markrolston@mac.com

here's an update to mine (posted before) but with a few changes- added CF side sills and CF splitter.

I'm hoping to use the Jensen ITB setup with two custom intake plenums so will be able to control height a bit. But even then it's a tight fit. I will have pics of the clearance in a few days. mark

I've had folks say 800whp is possible but Justin thinks they are getting close to max flow now- maybe 700whp is possible but not likely a whole lot more. That's his opinion. I don't know any better.

small update. Here's some pics of the frame progress with brakes and wheels mocked up in place.

yes, I will admit to spending a bit on these projects. Most folks in my position go out and buy a new car. I chose to build old cars. As for the seats, no idea yet. I may transfer the Sparco DTMs I have in the silver car into the new car. They are amazing seats. This decision is likely more than a year away. I may have enough money to do this project but only if I spread the effort out over a few years. I'm just now over 1 year into it so far and have at least another year to go.

Friday Al and Jerry pulled the first part from the one-piece front end mold. Here's a quick picture fresh from the mold: (the lines you see are leftover crap from the mold seams. The part is actually one smooth piece) This first part is made of fiberglass since we didn't want to waste the expense on carbon fiber for our first sample part. It's reinforced with Klegecell foam to keep it stiff. It's very light and rigid. It's pretty cool to see a one-piece version of the familiar Z front-end but without the part lines. Next steps for us are to fit and mount it to the chassis. I'm hoping to bring the car in a rolling state to the September Zcon in San Antonio.

Yesterday Justin at Tuning Concepts retuned the motor. On 93 pump gas it did 529whp and on Q16 it did 652. It seems we could not get it any higher because the intercooler airflow rate seems maxed out. At least this is the impression since the hp numbers wouldn't change between 24 and 27lbs of boost. It was also 101 outside and we were tuning for four hours. Hopefully we could get better numbers in cooler weather. But at 652 I'm not complaining. http://web.mac.com/markrolston/NewSite/Z-Blog/Entries/2009/7/30_Engine_Retuned.html later, mark

I'm thinking I would use Garrett 2871s. But I have not really researched what dimensions will work with a 3.8-4.2L motor. Any advice folks? I first need to determine whether I build a smaller (3.5-2.7) high-rev VQ or a slower-rev, torquey (3.8-4.2) stroker. That'll be part of the turbo selection. As for the headers, there are none out there that position the turbos where I need so I will definitely have to custom fab them. The turbos will likely site high right next to the heads.

After spinning a bearing at Harris Hill, I did a complete engine rebuild to fix it and try to address some longstanding bugs- Since I did the last build in a rush I knew there were many problem areas. The motor ran too hot. The water channels and lines weren’t ideal, the oil pickup was crap, the tolerances were to tight, and the head was still mostly stock. This is the price I’ve paid for doing some of the work myself (I'm still learning) and being in a rush each time (i'm impatient). The last build was half-assed. It’s a testament to how amazing the motor design is that I got so much power and miles out of it. So for this rebuild, a friend Mitch Nofisinger, who has amazing machining and assembly skills helped me rebuild the engine meticulously. We used a brand new N1 block and crank since the old block and crank was too distorted and had been reworked too many times. We port polished the heads and upgraded the valves and springs with Ferrea performance parts. Overall we’ve taken the time to make sure everything fits and seals up like it should. http://web.mac.com/markrolston/NewSite/Z-Blog/Z-Blog.html and also I started a thread in the V6 section about my slow, ground up build of a complete tube frame car. I'm hoping to stop messing with the RB so I can focus on this. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=150346 ,mark

I do live in Austin. If anyone wants to drop by and see the car in progress (or the RBZ) just drop me an email. Mark

Thanks. They will be 18x11" all around. I hope to get them made end of summer.

here's a small update we made to the frame. The rails we're limiting the footwell space. So we had to cut them up. so sad. Those bends were so nice. oh well, not the last time that'll happen.

good questions. I don't yet know what ECU. Justin Nenni here in Austin is who I use to tune cars so I'll be looking to him for his suggestions. After all, he'll be doing the tuning. It might be a piggyback setup since I do have the stock ECU. Again, no idea yet. I have perhaps a year before that's a problem to solve. As for the diff I'm using a ford 8.8". "what???" you say? yup. Since the rear end is completely custom we chose the Ford 8.8 for cheap, light, strong, and easy to find tons of options for. And yes, I'll use a custom Autometer gauge setup. I bought a fiberglass dash reproduction that I plan to try and cover with leather or remake in carbon fiber to hold all the gauges. I want the interior to be race ready but comfortable. Other misc stuff like pedals, fusebox, switches, etc. will likely be parts from the donor Z or summit racing catalog stuff. btw- I start the motor teardown in a few weeks and will start to accumulate parts to build it up as a ~4L turbo motor. But overall, things are going slow since this kind of work is expensive to do.

THanks.. The bends I ordered from ArtMorrison. YOu can order just about anything for custom frame builds. I just sent bend specs and they made them up for me. Sad thing is I ended up cutting into them recently to make more foot room. The triangle pieces for the cantilever suspension are billet. They will be fine. It's the mounting points that will see the stress. We're being extra careful though. I don't expect a problem. The cage has lots still left to go, including your point about the firewall. I'll have an update on that soon, including the footwell frame changes.

I've been a poster for a few years in the RB section of this site. During that time I built and have been maintaining (breaking and fixing!) my RB26 240Z. http://www.rolston.me/NewSite/Z-car.html But since that car is more or less complete, a few months ago I started a new project to build a car from scratch. It is based on a 240Z body but from there just about everything is custom. This time I'm using a VQ35HR instead of the RB. It'll be interesting to find out which is better when it's all done. The RB is a monster motor but I'm hoping for less weight and more torque with my plan for a built, twin turbo VQ. Anyway, I started a website to track all the progress. I'd love any feedback on the plans. It's been a slow start but exciting to build something so unique. http://www.rolston.me/NewSite/Z-car.html best wishes, mark

I'll definitely paint the CF since we won't be taking the time or cost to get the surface perfect. The doors are a safety issue. I want doors that open that I can step out of. With CF doors you'd need a cage inside to protect you and then getting in/out is a pain. The motor is an 07 VQ35 from a 350Z. Right now it's just stock. But it'll be fully built and turbocharged. The plans for that are a long story for later.

yes, actually I haven't yet updated the site but we decided rather than to try and do the rear flares in fiberglass that we'd instead cut away the steel rear fenders and replace the whole section with a carbon fiber casting of the current car, just as we have done with the front section. So, as the plan is now, the roof and doors will remain steel (safety) and the rest of the body panels will be done in CF. I'll have a big update late in may with the space frame built, the rear suspension set up, and the VQ35 and tranny in place.

you can't see the site? I've been told this before but everytime I check it out it works for me. What browser and computer are you using? Anyone else had a problem looking at the site?

Spring came around I got the itch to fix/meddle with the car again even though I'm supposed to be leaving the old car as-is and focusing on the new car (http://web.mac.com/markrolston/NewSite/New_Z_Blog/New_Z_Blog.html). After the January track event I swore I was going to fix the surge issue and a nagging spark problem. It turns out the spark problem came from plug wires set too close to each other (I use remote coil packs). That was a simple fix. But the turbo surge issue had been a bug since the orginal build. Since I had cracks in my downpipes and headers I took the chance to redo the turbo plumbing. I put an HKS header with balance pipes on and Andris Laivins (http://www.laivins.com/) fabbed up all the new piping. Beautiful work! http://web.mac.com/markrolston/NewSite/Z-Blog/Entries/2009/3/14_New_Turbo_Piping.html With the new setup almost completely removing the surge issue, Justin Nenni at Tuning Concepts retuned the car and we were able to get almost 100 more HP on pump gas. We still haven't dyno'd it with race gas to see what the big numbers are. http://web.mac.com/markrolston/NewSite/Z-Blog/Entries/2009/4/1_Engine_Retuned.html I also took this time to build some custom aero parts to see if I could make the car stick a little better on the track. Al helped me create a custom front splitter and side sills and I mounted an APR GTC200 wing on the back. From my initial impressions at Harris Hill, it works. http://web.mac.com/markrolston/NewSite/Z-Blog/Entries/2009/4/4_New_Aero_Parts.html The car's going to sit for most of the summer as we use it as a design template to fab up parts for the new car. We're looking at creating CF rear quarter panels (with the flares molded in) to go with the custom front CF piece. (http://web.mac.com/markrolston/NewSite/New_Z_Blog/Entries/2009/1/15_Front_Body_Mold_Finished.html)

If you don't have a healthy budget or are incredibly capable and resourceful in building and fabricating then don't go with the RB. It's a nice motor with lots going for it but it is not a domestic motor so expertise and parts are relatively hard to find. I've been road racing mine RB-based S30 for several years now and it's a ton of fun but it's been a lot of work to get the bugs out. I'm sure you could build a lot milder setup than I did and end up with a more reliable motor, but then you're going to be doing not a lot better than a V8 or L28 turbo setup. number one thing to build for if you do go this direction is oil control. Road courses are unforgiving. I'm on my third block for this reason (ok, I'm a slow learner you can see the build (mistakes and all) in my blog: mark

I'll be driving my RBZ on saturday the 17th at the Harris Hill track

Just thought I'd share again- I'm working on some upgrades to my car again. First it's always run a little warm and I suspect it was the tight intercooler/radiator setup. So I respositioned it into a V (or an L?) setup so both get direct airflow. I also made a few other changes, including new front brakes. I'm now working on buttoning this work up and will post another update when I get the rear wing and front splitter installed for track days. I'm planning on using the small lip for the street and the larger GTC wing for track use. http://web.me.com/markrolston/NewSite/Z-Blog/Z-Blog.html btw- I'm also working on a new 240Z and we're actually making a mold this week of the front half of my current Z (and holding up the other work) so we can create a one-piece carbon fiber front end. The frame and suspension are also just getting started. More pics soon. http://web.me.com/markrolston/NewSite/New_Z_Blog/New_Z_Blog.html I wasn't really planning on messing around with two Z's at once but I could not leave well enough alone. Eventually I'll get back to just one car. mark

Thanks. The CCWs are now used as race wheels with mounted slicks. The wheels in the new pics are street wheels.

Thanks. I did drill through the metal using simple sheet metal screws. There are four screws. We had not considered anything more sophisticated. I think it looks fine. There is a spot to drill out the lock pull but I chose not to. The CF rolls over to allow gluing of the fuzzy glass guide but I have not yet put that on. This was just a test fit of the first pulled part. We're actually tuning a few aspects for a tighter fit.

I was able to install the test set this evening. Even before they've been polished they look great. I intentionally left the armrests off. I like the cleaner look. I updated my blog with more pics. also enclosed here. http://web.me.com/markrolston/NewSite/Z-Blog/Z-Blog.html