Phantom

280z may not be as hard as you think. Contact Jerry at All Z Car Specialist in SE Fort Worth -817-483-0383. He has all the way from a complete car to just a shell. Conversion components are good quality and include the fuel pump & pressure regulator, AC compressor & mount, engine & transmission mounts, drive shaft, radiator & speedometer drive plus the "vital fluids" package which includes hoses, etc. Contact John's Cars at Zcar@johnscars.com for details on the parts.

Let's see - I'm flying into Vegas on the 30th - and then flying right back out the same day back to Texas to spend the holiday with my family at home. Happy New Year Y'all!!

Merry Christmas to all!!

Cablesrv - The Cowtown Z Club meets the second Thursday of each month at 7:00 at the West Side Cafe, NW of the traffic circle off Camp Bowie Blvd. I plan on being there next month, Jan 8th. Email me directly if you want to see/talk about the car before then. BTW - Savage42 is right about the cost. Just the conversion components on my car -not counting engine, transmission, differential & braces cost over $2,000.

Well -I think I'd claim the most efficient drivetrain. You'll have a line of the "faithful" beating a path to your doorway to be "enlightened"! All kidding aside - Since most folks can only get access to a chassis dyno - I'd go with the rwhp and call it good. If someone want to know the flywheel tell them to use the multiplier of their choice. Personally, I consider 15% to be a relatively conservative number when working from chassis dyno to flywheel so that's what I'm sticking with. It also corresponds pretty closely with the 1/4 mile to hp calculators that I've tried.

Let me know when you'll be in Arlington and we'll set something up. Just go to the bathroom before you get in the car.

Like I said ealier - I'm still not quite sure exactly how it got in there. I remember sending an email to "Turbo & High Performance" magazine with a couple pic's in it when I ragged on them a bit for telling a guy in New York that a V-8 wouldn't fit in a 280ZX. Evidently that magazine is published by the same company that does "Sport Compact Car"? Maybe they talk to each other and the pic's got passed around? Anyway - I'm not complaining because I was able to get a copy of the magazine for myself.

Well - almost. Got a phone call from my 15 yr. old nephew in Florida yesterday afternoon. He had gotten his parents to stop so he could pick up one of his favorite magazines -Sport Compact Car. He is building up an older model Prelude that was his older brothers so he'll have a hot little rice burner once he turns 16. Anyway -he was thumbing through the February 2004 issue and lo and behold -on page 26 - he saw a photo, with caption, of his Uncle's car! I'm still not quite certain how it got in there but it sure got me out of the house and to a magazine stand to get a copy of the magazine.

Talk to Jerry at All Z Car Specialist in Fort Worth. (817) 483-0383. He gets them in occaisionally.

Guys -cats will NOT accellerate an object over about 180 mph no matter how light it is. They are designed to adjust for varying wieght and then launch that weight to a fairly narrow speed range of 140-180 MPH. BAck to my original 350' estimate. Besides - once you've seen it done it's hard to go along with "calculations" that don't correespond with the eyeball.

I've got some 16x7 Centerlines with 0 offset on my 77. I spose I could jack up the 83 that's next to it and confirm they will fit. Uless you go really wierd - I would think any 14, 15, 16 or 17x7 wheel with a 0 offset should work with up to 225 width tires without interfereing with the stock suspension, brakes, or body parts. The Zx is running 14x6.5 wheels now with 0 offset and 205 width tire. It has the room for 225's.

The stock LS1 can be boosted to 540 RWHP at 9 psi with minimal modifications. That works out to about 635 HP at the flywheel. Take a Z06 motor, bore & stroke it out to 383 ci, drop the CR to about 8.3:1 and boost it to about 13 psi and it will be making close to 700 RWHP. GM can achieve the 500 going the NA route and probably even the 600 without boosting - but - $100k??? The point is that anyone can slap a $6,000 intercooled procharger on a stock Z06 motor and run with them which is a lot less than $100k. Obviously there is a lot more involved than just the motor.

As a retired nasal radiator I must admit I'm aware of this having been done already. The "cats" are set for the vehicular weight in order to accellerate them to approximately 140 KIAS (~160 MPH). The deck of the carrier is about 70' above the water. Since a car shape has some minimal aerodynamic lift (assuming no wing since it is a negative lift item) it takes it about 3 seconds to hit the water after leaving the deck. That would allow it to travel about 550-600' assuming normal drag decelleration. It ends up being a bit closer than that, though as the carrier is usually traveling at about 30 mph itself and closes the gap slightly after launch. Car makes a very nice splash. Much like the depth charges you've seen on the old WWII movies.

No problem with my swap but it is an LS1 not a standard SBC. Engine heads are about 4" forward of firewall so there is enough room for AC lines and heater hoses.

Contact grumpyvette. He may have the info at his fingertips.

Try this: Nissan Service Publications 20770 Westwood Dr. Cleveland, Ohio 44136 Attn: Photo Copy (440) 572-7280 This is where I got a loose-leaf photo copy of a FSM for my '77 280Z. Cost about $75.

Roots style and pretty low profile. He was running 11.9's on street tires without it and now he has it and some DR's. The little car is starting to get scary. He's backing the LS1 with a 4L60E and 3.36:1 LSD.

Hey d3finitelymaybe! I grew up in Boise. First graduating class out of Capital High School. Graduated from U of I in Moscow. Either the LT1 or LS1 are great engines but the LS1 has the attitude all the way. It's also a rare conversion now - only 5 or 6 running right now. JTR stuff is worthless for the LS1 - need to talk with John's cars if you want to go that way.

So I suppose y'all know that Lone Star 1 has his LS1 240Z now blown with a magnacharger? Stand by to watch the tail lights!!

Yup, I even have the safety wire and the safety wire pliers from my naval aviator days. I think I'll try torquing a few more times before I resort to that though. It would be a huge amount of work on this engine to have to pull all the bolts to drill them. One of them is now behind my oil dipstick tube so I'd first have to pull the strut tower brace and then bend the tube out of the way to get the bolt all the way out.

I've talked with three different sets of "instructors". The Dallas Sports Car Club guys that are SCCA certified instructors will ride in you r car and observe, the folks from Boby Archer Motorsports wil lap your car a couple times to ensure it "handles safely", and the Panoz people will watch you from the side of the road. I had once thought about letting someone take my car out on the track to "feel it out" but I'm having thoughts about that now. I think I would rather retain responsibility for the car. I am not an overconfident driver so the odds of me getting into real trouble or seriously damaging the car on a track are marginal. I'll pay for the observer and drive the car myself.

Yep - already been talking with Panoz out at Texas Motor Speedway. I'm going to get into at least one of their track days this spring. Need to do a bit of work on the car before then though. 40 years of driving experience with emphasis ondefensive driving also helps. I saw the set-up and had already lifted my foot from the throttle when it all went down. In this case, however, there was no such thing as a threshold braking option. The whole event probably lasted less than 8 seconds from the time I saw his turn signal and movement (movement came first) and being enveloped in the cloud of tire smoke. Also, if you read some of the latest studies, all ABS does is give you steering control at a maximum braking level. Locking the tires up will still stop you at least as fast as being at threshold. In this case I had no where to go. 10" curb to one side and the I-35 to the other. I got myself aimed as close to the curb as I could and locked it down. Worked out well as I only lightly scrubbed the curb without any damage to my wheel rim and just barely cleared the I-35. I had been a bit worried about whether my brakes were still working well but today answered that. I also know that I really need to get rid of the Yokohama S306's. They basically suck in all regards. I would have loved to of had some Kumho's or AVS's today.

Having been in engineering for over 30 years now I would recommend the ME over the IE. Pay and job availablility is genrally greater. Same thing with BS in egineering vs engineering technology. You'll have essentially the same technical skills but the technology degree will restrict you again in pay and opportunity. Put in th elittle bit of extra effort and get the more valuable degree.

And I thought Infinity was a brother!!! Thank God for good brakes and large tires. I was running on a 4 lane surface road in the right lane when an I-35 in the left lane that was stopped behind cars that were making a left turn flipped on its turn signal and started into my lane. The problem is he was doing about 10 mph and I was doing 40 mph and he did all this about 15' in front of me. I slid to a halt with all four tires locked up and smoke boiling out from under all four fender wells. I also slid a bit right and actually bounced lightly off the curb with my right front tire. Missed him by about 4 inches. He came out scot free feeling pretty stupid and I've got four flat spots on my tires and a light scrub on the sidewall of the right front tire. No body damage other than to the nerves in my body. Way too close.

I've found that I have to retighten the exhaust header bolts and all the hose clamps routinely. Does anyone else experience this? Good news is that I don't have any coolant or exhaust leaks! I still need to get the car up off the ground and go through the undercarraige and check out all the suspension and drive train components to ensure they aren't working loose too.