RebekahsZ

Please share a report with us after the track time. I may be down for the year. Just too much family stuff going on right now. Hoping to have better brakes, exhaust cutouts, more rear tire clearance, maybe a cam, and a certification sticker to 9.99 when the tracks open on the spring.

Yes. But, you need to section to an available shock length. It would suck to section only to find out that you cut too short! The back is easy-just section to the length of a front shock and insert a stock front shock in the rear shortened tube. For the fronts you can either run a shock out of a MR2 (year? Front or rear?) or a vw rabbit (year? Front or rear?). I don't know what year those need to come from. I would just talk to johnc and buy front konis from him and be done with the fronts. But don't cut till the shocks are in your hands. The issue of shock brand is a totally separate discussion. Since you are sectioning, you can run any shock that fits and any spring that fits. If you are lowering for looks, all this spring rate and dampened valving is just so much esoterica. The shocks just gotta fit.

How do you guys keep the weld from penetrating the tube and fouling the inside diameter? It was a real PITA working with a rat tail file trying to open the inside enough to insert my shock! But I eventually succeeded.

Mike-send pics.

The post above doesn't show the rectangular flange with the 8mm bolts, but it does exist. I have one and so does my buddy. That's a great reference!

I have a bunch of diffs and almost every one has a different flange. They come with 8mm bolts is both the round and rectangular shape and 10mm bolts in the round and rectangular shape. The bolt pattern on the round ones are square, whereas the bolt pattern on the rectangular flanges are-rectangular. I personally like the round ones better, so I am running the round one with the 10mm bolts currently. Why do I like it best? Easier to get a wrench on the bolts, and the flange on the driveshaft has flat spots that keep the bolts from turning when tightening the nuts, so it is a one-wrench operation to tighten the nuts with my daughter applying the brakes to hold the driveline still. It gets crowded under there and I'm looking for ease of assembly. I don't think there is much of a strength argument comparing the 8mm bolts to the 10mm bolts-I have broken three driveshafts and the 8mm bolts were fine. My buddy puts 400hp thru 8mm bolts all day long and hasn't had any trouble either and he uses cheap used bolts off the floor of his garage (I use grade 10.9 bolts that Advance Auto stocks and replace them each time). I only went to 10mm recently for the reasons given above. Hope that helps.

Yeah. The HPS hasn't bedded to my turned rotors after two autocrosses and plenty of street driving. I am mashing like hell and the car just won't stop. Hardly any dust-the Porterfield R4S made lots of dust but they stopped really well.

AZC Brake kit arrived. Ordered bolt-on 1.25" spacer adapters for the rear to use with the 15" draglites I drag with. Getting ready to order Z Force Productions BAMF carbon fiber flares so that I can go to 8" rear draglites with 28X10X15 MT ET Drags next year and 275/40/17 autocross tires on some Rota 17X9.5s. Chrome moly 6-pt NHRA roll bar planned after installing Kirkey Economy Drag 20-degree layback aluminum seats. Also plan to finish fender exit exhaust with electric cutouts. Brakes have never been the same after my trip to AMP. I am not impressed with Hawk HPS pads, although the trouble with braking could be my rotors as well. Gonna throw in the towel on the drifting hand brake when I convert to AZC brakes-that project was a total fail. Will just roll with no parking brake, cause I can't friggin' stop at the autocross, and I need all 4 wheels contributing-the maxima rears were a total fail, too. Big winter plans, but I may be finished racing for the season due to family stuff and my mother moving here from Arkansas. Will be busy every weekend getting her out of the homeplace where she has been for 42 years.

PM me directly and I will send you pics directly. I don't feel like defending my actions to the nay-sayers.

Pics will have to wait 'till it is done. Then I will subject myself to all the criticism of the forum.

Get out of the elements? Just stay in your car and keep hot-lapping! This ain't no picnic. I pretty well thread-jacked SunnyZ-sorry...

First, clean and paint any chipped paint. Then undercoat only the area in the back of the fender wells that are subject to rock chips.

You need brakes to get a car licensed?? You need to move to Alabama-pay your fee and you are driving!

I will be doing that this winter with an electric cutout. The hole in the fender is already cut and waiting for racing season to end.

It was great having a trailer with a winch (or is it wench?) when I broke that driveshaft. I still think it was cool that SunnyZ limped his car home on one axle (twice)! Buy a winch and the longest ramps you can find. Also, don't get dropped axles-it sucks not being able to open my doors once the car is loaded-and I always leave my dang keys in the Z and have to do the snake charmer dance to get them out of the ignition and drive the truck home! For the most part, having a trailer has brought me good luck; kind of like how an umbrella keeps it from raining, or a condum....but I digress.

I would love to, but I have already taken that 10" slick off. I also have trouble getting good angles for the photos. I just got tool-shedded on another topic for not searching after spending about a week of doing research on the topic. For the moment I'm in the hate phase of my love/hate relationship with hybridz and am not real inclined to do anything for the betterment of the forum. Give me a while to shake it off.

I keep the fuel level low because in the heat of the day it sometimes expands and pukes out the vent line. For some reason I was so sure I had 1/2 tank that I didn't check the gauge even when I loaded car. We pulled up to the grid and I said to my co-driver "we are pretty low on fuel, we'll get gas at the lunch break." I have a good baffle in the tank, and I have drag raced with a super low tank (stock motor-I'm fast because I'm light), so I thought I might get away with it. First sweeper, power cuts out, but car kept running. Once I got out of the sweeper I was able to nurse it to a gas station. 7 gallons later we were hauling ass again. My brakes so totally suck. AZC kit arrived this week. Itching to get to work on it.

Just to cheer you up, I ran out of gas during an autocross.

Be sure to post a cell phone photo of your numbers from the tune!

I used to wonder why the guys with the coolest cars had gray hair. Now I know.

Ok. I just mapquested all the tracks. Reynolds is about half way between us, the others are 8-9 hours away. I'm bailing. Perhaps next year. I would be pushing my family to leave the smokies earlier than they will want to in order to make this year happen. Conflict with trip to see my daughter at Auburn knocks me out of Z Nationals even though I will be driving almost right past the track. Argh!

Hell yeah, break out the torch and sledge! Remove carpets first. And I'm game for a trade-say the word! From my perspective that would be a trade UP! Any new timeslips or experiences since the clutch? What's your take on a clutch "break-in period?". Im taking a break from straight lines this weekend to get twisty! Just took my old slicks to wfritts911 in Arkansas. He did an 8.8 IRS in his yard this summer but due to funds he did an open diff, so he's still one-leggin it. Said his one trip to the track on street tires he had trouble keeping it straight under power. May be just working from a string alignment. I'm contemplating buying a SRA Z a couple hours away from here. Hoping to put eyes on it in a couple weekends. Would be nice to be able to drive to closest track and bring home some cash for a change. Also hoping to get down to 1/4-mile track to try once more for a 10.99999....

Text messages sent to you, SunnyZ, with photos.

I will have a rear tire off later today. I will use a tape measure from the fender arch to the inner fender apron right where the strut cutout is. I will measure both sides of strut tube and both sides of the car. My fender lip was recently trimmed about 3/8" to allow for the 9" slicks. Sounds to me like somebody is going solid axle and wants to know if tubbing is necessary. I have pushed the pairing of camber adjustment and LCA shortening to the point that i have pretty well hit the limit of what can fit if your car is lowered. If I shove my camber plates in all the way (one notch in from where it sits now), there is only a gnat's ass clearance between the inner fender and the tire and maybe 1/2" to the outer fender arch. With a 10.3" section width, the 9" Hoosier is maxed in my arch. With a 10" Hoosier, the section width jumps to 11.7". No way that will fit. The tread fits, so if I didn't actually drive the car, I would be fine, but with sidewall bulge, I'd be blowout city on the first clutch dump or bump. I have a buddy with 10" MT slicks on Draglites with 8" rim. I'm adjusting camber tomorrow for autocross Sunday. If I can get him to bring a wheel by, I will let you know how it fits with camber plate pushed in. The problem for me is sidewalls, not tread width.

SUNNY????? What is wrong with you and what on earth are you considering? Here I am with stock fenders planning to cut them, and there you are with cut fenders and you want to go back to stock??