Racer Z

My thought exactly. The front and rear springs need to be swapped. When I removed my stock springs there was a noticeable difference between the front and rear. My new Tokico lowering springs were marked "front" and "rear". They too were noticeably different.

Today I opened the package that came in the mail. In it was three used K&N filters to fit my Dell'Orto 45's.

Mirror is probably mandatory no matter what. Window net will be club or run group dependent.

What will you be doing for a rear view mirror? We have a 5-panel wink in ours that is great. I would want any mounting tab welded to the halo bar to accommodate the mirror. Any thoughts on the window net mounts yet?

Willow Springs (the big track) is easy on brakes and not a fair test. You can use OEM type pads there without issues. Buttonwillow is a braking track and will show off any brake problems you have. I've never been on the California Speedway, but I know where it is. One or two hard braking stops does not generate enough heat to be a problem, it's repeated hard braking without sufficient time to cool down that creates problems. Big Willow for example, only has three braking turns, one, three and five with plenty of cool time. Buttonwillow has 19 turns depending on the configuration and a lot of braking areas, I'll guess at ten. For cold weather or any street driving you want a pad that works at cool temperatures. OEM type pads are ideal for this. Race compounds don't work well until they're hot. Street pads stop working when they get hot. When pulling a trailer (with my work truck) I was getting heat fade with OEM pads so I put on Porterfield R4-S. I have excellent braking now without the heat fade. I can tell when they're cold as compared to the OEM. But the first stop sign takes care of that. I have Porterfields on both my Z and my work truck without any noise. Since I haven't used anything else yet I can't compare brake pad types. I am having some heat related issues with the Porterfield R4 on the Z. Going to run some cooling ducts and see how that effects things. If the pads are cracking or turning white they are over heating. Porterfield stocks brakes to fit almost every car ever made. If they don't have it they will custom build it for you. Go to Porterfield, Hawk, Raybestos web sites and read what they have to say about brakes and compounds. They all make high-end race brakes (pads) as well as stuff suitable for a daily driver.

Once it's been posted, it's public info. I will add that no matter what caliper a person uses, brake compound and fluid are important.

2 extra pounds is not a big deal, especially for a street car. I was at the parts store and asked to see the Toyota caliper. I told him the year and model that I had seen in several threads here at Hybrid Z. I don't recall now exactly what that was, but he brought me a cast iron caliper that looked and felt like what I have on my F250 truck. I had to "umph" with both hands to pick it up. It was not 11 pounds. Perhaps he brought out the wrong part. I did do a tracing of the mounting flange that later matched up to a stock Z caliper.

Use a good DOT 4 brake fluid with a high boiling point (wet boiling point). We use ATE Super Blue. With DOT 3 we would boil the fluid and with the ATE and all other conditions being the same, we no longer loose our brakes due to boiling fluid. And yes, move into a better compound designed for your use. Hawk, Porterfield and a few others make racing compound pads to fit the stock calipers. Porterfield sells race compound shoes for the stock rear (not cheap). The thing nobody ever addresses here is the added weight. The stock 240z caliper is 9 pounds. The Toyota caliper is about 50. I did not put it on a scale, but I had to two-hand the thing. Adding more un-sprung weight is not what you want to do to a racecar.

As does the club I run with and most other clubs.

When you change the back pressure you need to re-tune the carb. Sometimes all it takes is a simple turn of an adjuster screw, sometimes the jets need to be changed. Once the carbs are tuned properly the difference should not be that noticeable. If they work well I will definitely post a "how I did it" thread. The Bendz calipers look slick enough. They're two piston fixed calipers without any P-brake stuff. They look just like the stock front Z calipers except tiny. I got new pads (OEM) at Pep Boys for $15.00 Porterfield racing pads will be about $75.00 instead of the almost $200 for their shoes. I have access to a machine shop so making my own brackets shouldn't be much of an obstacle. Sunday I was planning on working on one or both of our Z's, but my ugly old truck decided to act up again. One new distributor and a whole day later it runs better than it ever has. Maybe next weekend I can focus on a Z brake conversion.

Z's aren't the only rusting money pit. You've just described every car and truck ever made that survived long enough to get old and rusty. And a few boats too. LMAO

The side bars are bent outward into the door to allow the seat to be adjusted fore and aft. Usually only the drivers side gets the extra space needed.

45's are big carbs and don't do well on the street. 40's are a better choice for street driving. The 45's will cause it to stumble at low RPM because there is not enough air flow through the big venturi's . Those 45's are worth more than a set of 40's. You could possibly sell them, buy some 40's and have a few extra dollars to spend on the car. No, I'm not in the market for a set of DCOE 45's.

Different clubs have different rules, the club I drive with does not require such a label, but I suspect other clubs do. My club does require a tow hook at each end of the car as do most clubs. The tow hooks and the labels, both front and rear have more to do with the emergency crews that come out on the track to help when there's a problem. Every car and every driver has their hook in a different place. Sometime the rear is the best place to pull from. The labels make it easier for the track workers to find and hook up to your car. Every race car will eventually get towed in from the track. Maybe they threw a rod, or simply ran out of gas. Every car will get towed in sooner or later.

No real hurries here. Finish your car and tech it, by then you'll know what's involved and how much labor to charge for.

Nice work! Nice looking cage. Are you going to do all the final welding as well? From what I saw of your other welds you're a good welder. How much to do a cage in my Z? Seriously, I have two Z's that need a full SCCA cage. I'm a long days drive from you. I can take care of the transportation. I might be able to bring a third car your way.

Carb sync (out of sync) is most noticeable at an idle, as the RPM pick up things change and mask the bad sync. A full tune-up includes carb sync as well as points gap and ignition timing. How many of the previous suggestions have explored? They're all good suggestions. Seeing as how you just bought the car, don't assume anything is good and can be ignored, no matter what the seller may have said. To chime in with a previously noted suggestion, my 73 acted like it ran out of gas once. I knew it was getting low so I dumped 5 gallons in it and it continued to act like it was running out of gas. It seemed OK in the straights and starved on the curves. (this is my track car and I was on a track) We later isolated the problem to a cracked pick-up in the tank. The pick-up cannot be changed so we made our own pick-up. The fuel starvation issue went away. Is this the problem with your car? I can't say for sure. But you can test it by using an alternative fuel supply. Don't drive during this test but if the symptoms change or don't change you will know which way to look. Ignition problems can cause strange symptoms. Coils and condensers can overheat and fail at high RPM's. (been there, done that) Points can float at higher RPM's. This does not mean the points are bad. The distributor bearings can fail and let the points open whenever as the shaft bounces around. (been there, done that) If somebody put the wrong points cam in the car you will have high RPM issues. (been there, done that) Timing advance (mechanical and vacuum) can go bad. I just went through that on my Ford. The vacuum advance failed and I had to get towed home. Turns out the mechanical advance needed to be serviced and the points were ready to fail. Truck runs better than ever now that I sorted that out. A loose wire can cause tremendous problems and be a mofo to find. (been there, done that) I don't want to overwhelm you with possibilities. But for us to help you we need to know what you checked and what you found. Start with the easy, simple, and inexpensive things first.

The 73 had both a mechanical and electric fuel pump from the factory. It does not seem logical, but that's what they did. If the mechanical has failed it could be restricting the fuel flow. You don't need both pumps, so you could bypass the mechanical. But, you will need to add a fuel pressure regulator when you do remove the mechanical and set it to about 4 pounds. You better get that fuel leak fixed before you have a Car-B-Que. The 73 has (had when stock) a charcoal canister and some other EPA forced stuff. If the canister is clogged with crud or full of gas the engine won't run well. There are vacuum and other related lines as part of this EPA system. If any of these lines are damaged it will effect how the car runs. Yes, you can ditch most of it and plug the open ports and it will still run, probably better than ever. edit: Check the legalities in your area before removing this stuff. In some areas it might be illegal. If you have not already found it, there is a return fuel line from the carbs to the tank. There are 5 or more lines that connect to the fuel tank. Your leak is probably one of these lines that rotted away. You need to remove the tank to get to them. Yes, it's a pain in the A$. You will find a drain plug so you can empty the tank before you remove it. Be careful not to damage the main fill tube, it's $100 or better to buy a new one.

Nice pics and write-up. I had been looking (not very hard) for a set of these. I had forgot about Z Car Customs even though it's saved in my favorite link section. I was thinking about making some myself, but I can't beat his price, so I just ordered two sets ( I have two cars now ). I had bolted a hook to what I thought was the rear bumper mount. This was after having removed both bumpers. Well, I did go off track and got stuck in a gravel pit. The track crew hooked up and tore the hook off, it was just thick sheet metal, not a major structural point. They then opened to hatch and pulled me out backwards by the roll bar.

Does it include a bullshit filter? You're going to need it to wade through the muck he's spewing.

You should ask the seller some questions.

My dad has a mill in his shop, a real big Bridgeport. The mill alone takes up a lot of space and uses a lot of 240 volt electricity. His collection of bits and tables and such take up a lot of room also. There is a roll-away dedicated to just mill parts and that does not include much much more. He made a living working out of his shop and this tool made him a lot of money. I don't claim to be good at using his mill or lathe, but I have used them a bit. I have also tried to use my drill press as a mill and I can tell you it's not the same. Some good notes have already been expressed so no need to repeat that. The drill press does not spin nearly as fast as the mill so work goes slow and the cut looks terrible. My drill press does not have the power as a real mill and I have to take tiny little bites. A mill and lathe do not do the same type of work. You will want and need both. Maybe this small mill you found will work for your needs, it's bound to be better than using a drill press as a mill. Try to find a school nearby that offers a machine calls. My local high school has an adult night class where we can work on hobbies. I am a student there for that reason and I have access to my dad's shop as well.

Oops a typo that have now corrected. I only want to drive the Fiat on the track, but why should that bother her? I keep telling her, "I will only go fast in the turns."

Awesome stories I was not quite yet in High School when the first 240Z was sold. My dad was into sports cars and so naturally I was too. For me it was love at first sight. But like most teen-agers, my thoughts soon shifted to girls, motorcycles, then a bag of candy and so on. Later I got my license and a job in Beverly Hills pumping gas. I would see a lot of nice cars come in, Porsche, Ferrari, 240Z and so on. The 240Z was the car I drooled over the most. Thirty five years later my brother and I were at the track watching our Dad race his Alfa Romeo and got to talking about how much we wanted to race cars and what a good car might be. Money is always an issue, especially when it come to a money pit like a race car, so the talk was about what car can we afford that might be a good track car. We ended up with four or five car choices including the Z. After looking at a bunch of old cars and doing some research, we settled on the 240Z. The Z had a strong racing history and was affordable. We found a 1973 240Z that was 100% stock, never crashed and not rusting. We bought that car in 2009 and we've enjoyed the 240Z so much that three years later (two weeks ago) we bought a second Z, a 1974 260Z. Both are dedicated track cars. I would like to get yet a third Z so I can have one as my daily driver. Shortly after we bought the first Z, we were on a test drive and an old Ferrari pulled up next to us at a stop light. The driver looked over and in a very excited voice, asked us if that was an original Datsun 240Z. We were so stoked by this that we forgot to oogle his near perfect 40 year old Ferrari.

Just a few more pictures. Pete taking a driving school on The Streets of Willow. Bob at Laguna Seca. If I said I was passing a Cobra would you believe me? I got passed rather quickly. I missed the corkscrew at Laguna Seca. Our new 15 car, a 1974 Datsun 260Z. Our new VTO wheels at Willow Springs. The Pits at Buttonwillow as viewed from our in-car video camera. My girlfriend and her new 2012 Fiat 500C Lounge. She won't let me drive it.