markrolston@mac.com

I'm running twin 2871r's on my setup with the HKS header. I'm getting 500hp on pump gas and 650 on race gas (c16). The turbos are somewhat slow to wind up for street driving, but perfect for the track. I originally went with the Tomei headers but I had such boost balance issues (turbo choo-choo) that I switched to the HKS which has mostly removed this problem. Good luck. Personally if I were building a street car I'd go with a smaller turbo for quicker spool. The car is a handful anywhere over 400hp.

The steel is there for fire safety but there will be a layer of klegicell then cf over this so im not so worried about weld look. Bur thanks.

another small update. The transmission tunnel is coming along. You can see how the lower part of the tunnel is wide enough to house the exhaust pipes on each side of the transmission.

a small update...The wheels are in production and look to ship next week. This picture is one of the billet center-pieces. It hasn't yet been sand-blasted, drilled for bolt-holes, or mounted to the dish. It's an adventure creating a wheel from scratch. I have only hope that the final product looks like I imagined it would. And thanks to Zak at Boze for helping me through this process.

I'm aware of that solution but I believe that it's currently only available for the earlier VQ's and not the newer HR's that I am using. The bottom end is very different.Until then I plan to make something similar, just without all the pimp billet pieces.

Almost a year later, I've been basically racing the Z and making a few improvements here and there, but mostly just trying not to break it so I can concentrate on the new project. But since I got a new camera I recently got the itch to capture the Z on video before I go and change it again (or worse). From the look of this forum, it looks like others are either simply enjoying there Z's as well, or RB projects are really slowing down. I'm finding the old Z is getting more rare every day. Anyhow, the following is my first edit of the video. Eventually I hope to get better shots of the exterior once I find a nice parking lot to do some shooting in (i used older footage for those shots in this edit) http://web.mac.com/markrolston/NewSite/Z-Blog/Entries/2010/7/4_A_Quick_Video.html enjoy, mark

It's been slow because of money and some processes were waiting in line (get a mold of this before removing that before building the...and so on...) But I promise a big update soon. The wheels are in production now. I expect them in July. I'm bugging the manufacturer (Boze) for process pics but no luck so far. Right now we're working on the firewall and floorpan. Andris is fabricating a firewall and tunnel and Al will come in after to seal it all up with a klegicell and carbon fiber bed that covers the interior firewall, floor, tunnel, and rear area. Once we have the firewall shaped we will also be ok to lift out the motor (it's in for fit) and open it up and start to plan what we want to do to it. So far the thinking is pretty simple- change out the rods and pistons to make it stronger, look over the heads for any needed improvements, and then fab up a dry sump system. On the outside of the motor we'll fab up the intake plumbing, headers, turbo mounting, charge pipes, oil and water plumbing, etc. At that point we can start looking at radiators and intercoolers and other general engine bay crap. Also in parallel I'm hoping we'll be able to afford to take the frame and get it powder coated and get the body blasted to prep it all for bodywork. Maybe by fall it'll look less like a dune buggy and more like a car. mark

The process is simple: we put a release agent on the body to make it easy to to remove the mold. Then we lay resin and fiberglass cloth on the body until its thick enough. Pull that and you have a mold. There are details but that's the gist. The fuel filler door is being removed.. The fuel cell will be in the rear hatch.

I am keeping the original steel shell around the doors and windows, the roof, and the rear light panel. Otherwise it's all new. But in the end it'll look very much like a 240Z...at least as much as my current one does.

Progress has been slow but I have a few updates. I've revised the wheels to now be a 10 spoke design to better work with the 5-bolt pattern. Also, we just made a mold of the rear panels of my silver Z so we can recreate them in CF for the new car. Here are a few pics.

thanks. Who do I hit up? mark

yup. I'm working on all of those issues. FWIW, I'm finding it's not so easy to design a wheel I've done a little visualization on how it'll look on the car. I think it's the right general style and fit. Now I need to refine the spoke design. mark

yup, I'm going to try it with eight as well. stand by...

small update. I changed my mind a few months ago on the wheel design and so I've been working with an engineer at Boze to create a new wheel design. I sent him some 2D layouts and he's just sent back the first 3D center piece render to see if it looks right. The idea is to do a modern 18", deep dish version of the old banana/watanabe wheel design. I should have a nicer render of it as a whole wheel in a few days. Opinions so far?

I haven't begun on the motor. The plan is a custom twin setup going into a custom plenum. I have the flanges but nothing is started yet. The composite shell for the front is made but not mounted and we're starting the rear section. I'll have updates in a week or two on that. Things hopefully will move faster this summer. mark

here's a small update. We built a removable frame for the intercooler, radiator, and hood hinge. The stock Datsun bumper fits perfectly over the curved front tube. The front splitter mounts directly to the lower bars. Right now the frame is about to get powder coated, my other silver Z is getting cast again for the rear fender molds, and then we will start building up the body. Things should start moving a little faster ("faster" is relative though)

here are the measurements embedded in the pic. good luck. I'm not sure about any block modifications yet. I'm just not yet at that stage. I have a sense that I'm going to change crank, rods, pistons, and add a girdle. But no more detail than that. I'm after ~800whp tops and a road course ~500whp (which means usable for long durations at high loads with good torque)

no problem. It's not ideal but it seemed best for the situation. Here's the schematic I started with;

After several configurations I think I've come to a good cooling setup for both the radiator and intercooler. It's a sort-of V-configuration with the intercooler receiving air from a scoop and exiting out of the hood vents. It's not ideal but after many other setups it seems to work best. The fit issue is because the intercooler is huge, with a 12x24x4 core. That and the added complexity of the oil cooler up front. The area below the bumper is dedicated to the radiator and above the bumper to the intercooler. The shroud seals up against the hood to ensure air cannot rout around the intercooler. here are some pics of it apart and finished.

small update...Things are going slow over the winter. We're right now building mounts for the body. The rear steel body section will be removable (the plan so far) and the front is getting framing built for the airdam, bumper, and hood mounting points. To set everything up correctly we had to build a template of the body line for the current car. more pics coming soon.

The backspace is 5". No spacers. The CCWs were about 400 each and the Boze's were about $500 each. Both sets were custom made to fit. FWIW, I keep specs of the entire car here: http://web.mac.com/markrolston/NewSite/Z-Blog/Entries/2010/1/31_Speeds_and_Feeds.html

You are confused. 285/35/18 fits my 11x18 wheels perfectly. Tire rack must be wrong.

285/35/18s on all four corners.

Here's a pic of the CCWs (sitting still rather than at speed