scott19

Another vote for a cooling system sub forum!

245/50/15's? Who makes those?

if you can feel those cracks you mentioned, they will show up in the end. As a general rule, if you can feel an imperfection with your hand as you slide it over a panel, you're not done body working/sanding yet.

The quality of Maaco jobs varies from shop to shop. Take a look at the finished paint jobs at the Maaco you got a quote from. If you are happy with the quality, I'd say go for it. As you said, your car isn't perfect, and you want it back on the road. I think the "single stage is bad" argument is invalid, since your car came with single stage from the factory. Cared for properly, single stage paint jobs can last decades. I went through the trouble of doing it myself ( here: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=104557 and here: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=105466 ), but I can tell you that it cost way more than $600 in the end, just for supplies. And that's not counting the number of hours pre AND post paint that was required (after all, time is money).

Western (I think) wheels from the 70's, found in a junkyard for $100: 15x8.5" with 245/35/15 Dunlop SP9000's (not available anymore)

Now, I know that chrome piston rings are not the first choice these days, but let's say you were stuck with using them. Can anyone give advice about breaking these in most efficently? I've heard they can take 10,000 miles to fully break in. Any way shorten that time period?

Not offering any answers here, but reminding everyone that, with the S30, it's not necessarily all about reducing drag, it's also about reducing lift as well. Those can be conflicting pursuits. Increasing drag can reduce lift, if applied in the right location. It just depends what result you're after. Seems the magic combination for the S30 would be something that reduces lift, yet dissipates that huge cloud of air a S30 hauls behind it everywhere. Just my thoughts.

In my experience, the "Autopal" brand of "diamond cut" headlamps like you find on ebay work well when you use proper clear bulbs. They have a nice cutoff in their beam pattern. I have also bought a set of "diamond cut" lights that were not Autopal, and they are AWFUL. Part of this is because of the blue bulbs they sent with them, which are downright dangerous in their inability to light the road, and partially because the pattern is just screwed up. But like I said, I'm very happy with the Autopal set. My $.02.

To all Wangan Midnight fans: YouTube has several episodes of the anime version up now. As of this posting, up to episode 2 has been translated. Many more episodes are available in "raw" (japanese language) versions.

But that would get us in the ballpark about where vents/outlets would best be placed, wouldn't it? Then maybe go back and do more fine tuning with yarn?

Yarn would be great if you could observe it at speed, either from in the car or beside it, but I'm thinking it would go back to it's original position once you slowed down. If you used something that would stretch under pressure, but hold the stretched shape when you brought the car to a stop, you could observe it easier. That's why I was thinking duct tape, since it's got enough stretchiness to move a bit, but not break. You'd end up with golf ball like dimples where pressure pushed down, and domes where it pushed up. Then there's the problem of breaking up the boundary layer, but I think the pressures above and below the hood are great enough to overcome that. Hinged flaps could probably be seen from the cockpit, and I'm theorizing you could tell the amount of pressure difference by how high the flap floated (or didn't). Again, just rednecking it out here.

This is the redneck in me thinking here, feel free to throw beer cans at me: If someone had a hood they were willing to sacrifice in the name of science, could you take a hood, uniformily cut holes in it, then cover those holes with something (redneck me is thinking duct tape), install on car, drive car, then observe where the material stretched and in which direction? I'm sure it might stretch one way, then the other depending on speed. That would be a problem I can think of right off, but perhaps that can be gotten around. How about small flaps that could be observed from the cockpit? Just throwing some ideas out there.

I tend to agree with you, although only more wind tunnel time will tell (airflow ideas are being swatted down like flies around here). Aesthetically, the VG's aren't my cup of tea for my street car, but if a more subtle "trip strip" could provide near the same function, I'm all for it.

Well, since my understanding of VG's has improved since I posted this morning, I would say yes. VG's should work to keep the air attached farther down the hatch. If you have an aerodynamic device (spoiler/wing) at the end of your hatch, more air goes over it, thereby increasing it's effectiveness. So why does the S130 have that "bump" above it's hatch? Were the designers addressing the exhaust fume issue of the S30? Is that all is needed to help the S30? These are my questions, especially since, personally, I'd rather NOT put a rear spoiler on my tail, but I'm not against something around the upper hatch area.

Thanks,Jon. That explanation works for me!