markrolston@mac.com

Again things have been really slow. I'm at a stage where we the car is at Al's Bodyshop and he's not moving at the fastest pace. That's sometimes the pain in building something so custom. It's not like there are many shops in Austin willing or even capable of helping me with this. It moving a little faster now. The hood works, I bought some doors for it, and we have the rear quarter panels ready to put onto the car. The engine is still in parts waiting for pistons to get made. slow slow slow.

lots of parts to choose from, ability to build it light and strong, cheap, and the right size/weight.

here's a pic of the diff parts before final assembly

The diff is done. I'll post a picture soon. It's a custom built ford 8.8. It has an Eaton LSD, and Ford Racing ring, pinion, bearings, etc. The stub axles are custom made from the driveshaft shop.

It's been slow lately. We got caught up seam welding the firewall so it's perfect and frankly it's taken forever. We are also going back and forth on designs for the hood hinge. Since the whole front-end tilts the hinge must allow the headlight buckets to clear the bumper when it swings up. That's a design challenge. We have a plan but it's been slow to resolve. On the engine front, after a lot of calling around it became clear that while many people advertised HR-based parts there were actually very few around. I did manage to buy some parts but most ended up getting made custom for the job (ie: valves & pistons). I'll tell the whole story once I get to a stopping point. The engine is apart, most of the parts are in, but it's now waiting on the head work and block work. We're also starting to look at dry sump solutions. There are DE examples out there but again, no HR version I have yet to find. here are 2 random pics taken during this slow window.

The plenum won't be custom for any height issues. It will be to do something that flows better and looks way cooler, which can be achieved in one design, especially when you have the space under the hood. Most factory motors are a compromise between performance objectives, part cost, and packaging limitations. I'll be less constrained. And forged has little to no info on their site about HR motors other than plumbing a turbo onto a mostly stock motor. I still can't find anyone who's done a lot of internal work. But the basics are the same and I know where I'll get the parts so I'm generally confident at this point.

no real progress to report. Engine is torn apart and I'm ordering parts for it this week. we're doing a little port and polish on the heads, and looking at what we want to do for the block. There's not a lot of VQHR info out there. HR centric advice is welcome! For now here are 3 pics of the car sitting at Al's. mark

Big Update. The frame is done. We moved the car now to Al's for bodywork. The pics show the final rolling chassis. Note that the body is still the rusty steel original. We plan to blast that clean and then cut off all of the panels, keeping only the roof and window/door frames. Hopefully things start moving faster now.

I found the engine from this site (http://www.car-part.com/), which connected me with a salvage shop that had the motor. I've found that with a late model motor most are pretty easy to deal with. They are reasonably detailed about the condition of the motor. I never felt in doubt about getting what I was paying for. But it's not exactly like buying local- there is some inherit risk.

yes, the steel body you see will be cut up and used only for the roof and door frames. Nothing else will remain. The rest will be CF. here's a pic of the fender casting:

Hoosier R6 285/30 18's

update: We have the pedals and the steering column mocked up. I am using the stock 350Z electronic throttle.

I'm using a Bosch Motorsport 044 in-tank pump.

too early to tell. and too hot outside to really separate any improvements with the downsides of running in 105 degree heat. I'm going to have to wait until the fall sets in. mark

The final part is finished. We got it polished and installed friday just before a local show in Austin (http://web.mac.com/markrolston/NewSite/Z-Blog/Entries/2010/8/21_Texas_Nissan_Meet.html) The complete set of pics for the build of this part are on my site: http://web.mac.com/markrolston/NewSite/Z-Blog/Entries/2010/8/20_New_cold-air_intake.html mark

small update- I have a fuel cell now. ~12 gallons. It's not installed yet but this is basically where it will sit. mark

lol. $500 is cheap if you realize that car companies regularly pay more than 10k for one-off set of wheels from these guys or any other shop. They did me a big favor. fwiw, the billet they use to carve out the center piece is around 3" thick, meaning there is a limited thickness you have available and a limited amount of curve in the spoke. But because the wheel is a 2-piece the fix is simple- you mount the billet center wherever you need in the dish to get the needed offset. On the current Z, I use relatively cheap CompT/A's for the street and I use Hoosier R6's for the race wheels. I will swear by Hoosier slicks for track use. I can't really speak for what makes a good street tire. For now these new wheels will be mounted on some old Hoosiers until the car is finished. no use wasting tires for the next year of the build.

further progress on the airbox. Once the CF has dried we'll finish trimming, adding piping to the filter, and fit it all into the car. mark

Yup, most comes from a 7D with a Canon 17-55 lens.

Here in Austin- Andris and I both how to do it so it won't be too hard, except perhaps for that shape.

Yup. All those are good reasons you're not likely to want this wheel. However, if you're game, Boze does have the cad for an 8-spoke version that I did. I started with seven spokes (dumb) then tried to make eight work but the 8 spoke /5 bolt ratio looked wrong. So I went with ten spokes. But for the 4-bolt cars this would work. But then comes the issue of offset. My wheel is 11" wide with a 6.25" backspace. The spoke in the design creates 3" of offset between the center hub and where mount to the rims. But still it could work if you need a 9" or wider wheel and less backspace (on my silver Z I have a 5" backspace as most of you do) But if you are willing to spend the 500+ per wheel this costs then you might consider designing another new wheel. But I'm also happy to share this design. Or you could take it and modify it. I'll share the source files with anyone. mark

update... the intake has shape now. It'll get smoothed out and then coated with CF. mark

Here's a small update to my car: Ever since I changed the turbos to an up-mount setup I've had problems with the air filters...I keep melting the rear filter with the forward turbo. Yup. And I'm sure that turbo, or even both, are sucking in too-warm air. So I decided to build a cold air intake. But instead of doing it with piping, I decided to do something unique- make it a molded-fit piece out of carbon fiber. The new part should move more and colder air. Andris Laivins is helping do the CF work. It's partway done now with a simple foam mold of the available space for this airbox. The next step is to shave down the foam into something more rounded and purposeful in shape. Then we'll wrap it with CF. The front 4" opening will mate to a 90 degree pipe bend and down to an air filter behind the airdam. Final pics of the part are coming in a few days. mark

The wheels are finished. It's so amazing to see a the final wheel. I started this as a simple Adobe Illustrator drawing, then turned it into a CAD rendering, and now I have a completely original wheel. This project has been a blast. Making a custom car is hard, but it's possible, even down to the wheels. Here's a pic from Zak at Boze, the company that made the wheels. There are shipping today. I'll share pics of them mounted on the car next week. mark

Fair concern. But I plan to use it sparingly and it's very light material. I haven't weighed it all but I hope to keep it and the interior cf under 10lbs. The car is crazy light now so I can afford a little in the name of NHV and a nice looking interior. I have a pile of new pics but I'm traveling. Looking forward to posting in 2 weeks. Mark