JMortensen

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.

Yeah, I'd swap out the springs if I were you. You may also want a bigger difference in the front to rear springs. Like a 250F/325R or something like that. IF you don't care about ride quality driving around town. I'd like to move up to a similar spring rate in my car, just don't have the $$$ for new struts and springs right now... The only question I have is how heavy a spring can the red Konis deal with?

Couple of things. First, what makes you think that they would EVER lower the price? Reminds me of the water conservation BS in SoCal about 10 years ago. I remember my dad talking about it as they rolled out the plan. Conserve water for 2 months, then they would lower your bill if you conserved enough. He called it right. A couple months after the conservation period, the water company sent letters to everyone saying that they had done SUCH A GOOD JOB CONSERVING that the water company couldn't make any money, so they needed to HIKE UP the prices. BS!!! Is OPEC going to drop prices on oil? I doubt it... "The power to tax is the power to destroy" is a Thomas Jefferson quote. Who would the higher gas price going to affect anyway. Not rich people. Not people who can afford to go buy a new hybrid car. No, it will be everyone else. I understand taxes on gas to fix roads, but even there I have problems (15 Caltrans workers watching one guy fill a pothole). Biodiesel looks like a good alternative. Too bad CA made it ILLEGAL to make biodiesel yourself. So you're still stuck buying it from retail sources, and you gotta wonder how long until they start taxing the hell out of that. If they come out with a better alternative to gas, I'll be on board. Until then, I'd appreciate not being taxed up the @ss... Hating the gas prices now, expecting to be infuriated in a year or so, Jon

Yep, after years of racing mine, he found an early '71 sitting in a GARAGE for the last 10 years that he bought for $500. 85K original miles. GOOD DEAL!!! So he's asking me what to do. He wants to build it up like my car used to be. I'm thinking I'll probably sell him all of my old suspension, but in the meantime I'm just trying to figure out what he needs to do to make it run and drive OK. So far I've come up with: Replace all hoses Replace all bushings Drain gas Rebuild carbs Replace battery Shocks and struts repack front wheel bgs That's about all I could come up with right off the bat. What am I missing?

OT=off topic

OT, but might explain the mileage: There was a guy who used to go around on the Porsche concourse circuit with an '86 911SC. Nothing special car, just your run of the mill 911. But it had 6 miles on it! He had an enclosed trailer, and just took it to shows to win. IMO, a waste of a car, but there are people out there that do that sort of thing. Side note, he lost to one of my old shop's customers who had the same exact car with 80K on it. He was really pissed off, and complained to the judges, who said "Yeah, your car is perfect, but his is 99%, and he DROVE it here". So I guess the moral of the story is that there IS some justice in the world... Jon

Doesn't Barrett Jackson take 30% or something insane like that? It's kind of a mixed blessing, because people get serious buyer's fever at auctions, but the commission IIRC is really high. Yeah John, that '69 would make a bitchin tow rig for my Z...

I mentioned before my spring rates but I didn't mention the total weight of the car, which was 2350 at the time. Also, as to shocks there are the Koni Sports which are revalvable and cheap and good for higher spring rates, and I recently found out that you can get Carrera to make struts for you with custom valving. Not too familiar with this at all, but a friend of mine got shocks for the rear of his 510, and he's about to order Carrera strut inserts for the front. Supposedly not adjustable, but you can pick your valving and they'll build it that way. He said Winston Cup runs 4 and he picked 5 for the back (stiffer), and was going to get the same in the front. The best part is they're CHEAP. 5 would be like hardcore roadrace/autox valving. I already knew about their shocks, but anyone else ever run a Carrera strut insert or hear of someone running Carrera inserts??? JohnC? Jon

I wouldn't add any ballast. If the diagonal weights are equal, call it good. If you were racing in a class that required more weight, then I'd add it as low as possible wherever it would even out the corners the most. But the crossweights are what will really affect your turning left vs turning right. You should see my old racing buddy's crossweights. Prepared 510 at 1900 lbs last I heard with a ~230 - 250 lb driver, depending on how much he rides his mtn bike... pretty funny stuff. When he got in he was 10% of the weight of the car. I would think you are a little undersprung, but I suppose it depends on how far you want to go and what you're doing with the car. My Z was perfect 50/50 and diags were within 10 lbs the first time I scaled it. Just got lucky I suppose. I'm running the same springs you are with 1" bar in front and 7/8" bar in back, and I had a bitch of a time getting the push out of my front end. Ended up setting caster at 5* and camber at -3.5* front. That ended the push. I've seen your pics, you should be able to do the same, but I'm wondering if you're ever going to be able to tune out all the push without a rear bar. Maybe the extra weight in the back will help to swing it around??? I have only a very limited conception of how the rear weight bias is going to affect the car, from working on Porsches years ago. We used to go with lots of toe in in the back, I would think you should have at least a little. I would also try to take some weight off the rear if possible. Fiberglass hatch, Lexan, etc. You should be able to brake REALLY LATE AND HARD the way it's set up though... I always did cornerweights with 1/2 tank fuel, which is what 6.5lb/gal? That would affect your front/rear bias a little. From the pics anyway your car looks like a BLAST to drive! I hope it drives as good as it looks!!! Terry might be able to help you a little too. I think he has rear bias as well. Jon

Good point Drax! BUT--if you're running slicks or gummy DOT's I think you can very quickly put too much heat into the stock brakes... I should say that when I started running on the big tracks I had NO brake problems. Went from street tires to DOTs, little brake problems. Slicks, big brake problems. Really started aligning the car correctly, cornerweighted, lowered a little more, more caster, HUGE brake problems.

6" width, not sure of the offset. Just about every Nissan made in the 80s has these lugs on them. You can pull them at a jy to avoid paying $70 for them. That's what I did when I got my first set of these wheels.

I think you need to put the price in context Jamie. Compare to AZC's front aluminum hub 12" brakes (estimate cost of rotors and calipers and pads). $200 is IMO ridiculously low for this. Also, weren't both Juan and Ross working on aluminum hubs too? Seems to me there might not be a large enough market to support 4 different companies selling aluminum hubs. I guess if you just wanted to do 25 sets and call it quits that might be feasible, but I wouldn't put too much into it until you get people who put up cash, and we've got way too many nitpickers who will try and tear you down. Be prepared for that, and good luck.

Nion, have you seen Jeromio's site??? http://240z.jeromio.com/diffmount.html

Uhhhh... why can't you find that story on Yahoo? I smell something...

I've been running straight SWEPCO 201, works great. If you don't want to pay through the nose for gear oil, you can use standard 80-90 and any posi additive (contrary to the rumors they are all basically the same). Jon

Underneath the windage tray are 4 trap doors mounted in a diamond shape cast into the aluminum. I had a friend who tried to fab one up. He spent several days on it, it wasn't nearly as good as the aluminum one I bought from AZC (same as the MSA one), and he ended up buying one from Don Oldenburg (Nissan Comp pan). The aluminum pan has quite a few bungs it for turbo oil return, temp gauge, etc. The Nissan Comp pan is definitely the best way to go, if you can afford it. Last time I checked they wanted $700, and Don wouldn't sell to me direct, he's got a deal with Nissan that people have to order it through them. http://www.arizonazcar.com/pan.html

Sounds OK to me Savage, but I'm in the middle of a huge rebuild right now (gets bigger every day--while I'm at it syndrome) so I'd probably be looking at late fall to early spring for a timetable. I think I can take that Buttonwillow time 13 CW time, probably the CCW as well. That's a track I'm familiar with, and I did a 2:11 when it was 105*, I had just installed Mikunis (it was like 2 weeks before the autox vid that I posted before), and I was running out of brakes. The float levels in the carbs were all wrong and it was starving on right hand turns. I thought that if I could have pulled my head out of my butt that day, the car was capable of a 2.09 despite the brakes. Drop the temp 30*, allot me my extra ~50 hp that I've built up, and big brakes, a little diet. Yeah, I'll be ready for that one when I get back to CA.

Yeah, I'm aware of the chattering clutch problem that I am going to have, but I'm not too worried about street driving. I think I've got about 500 miles on the street in the last 2 years. It will be 50/50 autox and track day, so I figure 100 lbs is about right. Do you agree, or do you think I should just build it to 75 lbs? Thanks.

Yeah, give us all the times we're shooting for...