Mikelly

Well atleast you tried the search function... Have you got a steering hub puller? That's the easiest way to extract it... By the way, which partnnumber did you use for your momo hub?? Mike

EXACTLY WHY we designed mine the way we did, and excatly WHY I weighed in (for what it was worth, if anything) on Ross' design. I'm building a track specific car. If I was builing a street car with no camber plates, I'd buy ross' design or whip up a varient on my own design. Ross' Rear arms kick ARSe! Mike

I've never been into "stuntin'". I always was more interested in keeping both wheels on the ground and trying to get the "backin' it in to the corners" kinda feel at the track... To each, his/her own! Mikelly

Trust me Mike, I understand, which is exactly why I posted my comments about my experience with someone here. It boils down to YOU deciding who needs help and who doesn't. Mike

I'm probably gonna continue using the Gforce stuff that was in the Vette. The Harnesses were like new when I bought them and I'm pretty much good to go with them... Highly recommend 6 points on the harnesses for anyone who hasn't committed to buying them yet... Mike

I don't know your price range, but I just bought a Minolta DiMage Z6 Megapixle camera onsale for $279 while in Vegas. You can check some of the pics from my vegas trip, and redrocks as well to see some of the "features" although I must admit I haven't taken the time to really set the camera up yet... Really impressed with it overall. It's a $600 retail camera, and worth what I paid for sure... http://photos.yahoo.com/dat74z Mike

You really can't make a statement like that without truly having something to back it up. My arms DID snap, but not due to poor weld or poor design. Overall the thickness of the outboard tubing ended up being to thin and fatigued with severe use... SO we can assume without a doubt that all these examples are "more better" than my old ZF Racing units... That said, Ross' design is truly oncar adjustable and THAT is something to think about when aligning the car. If you're paying by the hour to get a car aligned, trust me on this, the other two models shown will cost more everytime you roll it up on the rack... That's a re-occuring fee to pay for ownership... How easy the product is to work with is very important if the car is going to be driven much and aligned often. I know from personal experience with Ross that every part he makes is heavily engineered. So don't "assume" his parts are inferior to the other two examples shown. Knowing his work ethic, I'll wager a sum that his are atleast as good as the other examples shown... Mike

The only reason I'm hot on buying the AZC units is because I plan to use their toe adjuster. That is the ONLY advantage I can see to using their arm over the ZcarProducts piece. If that isn't a concern, then buy what you like... I won't be selling anymore rear arms or designing anymore rear arms... Not worth the time and effort when there are other choices... Ross makes a fine part as well, and the only reason I'm buying the AZC units is I've installed a set. Mike

Have you thought about a ZRX1200? The reason I say this is that the SV isn't the gem the SV650 was. It's very low budget and requires a lot of parts upgrades for the suspension to be more adjustable to ride style... The R1 is a great sportbike, and I've owned sportbikes all my adult life. But I don't see the newest level of sportbikes over the last five years to be good all round bikes... They are lighter, but much more delicate if dropped. They are also less comfortable for all day rides or long term commuting/ tripping. I've ridden a bunch of higher end bikes, and the funnest bike I've had that was a great compromise was my 98 ZX9R. It was a sportbike I could drag a knee on at the track, and take on relatively long day trips... It also ran low 10s in the quarter with a lighter rider on it and was pushing about 135WHP with the mods that had been done to it... Mike

Reality is things are great for some, and not for others. I'm very fortunate at this period in my life, and that helps me be more generous. I'd like to think that those I've given truck fulls of parts over the last decade or two truly appreciate it. Only one or two times have I regreted giving parts after the fact. If you have money (And in on case a member had well over $600K in investments, no mortgage, and a great career) and you're asking for a handout, You may well be greeted with some severe language and told to hit the road. If you truly need help or are young and don't have a father-figure handy with tools or an interest in cars, I'm more than willing to assist. I expect that one day you'll do the same for someone else... As to the state of the economy today, Without getting "political", overall we're doing well. The single biggest hit to the growth we should be seeing currently is the price of fuel. That eats into the weekly take-home for all of us, no matter how much we make. My investor and I had a long talk last week about his speculation for growth... Tech stocks are back on the rise. I thought that was the case before our chat, but he confirmed it with some very hard data. As to realistate... I'm sitting and hoping that the 7 acres behind my property doesn't sell. It's been inflated to $295K and is worth about 1/3rd of that. If it drops by 50%, I'll be buying it and foregoing that Porsche/Viper/Z06 purchase for a while... Those of you contemplating buying or selling realestate, the speculation is that we're not done slipping lower (At least not in my area), and the market will go lower for at least another 9-18 months. Finally, let's all be a little more giving if we can, gang, and less judgemental in doing so. Know who you're helping, but help if you know that it's going to a good cause... Any number of events could occur and cause each of us to fall on hard times... Mike

HOld on a second gang... Those headers hang down a fair amount. You will be down to around 3 inches of ground clearance if you go that route. I have a set and I'm not even sure I'm gonna run them. The reason I bring this up is that some folks think to make big power you have to run those long tubes. They certainly help in making bigger power, no doubt. But I was able to run 10.98s at 129+MPH with a set of 1 5/8th block huggers with PLENTY of ground clearance... Don't underestimate the power you can make with them... They're not the best for overall power, but certainly make decent power with the correct exhaust system backing it up... Mike

When you find them, let me know... I'm searching high and low for that combo at that price with the proper backspacing (Shooting for 5 inch-ish...) Mike

...If you're not planning to use them, send me a PM. I'm gonna buy a set and use them for the toe adjustment/ camber, although I'll be using camber plates as well, so mainly for the toe setting... PM me if anyone is selling a used set! Mike

BJ, When you get a tally running for donations, keep me posted on the amounts you need. As it gets closer to "GO/NO GO" I'll see what I can kick in to assist in making it happen... You can officially put me in for $100 as of right now, but if we get more traction on this and it gets closer to reality, I may be able to kick in as much as $500. Right now I'm starting to buy up parts for my own car as it comes together, so recreational funds are starting to dwindle weekly. Mike

Lunar, If you can, get some weights of their 10 inch wide 17 and 18 inch wheels... MIke

THanks guys. I'm gonna pick up jt1's Singleplane intake and I"m gonna try to find a 750-800 Double pumper somewhere... I've got the Holley Commander 950 setup to put on it, but don't want to start out with it on the motor... Mike

OK Gang, I'm looking for a few parts to start up and run in the 383 Stroker with... I don't know how long I'll keep them, so please PM me if you have these to SELL only... I'm looking for a single plain SBC intake and carb... used and in good working shape... You guys here are packrats (like myself), so Let me know if you're sitting on something that needs a home... Otherwise I'm gonna hit ebay and buy this junk to get the motor to a state of ignition! Give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire... Mike

M3 Jennifer HANDS DOWN... WTF is BRAD THINKING??? MIke

There used to be, before a crane fell on him last week in a freak accident in Seattle Washington (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/292774_bellevue17ww.html), A guy named Matt Ammon. I had met him face to face at a motorcycle track day at Summit Point Raceway only once, but had numerous conversations with him on a few of the motorcycle websites out there... Some of those conversations weren't polite or fun. I didn't get to know Matt well because our personalities clashed big time in cyberspace. Myself and others I knew well didn't get along with Matt (including my business partner) and had serious issue with his "online" personality, which I'm told is nothing like who he was in person. Online Matt would be ruthless, operate behind the scenes and stir lots of trouble to get a desired effect. More than once, as an admin on another board Matt would sign in as another existing member and post a lot of negative things trying to start drama between members of that site. He was eventually removed as an admin of that site because of his actions... He claimed it was all in good fun and that those of us who were his targets were just not "getting" the joke. It caused some of us to alienate him, shut him out and not invite him to events or gatherings. All this due to his online personality. In 2003 Matt moved to the mid-west, continued focusing on his driving and motorcycling, and continued focusing on his career as a lawyer full time. I'm told Matt was a young, ambitious guy with lots of promise, lots of determination and drive, and had apparently become a damned fine driver on track. At some point Matt had somewhere along the way become a driving instructor thru BMWCCA. On several boards he is remembered to have been a great personality and wonderful instructor who helped many students with their driving at events around the midwest and in his short time living in Washington State as well. Matt was an avid BMW/Audi club instructor and was known by many in those clubs... So what's my point in all this? How we represent ourselves online directly relates to how we will be perceived in person. Matt Ammon is lauded to have been a great person, with a wonderful personality. I've read countless posts elsewhere from people who knew him on a very personal level and who got past the online personality. Some of us weren't that fortunate. Maybe it was growing pains, as he was about 10 years younger than I. Maybe it was other factors in life... I'll never know now. It may or may not be important to you how you are viewed on the web. Some folks simply don't take online posting seriously. However, I use this example of a person who was apparently one heck of a person, as to why it may well be important for all of us to not judge each other based on text alone, and for all of us to maybe try to give more realistic representation of who we are online and in person, as often the two worlds do meet. My thoughts this morning drifted back to some heated exchanges I had with Matt, and thought that maybe I took him to seriously, and maybe I should have tried to look past the online exchange. Maybe... We won't get a chance to know who each other really was, not now. And that certainly matters, to me anyway. Food for thought as we move furiously into the Holiday Season. As we begin to get cooped up for that long winter grind, lets try to remember that we're all human, we're all likely to meet each other some day, and that we all have the common interest of the Datsun Zcar that brought us here... And maybe, just for a second, remember a guy who was probably a heck of a car enthusiast we'll never truly get to know... RIP Matthew Ammon... Godspeed... Mike Kelly

I worked on a guys C6 a few weeks ago, Swaping some brake calipers for him, and between hanging out with him and chatting vettes and hanging out on Corvetteforum and chatting with the guys in the roadrace section there, I could easily own a new C6Z06 ONLY for the commeradery and the 100K mile warranty! Michael, I say buy one and keep plucking away at the Z. It'll divert money and time away from your Zcar project, but what the heck, you'll be driving something you enjoy! Mikelly

The world may well end tonight... I am for once in 110% perfect alignment with this intellectual's thinking... Damnit Michael, I couldn't have put it better myself... And David, Put the breast milk down man and switch to 2%... I think it's making you dilussional!

I triple dog dare you... Mike

There will be various ducts and possibly a shroud going in around it... This is still very much a work in Progress... Mike

You are SOOOOO MY HERO!!! Mike

Shooting for March David. If I can get it together by February, I'll take it to VIR with the THSCC/ TRIAD Zcar club... Mike