tube80z

Okay, so no trailer. I'd opt out of any hillclimbs then as the chance to wreck your car is higher there than just about anywhere. I can't recall if your car has a cage or not. While not sexy or go fast good safety gear would be essential just in case. My self I found that doing work to make the driver more comfortable was almost as important as things I could do to the car. Your car is probably too soft. It seems to me that you're aiming for a car very similar to an EP car with a V8. That means springs from about .8 to 1.0 of corner weight (assuming frequencies in the high 2s to maybe 3 Hz range). That should get you into the ballpark. You've already mentioned brake pads. Do as Jon said and take a set for changing at the track. Then figure out the next things to tackle (I'd work on suspension first). You'll probably find as much time in learning to set the car up for conditions and the track your at than you will in new developments. Once you've got this nailed then you may want to look at trying to see what you can do to get rid of lift/make some downforce. This will cause all the suspension stuff to change again and brakes may become an issue again. And then maybe think of more power. Look at first principles, those are newton's three laws and there variations. And look for low hanging fruit, like seeing what weight can be shed. Then of what's left what can be moved lower in the car (mass and Cg). Even simple things like lowering your seat can reduce the Cg of the car. Increasing track width (more grip), more tire, etc. It will be a never ending list that once you touch something new you get to revisit all that you did. Feel free to ask specifics. I'm sure there's a lot of good advice to be had on this list. Cary

I think your next step is a Datsun support vehicle, aka trailer. You're probably getting close to the point where you are going to start having some issues with reliability. Going faster will mean things break.

I'm using standard diamond nuts. If you're wheels allow it I'd try any of the quality circle track parts. I've had people "help" me and cross thread the nuts and start to drive them on with an impact. And these can be backed off only screwing up the nut so far. I life the studs and the nuts every three years and that may help too. I'm sorta anal that way. Cary

Are you using a anti-seize or lubricant on your studs? I've never had this happen to me but I make sure they are not dry. I've seen many people have this problem when they don't. Good studs and soft nuts are best. If the nut gets cross threaded you zip it off and throw on another. That's standard race car practice. Cary

I personally haven't made a lot of progress but was headed down the path you'll find described on the V8 RX7 forum. That is to take the stock Ford CV halfshafts and cut down the inside and weld on a flange and use the bolt-in CV conversions available for the Z car. This takes care of the outer hub issues a lot of people are worried about. Cary

Give ZTherapy a call. They did a little research on E85 and SUs. From memory everything other than the fuel lines had no real issues. You're going to need bigger nozzles and new float to carb lines anyway. Cary

I think you forgot track days in your analysis. Because if all you really want to do is autox I'd recommend a richmond dog-ring 2-speed. Mucho lighter. With the v8 you're looking at running in mostly a single gear. What you'll need to do is have a couple of rear gears to pick speed ranges that work best (one gear to 70/75 MPH). From my experience this is always faster than shifting and much easier to drive. Things happen very quickly when you prep to this level. Backs are broken etc. I can see having more gears for track days, which I think you want to do. I'm going with a Muncie or a ex-NASCAR dog ring 4-speed and will change rear gears. But with no overdrive you'll need a steep rear end to make 150 or so. Cary

Flip the plate with the spherical and get it out as far as you can. That's what a lot of us have to do in the rear when we lower the cars a lot.

Search for hemipanter on google and you'll find the designers home page. You can buy a book on how to create your own from him. I've been tempted just because I seem to collect books on one off racing cars.

The template shows what needs to be cut out. If you place the plate on the strut tower you will see where you need mounting holes and what needs to get cut out. The plate is supposed to be mounted under the metal on the top of the strut, not on top. And for enlarging the center hole I've found that aviation snips work as well as anything. And if you want a template I'd call GC and pester them. They used to hide things on their web site you could download. You don't really need this but it was nice to have. Cary

They bolt in but you'll need to cut the strut towers per their template for them to properly fit. Cary

What I've heard is these are very hard on struts and may have broken the top of of some. The rubber is designed to allow for angular change like a spherical bearing, so simply making the rubber a lot stiffer may not be the best thing to do, just like the TC rods. Cary

Loeb had a similar experience in Greece, the car didn't go as far down the embankment but I think he was going faster. Some of the tubes in the Citroen were totally folded over. Cary

And there have been a lot of Pikes Peak hillclimb cars that have used wings like this over the years. I would think a good front diffuser would be work as well but may have been tricky to build into the car in question. Cary

I have a friend that had a race truck that used a Ford 8.8 independent in it. He used a built 383 and never broke the diff housing. And he was hard on this truck. He did find the factory limited slip unit was a joke and eventually moved to a beefier unit that was still way cheaper than anything you could get for a R200. And yes the Aluminum units are much lighter than the factory diffs we have. There are a few of us trying to come up with a simple rear diff solution based on these but so far no one has anything running Cary

Cool stuff, I like!

So to paraphrase, you're saying the torsional stiffness means nothing to handling. Are you sure about that? Cary

I hear Ron and Paul have a wicked set of Legos. Maybe they will build the first

Maybe winGEO changed how they handle the roll axis but that was one of the many things that got optimumK started. I remember Claude Rouelle talking about how winGEO calculates roll and how it was incorrect so they decided to build their own software. Both would be hard to justify for casual use when susprog3D gets you very close results for about $120. I just hope Rowley does the extra volumes he talks about in his first book. I really like the real world examples in his work compared to the more academic approach in RCVD. Neither are an easy read in my opinion.

It's a BS term that I made up. But what I mean is where the suspension loads are put into the chassis. That distance from front to rear is part of the torsion spring we call the chassis. The closer together these get the shorter the spring and potentially the higher the rate. Longer cars (wheelbase) are often less stiff than a shorter model. Hope that helps, Cary

I think you can argue unsprung weight is reduced from the classical definition. But if you look at the suspensions interia it is often greater and you really need to look at the dynamic rather than static case. You also have to look at suspension friction being increased too and ff the rocker and push/pull rod are all not in the same plane you'll introduce some bending that can cause additional friction effects. On a closed car (GT) the aero advantages are often not really there. But you do get increased motion ratios and the ability to change them and if done right you can reduce spring-to-spring chassis length (meaning the car will be torsionally stiffer). And you cannot discount the bling factor. Think of the chicks you could pick up showing them your cool rocker arm suspension Cary

I've used peelz away floor stripper. It's organic and doesn't have much of an odor and it works just as well. You put it on and let it sit for about a day and then peel off the undercoating. It's a good option if you need to keep the fumes down. Cary

A friends NA KA powered car is 1850. So no reason you can't hit your goals.

13 inch wheel and tires are anywhere from 20 to 40 pounds lighter than the 15 inch equivalent. The yokos are the heaviest, then GY, then Hoosier. That was the main motivation for going small on the new car.

The V8 car ran the 15 inch radials (GY, hoosier, and yoko) 10 inch front and 14 inch rear wheels on all. The 4-cylinder car is running my wheels and tires, 10 inch front and 12 inch rear on the bias ply hoosier. We may try radials later in the season.