Mudge

Sometimes its good to remind yourself to be humble and help a person out. Although of course sometimes there are those that are just taking advantage of people out there, oh well.

I can hardly wait to take some measurements to find what I can run.

To add to the above, an intercooler will allow more boost as well as timing, pretty much either/or depending. When you have cool air you can play with timing more, if its HOT air then you are going to be closer to detonating. Traditionally 2º is retarded for every pound of boost, alot of this is due to heat and just plain old compression increase from pressurized air. Intercooler will cost some boost as well, but of course you can make up for it somewhat. I dont know hardly a thing about this stuff either, but intercoolers should have some efficiency rating(s) information to help you make a decision.

There are 360 timing holes in the Optispark, sounds like enough to me.

Sounds good to me, because timing will definately cause that, and since you played with it recently thats your first thing to check.

There are cheapie boxes too, that just have a rheostat that work with MSD and other brand boxes too. MSD has kind of a bad name sometimes, some of thier stuff likes to spontaneously die, other times people have no problems. I haven't heard anything bad about the Accel boxes yet, nor thier coils. I really would like to have a fully programable timing map becuase I'm used to "having it all," but it gets more expensive that way.

Not everyone is a scuzzbucket Those people just seem harder to find...

Accel has a box that will do this, thier high voltage ignition has an optional $200 box that allows use of a MAP sensor and retard. http://www.hybridz.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=15245 That thread has the box in question.

Actually, from what I read they claimed that they sucked the rear window off that car 3 times (or crap, was it the front window?). In other words they had all kinds of warnings as to BAD aero design, and it was not something they did on purpose, just poor car design overall. http://www.mulsannescorner.com/ The article is here, if you want me to find it for you I can probably find it within a few min.

In the MSA catalog it looks like thier IMSA flares.

I understand that, but honestly even a low 11 second car would scare me within a matter of seconds on the freeway, for short bursts in second gear it was a blast though. I wouldn't mind having that again, just need to be carefull with it on the twisties, very carefull. There is an Impy SS that does road course stuff, I think he turned a 2:15 at Thill, when a Z06 will hit 2:08-2:10 depending on the driver, so 2:15 is pretty good.

I dont have a turbo yet in the car, but cooling even road racing is superb on this car, so far. I'll look into an alt sometime I guess.

I dont know that I've seen them for under a grand yet, except maybe a set of Hitachis. I dont get better MPG pussy footing it, vs revving it now and then. I skip shift ALOT, 1/3/5 and etc, and still this is what I get MPG wise, maybe mine need a rebuild but I'm going turbo soon.

Oh well, thats how I feel about 12 second cars or slower, but there has to be a point of practicality and I prefer to road race vs just something fast for several seconds at a time on the street. I'd still like to have a bike someday, just dont have the dough right now.

42# will definately get the job done. As for N42 vs N47, the N47 has round ports right? Supposedly the rumor that they flow poorly is not true, however since more headers are available in rectangle port you may want to consider the N42, and they seem plentiful. I have 2 myself not counting the one already on the 240Z. I have a ported one on eBay I'm getting rid of because I'm going turbo. However if you wanted to fab up your own headers, I'd probably go round port, because that would be easier to get tubing for, to bend, and yada yada.

If you put me in a 8 or 9 second car, there would be trouble, and I'd be scared to drive the thing! If I did drag it might be a kick, but NHRA license and other requirements, bah.

Either polished or painted sounds fine to me, white........ nah, somehow dont think that would look too "boss."

Yep, we like to call it the Donkey Dong That is air intake noise though, and I didn't notice a difference removing mine, but the theory for some is that it reduces resonance possibly in the air intake duct that may affect MAF readings at certain flow or etc, whooooooo knows. The cheap way to get rid of the 'Dong for some cars, is a shampoo bottle end cut off about 2". The GM people use Herbal Essence, fits perfectly.

Not too much worse than my dual Weber downdrafts It just seems, sinful and wrong that a little 6 banger would get 15 MPG and not be making tons of HP, but thats what my car started out as.

I dont think its the Subtle Z kit, it seems to be missing the flat, mudflap like part at the front bottom of the back wheel. Whichever one that lists in the description a semi-mudflap like quality will probably be your kit, it looks like a pretty modest couple inch flair. I dont know the flares too well at all, but I seem to remember in the description the mudflap thing, and that is what I see on this one. Some of them coutour and then tuck back into the fender, and this one goes out and stays there.

Ha, it could be done, but to be done right a full rebuild would be in order. The engine was never built with boost in mind, and it wont take more than about 550 HP reliably, even if you dont detonate the rods will go. The PCM has to be tricked to run past 520gm/s past the MAF, and to run injectors bigger than 50# I'd need a seperate injector box for low impedance stuff. Basically hassle, expense, and fabrication. If I ran a V8 it would have been an NA car, somewhere between 500-650 HP would have been nice, but in a 2200 pound car that I am trying to road race, it would be so damn fast I dont know if I'd make one lap alive. A second Z car for a V8 may be a consideration, and maybe LS1 stuff will come down in price by then, but rest assured it will either be street only or it will need serious meats to stick to the track. When you get to bang the gears it can actually be fun, in a fast car you never much do that without risking serious jail time. For someone who really wants to learn the ropes, a slow car will also teach you better (skill wise). You are forced to optimize every corner and every braking point, and every entry and exit in a slower car, or it shows in your times. I could do 60 in first in the Camaro, and I could toss it in second and be near 90 within a couple seconds of that. I think when you hit mid-low 11 second car or thereabouts, its just too fast to make much use of without IMO being scary, in terms of forementioned jail time if nothing else. A car can very easily be faster than the driver, and in my case, it was faster than me by far on a track. I also looked at a turbo as an "easy" way to turn up the HP later on, make good low end torque (so will a V8 obviously), get 'good' MPG, plugs right in "on the cheap," and it would be a change of pace and something new to play with compared to a heads/cam V8. I can also tell people that ask how I'm so fast, that I just have an itty bitty 21-year old 2.8L 6 cylinder - priceless

Rick, what kind of alternator are you running to supply the juice, or just a stocker?

The cloth on those Miata seats looks really nice too, $80 sounds like a steal!

I like the idea of doing SOMETHING on the underside and rear of the car, but blocking too much of the rear is not a good thing, since that would trap air. Plus if one were to go with the whole undertray idea, you want some kind of rake from front to back, where the rear is higher than the front, somewhere between 4-11º (7-9 seems most common?).

More feedback on the NA trans being whup azz http://zhome.com/rnt/StealthZ/swebbB1B.htm I dont understand really why road racers would be looking at a T5 at all, unless they were getting a different gearset. The Nissan T5 setup is not a close ratio trans, I prefer to have an even RPM drop in every gear, it makes for a much more predictable drive, and it is just comforting, call me a pansy