flatout

The car came with s13 front knuckles. Apparently this was a thing a long time ago but the geometry is terrible. So I 3d scanned a knuckle and started designing a knuckle that will work. in the mean time I am modifying these with the corrected geometry I came up with for real word testing before I made a set from billet. My new design will use the 370 wheel bearing so I modified these to accept that as well to go 5 lug since I'll need that bearing eventually. They need more changes but I figured i needed to get moving on other projects like brakes, turbo stuff and body work so these will have to wait a bit before any more modifications. Went with a custom set of wilwoods. after talking with the reps a few times settles on a set of superlites front and rear. The piston volume front and rear meets the common spec of twice the front piston volume compared to the rear. designed and 3d printed calipers brackets that will get CNC machined when i have some spare time. Plan was to do 7075 for the front brackets but may get made from titanium because I have some in the right size, but rear will be an alloy steel because of the design I want the strength.

the 1j factory throttle body is big is dumb looking so i decided to trim it down and remove all the unnecessary pieces. made up a little billet spacer to remove the cruise control pulley. I may go dbw eventually but this will do for now.

spend some time planning out the front, bending up some tubes and getting the tubular front made up.

Next order of business was to get the 1j sitting in there. It came with some cx racing motor mount kit but I really didn't like them so decided to make my own to put the engine where i wanted it. Apparently i only took 1 photo. but just imagine a second one of these mounts. once the engine was sitting where i wanted it i decided to cut the factory radiator support out and make something removable to make service easier.

first order of business was to add a fuel cell since i didn't have a fuel tank. Went with a radium 14 gallon unit. Cut the trunk out between the factory frame rails and built a basket. Cleaned it up with some bead rolled panels. plan to add a fill behind the license plate like an old muscle car.

After about a decade of talking myself out of buying something as Ive spent a lot of time building and tuning a handful of other cars in road racing and drag racing disciplines, as well as starting and building a machining business 5 years ago, I finally started the search for something to build to race myself. I tossed the idea of a lot of different chassis options. S30, 240sx, Mustang, Corvette, MR2, ETC. The 240sx made the most sense considering I have a S13 240sx as a high performance street car, that I have also raced in a few different forms so I am very knowledgable in that chassis, but my search always ventured back to the S30 because I have always liked them and not to mention beating up on modern sports cars with a 50+ year old car just really sparks and interest for me. My main road race car i support and tune is a gt40 so going to the track with a couple old cars and beating up on Porsches sounds like a good time. I searched far and wide in the north east, USA looking for a quality candidate. Unfortunately rust made that a challenging feat. Randomly a friend of a friend posted a 1jz for sale and my friend had a suspicion that it meant he was giving up on the 280z he had been trying to build for 10 years. I reached out. showed "interest" in the engine. showed up and talked him into selling the whole deal. The chassis has some really "questionable" work done but overall the chassis is a super low mileage fairly clean car that i wont feel bad modifying and making a track oriented build. The deal ended up being a package deal with: 1jz-gte with 350z trans a pile of T3 suspension parts R200 short nose conversion fortune auto coilovers 300zx front and rear brakes Universal wiring harness bunch of misc parts. wheels not included, I planned on going 5 lug so they where not use to me.

love how European shops are so full. lots of nice tools and cars all stuffed in a small "shed"

very cool, Nothing wrong with an old machine if its dialed in right and run by somebody that cares to make a good product. I run a small machine shop from my garage, just not engine related machining. Sure you could drum up some work for those machines.

I did a 14 gallon radium cell in mine because i plan on possibly running e85 and we have some 30-35 minute sessions with some clubs. I have it raised like an inch and a half out of the floor to make the bottom height where I was visually happy. My cell is advertised at 11.7" tall so if the ATL 10 or 12 is shorter then flush with the floor should be perfect.

I just found this site as i started building my Z, and will be following along as you finish up this project. We are on somewhat similar paths so this will be fun to watch it come together.

Lower than 100kpa at WOT could be elevation too, if this log happen to be somewhere higher than your used to logging take that into consideration aswell. Id think where you have the filter should be a good spot for air. unless the aero is really creating a negative pressure spot for some reason. If thats not the case id think your on the right track with looking at valve train stuff. But don't rule out the sensor itself or the hose feeding it.

What transmission are you planning on running?

Did you end up purchasing the parts? With black friday sales I was considering their rear control arms. I don't love having a third heim that can wear out compared to others but i like the triangulated design and the motion it allows. As far as the shipping. just the control arms are like $60 to ship inside the US. can only imagine all those parts crossing the ocean would be costly. Maybe the kit comes assembled? would be weird but possible.

Love to see the scans and some thought behind the design. I was thinking the same thing about the limited motion of the apex shock. My car came on a set of coilover struts that has similar travel so i've been looking at options. If you need any assistance with CNC machining, I may be able to help out.