Gareth

Thanks Mattyice, much appreciated. I got confused - what paint does the R33 from the pic have? Is it the factory color, or the R34 Midnight Purple II?

For the Z, I'd go with the Midnight Purple II or Imperial Jade Mica. By the way, do you know what's the paint code of the R33 purple? It looks BRILLIANT!

Firstly, it doesn't have ITBs, but a classic set of triple sidedraft carbs. Probably it's set for higher RPM operation, and as zero noted, it surely has some very aggressive cams. Max, the picture you posted was taken by user HS30-H during one of his trips to Japan. I bet he's the best source of information about this particular car. Tony

Yep, the C32 Laurel had the RD28 engine, while the C31 had the LD28.

Thank you Alan! I have the same spoiler on my car, so I'll have to decide whether I should use it or not. I think I'll take it off...

The fact is, that the movie was filmed from a camera mounted on a bumper of Lelouch's Mercedes. The film was sped up - you can hear that when listening to gear changes. Plus, the camera car was way too softly sprung to be a Ferrari 275GTB. At times, the film just doesn't FEEL fast. Although I really liked his other movies, this one was proven to be faked, so there's no point in arguing about it. By the way, the film was made in 1976, not '78. Here's a proof:

It's true that it's derived from the RB, but it has flipped intake and exhaust ports - the turbo is on the left side when looking from the front of the car. I've heard that these heads are prone to cracking, and that in general the RD is not a very good engine to start with. I drove one a while back, it was fun! I loved the turbo "WHOOOOOOSH" when accelerating hard. Answering the main question - it has almost nothing in common with the LD28. LDs for the European market were sold in older Patrols and Laurels, and I can't think of anything else.

You sold it for 900$?! Jeez, who bought it?!

Been sailing for 9 or 10 years already - I used to race on Optimists (I hated mine, I called it "a sailing wardrobe" because of it's shape), Lasers (only for a little while) and Zoom8 (small class intended to replace the Optimist). I also did windsurfing, but just for the fun of it. My dad used to have a Hobie 16 and 18 (Tiger Formula 18), but he sold both and bought a 1904 Thames A-Rater, which is a beautiful piece of naval engineering, and considering its age and true worth, he bought it for next to nothing. As of now, we are restoring it to as-new condition, but it's going to take a lot of time. The smallest details are the worst thing that you can imagine - EVERY wooden panel that lies on the deck is glued AND riveted to the deck itself, and there are lots of these panels... Here are some pictures taken by the previous owner: My dad also has a boat built in the 80s, which is a perfect replica of a German sports yacht made in the 1920s. It sails like a dream, but I can't wait for his A-rater to be finished.

Most of the rally cars that I've seen did not have the rear spoiler. I can't recall a single Works Datsun that had one... Have you got any pictures of it mounted on a rally car? By "Aero enhacements" I meant cool air ducting around the engine bay rather than any external elements. If I remember correctly, a privately entered Japanese Fairlady Z that took part in Tour de Corse had a set of fiberglass wing extensions, probably 240ZG units (though I have nothing to back that hypothesis up, except for two pictures). Apart from that I didn't see anything that would be even close to what the race cars had. But as you said, it's nothing bad - I have lots of other things to worry about... Now that the car has a cage built in, I hope it's going to get easier from now on. Thank you Alan!

Alan, as I'm preparing my car for competing in rally events, I'd like to bring it as close as possible to the original group 4 specification (a few months ago you decoded my VIN and wrote that my car was from around october '71, so '71 or '72 specification would be logical). The question is, do you know if the rally cars had any aerodynamical enhacements? I'm sorry if this sounds stupid, but my technical English is rather limited to say the least...

You really wanna know why? Nobody wants them, that's why. No one considers a Mercedes engine a performance powerplant, yet alone a replacement engine for cheaper MB models. Additionally, as MJLamberson has already written, there is virtually no aftermarket for these engines. And if there is, it is in Europe, where prices in MB tuning companies are really high, and I mean SKY HIGH.

Cool video! I also like the soundtrack... Isn't that ZZ Top? OTM, that's not a rally car... It's a hillclimb racer - hillclimb cars are much more similar to all-out track racers than rally cars. The fact that some of them are based on group A or group N rally specials is a whole different matter.

This has got to be the tallest engine ever that has been put in a Z car... WOW.

I already like this thread! Here are some of my favorites: The guy who's driving here is probably the best FWD rally driver from my country... Ever. This one is an onboard of Janusz Kulig (don't try to say it, do yourself a favour), who in my opinion was one of the greatest rally drivers from Europe. I used to be a fan of his... Sadly, he died in a car accident (ran over by a train on an unguarded railway crossing), yesterday was the 4th anniversary of his death... This particular one is a great video from the Nurburgring. I think Yasin will like this one... Guess why? Here are a few films from the Pikes Peak, from the days when European group B cars ruled the mountain... "Climb Dance" with Ari Vatanen and his Peugeot 405 T16: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPUpN8JZe2M (I can upload a full AVI file of that video if someone's interested) Walter Roehrl in the incredible 650HP Audi S1 Pikes Peak: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB2_ImN3tV0 TIP: TURN THE VOLUME UP! (I have a full mp3 file of an S1 running on a special stage, and boy, this is only comparable with Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyrie", it gives me pure goosebumps!) Hey, I meant to put this up! Dang, Braap is always faster...

That was a great read, thanks for sharing! Bjhines, what you wrote is 100% true. Fortunately though, the US car producers began applying the today's technology to the new models - just a little bit of twitching resulted in fabulous cars like the C6 Z06 and the ZR1... By the way, double overhead cams were introduced in America as early as in 1913 by Peugeot... If I remember correctly, there were actually several heads available for the Ford Flathead. There were the Ardun overhead valve heads, and numerous SOHC and DOHC conversions, all left in the prototype stage. I imagine they would be hot sellers today if they had been produced back in the day.

I haven't heard about a Z with a TB engine in it yet... Maybe you could be the first one to swap it in a S30?

I think that the Ford/Mazda 4 cylinder is a completely different engine than the Pinto that we were reffering to earlier. The Pinto block was used in cars like the turbo Mustangs and Thunderbids - that's the well known 2,3 turbo motor. I'm not sure if the head would fit, but if it did, then it would make one hell of a head swap... Anyway, even a used Cossie engine wouldn't be cheap to buy, and the aftermarket for these engines in the US simply does not exist. The SR20 is still growing in popularity, so why bother? Even the US-legal Mitsu 4G63 can be mounted longitudinally with some block and gearbox combinations, so I just don't see the point... Other than the "cool factor" of course.

Thanks for the info Ole, I'm sure everyone interested appreciates it! It's a shame that Hafsengen sold the chassis, do you know what he's planning? I was wondering, does the 205 block have the same mounting points as the 200 block? It's not like I'm planning anything... As far as engine swaps are concerned, I bet you're right on with the opinion that the other 2 liter turbo fours could do just as well - or even better. But this is HybridZ you see, and everyone wants to be different... I'll stay with my favourite BMW engines though.

As far as I know, he also drove the car in sprint races and hill climbs... Gatebil in Norway is only one of the few events he attended to with the Escort.

A friend of mine has a 450HP Escort Cosworth (which is an Escort-lookalike with a longitudinal engine, permament 4 wheel drive and a shortened Sierra floorpan), and this thing is a ROCKET. The engine was VERY difficult to tune though, and only true Ford specialists know how to do it right. It is not uncommon to see over 600HP made from the good old Cossie turbo engine, so they must be stout. The only problem is that you have to make a full rebuild during every oil change, but who cares about that? Here's a sample of what a Cossie can do with the right amount of money and careful tuning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmDmnqvZMW0 Keep in mind that this car used to be a World Rally Championship works Escort, so it's not just your average Escort tuned to the limit... The WRC cars even had differently cast engine blocks, and everything that is FIA-labeled costs a few times more than it would've without the FIA homologation. By the way: for us LHD S30 owners, the YBx swap is theoretically a great option. In older Sierra Cossie versions, it came with the good ole' Borg Warner T5 transmission, which IIRC is a deriative of the Mustang World Class T5 tranny. And it has the exhaust on the right, which means there's plenty of room for the turbo and no tricks needed to fit the downpipe with the steering column in the way...

I'm pretty sure this is the "A" type box, which came as a factory part in all Euro 240Zs...

Thanks for the tip Yasin! I already have a E28 520i, but I'm selling it, because it feels a bit too slow for my needs. I really like the way it feels though, it's very solid and handles well. I arranged a meeting with a potential buyer this weekend, I'll try to sell it...

I'm waiting for my BMW to be delivered. It's a '85 E28 535iA, meaning it's the 3,5 liter M30B34-powered automatic. It has 94000 miles on it, and hopefully it will be reliable enough to be my daily driver. I don't think it would be wise to drive around in my caged and lowered 240Z... Funnily enough, it's a US-spec car, and I found it in the UK. It should be delivered during the next two weeks or so. It was a bargain, and I hope it's not a rust bucket...

There's a big disadvantage of using inboard brakes in racing applications - heat. More literally, it's cooking the rear discs and decreasing fade resistance as a result of lots of heat being generated by the differential. Jaguar once did it in Lightweight E-types, and most of the teams that ran these cars had to make air scoops over the trunk lid, to duct the air around the diff and the brakes. It still didn't make enough difference for anyone o notice... Besides the frequent brake failures of course. IIRC, Cobras had Girling brakes mounted inboard that came with the Salisbury differentials from the E-type. They might have been good enough for 289-powered street Cobras, but in racing applications (either 289 or the thumpin' 427 "side oiler") they were rather inadequate. It does have an advantage though: mounting the discs inboad opens up lots of wheel possibilities, and you're limited only by the available space. It's a great solution for drag cars, but I wouldn't do it in a road racing car. Quite a lot of problems for only a few advantages...