qwik240z

Looks great. That will be a fun little truck with the SR swap.

Wow! That is a pretty straight looking truck. Can't wait to see the after pics. I always loved the 521 trucks. Looks like a 510 from the front.

Like everyone said, Welcome. LSX Z cars are the best. I have the Sanderson 1 3/4" primary headers on my car. I love them. The JCI headers are 1 1/2" so I would pass on those unless John changed the size.

Hell with that. I would use it for track days. The track is what it was built for.

Sweet. A 521 PU with an SR swap. Sounds like a great graduation gift. And a cool truck too. Any pics of the truck now?

In addition to my 240Z, I am a huge Datsun 510 fan. I have had many 510s and this story is about my newest one. Cross-Country in a 510 Since I first started to drive, it has been a dream of mine to drive across the country. Finally, I have fulfilled one of my lifelong dreams. This is a memory that will last forever. The plans for this trip started back in March of this year thanks to the Bluebirds (510) Internet list and some of the members there. There was a lot of discussion on the list about that possible “BRE†car, owned by Gary Kohs that was on eBay. During those discussions, it came to my attention that a special 510 was for sale in the Seattle area. (Not that eBay car but a confirmed “Special†car) This one email caught my attention and I did what any 510 crazy guy would do, I did some investigating and found a way to get more info on the car. The car in question belonged to Pete Brock. Yes, Pete Brock of BRE. When we were discussing the car on eBay, Gary Savage (He is friends with Pete) had asked Pete Brock about the car on eBay. When Pete responded, he mentioned in one of his emails that his personal driver 510 was for sale. I sent an email to Gary asking him to get me in touch with Pete so I could see about buying the car. Gary put me in touch with Pete and after several weeks and many emails back and forth, Pete finally sent me some pictures of the car. Pete is very busy flying all over to car events and it took us until early May to get it all worked out. I sent him a deposit on 510 day. (5/10/07) I had thought about having the car shipped to my home, in Maryland, via a transport company but then I decided that this is a once in a lifetime chance to go and meet Pete in person and fulfill my dream of driving across country at the same time. We coordinated our schedules and decided that I would go and get the car on Wednesday, June 27, 2007. I decided that this trip would be a great father and son trip that we would both always remember, so my son, (Kevin) and I, flew out to Seattle on Tuesday, June 26th. We stayed at a hotel that night with plans to meet Pete Brock and his wife, Gayle, for breakfast the next morning. We got to the restaurant a bit early and when Pete walked through the door, he saw my Datsun T shirt and knew it had to be me. We enjoyed a great breakfast as Pete told us stories of the Trans-Am races and his days with Datsun. He also spoke of his time as a designer with GM and the most recent business with the revival of the Cobra Daytona Coupe. Once we finished breakfast, we walked outside and Pete drove us back to his house, in the 510, and we spent some time looking over the car. You can read about the car in the description below. Next Pete showed us around his place. In his garage, he had his Daytona Cobra Coupe. A modern version of the original that he designed back in the 60’s. WOW! What a cool car. He is currently working on making some improvements to it. He showed us some of his fabrication work to improve the rear brake cooling ducts. All these years and he still loves to work on cars. Pete also had a few other cool cars. His garage has so many advertising posters and items from back in the day. I noticed an old briefcase that had a few BRE stickers on it and asked him about it. He said it was one he used to carry back in the BRE days. He opened it up and it was full of old car stickers from the 70’s. He took one out and gave it to me. He showed me a stack of posters from the Trans-Am days and he offered to give me one. He autographed it for me too. With all of the cool gifts from him, I went to my suitcase and gave Pete and Gayle a pair of 510 day T-shirts that I had brought as a gift for them. (Keith Bailey designed them) Pete and Gayle liked the shirts and the idea that we celebrate 510 day. Although Gayle thinks it is a bit “Scary†that we are so into 510s. I told her it was all Pete’s fault because he got all of us started on 510s. Next we got a tour of the house. It was quite an interesting home. It was very comfortable and had nice architecture. The day was getting late and Kevin and I had planned to drive at least 400 miles that afternoon, so we took a few pictures with Pete, Gayle and the new 510, said our goodbyes and hit the road. Our plan was to drive home (3000 miles) in 4 ½ days with me doing all the driving. (Kevin is only 13) We stopped at a gas station to fill up and check the tire pressure and while we were there, we decided that since we were so close to Seattle, we should go and see the Space Needle. We had never been to Seattle before and didn't know when we would ever get back there so we blew off our “schedule†and went to see it. It was worth the trip. The view is amazing from up there. A must see if you are ever in Seattle. After seeing the Space Needle, we stopped at a gas station to top off the tank and then we hit the road. Our plan was to follow Interstate Route 90. Rt. 90 is an east-west road that is “the northern routeâ€. We drove 270 miles that evening and stopped in Spokane, WA. The scenery between Seattle and Spokane is quite beautiful. Lush green forests and mountains galore. We got a motel room for the night. Then it was dinner at Marie Callanders and off to bed. We headed out of Spokane on the morning of day two. The weather forecast called for a hot day. The car doesn't has A/C. We stopped at a local Wal-Mart for a cooler, ice and lots of drinks and snacks. We also bought a gas can and a 12v-oscillating fan. We were behind schedule and would have to drive all day to get back on track if we were going to make it home by Sunday night. We drove through Idaho and then into Montana. Idaho was spectacular. The mountains and lakes were endless. Montana seemed to be a never-ending state. At mile marker 510, we stopped to take a picture. The exit # 510 was for Little Bighorn battlefield. We drove for almost 600 miles through Montana before heading south towards Wyoming. We made it to Buffalo, Wyoming that night. We got a motel room and then had dinner at a place called Taco Johns. We crashed for the night with plans to head out early in the morning. Day three would be a driving and tourist day. The weather was much cooler today. We headed out of Buffalo, Wy. And drove towards Gillette, Wy. Stopped there for breakfast, and then headed for “The Devil’s Tower. The Devil’s Tower is a huge volcanic rock. It was in the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kindâ€. Gayle Brock had suggested that we see it on the way so we made the detour and checked it out. It was pretty cool for a rock. Next we headed south towards South Dakota to go and see Mt. Rushmore. We arrived at Mt. Rushmore and parked the car. We saw a really cool old Hudson in the parking lot. We checked out Mt. Rushmore (a must see if you are ever out that way) took some pics, visited the gift shop and then hit the road. From there we headed south to Alliance, Nebraska to see Carhenge. Carhenge is a modern day interpretation of Stonehenge in England but instead of using rocks, the artist used old American cars stacked up on top of each other. This was an amazing display. Really cool if you are a car lover. We headed out late in the day and needed to find a place to stop for the night. We spotted a larger town on the map called Valentine, Nebraska. It was about 3 hours away. We arrived in Valentine around 9pm only to find out that while we had been driving, we crossed a time zone and it was actually 10pm. We also found out that the town was having a High School Reunion that weekend and there were no rooms available for the night. A nice lady at a local motor lodge found us a room in the next town (one hour east) so we drove to Ainsworth, NE and checked into the room about 11PM. We were tired and hungry so we went out to find a place to get some food and the only place open was the local Pizza hut. We had dinner and got back to the room and crashed about midnight. The fourth day was to be a full day of driving. We needed to put some miles behind us if we were going to make it home by Sunday night. We left Ainsworth, NE on Rt. 20 heading east. Rt. 20 is a two-lane farm road that runs through mile after mile of open farmland. We were cruising along for about an hour at around 70mph when a local policeman goes by the other way. The speed limit is 65mph. I see in my mirror that he is swinging a U-Turn. Oh well, I guess I am in for a ticket. He pulls us over and asks for my license and registration. He tells me I was speeding and says he is going to issue me a warning. He let me know that I was doing about 10mph over the limit. I had a feeling that the speedometer was off a bit as whenever the speedometer was reading the posted limit, I was blowing past most of the traffic. We go back on our way (driving much slower now) and spent the next 3 hours driving through Nebraska. We finally entered Iowa. We were both glad to be out of Nebraska. We headed north to get back up to Interstate 90. We drove through Iowa and into Minnesota and then into Wisconsin. The car started running funny and it felt like there was a miss in the engine. At a gas stop, I checked to make sure all the wires were tight and then opened the distributor cap and looked inside. The rotor was very dirty looking where it made contact with the cap. I cleaned it up with a pocketknife and cleaned the contacts on the cap too. It seemed to help a bit. We made it to Madison, Wisconsin that evening and looked for an auto parts store. It was 8PM on a Saturday so I had my doubts that we would find one open but there was an Auto Zone there and it was open until 9pm. The actually had a cap and rotor in stock too. The sales guy had heard of a 510 before asked if I had the car outside and came out to see the 510. He was a young car guy and had never seen a 510 in person before. He had seen them in Sport Compact Car Magazine. He admired the car, I changed the cap and rotor (which seemed to get rid of the problem and we went to find a motel for the night. Since it was going to be our last night (if we could do 850 Miles the next day) a celebration dinner was in order. We found an Outback Steakhouse and had some great steaks and a couple of beers for me) then crashed for the night. Day five was to be the last day on the road. The weather was cool enough to drive with the windows up for a change. The wind noise starts to wear on you after a few days. We started out early (on the road at 6:45am) and headed towards Illinois. We got to Chicago around 10 am and stopped for gas and food. Then it was more driving and into Ohio. The car started to sputter and miss some more but we just kept going. A few hours later we entered Pennsylvania. We drove several more hours and then through Pittsburgh and into Maryland. The final stretch and a few more hours of driving through our home state and we finally arrived home around 9pm. We were tired but happy. We had made it all the way across this great country. We covered 3100 miles and 13 states in 4 ½ days. We used 119 gallons of gas at a cost of $368.00 and used 1-½ quarts of oil. The car got 26mpg for the trip. Not too bad considering that we were traveling at speeds of 80-85mph most of the time. Kevin and I had a great trip. We saw a lot of this amazing country. We drove through Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. We visited the Space Needle, The Devil's Tower, Mt. Rushmore, and Carhenge. And we got a chance to meet Pete Brock too. It was a trip that we will both remember for the rest of our lives. New 510 from Pete Brock $$$$$$$$$ Gas, Food, Plane tickets, etc. $$$$$$$$$$ 5 days on the road going across country with my son in a 510, PRICELESS! Pictures can be seen at the following links: http://tinyurl.com/2ao73c http://tinyurl.com/2nelge http://tinyurl.com/2k7tyv Description of the car It is an Orange (paint code 918) 1972 2 door. The car is very straight and unmolested. The original paint still shines. The chrome is in nice condition too. I could not find any signs of previous bodywork or paintwork. It does have the usual dings, scratches and small imperfections of a 35-year-old car. Everything works on it. All of the lights, electrical, etc. The car has what appears to be a recently rebuilt L20B with EL Dizzy, SU carbs, 2" exhaust, Dogleg 5 speed, rear sway bar, etc. It has aftermarket springs and has been lowered a bit. The rear is larger than an R160 but I haven’t figured out what it is yet. The interior is in very good shape. It is stock except for a set of VDO gauges under the dash, a VDO tachometer mounted to the steering column and a 240Z wooden steering wheel and shift knob. The headliner, dash and door panels are in very nice shape. The front seats have sheepskin covers on them coving a few split seams but are in good shape other then that. The back seat is nice too. It has stock 13" steel wheels and dog dish hubcaps on it too. (The wheels and caps will have to go) It does have a minor rust issue on the front floorboards. Seems that it must have sat outside in the Seattle rain with leaky door seals. It will not require complete new floorboards, just small patch panels. I have not found any other rust problems. The bottoms of the doors, the rear quarters, the rockers, doglegs, front fenders, frame rails and under carriage are all rust free. I replaced the spark plugs and spark plug wires when I got back and now the car runs great. I am not sure what my plans are for the car so for now, it will stay the way it is. It drives so nice. It is very tight. No creaks or rattles. All in all it is a nice original car that has been well cared for over the years. And it was owned and enjoyed by Pete Brock. If you have made it this far, I thank you for reading my longwinded story.

Not the wrong side of the country, but maybe the wrong side of the Mason/Dixon line. LOL! There is a shop in Baltimore that is called F body Central. They did my dyno tuning. I had a similar problem with a faulty fuel pump. They didn't charge me for the strap down or the time they spent. I went back a week later and they strapped it down, pulled my O2 sensor and plugged theirs into the bung, they did several pulls to determine the baseline, did a bunch of adjusting of the A/F ratios and did a few more pulls, then a little more A/F adjusting and then a few more pulls. THey guys name is Brett and he knows LS series motors. He also set did some code resets and reflashed the ECu from Auto to 6 speed. It did cost $425 but the car ran like a different car afterwards.

When I was searching for a 240Z back in 2003, I found one of the "F" word cars and almost bought it. I changed my mind once I drove it. It was a snail. I would never have been happy with it as a performance car. And I would not have had the heart to make any mods to it.

Awesome Clive! It sounds great with open headers. I guess now you will be joining us for the Z convention. Sweeeeeeet! 3 LS1 Z cars cruising to Florida. Congrats!

My wife had a protoge for many years. best little car we ever owned. 13 years and it never needed more then new brakes, timing belt, muffler and oil changes. it was a 92 that we bought new with a 1.8liter. fun to drive too. the new ones seem even better.

I think we will follow I-95 south all the way from here to Daytona. 1tuffz was going to head down to my place on Sunday and we would head out Monday Morning and get to Daytona late Monday evening. It is about 800 miles from my place to Daytona Beach. 12-14 hours with stops.

Datsun and Mr. K wanted it there. I say keep it. I think it adds dimension to the car.

Glad you are ok clive! I too disagree with that statement. A tow dolly can be safe. I own a tow dolly and have towed many cars with it. A tow dolly can be a good way to tow a car if you follow the instructions and keep to the recommended speed limits. My tow dolly is a 2005 model and came with heavy duty 4" wide straps that go over the tires and into rachets to tighten it all down. They are very secure and have never let loose. I have towed cars at speeds up to 65MPH. I would not want to go any faster then that. One disadvantage of a tow dolly is that you really can't back up well with them.

Glad you are ok clive! I too disagree with that statement. A tow dolly can be safe. I own a tow dolly and have towed many cars with it. A tow dolly can be a good way to tow a car if you follow the instructions and keep to the recommended speed limits. My tow dolly is a 2005 model and came with heavy duty 4" wide straps that go over the tires and into rachets to tighten it all down. They are very secure and have never let loose. I have towed cars at speeds up to 65MPH. I would not want to go any faster then that. One disadvantage of a tow dolly is that you really can't back up well with them.

The previous owner of my car installed them on my 240Z. He bought the entire setup. Camber plates, coilovers, and tokiko 5 ways from Motorsport. I had the alignment shop set them up for street/canyon carving and they work fine. I have had a few guys question if only 2 bolts to hold them to the strut towers would be safe, but so far, they have been great. The only complaint is that they are solid mounts so the are a bit harsh over larger bumps. It doesn't look like there were any mods to get them installed. Here is a picture of them:

Do you know of another one?? Yes. that tail pipe does stick out a bit but it keeps the fumes out of the cockpit. The owner Keith is a friend of mine and I have driven the car. For a diesel it has surprisingly good pickup. He and I went to the Mitty last year, He drove the Diesel and I drove the LS1240Z. He got 40MPG and I got 29MPG for the trip. It is good that I have the faster car since riding behind him is kind of Stinky. Stinky is the car's nickname. The car is nice and runs sweet and is relaible enough to go anywhere. It has cold A/C and a great stereo too. Whoever gets it will enjoy it alot. How many 40MPG sports cars do you know of??

Hey, There is a really cool Diesel Powered Z car on eBay. Check it out: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=005&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=150133674135&rd=1,1

This is my dog Roxy. She was a pup in the pics. She is a total chick magnet. Show these pics to your S.O. and I bet she goes " Aw, she's so cute"

Looking great Mike. When will it be ready for it's first track day? Any shindigs coming up? I would love to see the progress first hand.

My LS1/T56 240Z weighed in at 2540 with stock heater-a/c unit, stock brakes ,R180LSD rear and 14" x 6" wheels with 195 tires. I have not weighed it since I changed the following: MMS 13" Brakes front and rear. AZC Billet R200 mount and Moustache bar Q45 R200 with C/V conversion 16" Panasports with 225 tires. Box of Dynamat Extreme Vintage Air A/C - heat Conversion I would think I added about 100-150 pounds. I will try to get it weighed soon.

I was at Costco yesterday and they had a nice 4 layer waterproof cover. It seems similar to the Noah cover and it comes with a nice strapping system to hold the cover in place in windy conditions. It came is several sizes and was only $30. I know what you are thinking, Must be a piece of Shixxxxt for only $30 but it is a high quality cover. It is comparable to the $125 cover I bought several years ago. I bought one in the medium size for my 510. On the way home I stopped by a friends shop (510 owner) and we tried it on his 510. It fit well and is so nice he says, "man, I need to get one of these." I let him have the one I bought and now I need to go back and buy another one before they run out. For that price, I may have to buy 2.

Gary, I have a stock 70 2door 510 and it handled like a brick. I put a set of 14" x 6" ZX wheels on it with Falken Azenis RT615's 195-60-14 and now the 25MPH turns can be done at 45-50mph. The rest of it is stock . Amazing how a set of wheels and tires can make a car handle.