JMortensen

"Like throwing a hot dog down a hallway" - unknown

DITTO!!! (that's a joke too, get it?)

OK, you've got a point, but how much does John have tied up in his engine??? I'm pretty sure if he doesn't have a baffled pan then he has a dry sump... My point is just that if the same amount of serious racing know how (not "tuner" mods) was put into a Skyline that 700 hp Skyline should whip John's Z. The problem is that nobody "races" Skylines in the US. They do in Europe and Japan, but not here. That may very well have been John's point too. John's car is unbelievably fast for a Z. Really unbelievably fast. For a Z. Jon

I'm guessing Amir hasn't seen JGTC on Speed. I wonder if they still show it, haven't caught it in a few months...

Blame Reagan too.

Good one John!

That's pretty good. Let me try the other side: DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE CONVENTION SCHEDULE 6:00 PM Opening Prayer led by the Reverend Al Sharpton 6:30 PM Pledge of Allegiance - sans "under God" 6:35 PM Burning of Bill of Rights (excluding revised 1st Amendment right of war protestors) 6:45 PM Salute to the European Union 6:46 PM Seminar #1: Iraq Strategies-RUN AWAY! 7:30 PM First Presidential Nominee Bong 7:35 PM Serve "free range organic" kale 7:40 PM EPA Address #1: Free Range Organic Kale-It's what's for dinner! 8:00 PM Vote on which terrorist to appease next 8:10 PM Call EMTs to revive Ted Kennedy 8:15 PM John Kerry Lecture: The Joys of Commiting War Crimes 8:30 PM Round table discussion on reproductive rights (WOMYN only) 8:50 PM Seminar #2 Corporations: Destroy Them ALL 9:00 PM Hillary Clinton sings "Can't Stop Dat Man Loving Dem Ugly Women" 9:05 PM Second Presidential Nominee Bong 9:10 PM EPA Address #2 What Else Can We Wipe Our @sses With? The Movement to Make Every Tree a National Monument 9:30 PM Break for scheduled Union breaks...wait a minute, we missed a few breaks already...CRAP. 10:00 PM Second prayer led by Louis Farrakhan 10:15 PM Lecture by John Kerry: How to Botox Both of Your Faces at the Same Time 10:30 PM Dennis Kucinich demonstration of how to squint and act wimpy 10:35 PM Gore demonstration of trademark "democrat from tobacco country" stare 10:40 PM 5 MINUTE ORGY!!! 10:45 PM Soros reads the list of rich white democrats 10:46 PM Third Presidential Nominee Bong 10:50 PM Seminar #3 Education: How Can We Get More Money to the Unions 11:10 PM Bush "spellering bea" contest 11:20 PM Second Lecture by John Kerry: Terrorism: Only the UN Can Protect Us 11:30 PM Call EMTs to revive Ted Kennedy again. 11:35 PM Blame Reagan 11:40 PM Hillary gives demonstration on treating "protein stains" 11:50 PM Closing Prayer led by... ah SCREW IT. 2nd ORGY TIME!!! 12: 00 PM Nomination of John Kerry as the 2nd Assistant Sniveler to Kofi Annan

I'm gonna stop, but I just had to say this: But MrWOT (maybe that should be MrWOW for wide open wallet) and a lot of others are in favor of the govt penalizing everyone who doesn't drive a hybrid or electric car through gas taxes. That's where the high gas prices, and the push to intentionally drive them higher, come from IMO. Show me a chemical and I'll tell you how to kill someone with it. They're ALL deadly. I'm sure the deadly chemical you read about was methanol, but I'm sure there are thousands of go kart enthusiasts, drag racers, and model plane builders across the country who would take issue with that. The real issue with biodiesel IMO is they can only tax about 25% of your fuel; the diesel. The rest might get sales tax, but that isn't applied to road construction projects. Taxes for road construction rather than just for punishment are more appealing to me, but still there is the horrific misuse of funds there to fix (15 Caltrans workers filling a pothole again). CARB is just concerned with air pollution, and hybrids still contribute, so I guess I can understand that. This thread had to do with gas prices originally, and I think CARB would like nothing more than to force people to drive less by increasing taxes. That would be a HUGE "win" for them.

Stony isn't your car drag specific? Do you trailer it to events? Seems like you should have tiny brakes, not huge...

That sounds like a destruction derby!!! Never seen that much carnage at any of the events I've been to. Worst I saw was an MR2 back into a corner worker's stand at about 50. 4' of air huh? That's pretty impressive! Glad you had fun, and I hope your car isn't too badly damaged. Maybe time for a poor man's toe adjuster when you get it all back together... Jon

Mental note... convenient little gizmo...

The pressure plate would just be clamping not pushing forward until the clutch gets depressed. Then it would push forward. I've been watching this, but I can't figure it out either so I haven't said anything. But here's my SWAG: the pilot and clutch disk in the back and the belts in front are going to put a little friction on the crank and try to keep it from moving. Jon

Considering the AZC suspension stuff alone goes for $600, I'd think you should get at least 1200 for the suspension. That might be a really good set up for a prepared autoxer or track day type car. Looks like the steering knuckles are designed for Ackerman, big brakes with off the shelf parts, coilovers, etc. Looks pretty sweet. Jon

You need lye, diesel, vegetable oil, and methanol IIRC. All of these products are TOTALLY legal for purchase and ownership individually. Not an expert, but my best friend was going to make it in his garage, instead he just started running on straight vegetable oil. Here's something of interest : http://www.veggievan.org/veggiecar/index.php If you want a front driver with 295 lb/ft of torque go for it. I'd rather have my rwd with the same. Again, I have nothing against the hybrids. I just don't want to buy one. I want to buy one when I feel that it is the car I want, not the car the govt wants me to have. I always said that I wouldn't buy another American car until they got better. I just bought a GMC truck. Same goes for the alternative fuel or hybrid cars. Not interested until they come up with something that suits me. When they do I'll probably go buy one. Until then, I don't think that punitive taxes should be used to coerce me into it.

Zach, I wouldn't measure toe with the car jacked up. Z's have a lot of bump steer, so the measurements with the front of the car in the air is going to be a lot different than with it on the ground. Strotter - Measure the front of the tires as high as you can get and the rear of the tires as high as you can get. Subtract, and there is your toe. Shorter distance in the front is toe in, shorter in back is toe out, equal is zero toe. It would help to know the alignment settings you got from the shop. If you have a lot of negative camber you'll never get the dartiness out, but it will handle better than if it had 0 camber. The bubble things work if you have a LEVEL surface to measure on. I have one and I use it just to get in the ballpark sometimes, then take the car and have it really aligned. Bottom line though is that if you don't have adjustable camber bushings or camber plates or adjustable TC rods, the only adjustment you CAN make is front toe. Jon

Bumble bee hives

It's really common for throttle bodies to get dirty. You can take it off and clean it if you have a new TB gasket, or just open the butterfly and clean the blade itself and the throttle body with carb cleaner and a rag.

I'll second that. I ran Bosch platinums in my first ever car, a '79 Mustang 2.3 (OH YEAH BABY!) and that thing ran like dog poop. I think I bought them because they were the most expensive, so they had to be the best, right??? Swapped in the cheapest set of Champion plugs I could find and it ran 100 times better, which was still pretty bad but you get the point. I should also say that I've seen Volvos run like crap with NGK's, Datsuns run like crap with Bosch, and Chevy's run like crap with NGK's too. I don't know what the manufacturers do differently, maybe they set the rest of the ignition system up around the plugs, but if you get the right plug for the car it seems to run best. Also seen Bosch O2 sensor make a Chevy Lumina get 15mpg. Put in a Delco O2, 25 mpg. Sounds like conspiracy theory, and I probably wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it myself, but that's been my experience.

Thank you John. I can't even believe we're having this argument. It's hybridz meaning turbos and V8's, not hybridz meaning electric/hemp oil diesel hybrid (at least not usually). You'd figure if people really thought that they were the "problem" then they would stop doing whatever they're doing rather than wait for the govt to come in and make their hobby prohibitively expensive.

Bending pipes that way is not hard at all. You just cut 80% of the way through a pipe and bend it open. Then you take another pipe and cut little wedges with a chop saw. Take your wedges and weld them into the original pipe. My whole exhaust system on my truck was done that way by a friend of mine about 10 years ago. Easy. Easier still is just buying mandrel bends and cutting and welding them, especially when its a relatively simple exhaust system.

Sorry, I'm definitely not a student of economics, so if I err I like to know it (thank you). I don't think it changes the fundamental cause and effect of what this type of tax would be used for: forcing people to sell their vehicle and buy one that the govt wants them to buy. It's like the cigarette tax all over again.

I didn't MISS the point, I just entirely disagree with it. But that's OK. You keep voting for taxes on gas and candidates that support them, and I'll keep voting against them. We'll just wash each other out on election day. Jon

When I test drove one of these I was told that it was a VQ35 with 2 more cylinders, not an Infinity V8 that was bored and stroked. It hauled butt big time! Very impressive engine, and the tranny was great too. Ended up with a new GMC based only on price. Were price no issue, I'd definitely have the Nissan in the driveway right now.

Isn't this tantamount to extortion??? "Yeah, we'll buy your car so that we can sell you a new more efficient model. And if you don't, well, you'll have to pay us for protection (of the environment). If you do, well, you only have to pay a fraction of the protection money." Sorry, I don't like that plan. I like my old gas guzzler. I want to drive IT, not some 4000 lb Toyota fwd that makes 120 hp with electric and gas motors going full bore. I don't want the government making it any harder than it needs to be for me to drive it. It's not the government's job to "help" me determine what kind of car I drive.

Yeah, but your first example was a supply and demand example. And my response showed how they can screw us all on that too. The demand went down, and supposedly the cost to supply it did not, so the price went UP. Now if they never had the "conservation" push, and people just used more water, so supply stayed the same and demand went up, prices would also have gone up. So when companies want to increase prices, it seems to me that there is always a justification for it, sometimes a good one and sometimes not. In this case I think it is not. And that doesn't even take into account the points Bill260z made. I think he's right and that the price will never go really significantly down again. BTW - I consider gas a necessity, and I don't know too many people who would disagree. I know I won't die with out it, but a practical necessity. Hell in CA they almost made driving a right!!! What then would gas have been? If you can't afford gas, then you'd be denied your RIGHT to drive?!?! Kinda ridiculous, but it helps to show how important gas/driving is. The thing that surprises me most is that people say "well I guess it's time for them to jack up prices again" like we are expecting and even accepting of NEEDLESS price increases.