260DET

Weight only becomes an issue when power, handling or braking are not up to it. My 280ZX weighs 1245kg which is not light but its not a problem for what racing I do, its well balanced and that is what counts.

Would that be the Z31 suspension I wonder, apparently it was an improvement on the S130's. Had the squat angle reduced.

If you are going to up the boost then typically turbo engines benefit from some close attention to exhaust flow, inlet is not so crucial. Maybe bigger valves, certainly some good professional head flow work.

Buy one cheap new 17" wheel but I doubt that any 17" wheel with tyre will fit in the stock location.

There have been several topics on that particular air dam, seems like we have a new one every month or so Personally I prefer the Arita but that one is a close second That pic shows how good a S130 can look, better than any S30 in my.............

Bit hard to tell in that pic but I don't mind it at all, the concept anyway. Then again I'm a fan of boxed guards.

Just make sure you put anti sieze on the new ones Dave, may want to pull them in 20 years time.

Yeh its a testing circuit. If you don't have good aero then with a powerful car it can become airborne over the crest halfway down Conrod Straight, further on into Caltex Chase, do you keep the boot into it or back off. There have been some spectacular crashes there plus some brilliant passing moves. Whittie if I went there it would be for the FOSC Easter races but the format of big fields with the fast cars at the back is a bit dicey, particularly with amateur drivers. With PI the traffic is not as dense so you have less concern about other drivers. I'm a bit protective of my car, from the windscreen back no panels available in AU.

In the first video it looked like the Supra had better corner speed than the smokey red Z, he just needed a push to pass button or to give the Z a love tap or two. Plus, while that circuit looks fun to drive, there are not many obvious passing spots eg for an under and over, but then the Z driver was driving a good defensive line most of the time. Nice driving by both though, guess the Supra would be the heavier of the two? In the second one, check out the Supra's attitude @ 1.00, 2.10 and 2.40. Drifter

The Jap aftermarket adjustable LCA's for a S14 I have use a captured spherical bearing. The ARB on a S14 links similar to a S30 so I guess its considered not to be a problem as far as popping the bearing goes.

Ask John Coffey (JohnC) from this forum, fairly sure he will be able to advise and supply. Make of springs is not as important as the spring rate, then you need dampers that are valved to match the springs so make sure you get unbiased advice before spending your hard earned. The suspension rubbers are probably stuffed too, understand that there are poly kits available (Energy?) for the Z31 that fit with a bit of tweaking.

The later Supras are a good thing, for their weight surprisingly quick in stock form around a race track. Bathurst or Phillip Island? Hope to make the trek to PI next year.

Like that G nose splitter, should work well.

It seems that with an end on plenum, like the RIPS and Federal ones above, the throttle body inlet angle is very important. Tapering the plenum like the RIPS one not so important. but of course may still be relevant and obviously is so with the RIPS design. As a general observation the throttle body inlet needs to point towards the far end of the plenum, certainly not towards the nearest cylinder. As I said, a general observation, but concerning plenums that have been flow tested for even distribution. The Federal one is a bit difficult to see as to TB inlet angle but it appears to point towards the far end, to some degree anyway. So I would not give up on it just yet

Yeh, these discussions are invaluable, always something to learn or refresh the memory on On roll centers, some info from the late great Carrol Smith, who incidentially has said that on most road courses a rear ARB is a bad thing. Rear roll center too low/ front RC too high relatively. Roll axis too far out of parallel with mass centroid axis, leading to non linear generation of lateral load transfer and chassis roll, as well as the generation of excessive front jacking force. Tendancy will be towards understeer. Rear roll center too high/ front RC too low relatively. Opposite of above, tending towards excessive jacking at the rear and oversteer. I assume the 'mass centroid axis' he mentions is the mass center line in the horizontal, if it may be put it that way. .

On that MSA camber kit, it doesn't have a pillowball/spherical bearing set into the poly that the top of the strut shaft fits in eh? Any aftermarket ones I've seen do.

GM-H in Australia set up a special LHD facility to make the G8, Pontiac was also going to get our Holden ute/sport truck but that was canned earlier this year. Seemed like a good idea at the time

There is a Z32 in AU being fitted with a LS, right hand drive of course. Corvette LS2 sump, fabricated exhaust manifolds for a single turbo, auto because he says the manual is too big to fit in. Anyway, may be of interest http://www.aus300zx.com/forum/showthread.php?t=286885

Mine is a real HybridZ it has S14 suspension all round. To get rid of the rear anti squat the rear cradle/subframe was tilted forward ie the front of it was lowered. No rear ARB either, helical LSD, lays the power down great and does not understeer at sensible speeds.

No Dave, no suck. Typically in my corner of the world competition S30's are lowered with no consideration for roll centers, except, perhaps to compensate in the front. Then they try to run front ARB's only, which is basically a good idea because as you mention it allows the IRS to work better. But, without going into it deeply, no account is taken of the change in roll centers and inclination so typically the handling is not improved over stock and may even be worse. Which is disguised by the use of semi or slick tryes. Its very frustrating to see. With the Hybrid280ZX very careful attention has been paid to roll centers and inclination together with removal of anti squat and so on. As a result the car handles and drives beautifully and is starting to do very good lap times even with me at the wheel. A lot of such attention was prompted by following various suspension topics on this forum over the yeears

Sorry, none of them, all too fussy. But the logo itself is great, how about it by itself or something with a big apple?

1/8" toe out should be OK , keeping in mind that any toe out tends to create instability. Which may be countered by increasing caster. So I would increase caster as much as possible which usually is not much on a S30 because of front side wheel clearance problems and leave that. Then if the problem still exists try reducing the toe out. On the bump steer question, if its present then it will show up by driving straight along some bumpy road. If you hit some decent size bumps and they do not affect the steering wheel then you don't have bump steer.

Its getting a bit off topic isn't it but without thinking about it much adjusting squat and raising the roll center would require two vertically adjustable pivots, both of which would have to be adjustable higher than the stock locations. Which obviously would require some severe 'reengineering' back there. The mention of raising the roll center is deliberate, I can't imagine it would need to be lowered on any road course/circuit type S30.

What wheel alignment figures does it have? And it sounds like the ride height and front roll center may have changed although that may not be relevant to your problem. But alignment eg toe, can be.

Can't get over how effective the new vent has been. Drove the car in moderate traffic again including some lengthy stops. Previously the thermo fan would have come on several times, now it does not come on at all and the temp stays at 85C. Effective area of the vent is 140 x 200mm.