CU Zcar

Holy crap, I just read through a 5-page flame war about camber plates on itforums. On the one hand, I think I'm fine with the ones in the car...on the other hand, I'm scared of SCCA rules now!

Yea I remember reading some of his posts. I'm signed up already for itforums but haven't spent much time over there yet. Thanks!

SCCA says for IT: "If slotted plates are used, they shall be located on existing chassis structure and may not serve as a reinforcement for that structure. Material may be added or removed from the top of the strut tower to facilitate installation of adjuster plate." It doesn't say anything about the method of attachment (i.e. doesn't require bolt-in or prohibit welding). I don't know whether I consider the weld-in plate a reinforcement. I guess it's thicker and probably stiffer, but it's not improving the ability of the strut tower to hold its position (as a triangulating strut tower/firewall brace might). I'd better do some reading, quick. Bill already installed the front plates, and is going to weld in the rears for me before delivery. If I need to ditch the weld-in plates I'll have to cut-and-paste with my other 240-turned-parts car...

A-yup. Going to pick up the stuff when he gets all of it out of California. Which other board? I remember one of the boards had a good spring rate discussion among people running Z's in ITS, I'm thinking 240z.org but it's down at the moment. He's got this one sprung pretty soft, I'm going to see how the soft spring/big bar thing works and go from there. [edit] The stickied "Strut Thread" on this page might be the post I was just talking about. I need to keep up with these places a little better.

What I'm getting is exactly what is pictured on the page I linked in my first post. I've seen them, the threaded tubes are already welded to the spindle assemblies. What I'm after are things like are they mono or twintube, are they rebuildable/revalveable and by whom, does the adjustment change rebound separately or rebound/compression at once, etc. Dave did respond promptly to my Email, but linked me to the same page I just mentioned and said he provides no other literature. I'm going to ask a few more detailed questions, but if that's all he's got I'm surprised anyone puts forward the money for these things new. He's either holding back or he's buying them from someone else. When I get the car together I'll see how they feel, my seller was building this car as a more tame "toy" than his GT2-prepped 240Z so he could race with one or another of the vintage groups that didn't like his big brakes or built motor or 45DCOEs. Instead he ran across a Datsun 710 raced by Bob Bondurant in the 70's and is working on that now. Anyway, he seemed to know his stuff so I'm supposing he chose these shocks because he researched and thought they would do OK under racing conditions, but I'm probably holding onto a set of stock strut tubes in case I decide Konis (etc) would be the way to go if/when I want to get into ITS At that point I'll have to be careful not to badmouth them 'cause I'd probably try to sell shortly thereafter!

Well, I sent off an email to AZC at the same time I started this thread, I just wanted to get some feedback from users. I'd also searched on "arizona coilovers" and didn't see anything other than passing mention of these, plus one person who simply said they felt good. I'm unaware of any Konis that have 'click' adjustment, those I've come across were always a continuous-sweep adjustment. I'm sure I'll hear from Dave at AZC soon enough though.

I'm buying a 240z project that comes with some shiny stuff from Arizona Z car...namely their coilover set and rear control arms. Anyone use these or know where I can read up on the shocks? The seller suggests they're based on Tein components. Hoping this will someday be an ITS car. Might have to dump the RCAs?

Sorry to revive this old thread, but it's the most recent I saw directly pertaining to the OBX diff. I was just clicking around for information on them, and found a thread on a Honda forum about a teardown: http://www.turbod16.com/viewtopic.php?t=18501 Someone in there I think mentions that the metal in the splined parts might be softer than in some of the more expensive diffs, which is why some users have had problems with axles getting stuck in. I somehow doubt OBX offers the lifetime guarantee that Quaife does

I am using a set of those I got from Nissan, though the ones I have are only a half-sheet with a circular cutout ... a picture would help me describe, suffice it to say I am using one. The titanium shim sounds like a good idea, I may have to look into that. So this is common practice in racing circles? If I find I burn up another set of dust seals, I may switch to this method. Thanks for the replies so far!

Anyone else have input? Anyone else do trackdays/race on stock calipers? Maybe others don't have this issue? Should I maybe take this to improvedtouring.com or a similar race-based forum?

~2740lb exclusive of driver 1978 280Z, this was several years ago (not current setup in my sig). If memory serves: 14" steelies, stock L28, stock exhaust manifold, 5spd and R200, A/C, spare and bumpers installed, most of a stock interior (?), roughly 3/4 tank of gas.

I bought a set on eBay several weeks ago. They look pretty spiffy, though I haven't mounted tires on them yet. I expect some slight rubbing issues on the fender edge. My scale (weighed myself with and without wheel) says they're more like 15lb ea, but for the price I'm not too concerned with the weight. I believe they're much lighter than stock Turbo snowflakes. I saw a picture of an S30 with these mounted with tires somewhere, if I run across it again I'll try to post (if I don't get some tires on mine first). If memory serves, they clearly stuck out from the stock fenders a tad. Perhaps a good candidate for ZG's or some "light hammer work"

Hrm. A caliper teardown to clean the pistons at every pad change. Sounds like fun! Surely there's a better way. Thank you for the response though, you did confirm my suspicions.

Did a track day in my 280Z, noticed that the heat has scorched/cracked the bellows seals around the caliper pistons. What do ITS cars (and others forced to race with stock-type calipers) do about this? Just frequent replacement, omission of the bellows seal (and frequent clean/rebuild), or is there a scraper-type seal available? If I understand correctly, the bellows really just keep dust out of the caliper and another seal takes care of keeping brake fluid in...yes?

Nothing competes with Azenis for the price Kumho Ecsta MX's are about as close as you'll get, and most people I know are of the opinion that they're overall a better tire...that's why they cost a little more. The other Falken tire you are probably thinking of is the Ziex 512. They're also very cheap, I have the H-rated 205/60/15's on my car and they're decent, kinda floppy sidewalls though compared to Azenis. I'd imagine the V or Z-rated sidewall models are better in this respect. The compound also isn't as sticky as the Azenis, etc. but it also has a treadwear over 400, vs. 200 for the Azenis. I think the 512's are a great street tire and I've been autocrossing on them too cause I can't afford race tires for a while. They're supposed to be good drift tires too, but I can't afford to use them for that...killed my old Falken 502's that way though, and they worked well a lot better than "Temperature: B" used tires anyway. [edit] Oh, forgot some other tires....Kumho MX's are probably the closest, then Yokohama AVS ES-100's are available in a lot of sizes for reasonable prices; they are probably even with, or better than, the Ziex 512's. The Ziex would be a cheap place to start though, with plenty of sizes available. If you don't like 'em, burn them off if you can afford to. Don't forget the Kumho Ecsta 711's and 712's (even 732's, I think, are better than normal passenger tires), they're also decent tires for the price. TireRack carries the Kumho's and Yoko's but not Falken. You can find them at http://www.vulcantire.com or http://www.onlinetires.com or discount tire's website.