Gareth

That's some great info, thanks!

Mike, and you're still wondering why your wife rejected that?! Seriously now - I like themes like these, but for a newborn baby... Well, this may be a little bit over the top. I think that posters from movies like Vanishing Point, Easy Rider or American Graffiti would be a better idea than Apocalypse Now or Cambodia killing fields... Or maybe I'm just afraid of hearing Marlon Brando's... "The Horror... Horror!" ...again? :lmao:Think of it this way: would you like to see your kid getting scared when it hears a quote from Apocalypse Now?

Ditch the wheels, change the bumpers, throw out the bumper guards, and it will become a nice 280Z. I'm a minimalist though.

Please, stop misinforming everyone... There is NO single turbo 2JZ. The JZ engine family came in the following variants: - 1JZ-GE with and without VVTi - 1JZ-GTE twin turbo - 1JZ-GTE VVTi single turbo - 2JZ-GE with and without VVTi - 2JZ-GTE twin turbo, with and without VVTi No TTs in the engine type (Toyota uses a single "T" for both single and twin turbo), no single turbo 2JZs, period. Please, READ before you post. GODCHSR, indeed, the A340s used in the NA and turbo Supra are the same trannies. The difference is in the manual trannies - the NA uses the weaker W58 (Lexus 2JZ-GE non-VVTi cars use a slightly different - and stronger - W58s), while the TT has the bombproof Getrag V160.

I'd be happy to know this too. Speeder, have you received your kit by now?

Is your tranny from a S12 Silvia? Is it the FS5W71C, similar to the 280Z tranny? I was planning to do this swap because of the shorter gearing (I'm building a quite powerful NA L28), and now I see that it actually works...

The "real thing" shots would be a great idea for a car-obsessed 10 year old, who probably knows already a thing or two about four wheels. I'd stay with the cartoon theme for a newborn boy...

Congrats! I have a 5 year old cousin who's already a little gearhead, and the only thing that he talks about are cars and military things. Now these are PROPER intrests... If you'd like to go for the car theme, maybe you should look at the "Cars" movie posters?

I have many interests, but old cars are my primary one... I'm hoping to be making a living out of it quite soon. I'm a motoring journalist, and I work for two magazines - I treat these jobs as hobbies. I especially like classic JDMs, American muscle cars and hot rods. This is me with a RX-7 that I wrote about a year ago. Fabulous car... I also love vintage planes and submarines, and I'm interested in the history of both world wars in general. In my free time and during vacations I do skiing and sailing (also windsurfing). I couldn't find a picture of me skiing, so I put Bode Miller instead. The yellow boat in the lower picture (POL-19 sail number) is me. That was two years ago... Feels a lot longer than that. Here's my Datsun project, aka "The Money Pit". Will this restoration ever end? Apart from the things I wrote about, I also like scuba diving (I'm a rookie though), rock music (AC/DC, The Doors, Deep Purple, INXS just to name a few) and gangster movies (The Godfather, Goodfellas, The Untouchables), leather jackets, military jackets (especially U.S. Army), old watches and some other things that I forgot to write about...

John, I think they are positive offset wheels. Most probably I will run coilovers, so it looks like fitting them won't be an issue. Evan, thanks for mentioning that - a couple of my friends use the floating wheel nuts, which enable them to use wheels with slightly different bolt patterns (as long as the difference is small, it's no problem). For example, you can use 4x98 Audi wheels on 4x100 VW hubs without any problem. Even with a spacer, I should be able to mount them fairly easily - it's only a matter of different length lug nuts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM5wxTmCZYQ This is a short vid of the world's first Nissan GT-R performance test. According to Edmunds.com, the GT-R is actually FASTER than the manufacturer claims. Looks like the 70k supercar is an even bigger bargain than we thought...

Guys, I found a gorgeous set of BBS mesh-type wheels on German eBay. They're 16x8 for front and 16x8,5 for rear with 5x112 bolt pattern. I'm converting my car to run S14 5x114,3 hubs in the rear and AZC hubs in the front, so with floating wheel bolts I should be able to use them. According to a offset-to-backspacing conversion table from this site https://www.rsracing.com/tech-wheel.html#backspace, the backspacing should be betweeen 3,25 and 3,5" (35 offset) for both axles. Will they fit in a lowered car with no fender flares? Will I need spacers? Here are some pictures: http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170182082885&fromMakeTrack=true Thanks in advance. Tony

Hello Ewen, I write for Classicauto magazine - we've been in the market for a year now, but we gained a 10,000 monthly sales rate during the first 1/2 year that we were selling (and that's quite a success, considering the small but growing classic car market in Poland). We write about classics from all over the world, and usually I write about Japanese and American cars. It's my first true job, and even though I know I'm going to work for someone else in the future, I'm going to stay there and write articles just for fun. I love it! The website is http://www.classicauto.pl (sorry for the lack of English version, the editor says it's in the works). And yes, I know something about these deadlines - a few days ago I had to write a mid-sized article about Sydney Allard's cars (roughly two pages in MS Word with size 12 Times New Roman) in one evening. Funnily though, it was moved over to the next issue because of the lack of decent pictures... But we digress. Here's the current "CA" issue: http://www.classicauto.pl/numer.html And here are the past issues (I wrote the cover article for the Chevy Camaro issue): http://www.classicauto.pl/archiwalne.html I really like your project! If you have any more pictures, please post them in the "Members Projects" section. I'd be happy to show them to my fellow Nissan gearheads in Poland... Forgot to write that I had an idea - maybe you could use the pictures of factory mounted superchargers? Several Mercedes-Benz models had Eaton superchargers, and now Ford (Mustang Cobra & GT500) and Chevrolet (Corvette ZR1) have factory high-output superchargers too... I'll keep my fingers crossed. Tony

I think you should know that this rally is not about only going fast - it's a regularity competitiom, which means that your speed has to be as consistent as possible. There are several hidden checkpoints along the way that measure your speed. Based on your speed accuracy, you get more or less penalty points. The more consistent your speed is, the less penalty points you get. That's why these guys don't appear to be driving on the limit... Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the links. It seems that I'll have to search for a wider range of models to get a decently priced project car...

Ewen, although I can't really help you out with the pictures, I hope you'll be able to make it in time. I'm a journalist too, and I know what it means to be in a rush when trying to complete the article... I hope you'll make it in time! By the way, have you got any pics of your project? I love Hybrid S13s and S14s... Good luck! Tony

The HR30 Skyline wasn't available in Europe...

Guys, it looks like this year I'm finally going to be able to live and work in the US for a month or two. That said, I have a special goal in mind... I'm hoping to make as much money as possible and buy a vintage Mopar as a restomod project, prefferably a '68 Charger or a '70 to '71 'Cuda or Challenger. Any other B-body or the '73 or '74 E-bodies would be just fine - I'm just dreaming of buying a musclecar and modifying in over a few years (I already have a daily driver and my rusty Z in about 60-70% of completion). The question is, how much should I expect to pay for a decent rolling restoration project car? I know that I'll have to pay MUCH more than the car's price itself to get it going at all (I'm restoring and modifying my Z at the moment), but I don't care, since I'll have a lot of time to finish this. Can anyone help? Tony

I'd be thankful for ANY kind of info about the Euro engines, and I guess I'm not the only one here who thinks this way. Thanks for the input!

Thanks for these remarks Alan, I think they cleared up my point of view on the European market... But have you got any specific data about the European L-gata engines? As far as I know, the L-series was available in the Old Continent in many different models throughout the 70s and 80s, which include: - C10 and C110 Skyline, exported to Europe in LHD form in small numbers, - C31 and C32 Laurel with the "B" pillar and solid axle rear suspension, - 510 Bluebird, - 710 Violet, - S30 240Z and 260Z, - S130 280ZX, - 160 Patrol, - anything else? What kind of lock/head casting numbers did these cars use? I think that European HybridZ users could benefit a lot from any kind of information about the Euro L-gata, since, as you already noted, most sources written in English are dedicated to the lucrative American market...

Thanks Ian, that's good news. I'll search for a 7M then.

Mario, you're right on this one - neither the US nor Euro market got the 1JZ-GTE, which means that the R154 was available only in the MA71 Supra Turbo. A few days ago I discussed the Toyota transmission topic with my friends, and it seems that the Lexus W58s from the JZZ30 SC300 (the "s" is critical here) is stronger than your usual W58 found in the Supra. It's said to withstand as much as 500 daily driven HP, but it's not a 100% bolt-on swap. To change over to the W58s, you need the Lexus flywheel, Supra shifter (Lexus tranny has a shifter extension) and a modified driveshaft. I'm not sure if it's worth the effort, but it may be a nice alternative...

Sorry, but I don't have any other pictures. I'd like to see something more too...

Guys, during the next few days I'll probably buy a '81 Toyota Crown Super Saloon (chassis code MS112) for a daily driver. It has a stock 5M-E with a 4 speed auto. I have a few friends who have Mk III Supras, and some of them have 7M-GTE motors for sale. Do the 5M and 7M have identical motor mounts? An old Crown with a peppy 7M motor could be a nice sleeper... Thanks in advance. Tony

280zcar, you've got me. That's the one!