Mikelly

Although the suspension design on the Zcar isn't the absolute best design out there, and one could cerntainly benefit from a double A arm design, I'd stay clear of it given your money/ time issues. Setting up the suspension geometry from scratch would be TOUGH and require time, patience, and money. You'll be better off just doing some camber plates, Adjustable TC rods/ Control arms and being done with it. Weld in plates from AZC - $200 per pair Adjustable TC Rods U make - $85 per Pair Adjustable Control arms U make - $100 per Pair Total cost - Less than $400. Mike

Guys, We've started cracking down on these threads (That I've also been guilty of in the past.)! Please use the classified section. BTW, I love the Gnose look... Wish I had the scratch right now, Cause I'd buy it from you! Mike

There's actually a special spark plug socket for this. It costs about $15. Check with Thunder Racing or some of the other popular LS1 aftermarket companies. Mike

He's the guy who built my LS1, my 383 stroker, and Pete P's shortblock for his stroker. There's Thunder Racing, I think they are in Louisiana. Mike

Actually, the rumor on those GTs is that they are coming off the assembly line with quite a bit more power than originally rated. Unfortunately, you never see them at track days around my area... I'd love to just SEE one on the track! Mike :coo:

Well my 74 260Z (The white car with flares on Zcar car of the month January 2001) weighed in at Maryland International Raceway at 2580-ish # (My memory may be fuzzy, I'm aging!) and that was with a 383 stroker, T56, R200 LSD, Aluminum 15 Gallon cell, and a 6 point cage. The car was a full interior car wiht stock sustpensio, no coil overs, and the 4X4 front brakes, and the JCR Rear disc conversion. I suspect there is a HUGE issue with how accurate scales in general are from track to track, place to place. Mike

Holy CRAP! So much for being the "great little car with big motor"! I think you and Pete should start a support group for overweight Zcar owners! Mike

Uh, be careful with LG's posts. Remember, LOU is marketing. There has been some serious debate on the various boards about his claimed numbers AND his dyno accuracies. Also he's suffered a lot of the same problems others have with their cam/ valve geometry. There's any number of threads about valve spring breakage with a lot of these (Not only Lou's) cam packages! There's also a HUGE mess going on right now over on LS1Tech between a buyer and SLP over a motor with 900 miles on it that grenaded. There are many ways to get 500WHP out of a LS based motor. I personally believe that the 402 Stroker will get you there with more efficiency and less stress on the parts involved. There simply is NO replacement for displacement! Mike

Where my wife and I have considered our next move down the road: South of Charlottesville Va.: Lexington or just North would be nice. The land is still inexpensive (comparatively speaking) and the traffic isn't bad until you get into Charlottesville. They still have rush hour though, so don't fool yourself. Clarkesville Va. is a VERY small town (Think Mayberry-ish) on the Virginia - NC Border that is within 40 minutes of VIR. We've actually talked about buying a retirement/ investment home here only becuase of the "feel" of the small town and the location as it sits on John Kerr Lake Reservoir. It would also be within about an hour 15 minutes to Durham/ Raliegh area, or 45 minutes to Danville. Savannah GA. is one of our favorites. I'd been there back in 1986 when I was at the Federal Police Academy down in Brunswick. My wife and I spent a fair part of our honeymoon in Savannah. And we've gone back since to visit the town and stay out at the Beech resort just east of town. Raleigh - Durham area would be nice. There is still a large population and plenty of motorsports activities, and if you look in the rural areas outside of the triangle, you can afford good deals on large tracks of land. Charleston South Carolina... That southern Charm. Still a LOT like Savannah. We plan to visit there this coming year IF our finances get turned around. Pretty much all of the North western Corner of North Carolina/ Eastern Tenessee border is a favorite of mine. I love that whole area, but I hear they get an aweful lot of rain there every year. Ozarks Arkansas. I've never been, but plan to. I hear the place is wonderful and there is LOTS of recreation in the warm months, and the cold months aren't THAT cold. We have it on our list of places to explore. Gettysburg PA. Other than the tourists, that town is wonderful. Small feel, and great hospitality. Close enough to DC (less than two hours) and far enough way that you still feel like your in the mountains. These are just some of the places we're looking at. I would also love to call Arizona home (Flagstaff), or maybe Southern or mid-eastern Utah (Moab), but the wife isn't into the "lack of greenery!" Mike

MTI just Dyno'ed a Pewter 99 FRC C5 to 0ver 480Wheel HP. It was a 402 stroker short block with a set of their heads, long tune headers, fast intake, and other goodies. It had a huge writeup in Vette Magazine either the December or January edition. These 402s are the rage now on all the Fbody and Vette boards. For the money, you can't beat them. I started my LS1 build in January 2004, so these weren't out at the time... Had I waited, I'd have gone the 402 Stroker route. You pretty much can't NOT get 400HP at the wheels, even with choked down factory cast manifolds and restrictive exhausts! But the down side is the cost... I've not seen a 402 stroker Shortblock go for less than $4500... I totalled all my motor receipts and Even with the changes in exhaust and mufflers, I still have less than $6000 in mine. Mike

I'm not familiar with your Z. That said, If the car is as clean as Pete Paraska's Zcar (http://www.alteredz.com), then shoot for the sky. If the car doesn't look show quality, if the wiring is cobbled together, and if things look much less than professional, you'll probably be low balled. Be prepared for anything if the car isn't pristine and the paint/body/interior/mechanicals aren't top shelf. *** Just saw your link you posted while I was responding. Don't know man... It's a very clean car for sure. But there are somethings that should still be done, like the coil overs and other things you list in your "want to finish". Good trade ideas though. Mike

Jon, My guess is you're not going to find it out there in Ca. I've never been away from family and friends more than 4-6 months at a time (Travelling for work abroad) so I can't comment on the pain of leaving loved ones behind for what seems like EVER. That said, Flights back and forth to visit family and friends do come cheap enough. If you guys can get past that whole number five, then you'll likely have many more opportunities. I'd move to the Raliegh/ Durham North Carolina Area in a second, if it weren't for the current job situation. Close to everything car related for me (VIR is 40 minutes, and CMP is 90 minutes or less, Road Atlanta is only about 5 hours and Roebling in Savannah is probably 4 hours!) and there is everything else you're looking for... Housing in and around that region is still extremely affordable and you could buy a nice home on a large lot (Multiple Acres) for less than $250K I'll likely never leave the east coast... All the good things you guys have out west, without Mudslides, Earth quakes, forest fires... Mike

I thought I saw about 8mpg at VIR last spring. I'm pretty sure most of the guys running with non-stock heads/cam are seeing 4-6 mpg at VIR. And Phantom, You suffer from the same thing I do. Doing the math and getting exact numbers for mileage is something I do on all my cars and trucks. Drives my wife nuts! Mike

Oh wait a minute... Fazzt73, I think you and I chatted once about other interior panels and stuff once. You sell a bit on ebay, right? Mike

OH make no bones about it... The Q45 option is probably as expensive as doing a Corvette or other style rear, and you get ZERO support in the way of ring gear selections... Makes one wonder why we even bother. I may end up swapping out to a complete Corvette Rear like Scottie had, or something else later. But for now, I'll make this 3.54 gears Q45 setup work. I've got 90% of the parts already, and the drive shaft adapter is cheap. The rest will have to be fabb'ed. Mike

Yup. Age has everything to do with it... True School, Your first two cats were Hondas and I know from my own sons' experiences that Hondas and Mitsubishis (Eclipses mainly) will get you a lot of negative attention. The pitch of the CAI/ CATBACK/ stupidity of many of the drivers seems to draw cops like stink to poo. Even if you don't act like a ricer, you get attention. I was driving my stepson's car testing it after we installed a clutch kit on it. Cop pulled me over and I was doing ZERO wrong. We had dialogue and that was it. If it was the kid driving the car, he'd have been given a ticket for something dumb like illegal exhaust or incorrect light lenses. Instead, The officer just had dialogue with me and I explained that I was testing my kids car out after the work performed. They look hard at young drivers because young drivers are more apt to do inappropriate or illegal activities behind the wheel in less appriopriate places. I'm not going to buzz through a nieghborhood and do donuts in a culdesac, because it is in a low speed residential area where pedestrians might be walking, or pets may be running. Many young drivers don't think that far ahead. That's why younger drivers, and especially those in hopped up front driver imports, will get more attention than I will in my modified C5 Corvette, with cam lope and all. Mike

Phantom, That's an "Azzumption" that I'd be careful making. With my previous 383 stroker setup, the filler was in the floor of the rear hatch. It was a fuel cell cap and you basically had to pay real close attention or you would overfill it like a gas can. I filled it to the brim EVERY time. With the Vette, I drive it so much that I do the math and top it off every time and I check the mileage against that of the computer built into the ecu, which calculates the average. My math is always within half a mile per gallon of the ECU. Mike

I want to know what turn-around is going to be. I don't want to wait years to get a part. How soon and what's the cost? Mike

Mark, I didn't write the info or the guy's name down. But I wasn't the only one told it. There were two instructors from Corvette Forum who were told the same exact thing within the same time frame. When I was down at Jeff Creech's shop in Durham this same topic came up and we were all discussing it. One if the guys in the group had gotten his for his T1 car and the other two guys said they had been told the schedule was blown due to the NASCAR orders that had flooded them. My comment was "Yup, I was told the same thing, so I bought a pair of Kirkeys." So something is up inside their ranks over at Butlerbuilt. I'd have just as soon been "fitted for a single Buttlerbuilt seat and put something less expensive in the passenger's side. Mike

What dumbo probably did was "think" he put it in park, when he either put it in Neutral or Reverse. What's sad is he gives this individual a ticket for cutting through a parking lot to avoid a traffic light. I'd go into court and ask the judge how his "representative" of the court could in good faith write such a ticket after losing control of his vehicle in the persuit of the offense... I'd make him squeel... "here piggy piggy!" Idiot! Mike

I'm 5'9" and I weigh right about 200# (up or down 5# every week or so). Here is the issue with fitment for me... I have bicycled for nearly three decades and have abnormally large legs, and with my upper body build (Size 46 inch chest/ coat), I was concerned about the seat/rib support. A size 16 seat should have fit me fine, but due to the size of my thighs, I chose going with the size 17 seat, which fits me perfect everywhere except the lower waist which is a 34-ish size (a little loose in that seat). I've talked to others who bought the size 15 and it fit well. Factor in the size of the driving suit/ layers of nomex "stuff" and such. My seat will fit me fine, even if I were to go on an Anna Nicole trimspa/ cocaine binge! Mike

I went with the Kirkey Roadrace intermediate seats and I think they are a good value seat. They are SCCA approved and what I like best is they are modular. You can add components as money allows for the upper sholder wings, head halo, and thigh supports. Buttlerbuilt seats are amazing because they'll custom build to your frame. However, when I spoke to them about a month ago, they had been working through a FIVE HUNDRED seat order from NASCAR's top three series, the trucks, bush and grand national. My guess is it'll be a long wait for get one or two from them. The other aluminum frame seat maker that has been discussed recently is Ultrashield. Their's seem very comperable to the other two makers. I'm pretty much through with the MOMO/SPARCO/Corbeau/Cobra stuff out there. They are overpriced when pricing most of their FIA certified race seats. I must admit I'm impressed with the Kirkey. Also, Doug Carrow has an OMP seat that is very well contructed and seems like a decent alternative. My Kirkey seats came in the same box and both seats with seat covers and foam weighed what one of my Corbeau A4s weighed! I got my seats at http://www.ioport.com Mike

I also wouldn't recommend powdercoating them. You do that and you're going to change the thickness of the material, and cause a LOT of binding problems. Powder coating in general adds a bit of thickness. Plus those parts won't likely rust. Don't worry with it. Mike

Look up Dave Williams over in Jacksonville, Arkansas. He built my 383 stroker and the LS1 in the Vette. He's one of the best builders of motors I'm aware of! Mike