ZROSSA

1 fast z, Your 2+2 will have a little more room in the rear then the coupe's. Probably not a valid comparison in this situation. Love what you have done with engine BTW. Clever man! Douglas

Nigel, Emerald's the co. thats owned by Dave Walker isnt it? I used to really enjoy reading his articals in Cars and car Conversions. I was the only mag that I would read for many years. I think they went bust in the end. Cant get the mag anymore. Anyway, He must have some interesting stories. Good luck with the tuning. Going to be fast! Douglas

Thanks guys! I might bump it up a little. Perhaps 250f and 275 rear. I want it as stiff as I can get away with with out it skiping when I hit bumps mid corner. Shocks are obvoiusly going to play a big part but the tokicos are what I have at the moment. Douglas

Howdy all, Just about to order my coil over springs for my 260 2+2. I have been looking at the above rates and was hoping those who have these spring rate could give me a bit of an idea how the car feels. My car has 275 rear wheels and 245 front on 17 inch rims, Tokico iluminas and a full cage. The cage does not go through to the front struts but picks up the rears. It will be used for fast road driving, club hill climbs and paved rally/targa racing. Im not looking for to much comfort but I dont want the car to skip across the road. The 2+2's in this part of the world seen to weigh in at about 1300kg- 2860 lb with slightly more weight in the rear. Forgot to add that its powered by a strong SBC so squat could be a issue. Would love to here your opinoins. Cheers, Douglas

Made my own front end. http://album.hybridz.org/showphoto.php?photo=6307&cat=500&ppuser=8086 This is an old photo as the car now has flares as well. It did cost somewhat more then $500.00 to make the molds and took a really long time to sand and get the shape right. Hopefully with the undertay and ducting to the radiator it will be an improvement. Douglas

Thanks for clearing that up Rob. I always thought that the tvr developed v8 was different to the buick/rover. So lets have a quick think about what engines have a flat plane crank Ferrari v8 lotus v8 audi v8 used in dtm going back to the early 100/5000 group a cars merc v8 dtm cars opel v8 dtm again. however i believe this is a development of the arrora engine from the U.S. Nissan v8,chevy v8- stock blocks used in the indy cars. These used to have to use the same bore centers as the production block so they might work. On a side note, I saw some f5000 cars in some local historic raceing series, one of which had a small block chevy with 8 into 1 exhausts. I belive this is called a 360 degree header. It sounded wicked. Best sounding small block I have ever heard. Douglas

Rob made it onto the local news tonight. Nice burn out and a hugh wheelie off the start. Looks like he has traction now! Douglas

The last of the repco engines had a 4 valve cylinder head but they were not reliable. There is also a co. called wildcat engineering in the uk that cast some new heads for the buick/rover. Apparently these heads solved the problem of the ofset valves in the standard head so you could get much larger valves in them. Might also pay to have a look at the group A rover 3500 that Tom Walkinshaw used to race. These used the standard head castings but sounded wicked when racing in the early to mid eightys. Douglas

There was a mag called car and car conversions that was from the U.K. That had a lotus 7 look alike that had two bike engines inline. Wikedly fast. I will see if i can find the article for more info. Douglas

You might not have to look so far for your flat planed 3.0 lt engine. In the 60's when formula 1 changed the engine rules from 1.5 lt to 3.0 lt Jack Brabham With the help if any Aussie company called repco made a pretty basic 3.0 lt engine from the blocks of buick 215. They ran 180 cranks and were converted to over head cams and won the championship for two seasons. History is not my stong point so I could stand corrected on that. The engines made up to 380 odd hp but were outdated buy the cosworth and ferrari engines after a cuople of years. Douglas

If you really want to run that tire size just use the 245 size tires as well. Then there wont be a problem. I know a lot of the guys here have the 275 on the 9 inch rim but IMHO they really look better on the 10.5 rim. Dont get stuck on the idea that you must have a 275. I did and it put my whole project back a year at least due to needing flares now for the wider tires. Douglas

I have been working out for about 15 years. I used to run but too big now, used to mountain bike but the good trails are a bit of a drive from where we live now so that doesnt happen. So now I get to the gym about 4 times a week. My training partner is a body builder so i guess you could say I train like one however all the eating and supplements drives me nuts so I eat like a very hungry normal person. Still not bad for 39 years old. 5" 11' , 233 pounds. I have never had 6 pack abs but usually have a 3 pack. Douglas

Graham, I have a Sbc with a 400 crank so 383 cubic inchs. Dyno says 515 hp at the crank all below 6500 rpm. Looking forward to getting it in the damn car and going for a drive but have been chasing my but in the vineyard all year and havent touched it. Going out now to plant some more vines, Dont even have weekends these days. Hopefully it will ease up towards x-mas and i can get the body work finished and painted. Then I can start putting it all back together again. Douglas

Graham, I would have thought that any engine making that kind of hp per cubic inch would need headers tuned specifically to that engine or you will lose a bunch of power. I dont think block huggers are the answer. If you find some long tubes locally that fit let me know. At the moment I have a used set of jet boat equal lenght header that will be cut up and made to fit. Going to be very tight around the steering shaft. Douglas

Cary, I have also seen Trans am cars here tat use bell cranks to get ackerman. I guess it also allows you to use a rear steer rack in a front steer position, If thats your thing. I guess the issiue with a trans am car is that the regs put the engine right where the rack should be. Douglas Just realized i replid to the end of the preivois page. BJ I see your concerns however if you extended the sub frame to pick up the trailling arm points and then up into the strut mounts you might have something that works. Be a bit heavyer though.

Another option is not cutting up the sub frame and using different offsett tires. You would want to get a hub to hub measurement first as I think the later model car were designed to run with more offset anyway. Could work. Douglas

We were talking about the v8 ferrari's. Lotus and TVR also made flat plane v8s. The v8's in indy racing are all flat plane as are the ones use for the DTM. So you should have cranks floating around that will fit the nissan, nortstar, audi, and merc engines with a displacement at 4.0 lts. I think Opel used the northstar/chev/olds engine in dtm. Douglas

Looking Good. I brushhed black POR 15 onto my engine bay thinking that I would need to prime and top coat over it but it turned out very nice so I left it. Like any other paint its the prep work that counts so get it a smooth and clean as you can and it will look mighty fine. Douglas

240zman, If you track some down for a good price and they are overseas let me know. maybe we can save on shipping or get a better deal. You never know. Mopar 69. When am I going to finish....... Cant really answer that. The car really only needs a final sand down and then paint. Its just come back from getting a modest roll cage installed so I can inter it into some of the tarmac rallys we have around here. I am haveing some problems with getting the cobra r rims on. To meet the local land transport and motor sport rules we cant have a spacer bigger then 25 mm. The cobra r's need a 36 mm for the fron and a 33 mm for the rear. This has ment that i have had to get custom hubs fabricated which is taking a really long time. The same engineer is doing mu hydrualic realeace bearing set up for the supra trans and this is taking its time as well. So all of this and the fact that I work 7 days a week hasnt really helped. I need some rainy days so I can get in the shed. I might get the zg flares bolted up tonight. If so I will get some photos in the morning. Thanks for the kick in the rear. Cheers, Douglas

Once you have gone to that amount of trouble you may as well use the mazda strut as well. That way you get nice light weight hubs and vented brakes with 4 pot calipers as well. They are also front steer so it should work out nicely. Douglas

260zman, Very nice 2+2. Similar colour to what I have for mine if I ever get around to doing work on it again. Did you replace the rubbers for the interior? I am going to need front and back windscreen rubbers and door one's. Need a local source. Cheers, Douglas

Howdy Rob. The car looks great. Can you let us know when you are heading to the track with it. I am sure there are a few of us here that would like to see it. Cheers, Douglas

Havent looked at the link yet but, the ferrari 90 degree cranks are probable for the maseratti v8. Same basic block as the 430 but 90 degree crank if I remember correctly. Douglas

Howdy Guys, Dont think many of you have seen my 2+2. The project is draging a bit but things are getting done slowly. 383 sb chevy is ready to go in but waiting on some clutch parts first and still a little more rust to fix. What you cant see from the photos ( at least a year old) is the shaved drip rails and the slight mod I did to the roof line at the hatch mounting point to soften the "jHockey stick" . Makes the transition from the roof line to the hatch a bit more intergrated. It also now has ZG flares as the Cobra r 10.5 rims didnt have a ♥♥♥♥ show of fitting. http://album.hybridz.org/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=8086 Cheers, Douglas

The Jdm market had an 4 wheel drive wagon version of the corolla. The also make the caldina which is a 4x4 wagon version or the corona that runs the gt4 running gear. This is still produced i think. I have seen rear wheel drive conversions with rotories here in N.Z. The poms used to race fwd verions with the 3sg. Look up "Andy Rouse" on the web. He was makinh a customer version for the BTCC. Douglas