V8ZRACER260Z

Jeff, I put two green led's in the upper steering column shroud and wired those to the old indicator wires. It works great and I have a blue one for the high beams also. They are 1/8" leds from Radio Shack. Make sure to get the 12volt ones. Rick

Nice looking car Dan and welcome to Hybrid Z. Rick

I have the transformer model as well. I got it on ebay. I couldn't resist a different model as that. It's red with chrome & black trim.Rick

Sniff Sniff Sad to see it go. BUT, Glad to see you putting the heart in another car Scottie.

I put the vette suspension in full width in the front and 8" narrowed in the rear. This will keep the factory roll center in the front. As for the rear this set up has been used in cobra kit cars that handle great. I am widing my car about 2.5" in front & 3.5" in back to handle the larger rubber. Rick

OOH Daddy Like Thanks Scottie I am always looking for twin turbo V8's. Rick

I am using a C4 front & rear setup. As for handling the C4 front will handle just as good as the C5 on the street. The $250 is a great buy for that front setup. The rear is not difficult to put in but will cast a bit more. Rick

Depending on the damage to the car it is easier to start with a straight car. I am currently doing a full frame on my Z. This is a custom job, nobody makes a kit to do this. If you are not experienced in fabrication hire someone that is. You can check out the pics on my picturetrail link. Rick

Great to hear that you got lil' Misred. She'll be a sweet ride when your done with her. Has Mike already picked up his RX7? Scottie

A bit out of my area of expertise, But it sounds like a good idea. I have heard you can make some decent power from the vg's. I'm more of a V8 guy myself. There should be some guys on here that have done this swap though. Welcome to the board by the way. Rick

Thanks Scottie! Unique package for a GN motor. How's the hunt for your nex project going? I'll be welding on mine this weekend finally! My back is much better now and time to make some progress on the Z. Rick

All the dashes from 70-78 will interchange. As you pointed out the wiring harnesses are completely different and you must use the same year console as the dash. PS also you will need all the a/c. I currently have my 280Z dash in my early model 260Z.

Same with me I have a Comp Cams vaccum canister on my V8 with no problems. That's the way to go. Rick

Nice Job! Again engine details man! Rick

Congrats! Great to see a hybrid Z win again!

I'll have the trailer again, so with that, Bring it on we'll get you home if something undesireable happens

Looks Good keep it up! Rick

DO NOT BUY the Summit rocker arms! They are Junk!! They are made by a company called Proform and are aboulutely worthless. I can say this because I too tried to save a buck on these. Buy a name brand (Crane or Comp Cams) I had the summit ones and sent a pushrod right thru the end of one after it failed. I double checked my geometry and it was spot on. I now have a set of Crane full rollers and have not had one problem. They were $250.00 for the set but the piece of mind is priceless. What I've learned is not to save money on internal engine parts you get what you pay for. Rick

I believe our cars will fall into the "Street Legal" Race Car catigory. As I plan on doing both as often as possible with mine when it is completed. Rick

Ivan, Time to break out the welder. This would be the easiest way if you have access to one. I did it to my engine bay last year and took a couple of hours to close them all up. Then it's just body work as normal. Of course if you are doing this on the firewall then revove the dash and any flamable backing on the firewall. Dash R&I is not as complicated as you would think. If you don't want to get that involved the procedures RacerX said will work fine. on small holes you can use a metalic tape like for heatducts as a backing and apply the epoxy from the front. Good luck. Rick

They all come back don't they? Welcome back and look forward to seeing progress on the next Z. You'll have to hook up with the Texas guys and come to the next SEZ meeting in March. Look for the SEZ post. Rick

Well many questions to answer. 1. Would my car's acceleration be slowed down by increased rotational mass? A This depends on the current weight of your rims & tires. It is possible to run a wider tire that weighs the same as your current setup. How ever the wider tires would allow furthe Hp increases to offset any losses. 2. Would the car require increased steering effort (excessive)? A This would not be noticble as your car is equiped with power steering. 3. I would assume there would be more road noise in the car. A depends on the tread pattern of the tire but more than likely the answer will be yes there will be more road noise. 4. What about handling changes with ultra high performance tires? A This is why we put wider tires on our cars asside fron the looks of course. The wider tire increases the contact patch of the tire. This in turn will allow better cornering, braking & acceleration depending on your suspension set up. Just going to wider tires will not improve any of these areas dramatically, but you will notice a difference. 5. I assume the wider rears will make the car more of an oversteerer. A Quite the opposite. The wider tires in the rear will provide more traction and therefore increase your cars Understeering. Oversteering is when the front sticks more than the rear. Understeering is more desireable on a street only car as if you "loose it" you are more likely to hit something head on. The opposite would be a loose car in which the back end would break loose sending you into a spin and your quess on which end will hit first. 6. Would the car ride a lot harder? A This depends on the profile of the tire and the brand you choose. More than likely you will experience a slightly stiffer ride. 7. Would it tend to follow crowned roads/uneven pavement? A This will depend on how wide of a tire you run. Generally speaking a wder tire will follow imperfections in the road more. Hope this helps you out. Rick

I was piloting a friends 1972 Pantera with a blown 351. It could go faster than I could at the time. Unfortunatly due to this escapade, his car gained such noteriety with local cops, he had to trade it in on a new car. His new car a 1989 Lambrogini Countach. I felt sorry for him for about 1 millisecond. Unfortunately I did not get to drive the lambo solo after that. Though I did with him in the car. All I can say is we drove around for 2 days before we realized the car had a stereo. It was a nice ride, but it's hell to find a parking spot for a $155K car. Oh the fine would have been $1200.00 12 points and an automatic 2 year revocation of my driving license. Rick PS: BTW my first car was a 1971 Pinto.

One night a long time ago I was coming home from a DJ gig in Fredricksburg, MD at 2:30am. I was traveling a good rate of speed since there was no traffic on the road. I did notice some headlights behind me a few times. As I said I was going at a pretty good clip , so I wasn't too worried about anything behind me. Well I picked up the pace a bit to be on the safe side . As I approached my exit I couldn't quite slow down enough to make it and decided to take the next one. As I rounded the turn I hit the brakes hard and looked at all the flashing red & blues lights in front of me blocking the road. Well I figured this was a sobriety check point and given that I had just layed down a fair bit of rubber stopping. I thought it best to turn around and go back to the first exit I had missed. So now I am travelling North in the Southbound lane when I realized what those lights were behind me. Yep you guessed it, three of MD's finest blocking the road behind me. Most people would have called it quits there, BUT I had to pull another 180 and see if there was perhaps a gap in the other roadblock. Nope! Then after bit of shouting and gun pointing, all done by the police officers of course. I had surrendered my keys and freedom for the moment and was escorted to the local constables office. There I was placed in a chair and grilled by a nice police officer for reckless driving on his highway. He said a trooper had spotted me traveling at a high rate of speed while coming up an exit ramp. He had radioed ahead for back up. (ie the two other sets of lights in my rear view). These officers were traveling in excess of 125mph and were not closing ground. At one point one got a radar tag of over 175mph. I don't know if this was accurate as my 110 speedo had been pegged out for awhile. The officer was so upset when my attorney showed up he hastely wrote out a citation and had me sign it. Then I was told to remove myself from the office and that I would see him in court. Two months later I had my day in court. My attorney approaced the bench and asked to see the officers copy of the ticket. The officer brought his up and the attorney looked at them both. Then he turned them around so the judge could see them. He then asked the judge if he recognized the officers signature on the tickets. The judge then asked the officer to show him his signature on the citation. A very angry officer then told the judge in his haste he had not signed the ticket. The judge dropped all charges and I was free to go. Sometime it pays to have your day in court. Now that I am older and wiser I do not advocate driving at that rate of speed on public roads. This is what racetracks are made for. .02$ Rick

SWEET! Nice car. Keep the color too! Rick