Mikelly

Sure... We should do this... GOT-Z had a shindig not to long ago... I think it would help for our "community" to get together and to put some of the tentions of past debates behind us, and to raise a pint of our favorite beverages to toast the land of HybridZ. Just my $.02 Mike

My personal favorite was my Ruger Speed 6 357Magnum. I gave it to my mother as a home defense weapon, and she loved it! I now carry plastic guns exclusively... I'm a GLOCK fan! .40 Cal model 27, to be exact. http://www.glock.com/g27.htm BUt I really like this: http://www.ruger.com/Firearms/FAProdView?model=5301&return=Y BANG!! Mike

I plan to buy a Spec Miata or a T1 Corvette to race if/ when I go that route. Based on what I've seen and the discussions I've had with others who race, the contact isn't the issue... The LACK of safety gear at these HPDEs and other issues noted previously are the reasons I still say that racing is safer than HPDEs. Mike

Pix of the glassing (Rough for now... some of the resin is still tacky...) of the dash can be seen in my weblink. Go to the New Zcar Project folder. I went ahead and placed it in the car to see how it would look now with some stiffness to it, and it looks good. I'm gonna make a Lowes run for some paint for the house, and I'll check on bracketry material while I'm there, and get some more resin and matting from the autoparts store, as I think the resin I used is bad... Stuff is taking an awefull long time to kick... been almost 18 hours... It was a pretty hot batch too... Oh, in one pic you can see me holding up the dash cap with ONE finger... It is still VERY light, yet very stiff... You'll notice the cutouts on the ends to clear my cage and gussets. Mike

OK Guys, I'm going to say December 3rd for the next little east coast get together... That is a Saturday I believe and we'll get together around noon. Mike

Yup 2003Z, I'm with you... Some of these guys ARE racing even though it is an HPDE... Common sense stays in the pits while some are out timing their laps, during a class no less... That is the main reason I want to get away from HPDEs and buy a race car and just go race. Crazy as it sounds, it is much safer because everyone on the course has a competition license and has been certified to be there. In HPDEs there is to wide a mix... Mike

Damn, that's a long dinner break... Mike

I vote LapDance! One drawback I've always been warned of by friends of mine who work on cars for a living... Most don't want a project car by the time they are 30. Burned out from working on cars! Mike

Guys, This whole thing over guns being outlawed in San Francisco has caused some ruffled feathers here on the site. We've had several members post the news and their comments on the subject and we simply can NOT allow this discussion to take place, NO MATTER how strongly any of us may feel about this issue. Simply put, we made a choice to do away with ANY topics that were in any way associated with politics or religion and I'm one of the chief bad boys when it came to those issues. We don't need examples to remind us ALL of how ugly it got, and how some scars still haven't mended between various members over many different discussion topics. So for those reasons, I will not be calling any of you, as has been requested, and I will not be answering the PMs or personal E-mails about this topic. Please find a blog, or political discussion related website to vent your frustrations. The administrative staff took a vote and the decission was made. And for the record I voted to ban these types of discussions as well. Back to Cars and discussions of RB26s in VW bugs... Mike

Truly entertaining... Mike

It's setting up right now... Mixed a bunch of resin this morning and finished stiffening the other "floppy areas, and added some matting around the heater/ stereo opening. I also made a flat panel I'm going to trim and hopefully place in that opening... We'll see. My only concern is that the inside of the dash cap was smooth and doesn't give much to grip from the matting/ resin. This might not be sufficient for day in, day out street car duty. Another alternative would be spray foam inside the areas around the underside fo the dash. We'll see... Just waiting for it to kick... Mike

I'm with you on the bird blasting "B-"! One of the rudest, most disgusting and inconsiderate animals on the planet.. Mike

Well regardless, It sucks because that car looks beautiful. Has he had it at VIR recently? Looks familiar... On tire fitment issues, I've noticed as much as 1/2 inch difference between tire manufacturers in the past... Section/ tread widths vary by design and I always research manufacturers websites and tirerack.com for any data I can find for dimensions before I buy tires. You'd think there wouldn't be much varience between 225/50/15s out there, but there is... Mike

If you read the thread, Sam claims he wasn't even doing hot laps. He was doing an orientation lap and was at about 2/3rds. He claims your friend overtook him off line and lost it... I don't know because I wasn't there and the video shows very little...However, If you compare the footage to the other footage he posted, he clearly wasn't going 8/10ths. The blame is always placed on the overtaking driver, and I've been hung out to dry by "slower" students who waved me by, only to pin it and drag race down the straights... Not saying this did or didn't happen, but the blame always gets pinned on me when I biatch about it in the pits... Nature of doing track days. varying degrees of skill and horsepower. Mike

http://www.vbdgraphics.com/portfolioproject.php?category=Motorsports%20Graphics&project=JMac%20Racing%20Porsche He sent me this link this morning to his GT3 and some of the mods he has been doing to it. Jim's been spending a lot of time at HPDE and I'd be surprised if he doesn't end up in a racing school and getting his competition license. He's done a bunch of mods to the GT3... and it is less than a year old! New Header, exhuast, Suspension, tuning... Car is probably making over 380HP at the wheels. It was a blast to drive back last January, and I'd love to take it out for a spin now! Mike

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?t=1228453&forum_id=23 First post sam shows the links to the various vids... He's the guy I sold my Z06 wheels and slicks to and the guy that slid his car into the tires off T10 at VIR in October. Mike

I heard from a number of corvette guys that the rock was eating tires for them as well, and that the track would get real greasy at the end of a 30 minute session, which is clearly the tires going away... One of the guys posted a video of a 350Z hitting the wall pretty hard last weekend. If I can dig it up, I'll post the link. I had similar results back in the 90s when I ran at Atlanta motorspeedway... hard setting up the suspension for ovals... Those nascar boys earn their money! Mike

I'll take some pics later and post them for my application. However, I only used two layers of chopped matt (About 3mm each) with some resin and I placed it over 3/4 of the horizontal surface of the dash and it stiffened it right up. I'm going to lay out my gages and then bend some brackets that will need to be glassed into place and then of course the tabs need to be glassed in and tabs welded to the cage for bottom mounting. I'm also going to make a glass closeout panel where the heater and radio woud be. I don't plan to use a stadard console for the car, So I'll moch something upt here as well... What was really amazing was how stuff the cover became. I couldn't hold the dash cover from one end without it twisting and falling over due to the lack of support. By just adding those couple layers of matting to 2/3rds-3/4 of the top surface, the cover is now very rigid and only the areas without matting are flexible. This is gonna work. The only challenge now will be laying in the bracketry and placing the tabs on the cage. I'll post pics later today or tomorrow maybe. Mike

All I saw was an idiot laying on his back with his pants pull down and his legs pulled near his chest... Then I killed it... We had a "Dangerous Motorcycle Gangs" training video at the federal police academy... At least the Hell's Angels used a woman! Kids... Had to have been lots of BOOZ or CRACK involved... Mike

It's a wonderful story, and he tells it so well, with such enthusiasm... Until the pee breaks... Come on Dan, turn the page! You guys and your fancy rifles... I hunt with an old 1908 8MM mauser with the barrel cut down. I've also got an old 7mm Civil war rifle that still works well and breaks your shoulder every chance it gets! Mike

Don't settle. I had all my receipts and was able to negotiate to about $8K with Farm Bureau and I kept the car. It took a long time and was a very painful process, but financially worth it in the end. Mike

Thanks pop for clearing my memory on that saying! This is a traffic offense, where revenue is generated for the county. It does NOT requre a lawyer... Unless you simply can not do as I mentioned above and represent yourself as an upstanding citizen who had a moment of minor bad judgement. If you can't conduct yourself in that manor, by all means, get a lawyer... And if you want to piss away any more of your money, I could use a hand out... Mike

I just mixed up some resin and layed some matting on the underside of the cap. I'll see how it stiffens it up with that first, and go from there. Since I have nothing under the dash except for a cross brace on the cage, I have no worries for intereferance... Mike

I'd expect someone to have at minimum $10000 in parts and labor and that is CHEAP. Closer to $20K to get someone to do it and do it right. Mike

Go to the parts store and get them to pull the exhaust manifold gaskets for each model and do a comparo right there at the counter... No fuss, no muss, no guess work or cost out of pocket! Have a nice day! Mike