240jz

This is what I want for my car I know it is not the most cost efficent hp, but 320 at 11000rpm, 73kg weight still makes the autocrosser in my very happy. This is a two liter v-8 bassed on two 1000 cc Yamaha motors. There are a number of companies experimenting with them including some using the Hyubusa barrels and heads. They are primarily built for radicals and hill climbers in the uk. But I WANT ONE!!!! Matt ps about 22000 dollars

I have heard nothing but good things about thoes tires. They are supposed to be 95% of a T1-S, SO3, ect in tearms of performance but last twice as long. If you want a no compromise awesome rain tire I would suggest a Toyo T1-S as my first choice and a Goodyear GS-D3 as a second choice. They are awesome in the wet or dry but they only last 20-25k. The Proxes 4 will give you almost as much pefromace with a better ride and last much longer. Sounds like a deal to me. Matt

My teams race car used to have Kodiaks on it. CNC rolled 2 piece shell with a CNC billet center. Made in the great white northlands. Sounds like a smokeing deal tho.. Matt

We use Motec on our FSAE car. The thing is amazing, the level of functionality you get when you connect it to an ADL... We use Traction Control, Ignition Kill Upshifting, Traction Circles. We are working on getting shock potentiomiters and some other cool stuff. If it is good enough for Claude Rouelle it is good enough for me. To bad you have to sell your firstborn to pay for it. Matt

I think you have room for a beer fridge in front of it. 8) Of course not while you are drivin...

Yeah I was thinking about doing a roll cage. I think 175F/225R will work for me untill I get really serious about AutoX. But as far as roll cages go will the Jegs or other out of a box type actually do anything for torsional rigidity or will it have to be custom? As far as the Tokico's, does anyone have the product number? It would help me tons in ordering it. Thanks

Well if Tokico's aren't the ticket what would you suggest? Is there a shock that has both a compression and rebound adjustment and fits our vehicles?

What about the new VQ's? Will their trannies fit the old motors? Just a thought. Matt

What about the new VQ's? Will their trannies fit the old motors? Just a thought. Matt

I'm trying to decide what spring rate to use on my '71. I was wondering what rate comes stock? What rates do you use? I plan on using my car for autox and street duty. I can live with a somewhat diminised ride quality, just not something assinine. I plan on using Tokinko Iluminas and coilovers. What do you guys think? Oh yeah as far as brand, eibach or hypercoil? I can get them from my work for cheap. Thanks, Matt

I work in a tire store so i've doen this a few (hundred) times. An air chisle is always the last resort. The best way is with a kit or to find a socket that is close to fitting. Hammer on the socket and slowly take it off with a impact gun. You may crack your socket but it works about 90 % of the time. Matt

I have worked in a tire store for numerous years now and have seen and used quite a few performance tires. I also do all the tire work for my college's racecar. For street I would recommend the Goodyear F1 GS-D3 and the Toyo Proxies T1-S. Both are excelent wet weater tires. The Goodyear is less pricy but gives up ultimate grip. Both will do well on a racetrack as well. If you plan to do a considerable ammount of racing I would recomend the Falkin Azenis and the Toyo RA1. Again the Toyos edge out the Falkins but you can't beat the Azenis price they are a great bargin. The RA1's and T1-S are used in the Speed Channel's world cup. Consequencly there are a wide variety of sizes avaliable. Matt

Juan, I would like to point out some things you may or may not have considered in designing the hubs. I speak only from experience as an Mechanical Engineering Student and haveing helped to design aluminum hubs for our Formula SAE race car. First, have you thought about thermal expansion? I'm not too shure how hot the hubs get on my Z but on the Formula car we did extensive testing on them to verify that the greater thermal expansion of the aluminum hubs would not allow the bearings to spin, or cause undue stress on our steel rotors. Also I would be concerned about some popular aluminiums strength vs. temperature. 7075 strength rapidly falls off over 200 F where as 2026 has much greater strenght in this heat range. Also of some concern would be the fatigue strength of these parts for not only do they see reversing cyclical loadings but aluminium's strength does not stop falling off. I am not trying to keep you from using aluminium but just pointing out some areas of concen and design attention. I would be happy to do some Finite Element Anyasis of your design if that is something you are intrested in. I do not know if you have acess to thoes tools or not but I would be glad to help you if you don't. Thanks and keep up the good work. Matt S

Or nitrious oxide.

I've had fairly good success with the Toyo Ra-1. The Azenis is a good bang for the buck tire but it likes to roll over a bit more than I like.

I have some experiance with carbonfiber parts... A little, I'm a suspension guy not a composites guy. But anyway there are two main types of carbon lay up. There is wet layup. This is pretty normal, you have your carbon cloth, you lay it on your mold and you apply your resin. You then put a cotton fiber backing over the part (reverse side) and seal it in a vacuum bag and pull a vacuum. If your mold is good you can get a pretty nice surface after you finish it. Alernatively you can use an autoclave. The outher type is pre-preg. It is impregnated with the resin when you purcase it. I have not worked with it much. But I know you must keep it refrigerate it and it is sometimes easier to make strong parts. These are just from my minimal experiance making CF pullrods. I'm shure I will be learning a bit more as we are constructing a CF monococue this year. Hope this helps a little.

Reducing the ammount of mass on the corners and ends of the car should not be overlooked as well. Things like glass hood, ditching the bumpers, lighter tires, lighter wheels and brakes have a huge affect on a car. In addition to being rotational inertia for many of the components, reduceing the ammount of weight of these components will actually make the car turn faster. By that I mean the the polar moment of inerta restists changes in angular direction of the car. Ie the more mass that is at the ends and corners of a car the harder it will be to turn. Imagine a bar weighing 20 lbs. and one weighing 2 lbs with 18 lbs at the ends. The one with the more mass at the center will be much easier to spin. Sorry about the techinical mombo jumbo I just got out of Physics lecture.

And we ran them at comp.

Oh yeah by the way we do use the seven inch Hoosiers. While they can be somewhat cold on the autocross track, their larger footprint and higher thermal capacity make up for it.

No I was a wuss I flew down. I attended Claude Rouelle semminar and I didn't feel like missing three weeks of school. I will do the marathon van ride next year though. Matt

Actually they are some sticky 7 inch hoosiers. And we choose the best run of the car of course to put in the video. The car consistantly beat the bike especially in the corners. The car weighs the same and has ten times traction area and about the same weight.

First off make shure your B+ power wire has an approperate fuse. Is your amp 400 watts RMS or Peak? That is about a factor of two in tearms of power. Always look for RMS it is the a realistic measure of the power of the amp. (RMS=Root Mean Square. Kinda like the average) Anyways fuse it properly. Make shure you get a good ground as it can affect audio quality. Use the RCA cables you will get much cleaner sound. L+ is left positive L- is negative. Get it right or else it will be 180 Degrees out of phase and sound weird. As for the antenna does the casette work? If not you probably need a new radio. You can get a decent sounding one for litte more than a hundred dollars. If the casette does work and the radio doesn't I would suggest trying to trace the antenna wire and make shure everything is kosher. If you want to get tricky and run all your speakers off your amp you can. There will be more power but you will loose a little sound quality. The wiring is L+ to the positive of both left speakers, L - to the negative for both left speakers. This will involve rewiring all the speakers. You will also loose the ability to fade from front to rear.

I am looking for a 240z. I am wonddering what are problem areas to look for. Things that are hard to repair, cronic problems with the cars, places that bodies like to rot, ect. I would jut like some instight for your experiences. Thanks, Matt