JMortensen

All right then, why don't we start with boosted's requirements. We don't really know what he wants or is capable of building yet. A suspension modeling program is going to be pretty important when things start to get specific, so that might be something that he wants to acquire once we pin things down a bit.

You will have to cut or bend the fender out of the way or run a smaller diameter tire in order to run big caster numbers. Not really an easy way around that, other than adjusting it at the top with your biscuit camber/caster plates.

Jason, your post is exceedingly vague. What are you trying to do? Are you actually building something or do you just want to bench race different systems? Personally I feel that the stock-ish strut system can be built up to a pretty impressive level of competency if you take the time and effort to do it right. I would not choose a strut style suspension if I were designing something from scratch, but why some feel a need to get rid of it and replace with 5 link rear setups is a bit beyond me. And it seems that not too many pay attention to the front end which is the really lacking end in my experience. Competition Car Suspensions by Alan Staniforth is a good book. It mostly concerns itself with formula cars, but still a good resource with particularly good Ackermann info. Race Car Vehicle Dynamics by Milliken & Milliken is extremely technical and although I felt that I learned a lot from reading it I think I got more info about tires and aero out of it than I did about suspension. The "X" To Win series by Carroll Smith is another good series of books but they're getting a little long in the tooth.

I used to have one of those transmissions. Actually I had just the guts from two comp or roadster or whatever you want to call them transmissions. I think they were a dealer option. Anyway I gave them to a friend and he swapped the gears from the flanged output trans onto the mainshaft from the other one which had a slip yoke, then he put the guts in a later ZX housing. He did this because he wanted to put it in a 510 and didn't want to have to modify the driveshaft. The trans is still working fine to this day. I want to say the original shifter was a "b" type, because the ZX housing is a "b" type and everything fit and it functions correctly.

No that is definitely not the best song ever.

I think that explains it. Sounds like you're running Tokico springs now, so you're almost bottomed out all the time. I think you'll find that if you put some 2.5 ID springs on there the front will sit high, and then to get it down to where you think it looks right you'll be almost out of travel. Read this: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=121496 Bottom line is to get the stance you want any lower than you already are I think you really should section the front struts and probably all 4.

That's backasswards from the way it usually happens. Are you running really tall rear tires or something? To answer the question, the camber plates will drop both ends of the car about 1.5". If you had a 280 the rear would drop more like 2.5". This is a rough estimate, so don't hold me to this exactly. What you should really do is set the ride height where you want it and then see how much suspension travel you have left. Most Z's end up running out of travel in the front long before the rear, which is why your expectation seems wrong to me.

I am not understanding the significance of this statement. I mean really, if you're using the metric system (which I believe to be superior), does a difference of 1mm not equate to .040"? So if you're accurate within .00001, does that not relate directly to the metric system as well, where you would be accurate within .000254mm? The reason the metric system is better is because it's a plain old 10 base system, not a 12 base system with 64th based fractions. It's much easier to say 20.5 mm and understand what that means than it is to say 25/64ths. You have to do some math to figure out the decimal equivalent of 25/64ths. The MEASURING is not more accurate. The description of the distance measured is just simpler.

Well there was gas for $6/gal after Hurricane whatchamacallit a couple years back in FL. There's price gouging and there is the laws of supply and demand, the two can be confused but are not the same thing.

The L series has a reputation for being reliable. Maybe not THAT reliable though...

We should not get political with this thread. Cygnusx1, for what it's worth here in Seattle we had the coldest, wettest summer in over 30 years.

I don't know if this will restore your faith in humanity or not Mike, but my father-in-law Gary just saved a 2 year old girl's life about a week ago. He was coming out of a hardware store and jumped in front of a car to keep it from running her over. Apparently her mom had bought a tricycle for her and she wanted to jump on it right when they got out the door of the store. Mom said "OK, but stay close" and the kid jumped on, put her head down and pedaled as fast as she could. The car was coming out of a parking garage and couldn't see her at all. My father-in-law ran in front of the car and actually got hit by it in the knee. Then he sat down and started crying right there at the thought of that 2 year old getting run over. Apparently that got the mom crying and pretty soon a bunch of people were all standing around crying about the whole thing. That's actually the second kid he's saved. The other time was a couple years back and he was driving down the street and this 7 or 8 year old's grandparents came running out of a house screaming for help. He stopped and ran over and their grandson was floating in the pool not breathing and very blue. Gary pulled the kid out and put him on his side and I guess the water ran out of the kid's lungs and he started coughing and came to. I know this won't make what you saw any less horrible, and I'm sorry you had to go through that.

I was planning on the same tires you've got now, but I think I'm going to try to run the 12's in back. Haven't driven my car in 3 years, haven't raced it in 5...

I would call it "ruining your clutch". That's a REALLY poor way to use the clutch. Put it in gear, let the clutch all the way out and let the engine decelerate the car. Preferably doing a heel/toe shift so that you don't use up any more clutch than you have to. What you're talking about is the slowing down version of holding yourself on a hill with the clutch halfway out. Very bad form. Not trying to insult you, but that's the truth.

I think those Yok's were just plain hard. I got mine FRESH from a Toy Atlantic practice session and they were already feeling a lot like Kuhmo Victoracers according to the 'ol thumbnail durometer. I figured the Goodyears would be real gummy in comparison.

So I'm guessing that the Goodyears are a bit stickier than the Yokohamas that we were both running previously? Can you give a little comparison? You running the FA Radial Goodyears?

I'm only going to make the one comment, and I hope that it doesn't eventually end up in the tool shedding of the thread, but here it is: [sarcasm]I never would have guessed that there would be such a scare directly ahead of elections.[/sarcasm]

That's a good point Rob. Get stuff that fits right on, unless you have the tools to do the machining. Brakes are wear items and I don't have a lathe, so I personally wouldn't consider one of these swaps where the pilot hole in the rotor has to be made larger or the OD of the rotor has to be cut down.

8.4mm on the cam x 1.5 rocker ratio = .496" lift or 12.6mm for you...

There is a trim piece that goes over the butyl tape or whatever adhesive they're using. If you wanted to make a trim piece then it would work. Otherwise I think that sounds like more hassle than it is worth.

Based on just the numbers given that cam should be a good aggressive street cam.