Tony D

Read directly above, if you dare!

Not just once. The same car after being sold was offered to me by the new owner as a DIRECT SWAP for my 1973 240Z with flares. Specifically I was to leave the red tail lights in it as well... The original owner was privy to the deal, and offered up the complete set of mechanical injection, racing cams, an rocket boxes full of spares up to and including a spare S20 Engine. I'd already filled out governmental shipping documents in triplicate, so there was no way to get the 432 shipped along with my household goods. I still know where the car is, and who owns it! The decision and circumstances haunt me to this day, especially after being introduced to one of the premier 432/GTR restorers on the mainland of Japan...

O/S trip....where to? I'll be back in Japan in May...

First one I saw was a gold 78 280Z owned by my little brother's friend the local lawyer's kid. I remember what I said when I saw it, walking back from my 62 VW Microbus: "I don't like it, the nose is too long!" 9 months later I was driving down Rte 58 in Okinawa in a newly-purchased 79 Toyota Carina GT and saw a 1975 Fairlady Z(S) on the lot. Went to take a look, in "ZG Maroon" it was a one owner car with 98,000KM on it. Plastic Mats, and an elemental tinniness not there in the Lawyer Kid's 280Z. The car seemed far more elemental, less luxury, and more sporty. I fired it up and the 2 liter was ready to roll. I bought it by trading in my Carina and writing three post-dated checks for the next three pay days ($240 each...how appropriate!) Now, it has to be said, in all honesty that I bought that car for $2400. There was another one just 1KM up the road at another lot. It was light silver, and was a 1971. It was for sale at the equivalent price of $3200. But it was a 71, meaning I needed to inspect it EVERY year. And why the hell did I want that car when the 75 had a two-year inspection left and was newer. And just as sharp looking. Of course, I never looked under the hood. Nor did I pay attention to the badges on the grille or fenders. Hell, I didn't even realize the tachometer went to 10,000 rpms. Yeah, why would I want that old 71? Hey, "Whats a Fairlady Z 432 anyway?"

Nice Josh! I'm sure those injectors are at the 5 degree oblique angle as well, huh? My hobby minimill is a full sized 1.5HP Bridgeport with a J-Head and shaper on the back. $800 plus $245 for the single phase motor conversion kit. Bought from the original purchaser who used it from 1975 to 1998 in his shop to cut slots in aluminum or thin plate steel. When I turned the head to 45 degrees for my injector conversion on SU's he put his hand on my shoulder and said "I've never used that feature!" Talk about knee being tight! This thing was like brand new, with the years of patina on the paint. Hell, he even threw in boxes of little end nibs of billet for the cost of the scrap value he would have gotten. I don't think I will find another deal like that. Latest purchase yet to be installed is an XYZ DRO kit (chinese) for $280 that was on e-bay but that I had delivered to our factory in Shanghai for a little bit of nothing! Getting that 40" Glass Gauge onto the plane was NOT easy!

As Gollum says, 'compliance isn't as bad as most would have you believe'... I had a guy call me ecstatic that he just got his Turbo Maxima through Smog. He couldn't believe how EASY it was... Just a LITTLE effort to do it and you're LEGAL, FOREVER. If people put as much effort into simply complying with the laws as they do in trying to skirt them in some bogus dodge, their lives would be far more simpler. I had a guy complain the 'Historic Plate' was impossible to get. He had gone into the DMV making the statement "I heard I don't have to smog my car if I have a historic plate" and wonders why it was impossible for him to get it...

Norm The12SecondSUDude did the cross-pollinational swaps of the counter gear for fifth to split the difference. He posted on it once long ago, more from a matter of necessity from broken gearboxes and 'pick of the litter parts' than with the intent to get a different ratio.

My Corvair with a Powerglide would do simimlar... Nice thing about those old Powerglides---front and rear pump. The only Autobox you could Push-Start that I know of!

I reserve comment until I've tested it personally. Having the collector insurance on it exempts you from the sections, you just have to pass a sniffer as it was explained to me. No criteria for visual fail any longer. Just tailpipe. A 'common sense smog check'...

As long as you have a a backpressure regulator on the end keeping fuel pressure equal on the block you should be fine.

XK Falcon! Hehehehe! I once saw a 63 Ranchero (nee Falcon) with an L28 and Five Speed conversion! What was it with Ford Transmissions?

Bryan Blake claimed hellacious numbers on stock rods whereas guys that endurance raced them said the limit was 100hp/hole. Given Bryan didn't particularly run his engine in any 24 hour enduros to prove his statement, and the other guys did....I'd believe the other guys, and only believe 700 on prepped stock rods for 'intermittent use if that'!

The letters usually revolved around the historic significance of the Z-Car in general, and not on the modifications. We have written several letters for club members when the need arose that they wanted the special plates on their cars. It's a benefit of being in a club. Otherwise you have to do the BS all on your own and unless you self-proclaim yourself as some guru, the state generally ignores you. Being an incorporated, registered, California Corporation (Non-Profit) somehow lends credence to the letters (the letterhead doesn't hurt, either!)

The Nations Oldest Z-Car Club, BTW is not ZCCA Affiliated though. But by default, being the oldest Z-Exclusive Club on the face of the Earth... Letters from their Directors Board tend to sway the Bureaucrats at DMV. GROUP Z So Cal Z'ing since 1971

I tapped mine with an NPT Tap. I then used an NPT Die run over appropriately sized Aluminum Rod, put some loctite green on it, tightened it in till I felt it galling and sawed it off. Smooth and run forever. Brass? Pffft! They will never see that aluminum plug after some road salt/corrosion normalizes the area!

Yep...

"(3 ) A vehicle which was manufactured after 1922, is at least 25 years old, and is of historic interest." That section, along with a letter from the president of your local ZCCA Affiliated Z-Car Club will satisfy all the requirements. I write/have written several of these for club members in the past for other DMV related activities and for Insurance Claims. This trumps CTC's claim of DMV Administrator. Yes, they can determine what they want, but when a car club exists (and has since 1970 in the state) they become 'an authority' that some bureaucrat has a hard time denying. By the comments in point 2, most Lamborghini's are meeting the spec. There was at one time a production requirement or sales requirement of less than 25 in the state at time of original production. This makes most JDM RHD Vehicles automatic qualifiers (as the aforementioned Lambos and Ferraris!) Your case is stated on the DMV "Statement of Fact" sheet with the above letter from club member president and then you sit and wait. You wait a long time, but it goes through. As CTC notes, some of this stuff gets insane. I had a pre 84 engine swap for an L24 that predated the engine serial numbers in the USA. So I had to make it legal to 73 specs in order to get it registered, even though I had all the required documentation for the legal pre may 84 predated engine swap. Because it was not a US-Spec Engine, I had to install all US Spec items to get it to work. But what I would like to see is no more 'moving goalpost'---stick to THIS: "* that the vehicle complies with emission standards for the vehicle's class and model-year" If they do that, it's a cakewalk!

Gotta love that tactic!

Name domestic turbo cars with forged pistons... I can't think of any offhand. Please search, this isn't a domestic car, forged internals are the norm, as they were inTyp1 VW's... Do some readings on compressive tolerances of cast pistons. It's not heat that kills them.

Honestly, I've bought more out of Lein Sale... Most times 45 minutes doing basic tune up stuff and I'll drive the car cross-country. Spending more than an hour on something meant as a daily driver and not some numbers matching concours barn find prospect smacks of issues IMO. Some of the ansl audits proposed ate more than I've done on cars I took cross country! I've got to admit, were I to sell a car, it would be Priced appropriately, and you either want it or you don't. I don't have the time for tire kickers and people who want an excuse as to why they don't want to pay what I'm asking. If you want it, buy it. Fix what you don't like. What bothers you may not bother me--why should that be a reason to alter my asking price? Probably why I don't sell either cars OR parts, and rather give them away or trade...

73 differs most notably by the unified block of connections on the right side of the harness. Prior to that it was piecemeal connections. Those big multi colored blocks say 73/Later pretty loudly.

Define "most racing setups"... Most serious systems in japan use a back pressure regulator in the system to maintain pressure on all the carbs for equal feed. Curiously their systems don't suffer the maladies spoken of in these above posts.

The colder, the better!

Yes, it was voted down on the 28th of March. The second scheduled vote was taken on the10th of April. This was initially posted in the 14th of April. Not really "breaking" news, but "broken"... Point being, this stuff is all public record. It's only breaking if you choose to remain uninformed. If you don't keep abreast of this on your own, then this will all shock you when it happens.keep informed, subscribe to newsletters like SEMA Legislative Action so you have a chance of your short attention span ADDHD Representative hearing and voting appropriately. SEMA sends put thesealerts so the legislators get their offices flooded just prior to the vote. This is the most effective method. By the time "the network" on the Internet gets this around, generally it's not only too little--it's much too late. Each time this happens I urge those who were unknowing to sign up for the alerts in the hopes that maybe NEXT TIME that many more voices will be heard. Nothing comes if talking about it on the Internet. You have to get involved, not just talk, after the fact.

A study was done when changing from the prior BAR90 Standard. It concluded that if the state of California would simply have given every owner of a vehicle failing smog test a new Caddillac, the costs for thesmog program would be less, and the air cleaner. It stopped being about clean air decades ago. It's about perpetuation of jobs and benefits, not much more.