Heavy Z

Homeland security hasn't been cheap either for state governments, and there are other reasons, some are very obviously bad planning on Davis' part. I could go on but it's late. Look around, most states are struck by ever-increasing debt. Our problems aren't unique, just accute. Is Davis to blame for all of it? No. Most of it? No. Some of it? Yes. Enough to justify a recall? Well, that's the 60 million dollar question we are faced with.

I thought I'd throw a few things out there to chew on in response to the situation we now find ourselves in. For the record I am non-partisan, and I read a lot of sources from both ends of the political spectrum. Anyone who takes the time would learn that our budget problems are more complicated than appears. We are $38 billion in debt. $11 billion from the Enron/power crisis that turned out to be nothing more than price gauging. $10 billion from the dot com bubble burst, which left California lacking substantial tax revenues from all the failed and ailing companies left over. Compound that with the $8 billion from lost capital gains taxes from a flat stock market and you have $29 billion. Add the $4 billion from lost federal revenues and that gets you to $33 billion. Davis was turned from a fundraising machine into a hatchet man, and a lot of programs have suffered. Rather than blaming Davis exclusively I'd like to see the people like Ken Lay (who's still free to spend our money) get what they deserve. I'd like to see changes so that we aren't such a fairweather economy in California. In actuality, Davis hasn't gone nearly as crazy with the spending in this state as past governors have from both parties. But times are bad and it's easy to widdle the whole thing down to "he did it." I'm not sure that will entierly get us out of harm's way. A good friend of mine is on Arnold's campaign and as of tuesday they still didn't have substantial material detailing his game plan, everyone's in support mainly on a 'hunch' that he's right for the job. That makes a detail guy like me nervous. I can't support a candidate only because they seem cool, similarly I wouldn't let someone perform brain surgery on me because they seem like a nice person. Do they have the experience and forethought necessary for the job? He may, but too little has leaked out so far for what I consider prudent voting. As for the recall, I'm starting to side more with Ventura, who thinks it's a sham costing us $60 million we don't have thanks to one rich guy (Issa) who innitiated the recall 2 months after the election. "Just blame Davis folks, it's all his fault." Nice, simple, effective. No time to think it through too well though, the recall doesn't leave much time to pause and reflect. As for who's the momma's boy, well, your guess is as good as mine. Grey Davis received a bronze star and was a captain in Vietnam, commanding men and so on. Arnold has a good build, works well with movie-prop guns and drives cool hummers. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a pro-Davis guy by any stretch and I'll be the first to bash him if he deserves it. I just wanted to put things in perspective. A tough decision indeed we face here in California.

Nice job, man. I was considering a Weiand 144 teflon myself as it's 3/4" lower profile and would fit under my current hood scoop. Keep us posted on how it works out for you. P.S. what compression are you running?

No neon ground effects? It's incomplete without 'em.

Unbelievable, P.T. Barnum wasn't kidding.

Panteras are great cars. Very versatile w/ the ford engine. They aren't 2300 lbs though. I was just on the web a couple of weeks ago w/ my brother checking them out. They're right around 3000 lbs unless the one you mention has been lightened up. I'll bet your uncle's a happy guy, they're the closest thing to a speedboat with wheels.

Last month I read this article about a 400 block with a 327 crank, 6.209 rods, 11:1 compression that thanks to long rods ran fine on 87 octane gas: http://www.airflowresearch.com/articles/article03/A3-P1.htm That got me thinking about my 327 and whether I could do something similar. The response I got from Pete Paraska is as follows: It may help you somewhat, just not as good as the engine in the article above. Maybe someone else will chime in with more info. If you do it, let us know how it goes.

Exactly my point 280Zen, that's why I said this goes 'beyond' carelessness.

Wow, that is a great deal on a monster car.

I read that back in July, there have been others who have also complained, including tech geeks at MIT. Nobody's listening, despite being a huge story (yes, bigger than Kobe Bryant). Everyone has this impression that computers will make things "safer." Punch cards could be refined very easily, instead we're instituting a system that has more flaws and more ways to manipulate. Worth the read regardless of your party affiliation. What concerns me is that Deibold has manufactured safe ATM's in the past, why they'd leave a huge back door when they know better goes beyond carelessness IMO.

That is an excellent post!! Perfect way to make your point.

Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, Dan. The color looks great and once you get it back together, well, now I know why you have two Z's. one work horse, one stallion, two Z's for any occasion. Bravo!!

Excellent post, Tim.

I've got an edelbrock shorty on mine, here's what I did for the alternator mount. I used a readily available long wp bracket on top w/ a spacer but not sure on what the lower is from, maybe you can recognize it.

Good move, Dave!! It's funny because I've been looking a 944's lately on ebay myself, I used to own one and still miss it because they are terrific cars. The handling is very forgiving and the platform itself is much more rigid than a Z, stable at the speed of your choosing. That chassis mated to a V8 would be one of the only cars I'd consider dropping my Z for. You may have seen this one on ebay, it's a modded turbo that'll pull 1.08g's on street tires and is faster than last year's viper, Z06, etc: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2431035181&category=6434 I wouldn't DARE go this fast in my Z! Enjoy the car, lucky guy.

FWIW, I've got a 327/T5 and if you haven't driven yours yet let me say that if you're really on the throttle you'll be shifting PDQ, the first 3 gears going almost as fast as you can shift. I am not saying this isn't a good idea as maybe it's what you're looking for, just know you'll be busy shifting whether running stock or otherwise.

I've seen many on ebay for $10k-$15k, not bad considering the price of vettes these days. They do look great and very closely resemble the ferrari, although I like them built on older vettes as the windshield looks more appropriate to the original. If the one in the picture is real, then it's worth more than the houses in that neighborhood.

Where's TT350? He could buy your car, add a few hundred horsies to get to the 1,000 hp mark, and set the suspension up for roadracing.

I've got over a year on mine with no leaks, do it carefully and there shouldn't be a problem.

Congrats on your Z. $2k is worth it big time IMO.

Man Davy, that's a good question. It sounds reasonable to me that you could squeeze an extra point or two of compression if you ran 91. That would be quite a motor.

Hey Butler, you want something your friends won't have? DavyZ posted this a while ago, it's a 400 block w/ a 327 crank, long rods, 54cc 305 heads, and 11:1 compression that'll run fine on 87 octane: http://www.airflowresearch.com/articles/article03/A3-P1.htm

Good job Dan, I didn't realize you were building a spare V8Z! Some stop motion cameras in your garage would've been cool. Is this more of a daily driver, rather than the wide body Z?

I have a non-wc T5 in my 240Z. I drive it hard daily. I used to be freaked out because I'm way over the torque limit of the tranny, but this thing just keeps on trucking. How long is my question, but it feels/sounds no different than a year ago. As said, a T56 is stronger, and has the 6th gear to keep the gas mileage cool in hyper drive. But for half the cost (if you aren't a clutch-dumping fool) a T5 will do the job. If mine grenades next week I'll come back and edit this post, but for now I'm standing behind the T5.

Found this using the search, give it a try: http://www.hybridz.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=20232&highlight=break