Z-TARD

Another option: IRS out of late model T-bird/Lincoln/SVT Cobra. The Lincoln and Cobra rear ends have aluminum arms and diff cases, the T-birds are steel. Diff is the ford 8.8", plenty of aftermarket gears and posi setups available. The whole thing unbolts from the car as an assembly, which would make the conversion a little easier. Maybe. Is the Supra rear end made from deplete uranium? Mike

"Twisted Wedge" perhaps? I haven't seen them advertised for a while, but Trick flow used to make some heads with that name a few years ago. Mike

When I look at the math aspect of all this, I just here popping noises from deep inside my brain cavity, but it seems to me that the caveman/rock-paper-scissors explanation of how this might work is this: 1) Belly pan smoothes undercar airflow (I think the important part here is to smooth the aiflow without doind anything to increase the air pressure under the car such as sudden reductions in ground clearance. Venting all radiator cooling air over the top of the hood would help here as well) 2)As the belly pan nears the rear of the vehicle, it slopes upwards at a slight angle (7 to 9 degrees IIRC). This causes the air under the car to increase volume to fill the extra space created by the extra ground clearance, resulting in low pressure under the car. 3) Side plates keep the highr pressure air on the outside of the car from rushing in to fill the low pressure area created by the belly pan/ diffuser. On a Z without a rear spoiler, the rear diffuser might even help reduce the amount of lift created by the downward slope of the rear hatch. Imagine the airflow from the rear of the vehicle being pulled down slightly from the low pressure air exiting from under the rear of the vehicle, in effect reducing the amount of "pull" exerted by the air over the hatch. Not sure waht kind of effect it would have on a car with a spoiler, due to the greater degree of separation between over the car/under the car airflow. So who's gonna be the first to tie hundreds of 4" lengths of yarn to their car and video tape airflow at freeway speeds? Mike

Dude, that rocks! I really like the flailing num-chuck (spelling ) as he tries to get up. It's only a matter of time before someone makes an Afroninja vs Star Wars Kid video Mike

It's not so much that the air is sticking to the surface of the car, but that it is being displaced by the surface of the car that creates the most drag. To eliminate drag and make it so that no pressure wave would be felt if a car passed you, it would have to be shaped like an arrow. A lot of land speed record cars are shaped like that, about 25 or 30 feet long, but only 2 feet wide. This would be a totally impractical design for any car that intends to go in a direction other than long straight lines. Automotive areodynamics is always a compromise of drag vs downforce, but there are ways around that. Using the air under the car to generate downforce is like getting downforce for free, without the associated drag penalty. The air under the car is going to create drag no matter what you do, so if you can clean up the airflow a little and generate downforce in the process, you are already a few steps ahead of the guy that just put a giant wing on his car and called it good. Using the diffuser/bellypan to create downforce will let you use a smaller wing /spoiler in the back to generate the same amount of total downforce as a much larger wing, without the drag the larger wing would create as well. Hope this helps explain what they are trying to accomplish here. ZR8ED, let us know how how it works when you get a chance to open it up a little Mike

Post some pics once you get it mounted Mike

In Canada too, I bet shipping would be pretty bad on that for most of us. At least another $200 or so It would make an awsome platform to do some serious body mods on though..... Mike

Ummmm. Is it just me or does this sound like a serious accident waiting to happen? If he's hell bent on racing, maybe just let him win? Guys on leave do really stupid things sometimes, trying to blow off steam from 6 months or more of deployment in two weeks time or less. Just walking down a sidewalk can be dangerous for these guys. I don't have any specific stats on this, but I know from experience that us military guys are much more likely to hurt ourselves on leave than at almost any other time. Personally I'd just let him stay ahead, follow at a safe distance. You'll know if you could beat him or not by how much effort it takes to keep up with him, just my $.2 worth. Play safe, Mike

I say we band together and thumb our noses at the establishment, and write in Mike Kelly for Pres. You got my vote Mike, who's with me?

Damn, thats cool.

Swap should work on the ZX as well. Re drilling the fron hubs would be a waste of time, unfortunately, there aren't too many options for the rear, so they'll most likely have to be drilled. Ross C at Modern Motorsports sells rear stub axles drilled for 5 lug. If you have access to a welding machine and milling machine with indexing head you can do the work yourself too. To use a 40mm offset wheel in the back, you'll need a 1.5" spacer as well. I think there may be a company that makes 1.5" 4 lug to 5 lug adaptor/spacers that would also work for converting the rear to 5 lug, but I don't remember now where I saw them Hope this helps, Mike

Awsome conversion! I kicked around the idea of doing a twin turbo Jag V12 swap a few months back, but after much deliberation decided against it. Motor was too big/heavy, very little room for turbos, too expensive to repair for an engine with some reliability issues, etc. In the end, I ended up joining the herd (cue cattle sounds) and going the SBC route. Glad to see someone else is running with the V12 idea though, don't let the man get you down! Mike

Mid 70's might be emmissions heads, which would be a bad thing. No way to know for sure though unless you can give us some casting numbers to look up. There should also be a casting mark at the front of the head, most of the decent heads will have two rounded humps cast here, looks kind of like the McDonalds golden arches. Other heads will have triangle, or rectangular shaped casting marks here, but again, no way to tell for sure without having some casting numbers to go off of. ( Casting numbers will be located in the valve train area) Hope this helps, Mike

Saw that one today too. Probably one of the few times in my life that my blood pressure has spiked to dangerous levels Not so much for the Z only rating #14, but because the Honda Civic was rated above it at #2 I wonder if I could sue them if I had an embolism over that.... Mike

When you get another roll, I'd be interested in the HybridZ group buy also Mike

Hey Tim, I've got a spare Jag V-12 if you happen to have a shoe horn lying around Mike

I wonder how many bystanders were killed in that video. Now if the rest of that region could catch on to this sport, we'd have a lot less issues to deal with over there

Looks like David Hasslehoff could teach them a thing or two.....

Well, I just went cross eyed. Thanks guys

The front hubs don't have to be off a turbo car. Mine came off an 87 NA 300zx, bolted right up and have about .75" more offset to the outside than the stock 240 hubs. Bearings are interchangeable between the two, but you will need the 300zx grease seals. Mike

Have they no shame? I wonder if they have a special super sized cart for rolling it out to the parking lot to load up into the SUV.

If you look at the underside of the hood, you'll notice that the hood vents dont go through the sheetmetal at all. That poor, misguided soul.....

Showoff!

Heres an auction from the same place I got mine from. They offer the spun aluminum funnels as an extra for these. I think the funnels were like another $30 or so. Between 2 fuel caps, funnels, and a fuel cell, this has been kind of an expensive part of the Z project, but worth it in my opinion since it really captures the look I was going for, and I can refuel from either side of the car now too. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2452370445&category=42611 No pics of the connection to the fuel cell yet, as I still have to make it. This has kind of lit a fire under my ass though, so I'll see what I can do in the next week or so. Mike

Shoulda used more Bondo