JMortensen

I gotta go with Wheelman on this one. Caveat emptor is the phrase to keep in mind when you buy on ebay. I've seen one instance and I won't go too into detail where a parts manufacturer pretty much directly took one of our member's ideas and now retails it through his website. It was damn near an exact copy. That kinda bugged me, but if it isn't patented then what can you really expect? If there is a part which is marketable should he not be able to manufacture and market it? The rest of it, generic suspension parts and stuff like that is not a real problem as far as I'm concerned. There's a million different good ways to make suspension parts. Nobody has a lock on that one, and I for one am just glad that there are people out there making parts for our 30+ year old cars.

Does the other tire not TURN at all, or is it just not breaking traction? If it just drives OK but you're getting a one wheel peel then the most likely case is that the clutches are stripped. Here is some info on some replacement clutches that one member made, although I don't know if he still has any. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=112921 At one point I believe he posted the drawing of the clutches, so you could get some made and beef up your diff like some of us did. Then you can install and shim per this thread: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=117818

The guy who owns that site is Steve Parmley. He is "zlalomz" here. He's a good guy and a regular contributor. You guys should be thanking him.

There are some excellent pics of Brad Frisselle's GTU car on this page: http://zlalomz.googlepages.com/frissellerestorationbycanepadesign Good pics of that kind of bar through the frame rail in front.

Hehe, Speedway just called, my bender is on the way finally!

You don't think it would be even stronger with the bars running through and .060 plates attaching it on both sides of the corner?

I'm reading up on door bars, hoping that my bender and tubing will both come in with enough time for me to get the rest of the cage installed before I move. I copied katman's cage design pretty closely with main hoop placement, so the hoop is quite a ways behind the door post. This makes for a really funky door bar that has to go straight until it clears the door post, then out into the door area, then back in at the front. Seeing as how I don't have really any experience bending tubing and such, I think this is going to be a real PITA. So I had an idea, and I'm hoping you guys will give it a yea or nea. Here is where the main hoop is in relation to the door: And here's what I'm thinking about cutting out of the door area: If I cut this area out, then I could have a very simple shape to the door bar, like a bracket when viewed from above: ] Then once the door bars were bent I could use a piece of .060" thick sheet to attach the door bar to the chassis, and my theory is that this would be a damn good way to attach the cage to that part of the chassis too. Only downside I've been able to come up with so far is the passenger side of the car. I'm not even going to have a passenger seat, at least for a while, so I was thinking of not doing anything over there, or doing a simple X with my lightweight 1.625 x .065 tube just for the sake of stiffening up the chassis, but it won't match so that side of the car won't be as firmly tied in. I think that's probably not too much of an issue on the whole, but I'll let you guys tell me I'm wrong if that's the case. Also with the configuration of the door bars I think I'm going NASCAR style just because that seems to be what is currently acceptable to SCCA. I want to get the door bars low to make it easier to get in and out. I was wondering if there was a particular guideline for how far apart they should be or anything like that. I'm also a bit concerned about how to weld the door bars to the main hoop. Right now I'm leaning towards cutting more holes in the fenderwell and welding the cage, then patching the holes, much like I did when installing the X from the strut tops to the rockers: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=119861

I was on the IZCC list and kept asking suspension questions that nobody could answer. I think it was Pete Paraska who suggested I check it out here. I knew the site was here but I figured V8's made Z's handle like crap and was never that interested in the site. Yep, I was that moron.

I think 510 camber plates are probably the most direct correlation for the ZX. The Z is tough to fit a camber plate to because the strut tops are so small. You have a ton of room in the ZX and can easily fit a caster/camber plate in there and have it move enough to really make a difference. You might ask one of the manufacturers. They should be easy to find plates for, you can probably use just about anything.

I'm just teasing you. It's a good idea, the only thing I would worry about there is that the car is going to be so low I don't know that the straps would clear the bottom of the airdam.

Aren't you the same John Coffey who had his front crossmember bolts fall out and didn't notice??? I wonder if you tied it up to an unbolted crossmember at any point in time...

I was thinking I'd use those locations for a string alignment setup. Maybe I can do both...

Cutting soft metals? I use my bandsaw for that. I'm not too sure about brass or copper or other metals, but you can cut aluminum with wood saws too, like a table saw or a chopsaw. Just need a carbide blade and you need to go SLOW. I have some "airhorns" on my Mikunis which were made from a plate of aluminum and had the airhorn part routered in with a 3/8" radius carbide router bit that was intended for wood.

The bracket welds on because the stock holes are cut off for camber plates. The bars bolt to the bracket. So yes, the bar is removable.

This immediately brought up the memory of Derek Bell telecasting live from the Audi in the Speed GT series a couple years ago. I don't know if he still does it but remember watching and I can recall him saying, "Hold on guys" and working through a bit of traffic or some sticky situation, and then continuing on. The point is, he can hold a conversation DURING MOST OF A SPEED GT RACE!!! So the "need" for total concentration is I think a bit overblown. What is really required is SOME concentration.

I think this is it. I'll change the title and sticky it. Good stuff guys!

You want to know what the most dangerous distraction I ever experienced while driving was? A gigantic bumble bee flew into my helmet while I was going top speed on my dirt bike and freaked out inside the helmet until it finally made its way over to my ear and stung me. In turn, I slammed on the brakes, shifted from 6th to 1st and let out the clutch and crashed hard, went over the bars, the whole 9 yards. Maybe we should begin a massive bee irradication program... There are far to many causes of bad driving to write laws to "protect" us against them all, even if that were a good idea. As for your study Westby, here's another you might want to look at: http://www.aaafoundation.org/resources/index.cfm?button=cellphone And here's the quote I'd like you to take note of: Maybe we should ban passengers. Or ban "intense conversations". Or maybe we could enforce the laws that we have already established for safe driving. That would be nice, huh? I see people doing stupid crap all the time. You want people to follow the rules? Enforce them and provide penalties for breaking them. Cygnus mentioned tailgating. I don't know ANYONE who has EVER gotten a ticket for tailgating. EVER. Anyone heard of someone getting a tailgating ticket lately? We are seriously lacking in the enforcement department.

Or we could just enforce the laws that are already in place...

One more showed up today. Nice work, thanks for doing it. Mine came from Bad Dog. Always had good experiences with John so I'm happy to give him more business as well.

Agreed. I wear mine all the time here in Seattle and my wife thinks I'm nuts, but it really does help.

Motorsport discontinued them. You can get the MAS flares and they're CHEAP. Its a good alternative. Do a search and you'll find my thread on them.

How does one add external tie downs to the chassis?

I don't see this thread going anywhere other than "there ought to be a law". Your call for some sort of action on the part of the collective car lovers of the internet foreshadows some sort of petition or other device to at the least "raise awareness" of the dangers of driving while using the cell phone and that would be political. Most political issues are not purely political. They become political when people attempt to take action to change the status quo. Notice that I haven't shut the thread down. I'm just warning against it going where I think it's going. There are plenty of other forums where you could take this subject head on and it would be totally acceptable. If it gets political here it will get shut down. Nothing personal.

There are already laws against failure to control a vehicle. The answer is to enforce the laws. This is already bordering on political, so don't be surprised if it gets shut down very quickly.