jonzer12

My dad used to have a healy with a jag i-6 in it, it had over 300hp and that thing flew till he rolled it. Personally i think the healey looks a bit to old school for my taste but they are great cars. Other than that, an original mini is a great choice, there are 5 in my family and no matter what people say about their size the minute you take that 90 degree corner at 3 times the legal limit you have instant respect. There are some good looking old fiats around too...

I agree that his setup in ingenious but I can't see any advantages. You could always gear it up to get rpm but now you have no juice at idle. I too am curious as to what forced this decision.

I heard on tv once that the car would dissapear from sight. I think it said it could throw a pickup 30 miles or something like that, keep in mind this is all from memory.

I have lots of experience with this and personally I love this subject, I have always enjoyed confrontations . First go down in person the telephone is useless in this situation. Don't waste your time with anyone other than the boss, and by that I mean not the installer, the guy who runs the business as a whole, or the manager and don't settle for less. These guys will quickly know that you won't go away and most of the time if you both know that the business screwed you over they will give in and you will get quality work like you should have in the first place. If that doesn't work you have a few options. I had a audio system put in my car and I actually talked to the installer (typical HS dropout as you described). I told him I wanted the head unit flush with the dash and a few other things and that I was more than happy to pay any extra labour fees so long as things were done right. I got the car and cd player stuck 1/2 inch out from the dash, it had a HUGE scratch across the screen and the idiot scratched the hell out of the dash facia around the cd player. I couldn't believe that the had the nerve to even attempt to pretend like they didn't screw up, they didn't even tell me anything as if I wouldn't notice. After two days of calm reasoning got me nowwhere, I waited until their big sale the next weekend, walked in with a huge sign that said "turn around, this store ripped me off". I had my cd player replaced and got 75% of my funds back. My dash is still all scratched up to this day. Its up to us to make sure people like this understand that poor business practices will not be tolerated. Its worth the time and effort. I wish you luck, and remember 4 by 4 foot sheets of bristol board are only 99 cents at Walmart .

I read the posts first and I have to say I felt sorry for kid when I first starting watching it, I wanted tell you guys not to make fun of him, then of coarse he starting dancing and all that went right out the window, what a dork, did anyone else find the poor guy had a HUGE knogin or what?

Personally I will never own an automatic sports car, it takes to much away from driving but if I had a purely drag car I would go auto. If you are going to auto cross I would definetely go manual. Again much of this debate is driver's preference as tech can take care of the rest with enough $$$

Again just want to say thanks for setting this up, its nice to help support this site after all the hours I spent browsing it.

I sincerely apologize for hijacking your thread but I too am looking for a site and figured this would save people hitting two threads. There is a guy's personal site about his black w/ white racing striped gnose z that had a small block. He had videos of it doing burnouts to the song wildside. Anybody got a lead, search engines leave me empty.

I agree any comptenent machinist should be able to make it for you especially if you can show them an example. What bout modern motorsports, are their adapters suitable for your diff, do you have a r200 or an r230?

Wires can always be rerouted and protected, I wouldn't concern yourself too much with the heat issue IMHO, just look of the number of people on this site using headers.

Welcome to the ranks of Jonesy's heros!

Don't quote me on this or anything but I believe legeally if you let your (street) car on the race track you are SOL as you have no reasonable expectation of safety on a race course, it certainly voids your insurance anyhow... I watched some kid take his dad's BRAND new explorer in the spectator class at a little local oval track, rolled it and nothing was covered, I mention this just cause I laugh when I think about it not just cause its funny. I can picture his sorry ass going home and trying to explain that one... he made the damn newspaper.

If you can't build it you have to buy it, the only limiting factor is dollars basically. I hold high respects for http://www.enginefactory.com, they are expensive but from my knowledge you get worry free customer service and quality, you even get a video of your engine on the dyno. You can buy a new plain 350 from GM or just ask around and find a deal through a friend. I hear to many horror stories from ebay motors unless you can see it in person to bid on one IMHO. If you are hooked into your area's car enthusiast community it won't take you long to find a suitable engine. Just make sure its what you want.

Quoting the JTR book a SBC install is typically 125 pnds over stock, a typical SBF can be LESS than stock. The best advice anyone can tell you is to hit the ford forum, this is a well discussed issue.

If you are going quick and cheap JTR + chevy is the way to go, although don't count out the ford, if you would settle for manifolds I do believe there is a set of 351W manifolds that will clear the steering bar with the motor in an excellent position. All you need to fab are motor mounts which aren't exactly rocket science. You can use just about everything else from the JTR kit, depending on your driveshaft setup.

By far the biggest factor in the life expectancy of a paint job is how it is cared for. Keep that in mind. Painting the car is not the expensive part, its the prep work that makes for the huge labour expense. Spend 20 mins on the phone, describe the shape of your car and get estimates.

Well I did my breaks, spent 158 dollars on high performance brake pads, haven't looked at the brakes since I bought it (my daily driver), they were squicking bad so I assumed they were worn out, I spend about an hour with caliper bolts which would not come off on the front, the pads were still pretty thick so I hit the rear, the damn parking break cables were a major pain to get off so I could pivot the calipers, those pads were fine too! So go to take the brake pads back, still in opened boxes to Rayco Auto Parts, guy there treats me like an ******* and says that the pads are no longer usuable, I spent about 30 mins freaking on the guy to take them back I had to talk to the manger, eventually I began swearing in the store to get them refunded (not normal for me but they know me and I have spent a LOT of money there). Then I hit the wipers, thankfully the connection from the wiper motor to the bar that runs the wipers was broken, I fabbed up my own mechanism from metal to replace the plastic. Unfortunately I think I overbuilt it so if the wipers do get stuck it will probably fry the motor, oh well! Just a tip, from my experience Mazda's seem to have the most expensive parts! (For common non-domestics, and yes I now ford owns mazda)

Did I forget to mention that I drove home in -10 celcius temperature in a snowstorm with my head hanging outside the drivers window like a dog? Its a good thing I worked till 1:30 am and I didn't have to deal with strange looks! You never realize how important wipers are til they are gone.

Got about 5 inches of snow in 30 mins tonight, I left work on my lunch break to go grab some food and found that the snow had melted than froze carpeting my car in ice, I got in grabbed the snow brush and started it up figuring it could warm up while I chip out the ice etc, unfortunately I left the wipers on and they strained to move wipers which were locked in ice, a sharp snap occured and now my wipers don't work. Its has been a shitty night, lol. I feel your pain regarding weather. Now I have to change my brakes and fix the damn wipers in subzero temps. Guess life has to kick ya in the junk once'n a while.

You can't really pick a rear end until you know your motor/tranny setup, its important that the two compliment each other. Leave the rear end till the end.

Wow, lots of interest but let me change my question a bit, how does a z FEEL with larger tires. Every sports car I have every owned has been a high winding 6 cylinder that loves corners, I was with little thought going for big flares and large tires because I love the look of Z's that way but now I am worried that it may kill that sports car feel that I love.

I spent a small amount of time in a vr4, great looking car, it had good power but it just didn't feel very inspiring. Torque steer was rediculous if you drop the hammer at low speeds, also I am not going to say the car handled bad, I slammed around some serious corners but it just didn't feel nimble at all. Car was capable but everything was violent and felt strenous for the car if that makes any sense. I wouldn't buy one but I don't dislike them, the one I drove sounded GREAT when it was working hard! I hear they tend to spend quite a bit of time in the shop tho..

For those of you who have added flairs and larger tires, ie >= 245mm how is the handling of your z? My project will be strictly for the street and handling is really important to me, I am used to small, light, great handling cars and want to my setup to feel accordingly. Does larger tires on a Z ruin the "feel" of the car? I was planning on 225 in the front and 245 - 275 in the rear. Keeping in mind that I already have a new rear drivetrain and the car will have new bushings, springs and struts. I only want to know what large tires themselves do to a z. The car will have ~335 bhp so I do need a goodsize footprint. Anyone have any opinions?

When I first bought my daily driver the shifting was really poor when I first started the car in our cold Canadian winters. I put in some Redline MTL synthetic oil and I was amazed at the difference. It still needs to warm up to feel nice and light but you will notice the difference.

I think they are in the Victoria British Catalog, I am at work tho, can't be sure!