Mikelly

We are at a total of $3607.50 for donations. The goal was $3500 which is the cost of one day of testing. I'm going to work with the folks who are coordinating with AeroDyn to confirm that a second day is or isn't an option before I accept anymore money, so please everyone just sit tight on the donations... Just to give a break down, We've spent $1600 already in securing the date on the schedule. I've got just under $2000 in the paypal account, due to their fees, which I'll cover to bring it up to $2000. I arrived at the overall total by the amounts donated and not the amounts after PAYPAL lops off their %. Again, I'd like to thank everyone for their donations! Mike

Doug, I'll be ringing you... I may need a hand on this one... Mike

Gang I just did the totals and we're over the amount by $107.50. Please do NOT send any more funds until I can get with John Tedder and John Hines to sort out if we can do a second day. This is simply amazing and I want to thank ALL that have donated. I want to insure that we don't take more funds than will be needed, so please, don't send any more until we know for sure that we'll have a second day. Mike:2thumbs:

Alex, Although I appreciate you thoughts and want to donate, Hand on to it man... If it's that tight, hang onto it... We're getting a LOT of donations support and I want to thank ALL WHO HAVE DONATED... Also wanted to mention that I got a note offline from one of the members who will be doing the testing... MSA has agreed to send us ANY of their spoilers to test. This is a BIG DEAL and MUCH APPRECIATED. It's great to see one of the largest Zcar vendors in the US step up and offer their products for this test... Mike

Terry, We both can't even comments since the car hasn't run properly since the install. I've got the same setup on my car as well, and I can't really comment yet. I have a tuner in North Carolina who will likely be tuning both the cars... Possibly back to back the way this is unfolding. Mike

I seriously doubt these folks would consider splitting a day. Remember, we waited an extra week and ended up getting bumped by several weeks on the schedule. These folks are in very high demand and know it. We're at their mercy. Mike

"I love you guys.... 'eh SCREW YOU GUYS, I'm going home!" "Of course I want cheesypoofs!!!" "MOM! KITTIE'S BEING A DILDO!!!" Cartman of course... and remember, he's big boned!!! Mike

When I had my little recording studio, I had two Alesis ADATs, a Tandberg 48 channel, a peavy 24 channel, four different tube amps from AMPCo and Dynaco, and about 30 microphones and 2 fourfoot cabnets with processors from Sure, Tascam, Akai, Alesis, and Fostex. I also had enough speaker cabinets to fill a 14ft. Uhaul... I still have about 5000 ft. of cables, two stage monitors for jamming to, all my drum mics, a few room mics, and a compressor, eq, and one old Dynaco amp that was hotroded At Big Apple... Talk about a yard sale... About 9 years ago I sold a bunch of stuff... Like $15,000-20,000 worth for about $6000... Had to go, and I had to be done with it... Mike

Yea, well I would too... But it ain't me and Jim just wanted to be done with them... I'll help sort it out and fix the mess... Not that big a deal all things considered. Jim is fortunate to not have the stress on financial worry, so now the focus is just on getting the car running and getting it tuned, then getting it painted again! I picked the car up tonight and I'll have it unloaded tomorrow and in the shop. I've got some parts I need to order ASAP. Hopefully it'll be running again in two weeks... Jim has me on strict orders that I can't buy a Viper when I sell the M Roadster... GT2 Porsche or C6Z06... Damn. Decisions decisions... Mike

What I've noticed over the decades of playing is how many musicians can't read music and how many guitar players can't count in time, and beats??? halfs, quarters, 1/8ths or 16ths... In my opinion nothing beats piano/keyboard musicians... If you play keys, then you're a true musician. The rest of us are just HACKS! Couple of the guys here have seen me play, but I don't play out much anymore and only to CDs... I gave up the whole "musician" thing back in 1997. When I was a staff employee with my former employer, I had a multimedia recording studio I ran for them and I also had a small recording studio on the side, along with jamming with many local musicians. In a few of the bands we opened up for bands like 38 Special, Little Feet, other southern rock bands that were attempting comebacks in the late 80s/early 90s... the Vanzant boys were headliners a few times. We played up and down the east coast on weekends from Florida to Main, and I always spent more than I made, and made more money running my sound board for other musicians. Demos, CDs, College radio airplay, copyrights on about 60 songs not worth a nickle, getting to play with some great musicians, and dealing with a lot of bad egos and worse attitudes... I'm glad I did it, glad I survived, glad I don't have the long hair anymore, and still have most of my hearing! Someone mentioned noise and complaints from the neighbors... Not an issue where I live now. I'm on five acres in the woods and the closest house is over 500 yards away! Oh well... times change! Rock ON!!! Mike

Man that thing POPS! Mike

Here's my stress reliever... Been playing for over 30 years... Mike

Some of you will remember Jim McNemar's Zcar project from about two years ago. The car was upgraded from a SCARAB setup to JTR mounts, complete overhaul on the motor, to include Holley EFI, aluminum heads, cam, balancing, roller drivetrain, you name it, they did it, except get it to run. The suspension had been overhauled, as had the brakes and driveline. Jim had spent big bucks on my recommendation and that or Ross and MML. The car was coming along good when an errant spark from a fabricator welding inside the car ignited in a racing seat's foam and the car went up in flames, burning the roof paint, melting the original scarab door panels, ruining the dash and the wiring harness/fuse panel. The damage was "repaired" by the shop that did all the work and the car was eventually given to Jim to drive. I think Jim actually drove the car MAYBE 100 miles in the last two years, due in no small part to the lack of drivability, the "iffy" wiring replacement, the clutch slave bearing used (HOWE unit), and the fact that the idiots involved in the build didn't have knowledge of standalone ECU tuning at all. So last weekend here in Va. it was 78 degrees on Saturday. I'd brag about our "east coast" weather, but today the high will be in the 40s where I am. I dropped by Jim's house to drop off a check for that spec-miata race car rental all the way back in April of last year. We'd both forgotten about the $400... Until I balanced the year out... So here I am on Jim's door with check in hand... First thing he asks is if I have room in my garage... Of course, for Jim, Pete P., Jamie T., Doug C., David and a few others... I've always got room... We walk around his Red Zcar and I see the car sitting with rust on the roof, where the paint repair from the fire didn't take and the roof paint literally POPPED off in softball sized chunks. My heart sank looking at this masterpiece of a machine... So... Today I'm picking Jim's car up and it'll be occupying the second bay in my detached garage. I'll start by ordering the correct Tilton slave unit for the clutch setup. I'll also try to sort out why the car won't hold a charge, won't allow the fan to stay running long enough to cool the car, and won't idle. Pics as soon as I get the car unloaded and in the garage. But here are some from the original project that started in early Spring of 2004 when this project begun and was underway. Sept. 2004 New motor in Summer 2005! CCWs, MML Extreme brakes, ZFR front suspension, AZC Rear suspension... Jim in the car after many months waiting for the original fire issues to be resolved... Custom built 355CI Chevy w/ T5 custom trans/R200 LSD

Couldn't see the video, as Utube is down for maintenance. However, I read the thread (and got dummer) and it's easy to understand from the text that A: The EVO, a 12 second AWD car was given a lead/headstart/couple lengths. and B: The Lambo had mechanicals of some sort related to smoke being visible in the video. Who knows. I'd still own a Murcielago over an EVO, Beat or not... Mike

We'll be checking the headlight cover mod for sure. However, I'm not sure if we'll be cutting into the fender/unibody for under hood pressure relief or not. It's not a mod I'd take lightly though. It's more complex to do properly and is something that takes time to undo. Mike

Ron, THIS is classic and an EXCELLENT write-up! I've repeatedly told folks that doing it cheap is VERY doable! Great Daily Driver! Bravo!! Mike

Arizona Zcar used to sell plans for their convertible Zcar. Dave did a good job of adding stiffness to the rockers from the cage and the rails. It wasn't overboard to add weight, fairly minimal, but placed where it would do the most good... If I can find those drawings I'll scan them and post them... Mike

My week... I found out that a guy at work who'se exwife was murdered last year finally got a bit of justice when the scumbags who tortured her, shot her, hung her, and set her house on fire will now go before the judge. Both are already sentenced to death in Va. Of course I found this out THE DAY AFTER I dumped on him for not doing something I tasked him to do... Fast forward to yesterday... Gov't is doing audits for timecards, and I have to collect the last 10 months worth... Nice... Today I get a call from employee number 8. She's been trying not to let this effect work, but she's coming unravelled. Her husband left her and her son two days before christmas and didnt even do it face to face. He moved out while she was at work and called and left it on her cell phone... She's contemplating moving back home to her parents in North Caorlina because she simply can't cope right now... And tonight I got stuck by TWO different nurses for insurance and disability policies... Guess I'm the lucky one... Try to be kind to those you love, and kinder still to those you don't. You may not know how close to the edge they truly are... I'm Truly a fortunate man... Mike

Pretty sure it was lack of brain power. Mike

POp, I'm reasonably close by and have a bunch of little stuff left over from my LS1 stuff. Let me know if you find you're missing anything... I know I've got a set of black valve cover covers you can have, but they do say LS1 on them...Also got a lot of other odds and ends, like a new set of exhaust manifold gaskets from GM and a new balancer in the box. Mike

That's fuel or timing... Check your plugs to see if they are fouled/ wet with fuel...It's no longer an electrical issue in my mind. You could also get a buddy to crank it while you move the distributor slowly and in small incriments. Or get a remote starter switch from sears for $40. Mike

That's the route we took on my zcar as well, and is the strongest option out there... However, not many people are skilled enough to do fabrication at that level... And if you can't, it gets really pricey! Mike

Alan, for the record, NismoZtune soft-deleted his own post to delete the errant information... However, The point isn't that you corrected him. It was HOW you corrected him. Its that "tone" you constantly take in posts on this board. Unlike you, Many of the members here only care about what they want to know and have no interest in that nugget of info that's rare as hens teeth that you seem to have locked in your skull. Again, maybe you should stick to sites more geared towards period correct restorations. I'm all for getting the facts out there to insure proper technical info is identified. However, some of these guys here do things without the intention of steering people the wrong way. I'm sure NismoZtune really DID think he was Identifying the bodywork accurately. Mike Kelly

Alan, If thise were IZCC or another site, this kinda comment might fly. Here, it doesn't. Most people don't care about the pedigree of the parts. They're just happy to have parts sources. Take these comments elsewhere. Mike Kelly

Hagerty, Grundy, and the insurance company I currently use, Virginia Farm Bureau all provide this coverage. You must get the car appraised for the value to be established. Mike