Phantom

that he was

USA Motorsports on West Pioneer in Arlington is having a Dyno Day this Saturday, April 8th. 3 pulls for $35 or, if you're a member of www.dfwcc.org, 3 pulls for $20. Good chance for DFW area folks to get a HP baseline.

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I saw this on another forum, www.dfwss.org, and figured you guys would enjoy it. I know most men would think this way.... To give you some background information, Greg. the author of this email, is a 58 year old about 6'3" and about 220lbs. and contary to this story, he is quite an intelligent person.. Dear Friends, My wife is fond of saying that my last words on this earth will be something like "Well, I have out done myself once again." No doubt you will see this true story chronicled in a Life Time movie in the near furture. Here goes. Last weekend I spied something in the pawn shop that tickled my fancy. (note:keep in mind that my "fancy" is easily tickled.) I bought my wife something really cool for my wife. The occasion was our 12th anniversary and I was looking for a little something extra for my sweet girl. What I came across was 100,000-volt,pocket sized Taser gun with a clip.For those of you who are not familiar with this product. It is a less than-lethal stun gun with two metal prongs designed to incapacitate an assailant with a shock of high-voltage,low amperage eletricity while you flee to safety. The effects are supposed to be short lived,withno long-term adverse effect on your assaliant, but allowing you adwquate time to retrest to safety.You simply jab the the prongs into your 250 lb tattooed assaliant,push the button, and it will render him slobbering,goggle-eyed,muscle twitching,whimpering,pencil-neck geek. If you never seen one of these in action,then you're truly missing out-way cool!! Long story Short, I bought the device and brought it home. I loaded two aaa batteries inthe darn thing and pushed the button.. Nothing! I was so disappointed.Upon reading the directions (we don't need no stinkin' directions), I found much chargin that particular mode would not create an arch between the prongs. How diasappointing! I do love fire for effect. I learned that if I pushed the button, however,and passed it against a metal surface that I's get the blue archof electricity darting back and forth between the prongs that I was so looking forward to. I did so, Awesome! Sparks,a blue arch of electricity , and a loud pop!!! Yipeeeee... I'm easily amused,just for your information,but, I have yet to explain to my eife what that burn spot is on the face of her microwave. Okay,so I was home alone with this new toy,thinking to myself that it couldn't be all that bad withonly two aaa batteries,etc.,etc. There I sat in my recliner,my dog lookingon intenly (trusting little soul),reading the directions (that would be me, not the dog) and thinking that I really needed to try this thing out on a flesh and blood target. I must admit I thought about zapping the dog for a fraction of a second and thought better of it. She is such a sweet pup, after all. But, if I was going to give this thig to my wife to protect herself against a mugger, I did want some assurance that it would work as advertised. Am I wrong? Was I wrong to think that? Seemed reasonable to me at the time. So, there I sat in a pair of shorts and a tank top with my reading glasses perched delicately on the bridge of my nose, directions in one hand,Taser in another. The dorections said that a one-second burts would shock and disorient your assailant; a two-second burst was supposed to cause muscle spasms and loss of bodily control; a three-second burst would purportedly make your assailant flop on the ground like a fish out of water. All the while I'm looking at this little device (measuring 5" long, less tha 3/4 inch in circumference,pretty cute really, and loaded with two itsy,bitsy AAA batteries0thinking to myself,"no friggin'way!" Friggin' way-trust me, but I'm gettin ahead of myself. What happened next is almost beyond description, but I'll do my best. Those of you who know me well have got a pretty good idea of what followed. I'm sitting there alone, the dog looking on with her head cocked to one side as if to say, "don't do it, buddy," reasoning that a one-second burst from such a tiny lil ole thing couldn't hurt hurt all that bad. (sound, rational thinking under the circumstance, wouldn't you agree?) I decided to give myself a one second burst just for the hell of it. (Note: You know, a bad decision is like hindsight 20/20. It is so obvious that it was a bad decision after the fact, even though it seemed so right at the time. Don't ya hate that?) I touched the prongs to my naked thigh, pushed the button, and HOLY ********!!!! I'm pretty sure Jesse Ventura ran in the fron door, picked me up out of that recliner, then body slammed me on the carpet over and over again. I vaguely recall waking up on my side in the fetal position, nipples on fire, testicles nowhere to be found, soaking wet, with my left arm tucked under my body in the oddest position. The dog was standing over me making sounds I had never heard before, licking my face, and undoubtedly thinking to herself,"do it again, please do it again" (Note: If you ever feel compilled to mug yourself with a taser. one note of caution. There is no such thing as a one-second burst when you zap yourself. You're not going to let go of that thing until it is dislodged from your hand by a viloent thrashing about the floor. Then, if you're lucky, you won't lodge the pronges 1/4" deep in your thigh like yours truly.) SON-OF-A-***** that hurt! A minute or so later (I can't be sure,as time was relative thing at this point), I collected my wits (what I had left), sat up and surveyed the landscape. My reading glasses were on the mantel of the fireplace. How did they get there??? My triceps,right thigh and both tittes were twitching. My face felt like it had shot up with Novacain, as my bottom lip weighed 80 lbs. give or take a ounce ot two, I'm pretty sure. By the way, has anyone seen my testicles? I think they ran away. I'm offering a reward. They're round, rather large. Miss'em....... sure would like to get'em back... Greg

Spot, I think they have a WIP category too. You should tow the project over and enter it!!

Don Davis Nissan in Arlington, Tx is hosting their 2nd car show on Staurday, April 8th. The first one was run by yours truly and it was a resounding success:2thumbs: . thus the reason for this one. Registration is free and the dealership is providing free food & drink. The classes are for S30's, S130, Z31, Z32, Z33 & G35. Within each class there will be a first and second prize for: Stock - 0-5 mods Mild - 6-12 mods Wild - 13+ mods. Registration starts at 3:00 PM. Judging starts at 4:30 and awards between 6 & 7:00 PM Here's the kicker. A local 350Z club is running it this time and has only advertized it on the local G35 site and some 350Z forums. This is the perfect opportunity for Hybrids to show up in force and walk with some prizes - besides having a good time.

Ban the Van!! - Ban the Van!!

David, Sweet install. Nicely thought out and executed. You'll love that mini-compressor from JCI. The fit is great and it works very well. I've been running mine nearly three years now without a hitch. Just be sure to leak test the system before you button it up.

So Mike - does it even have a driveshaft? - or is the tranny tailshaft bolted directly to the differential? I can see why the weight distribution is so good. With 95% of the engine behind the front axle and the driver, transmission cg and differential behaind the center of the car it would tend to be a bit rear biased - kind of like the LS1 in my 280Z.

Here, Here Pete. Well said. "For cars that see the street, MY PREFERENCE is that cruise rpm needs to be reasonable ( less than 3500 rpm max preferable a good bit less, IMO) to get decent gas mileage and keep "buziness" and "nervousness" to a tolerable level. Then there's engine wear, which is lower with lower cruise rpms, but this may not be important for a seldom-use car. So now it's down to power/torque curve rpm band, and this DOES get subjective, but only in the sense that people have different desires in how the engine's power should be delivered (NOTHING ABOUT EMOTIONAL STUFF THOUGH, YET). If you pick a cruise rpm for top gear, MY PREFERENCE is that there should be a "reasonably impressive" amount of torque at the cruise rpm in whatever gear is usually used for cruise, and/or that turbo lag should be minimal or preferably absent at this operational point." As a daily driver that is exactly why I opted for what I have. At 2,000 RPM my car 'cruises' at 80 mph. At that point it's developing about 295 lb.ft. of torque. Even at 1,500 it's still about 280 so it will comfortably move out in traffic. Back to an earlier part of the topic. I've posted this several times before but I'll throw it out one more time. I put my California edition 1977 280Z on certified truck scales when it was stock except for an MSA AERO II body kit that replaced the heavy crash bumpers. With 3/4 tank of gas it weighed 2,800 lbs, 50/50 distribution. AFTER the LS1/T56 conversion it weighed 1,400 lbs on the nose and 1,430 lbs on the tail, again with 3/4 tank of gas. The extra weight came from the T56 as the LS1 was about 25Lbs lighter than the L28. After adding a 4-pt roll bar, front and rear strut tower braces, an extensively upgraded sound system, sound deadening material, and all leather interior with a very heavy high end home carpet along with another 1/4 tank of gas the car weighed in at an even 3,000 lbs, 1,440 on the nose and 1,560 on the tail. At least this is some wieght data from a 280Z.

Yeah - and it was the car that won the race - not the driver. His reaction and 60' times both sucked. You ran him a good race. Excellent reaction time. Just can't afford to give away a full second on reaction time and expect to win. A new 'vette would have owned him all the way - not to mention a plethura of vehicles on this board.

If it's anything like my S30 just flip it between high & low beam about 50 times and it will start working again. Sometimes the contacts get corroded from lack of use in the multi-function switch and it just takes a degree of activity to get it cleaned off and working agian. Not to say that will cure your problem but it has worked for me a half-dozen times over the past 14 years. Along the same lines my Z32 left turnsignal would flash the same as the right one when the lheadlights were off but be twice as fast when they were on. I pretty much ignored it and kept using them and eventually it started working just like the passenger side signal. The car hadn't been used much for several years before I got it so I just wrote that one off to the same type condition.

SRP.Cain - You've never defined what you consider "good" gas mileage. Since it will be primarily in-town that will lower the numbers others have been posting. Are you looking for 20, 25, 30 mpg? A stock L24-28 properly tuned will probably only net you about 18 -20 mpg around town. But then again, you can buy a lot of fuel for what a non performing 4-banger will cost you to install. If your real concern, however, is fuel economy and you just wanted a Z because it looks cool then you really ought to get a Civic, Insight, or Prius.

Maybe I'm on drugs again? I know they have headers that work with the LS1 in S30's so maybe I was just assuming? I really thought I'd read somewhere that they had them. Oh well - JCI does and they are good units. Mine have held up for 3 years and over 20,000 miles now with no problems.

If he lived a few miles further east he'd be in Louisiana and I'd feel a bit better. I will admit, however, it is not the ugliest car I've seen. The guy about two miles from me that has the '87 Acura with a C-5 butt grafted on and a triple wing in the rear takes that trophy.

Both JTR (Jags that run) and Johns Cars (www.brokenkitty.com) make mounts for LS1 engine conversions in S30's. They do not make them for the other models. If you want them for an S130, Z31 or Z32 contact John at Johns Cars (214) 426-4100 and talk him into it. I know he has S130 & Z31 rollers on his lot to do just that if the demand is there.

There really is no easy answer to your questions. Lower RPM does not always equal better fuel economy - it depends on where your engine is on it's torque curve. You can get slow enough to actually drop into a "weak" torque area and your fuel consumption will go up. Generally slower is better but you can go too far. Water is H2O, Air is O2 and N2 primarily. Nitrogen is significantly heavier than hydrogen and is also heavier than oxygen. This means that vaporized water is less dense and delivers less oxygen than the equivalent volume of air - power goes down. HOWEVER - generally when it rains the air temperature drops - sometimes a lot - and the colder air is enough denser that even with the added moisture the power goes up.

Once you get your rotors as close as you can by adjusting the adapters & clocking the rotors, take the car to your local Nissan dealer. He should have a machine that can turn the rotors on the car. I had some run-out with my JSK Willwood set-up but after a trip to my local Nissan dealer they have been smooth as silk.

Heck - I'm saving up to get one of those Baer systems with the 14" rotors & 6 piston calipers! NOt going to mess around with that wimpy 13" MM system. 'Course I'll have to remove my fenders but whatever it takes!!

Heck Jon - some of just WANT it - whether we need it or not. How else are we going to run those 315/30-18 tires?

I read the article yesterday and was pleased to see the reference to the S30's n there. The Solstice should be a real stormer with the LS7 in it. The number of modifications to the car is extensive - reminds me of the mods on some of the Z's on this site.

Mike, That'll put you about 2 miles from the house. I'm just on the north side of I-20 from Kennedale - just off Bowman Springs Rd.

Mike, I've been trying to get the car sorted out so I can get back on the track. I've got some brake work and a CV upgrade I really need to do before I abuse it again. I finally proved to myself that the half-shaft universals aren't the way to go - or else I need to magiacally eliminate the wheel hop I get. For daily driving it's doing fine but I want it 100% when I hit the track with it. Are you going to be at Texas Motorplex on the 25th? I thought about going down and looking around but figured that there would be so many people there it wouldn't be worth trying to run anyway. Bill

Like the front differential mount. Locates everything correctly, clears the input, and has a double hump for the dual exhausts to pass thorugh. Nicely done!

Mike, PM "Whiteboy". He's got a 9.5 second SBC Z and he's got some draglite experience. He's in Ft.Worth. Bill