Z-TARD

I think Tim may be on to a good idea, although filling the super soaker with urine might be a better idea. To an animal, being sprayed or "marked" with another mammals urine would have to be the ultimate insult. I can only imagine his conversation with the other racoons when he shows up drenched in human pee. As an added benefit, any overspray that misses the racoon will only serve to mark the tree as your territory, reducing the chance that they will ever use it as a honymoon suite again. Just promise us you'll videotape it if you try it though, that would be too funny Mike

Hmmmmm. Maybe all the air being forced upward as it passes over the spoiler is creating a low pressure area behind the car, drawing out the fumes from under the rear valence. We need to get like $50 from every Hybridz member so we can build a ghetto wind tunnel for some definitive testing on this. Who's in? Mike

All of Gods little critters hate paintball guns Mike

Another source for Aluminum elbows: http://www.mcmaster.com/ Search for part #43485K156 It's a butt weld 2.5 inch, sch 40 90 degree elbow. Also, for welding on the stainless with an argon purge, You can safely tack the two together prior to welding with low amperage. Just 3 or 4 tack welds just big enough to hold it together for welding. Set up your purge system after tack welding. make sure your purge gas to the pipe is not very high, or it will blow out the weld puddle, or create exsessive concavity in the weld inside. Cap off both ends of the pipe with duct tape, run the argon hose into one end (The lower one, since argon is heavier than air and will need to fill from the bottom up, like water) have a hole in the tape on the other end about the same diameter as the inside of the argon hose. Adjust the flow so that you can just barely feel it by putting a moist fingertip over the upper purge hole, it should flow just enough to evaporate spit off your finger. Let it flow for a while before welding to ensure that all oxygen is purged from the pipe. Depending on how thick your stainless is, you may want to tack it together leaving a small gap (about 1/32 to 1/16") between the two peices to aid penetration. The ends to be welded should be beveled as well, but not to a sharp edge. Make sure there is at least 1/16" flat on the edge of the beveled pipe. Your first pass on the pipe should be relatively flat, don't add too much filler metal here. Not adding any filler, however, will cause the weld to be weak and brittle. The next pass can be welded with a greater amount of filler, just make sure not to let it get to hot so it doesn't burn through your previous layer. It's a good idea to leave the purge gas on for your second layer as well. If the pipe is pretty thin (1/8" or less) 1 layer of weld would probably be sufficient. Hope this helps, Mike

Why didn't anyone tell me my butt looked so big?

I have a small junkyard of old abused R/C cars in my closet "Who's it gonna be?......Eeeeeny, Meeeeeeny, Miiiiiiny..........You!" (RC-10T2 cowers in corner of cardboard box) I've actually given serious thought to this over the past few years, maybe make some kind of armored shell to prolong the cars life a little, put little rabbit ears on it maybe. You really need a semi auto rifle to fully enjoy something like that though, and unfortunately we are not supposed to own them out here. My brother and I once made a dummy out of an old pair of coveralls, a watermelon for the head, and lots of fruit and a large bag of spaghetti for "inards". That made for some fantastic gore shots with a bolt action 300 Win Mag Mike

Aux, I've found a viable solution to your problem...... http://www.gunbroker.com/auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=18143527 Happy bidding Mike [/img]

Or chop about 2 inches or more from the top of the car, rake the windshield back by about 3 to 5 more degrees. I remember reading somewhere that the New Pathfinder Armadas come with a 2.70 R-230 rear end...... I say go for it. There will be a lot of people on here that will tell you that something can't or shouldn't be done. Based on their experiences this may be true, but approaching a problem from a fresh perspective un tainted by experience will often yeild surprising results. Thinking "Outside the box" will be an absolute must on a project like this. Building the car to achieve 240 mph on paper will be a more realistic goal than building it to actually perform 240 mph in a sanctioned LSR attempt. As stated before, rule changes from year to year will hinder the building process, require much re-work and re-design. On a car of this nature, where all components must work in perfect harmony with eachother, the total re-design of even one part could mean re-designing a significant portion of the entire car, and wasting an entire budget in the process. Definitely build for maximum safety though, no point in spending 5 years designing a one way ride to a closed casket funeral when you can just jump off a building or go jogging in the freeway to acheive the same end result Let me know if you want any help designing or welding the cage, Mike

We should organize a HybridZ "Run-N-Gun" event for us So Cal guys, where we drive out to the middle of the desert with all our guns and blow some crap up Mike

Looks pretty sharp, cool paintjob. The last two look like you're trying to line up against that Voodoo, should take another of those with your tires smoking Mike

I don't think any areo kit would help either, seems to me that the fumes entering the car come in from inside the rear cargo area, where there are unsealed holes and seems almost beyond count. Fumes can't really come into the open windows at any forward speed, unless you have a really stout tailwind maybe. I think what is happening is that the open window allows air pressure to escape from inside the vehicle, allowing the high pressure air trapped under the rear valence to vent upwards into the interior through all the unsealed holes back there. There is also the vent can for the fuel tank ack there as well on the passenger side cargo area, behind the plastic trim. Sometimes these rust out and let gas fumes into the car. As far as the areodynamics goes, The Z's large grill opening and open headlight buckets are what really kills it. From the outside, the exterior looks very sleek and areodynamic, but what the air sees as it meets the car at high speed is mostly firewall and headlight. Cut the entire nose section off of a Z from the cowl area forward, and it is a pretty good representation of the true areodynamic shape of our cars. Probably the biggest improvements you can make would be to minimize the size of the opening in the grill, and install headlight covers. A step further than that would be to provide a vent in the hood for all the air that does enter the engine bay through the grill, check out BlueovalZ's car for a good example of this:http://www.fototime.com/ftweb/bin/ft.dll/pictures?userid={7DC317B0-8EDB-4B2E-A837-F708D07C9769}&inv=9C67398D46D99D9&userid={7DC317B0-8EDB-4B2E-A837-F708D07C9769}&inv=9C67398D46D99D9 Making a belly pan under the engine compartment would also help things out a lot. It would prevent all the air that enters the grill from being ejected out the underside of the car, this is mostly what is responsible for our cars being so unstable at high speed in stock form, as the nose tends to try rotating for take off above about 90 MPH. Hope this helps a little, Mike

Good idea, we have experts in nearly every field of fabrication here on this board. With a little organization we could save people on here a lot of time and money by spreading the knowledge around a bit. Mike

I like the Superformance Daytona Coupe a lot, they brought in Pete Brock (Of BRE, and also the designer of the original Shelby Daytona Coupe) to re-design the coupe using modern areodynamics and suspension technology. It's a 200MPH+ car, but their stuff is kinda pricey. The Factory Five coupe kit would be one of the cheaper ones, and probably pretty easy to build. Theres even an option to use the independant rear suspension setup out of a late model T-Bird or Lincoln Mk8. One of these could be built for just a little more than a lot of guys on here already have in their Z's. The Shelby and Kirkham cars both use aluminum bodies from a company in Poland. The place used to pound out aluminum parts for Mig fighters until the Soviet Union dissolved and they had to look elsewhere for money. Both are excellent cars, and faithful to the original design. Only the Shelby carries the coveted CSX#### manufacturer tag though, and would be the better investment of the two. I wouldn't buy a Cobra designed on the original if I were after max performance though. The original cars use technology that is 40+ years old. Leaf spring suspension (on the 289 FIA and Daytona Coupe), Solid brake rotors and calipers that are nearly identical to the Sumitomo calipers on the first gen Z's. The interior is CRAMPED, good luck if you are over 4 feet tall The nostalgia factor is pretty cool though, and they definitely attract a crowd wherever they go. I do recomend avoiding the Series 1 made by Shelby, as it is crap. Mike Mike

No pics of these yet, as my car is still in chunks waiting to be assembled, but these are the mirrors I have for mine:http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=33649&item=2476631583 Mike

"Open the pod bay doors, HAL."

Nah, I kinda set the idea on the back burner for a while. For the actual teflon finish like cookware has, it would have to be bare metal. This definitely rules out my car as a large portion of the rear quarters appears to be constructed of Bondo. I'm still looking for an alternative though, kind of a satin metallic gray finish. Unfortunately I probably won't be able to cook on it either I was really hoping to bring something special to MSA next year too, mongolian BBQ for all the Hybridz guys, cooked Z style Mike

Hell yeah, my plate is gonna say "240-WOK". I'm gonna win best of show at MSA next year by cooking stir fry on my hood Mike

Try not to go too wide on the top section of the seat. The Z is a pretty narrow car, so even when mounted inboard to compensate for the width, they will still rub on your doors when closed. Having said that, I think the first set look pretty good. I'd stay away from the 3A vinyl seats, they feel kinda slippery and would be really hot in the summer. Mike

I think having the drains there may actually help prevent corrosion to a certain degree. The water that drains out of them when it rains would tend to wash away deposits of mud and road grime that get trapped in the lower fender area where they attach to the body. Mike

Whoa! Cyclops!

I think to get the "Buzzy" sound out of a 383, you'd have to use a coffee can muffler the size of a 5 gallon paint bucket. Pretty much any exhaust you run, with the exception of dual 1" tubes, is gonna sound like Chevy muscle. I like the idea of satin black as well, or a dull gray teflon finish. My own scientific testing however only confirms the general consensus of the previous posts: Chicks dig shiny stuff, that looks clean and new. Parts that look as though they were designed for racing seldom add any chick value to a car. There was a nice Orange Z at the MSA show this year, it had a black hood, spoiler, and ZG flares. Totally bitchin car. I pointed it out to my girlfriend, after several seconds of careful scrutiny, it illicited the simple response: "I don't like it, not girlfriend approved." Moments later a rather plain looking car with chrome wheels and a shiny blue gray mettalic paint job received the comment: "Pretty." There really is no understanding the logic behind it, I've tried......And failed I say go with Tims plan, start popping Male growth pills until all the donkeys are jealous Mike

I wonder if there is any way we could talk him into making a mold of his front fenders and reproducing them

The last time I tried that was with my HK-91 (Back before they were illegal to own in CA). I guess we didn't go far enough out in the desert. About 1/2 hour after I got there the cops showed up, threatened to arrest me and a friend for not shooting on a designated range. Evidently helicopters were enroute as well, but were called off when we showed the police our military ID's. After that I don't really take chances anymore. This state is just waaaaaay to anal about firearms for my taste. There is a range just south of San Diego that lets you shoot out to 300 yards, with up to a .50 BMG rifle. The only problem is that you are supervised the whole time by a range officer, and sometimes they can be a little "Dick-ish". So pretty much the only time I go shooting now is when I go to Arizona or New Mexico

Six? Crikey! I have about 12 now if you include scale models and hot wheels cars......

Rice Rodders, maybe?