Savage42

I'm not surprised and you are exactly right. The slots will help a bit with fade when the brakes get hot, but holes aren't good. I've found that solid rotors that are either heat or cryo treated work great and are less prone to warping, if that's even an issue with stock stuff. I got good rotors (no holes or slots) and Porterfields all the way around on my BMW 540i and it has awesome brakes! Great debate, I must say!

So, do you have the exact measurements for the difference between the early and later S30 RT mounts? We should add the early 240Z specs on a drawing online, so both are documented.

Even with a limited slip, you'll probably have traction issues at 400 HP. Anything more will only be useable above 70 mph. Heavy car, skinny tires (not to mention the bad rear suspension geometry) and monster HP don't make for a fast accelerating combo. I'd bet a car with half the HP will be dead even from 0-60 and really clost up to 100 mph, so I guess it begs the question: "Why so much HP and what is the purpose for the car?" If you are just looking to go fast in a quarter mile, an S30 would be way better suited for that. Major flares, sticky tires and trimming some weight would make it fast, but not a nice street car at that point.

OK, so I'm assuming you must have some sort of suspension stop or little to no actual travel in the rear? I'm assuming that you can get away with wheels sticking out like that in your state, eh? Not here on the west coast, you'd be pulled over daily. That aside, that is some serious meat!!

I see it went "bye-bye". Seems the Ebay guys might have caught onto it, too.

Nope, if rears lock first, car swings around. Fronts lock, the car just slides in same direction whether steering input is added or not. Locking rears is a bad thing and will often lead to an incident. Now, if you are all about drifting or stunt driving for the movies, this setup may work for you.

If you need more front bite, then better pads are definitely the answer and easier than adding a proportioning valve. SS lines and good pads will make a HUGE difference the feel and performance of the braking system, whether stock solid rotors or slotted and/or drilled. I ran the same brakes as you have on your ZX on my blue 510 with stock rotors & Porterfield R4S pads and it is the best braking car I've been it. (and I've driven and raced a ton!) Granted, the ZX probably weighs 1000 lbs more, but I think you are on the right track. For optimum performance, go with good pads & lines, a slotted rotor in front and solids in rear, unless there's a deal you can't pass up. As for too many drilled holes, I've seen many "over done" rotors, just like the rear of Pinkie. I'll try to find a pic of ones a buddy had on his autocross Rabbit, which had holes not much more than 1/2" apart and covered the whole rotor! Might work for autocross, but nothing more extreme! Can't see needing any more than maybe 4-5 rows of holes on an entire rotor. As stated, more holes & slots decrease surface area and thus reduce stopping performance. Not good!

Jon, there's no doubt that some holes are fine and we both know the quality of the rotors on Ferraris and Porsches are better than most. It's when they make the rotors look like "swiss cheese" that you need to worry, especially on the front. Wouldn't want a front rotor to explode under a hard braking scenario. Just drilling a cast rotor without any stress relieving or treating is bad news. Most guys who want that kind of bling, never actually drive the car hard, anyway. (That wouldn't be anyone on this forum!)

You'll want to prep the valve cover really well, pretty much like a polished one, if you want the plating to look really nice. I think that anodizing or zinc plating would be cool for a valve cover. I like pretty parts!

Well, I just realized that we are talking about rear brakes here. The emphasis on slotted rotors and good pads like Porterfields are really more significant when dealing with the fronts, which do 80% of your braking. For the rear, I'd just go with a premium replacement rotor like Raybestos Professional Grade Plus Rotors http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductDetail.aspx?mfrcode=RAY&mfrpartnumber=9809&parttype=221&ptset= . At $23 each and a good set of pads, you should be set for less than $100. This will do ya just fine and then spend money on slotted fronts and good pads. If that's an option and you decide to go with something like the Porterfields, I'd suggest using the same pad front & rear. If you run your car hard, then this is all great info. If you use it as just a "daily driver" and you don't drive "enthusiastically", you may just want to go with a semi-metallic pad. Hope that helps. Note: another reason that I like the Porterfield carbon-kevlar pads is that not only do they have bite, not being metallic makes them much more rotor friendly than metallic pads. http://www.porterfield-brakes.com

Wow, that's about as far across the country as you can go! It's always great to welcome another Datsun guy to the Pacific Northwest, as we have a large Z, 510 and Roadster contingent here. Anyway, we've always used http://www.reliable-carriers.com/ for our '70 Plymouth AAR Cuda factory Trans-Am car and is the company that Chrysler uses for all their show cars and they do all the exotics. Nice haulers, very timely delivery. Hope to see you at the Canby Datsun show in Portland, OR, as there is over 200 Datsuns at that one and is a ton of fun. There's also a big one in Victoria, BC in October. Just so you know!

OK, I may just have the answer for you. Check with Universal Insurance at 800-254-2327. They broker for over thirty A & A+ rated insurance companies and should be able to find something for you, if it's out there. Good luck.

Yep, having a layer of protective "crap" isn't always a bad thing. I figure that spending $40 for new bearings and seals for the front is cheap insurance, as I don't want to have to "wonder" if they will last. Sounds like we'll both have enough braking power. I'm going with 12.2' front & rear with 1.25" in the front and .810" rear. Wilwood Superlite 4s front & rear with 1.75" bore in front & 1.38" rear. Definitely more than enough, but recommended by one of the guys at Wilwood who has a Z. More is good, since you have to slow down when you make it accelerate quickly!

Actually, drilled is all about cosmetics. Slotted rotors are good for helping vent gases that build up between the pad & rotor and keep material build up to a minimum under hard use. This is why just about every race car runs slots. I talked in length to the guys at Wilwood and Brembo and they said the same thing. They only drill them because people will pay for the "bling". I went with the GT slotted rotors for my Z, but would not go with drilled. My VG turbo 510 had drilled and they end up with stress cracks from heat, which is not a good thing. A good set of rotors and good pads (I highly recommend Porterfield R4S pads, been using them for 15 years on my cars) and you'll be happy. I had 280ZX front struts/brakes on my 510 w/ Porterfields and I could out brake just about everyone and that was with half a dozen track days, hillclimbs, autocrosses, etc.

OK, so you did alright. I'm sure they'll do the job, not matter who's name is on them. Just keep everything clean and lubed and they'll last a long time! Got the same stuff ready for my car and just thought that I should probably be doing front wheel bearings & seals while I'm putting on everything else new. Never know if those current bearings have been changed and better to have new ones with the increased demand coming from the 12.2 x 1.25" GT rotors and Wilwoods.

hughdogz, you make my brain hurt!

Just an FYI. http://www.partsamerica.com lists both ball joints and outer tie rods for $130. LLT on their stuff, too. They are suppliers for Schucks, Kragen, Checker, etc, so you can usually order online and pickup locally or get free shipping if over $50. I'd rather save my time & gas by going online & have it show up a day or two later w/ free shipping, but that's just me. Wait, that's what I do for a living (driving traffic to online companies) and I get paid on the back end from those companies, even Parts America. Gotta love the web!

2000 BMW 540i Sport, 6 speed, Bilstein/Eibach setup with M5 sway bars, M5 LSD diff & axles, M5 wheels. Basically, an M5 minus 100 HP (300 vs 400) for half the cost. These are recent pics and it still looks good for being an 8 yr old car with 124k miles on it. Ran a track day at PIR and a hillclimb with is last year, too! It's a great daily driver, but no more upgrades, as the Z will be my "hot rod". Prior to the 540, my driver was this '97 Maxima SE. Great car!

Thanks! It's crazy that we are growing so quickly and have the technology side of things dialed in, just hard finding quality people with a good work ethic and common sense to bring on in markets across the country, those who are looking to diversify and do something where they have equity/ownership. Employees are "a dime a dozen", but finding those with business owner/management mentality, who want to make some money and get ahead is tough. Like any company, odds of success goes up when you surround yourself with quality people. We just spend time finding them and go from there. I am very fortunate and am always willing to help those who are looking to improve their quality of life and want to spend more time with family. While many are working harder & longer to just stay afloat, it's nice to be around people who are moving ahead and prospering. Definitely "rare air" and it's quite refreshing. Just like this group, it's great to have access to great folks with common goals and interests! Hammer down!

The key to a nice plating job is good prep. I had all the bolts stripped and acid dipped and bead blasted all the larger stuff. It all came out really nice. They strip off old plating and redo, making them look new again.

I am self employed. I have an online Sports Nutrition company and also drive traffic most of the Fortune 500 companies. I used to manage a delivery company and did this on the side, but once I tripled my income on 1/4 of the time, I decided that I couldn't justify 40 hrs a week on the little I was getting paid. I now have franchises in 15 states, will run over $1m in volume and the PowerWave is here! Should see the industry ten fold in the next 3-4 years. It's cool to get paid for the work I did years ago and I get coaching and mentorship from some of the wealthiest guys in the country! The future looks very bright!!

I don't think so. Anodizing is used as a "plating" of sorts for aluminum. The zinc plated parts (steel/tin/etc) will pretty much stay that way, if kept clean. I figure that it's worth the extra time & effort to keep them looking nice for a long time.

I'm all about road racing, but I thought I'd have some fun and photoshop my 510.

Yep, that would be Tom's car. We've played quite a bit over the years and it took him many rebuilds to keep that hot 3.3 together. It's a very nice car. The only problem with 510s is that you can't get hardly any parts for them and if you find them, they are "gold". I sold my first 510, which I owned for over a decade and had over $20k invested for $10k. http://dimequarterly.tierranet.com/articles/readers_dime_2_3.html I sold my second 510 nearly 5 years ago for $20k. http://www.datsun510.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=3092 My buddy, Kelvin, sold his a couple years ago for $18k. http://www.datsun510.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=3010 Another Cali car went for nearly $30k last year, but the owner had nearly $50k invested, so you really can't make money on them. There's a relatively stock, 32k original mile 2 door in Cali that is listed for $16k. The game sure has changed in the last 5-7 years. I'm having fun building my first Z.

They will do a "lot" for $58 and that's usually about a 12" square box full of stuff. I got everything done on my car in 2 lots, so a little over $100. They have the clear zinc (which is what I had everything done in) and the typical gold (Cad) variety. With a silver car, the clear zinc works better, but the stuff does look OE with either type. A "lot" of anodized aluminum (clear, red, blue, black) is $65 and they strip whatever color it is and will do it in those colors. I did my aluminum parts in clear anodizing, so it keeps the aluminum color without getting dull or crusty. It was done by: http://www.qualitymetalfinishing.com here in Eugene, OR.