back of my z but it really only picks up from the fuel tank and follows that angle to the rear. Not very scientific but might stop some lift as aposed to creating down force. I had to trim about 2 in of the rear panel and i have made up a new fiberglass bumber like device. This is for a 2+2 s30. Probably wont fit the 2 seater. Douglas

I asked a similar question a few years ago and someone suggested opel gt rear lights. You may also be able to source them from some of the pommie kit car guys like tvr, noble and lotus also had some nice round lights. Douglas

I may be a little old school but here are some ideas that would be cheep and still get you past the no sports car rule: Mazda r100 ,rx2, rx3, rx4,rx5, first rear wheel drive 323- rotary slots in Toyota any early corolla or celica. I would go for te55. basicly the same chassis as the ae86, slot in a 2.4 turbo out of the truck. What about a pinto or vega. The chev monza, loved the imsa ones. Btw the first of the fw drive corolla gts is the one to have. Much lighter and seemed to be faster around the race track then the later ones. Douglas

Thanks again. The photos are a big help. They will do the trick. I just did a deal with a paint and body guy and the z is off to have its new body kit made up and get painted so I need to get a move on other bits. How far off equal length are they? Douglas

Cool. Thanks Ryan. You still in Atlanta? Looks like I might be heading that way in april. I forgot to ask. Do you have these headers? If so how close to the block are they on the right hand side? Are they true equal lenght? What are the collecters like, Pressed, welded up, similar to a merge collecter? Wonder if I can get them withot collecters? Better e-mail S and S, eh! Douglas

Howdy, Has anyone found any full length headers that fit the sbc in a s30 yet? The big problem for me is getting them around the steering column. This is on the right side on cars down under. I have small block huggers on now and they just fit. It looked like some headers made for a 55 - 57 chevy with a sbc in it might work. Anyone have any better ideas. I am looking at 1 5/8 or 1 3/4 ones. Btw my car is set up sort of half way between a scarab and jtr set up. Cheers Douglas

Ahhhhh, the 277 car park. Car's looking great. The colour looks as though there is a little orange in it. Is it just the light or the way the photo came out? Douglas

CZ, Photo shop doesnt really do it any justice. Dont forget that whatever you do you need to stay with the same style to make it look like it should be there. The aston has smooth curve with no sharpe lines. The ZX has a lot of sharp lines and you will need to continue this to make it look right. When I had a ZX i thoght about cutting down and grafting a club sport nose on it. It would look pretty good and might be a easier place to start. Now that the c/dores are using slightly sharper lines you might be able to pick up a spoiler from a body kit and make it work well. Douglas

Pete, I think ZR8ED used to run victoracers that were 265 wide on a similar size rim. Might pay to send him mail. Douglas

My uncle had one of those. It was pretty quick but then we never had all the polution gear on them here. Lancia made a supercharged version called a volumex that had (I think) 160hp. That would move that car pretty smartly. They are all made from lancia beta parts so parts are not to hard to find. As usuall decide what power you want then work backwards. That 2lt twin cam head can swaped out for a 4 valve version, turbos from the delta all bolt on. The engine is good for a easy 300 + hp. There are people racing them in Aussie putting out around 600hp! Douglas

Shaddow...do a search. There is another aussie guy who has a rb30 with the rb25 head floating around here. I wouldnt be surprized if there was a few differences in the sumps and engine mounts. Also the rb30 might have used G.M. injection. This can be tuned relativly inexpensively. I could be compleatly wrong. I havent seen one of these engines for a good 6 - 7 years now and Stony is a guru for shure, but just think about what went into those era c/dore chassis, 5.0 v8, 3.3 pushrod 6, straight 4, rb30 and over here the rb20. Mounts have got tp be different. Happy hunting! Douglas

Thanks guys, Seam welding is a real pain. I spent months under my corolla doing it with a gas torch. As I said it looks like the car will have to come further apart so I may as well do some "while I am at it". Douglas

Mabye I might stitch weld a little, I just found more rust in the floor so it going to have to come apart more than I thought. Just when I think I am ready to put thinks back together something always comes up. Usually Rust! Crap! I can, and will, make strut bars. It looks like you can reinforce the front anti roll bar buy adding a box section above it and tieing it into the inner guard. I am surprized that no one seems to do a brace to the front part of the steering rack mount. Its just hanging out there. Might have a look at that as well. Still open to more sugestions. Douglas

Jon, You are right. I forgot about that. Looks like I will be visiting the neighbours lathe after all. Shouldnt be to hard to whip one up out of steel and put in a spherical bearing. Done right, I think you could lose up to 60mm. Do you think it would be wise to keep the little rubber that fits on top of the spring seat? Douglas