Mikelly

UH Phil, You may want to research some of our "pre-election" banter... I believe I mentioned quite a while ago how pathetic journalism has spiraled in America. We don't have journalists reporting facts... Hell on the locatl new radio station I get my traffic reports from every day I deal with sensationalistic reporting, just to keep the listener "tuned in"! Reporters and journalists are starting to rank right up there with lawyers... Mike

Piper Motorsports in Manassas Va. is the group doing the cage. These guys estimate it will be 10 hours to do what they need to get a 6 point cage welded in, including door bars if I go that route. The reason it isn't going to take as long to do this car is that there is ZERO electrical or interior in this car other than a seat. Also NO windows right now. This car is a shell on wheels. These guys do tech inspections for the Regional Porsche Club of America, BMW Club of America, as well as NASA and SCCA. I'll drop the car off next Friday on my way home from work, since Monday the 27th is going to be a busy workday for me. I'm stoked... Mike

And this has WHAT to do with Jacko the Wacko??? Phillie, Let it go... News flash, democrats lost, my friend... Only two more years and we can see what Hillary has lined up for us, no? Mike

These guys are professionals who install FIA cages... They also DO technical inspections at events... I trust them. They recommended .120 and have done a number of datsuns over the years... I'm sure I'll be fine... AND because this car is a track car and NOT a race car, tech inspections aren't near as strict as race inspections. They're just happy to see a cage and harnesses in the car. Mike

Jon, It certainly has weighed heavy on me. I had bolt in door bars for the car that ran diagenally and I'd had them in the car that day, so a T-bone might have been better on the car than me... I defenitely would have hit my head from the side, no doubt. The cage we're gonna install in the new car will be as High and tight as possible and I've removed the stock seat mounts and lowered the new seat rails to the pans. I also don't plan on driving this car much at all on the street. I'm building a track day specific car. Mike

You should be able to find a complete LS1/T56 for around $3000. I'd never go with the LT1 over an LS1 option ONLY because the LS1 is the in motor and you don't have to deal with Optispark. Plus the LS1 responds so much better to tuning and simple bolt ons... MY C5 picked up 40 WHP with headers, Hi flow cats, an LS6 intake and tune. Imagine how a cam would have helped. Mike

My car was stopped in traffic, behind a Ford Taurus Station wagon. I had a Van loaded with plumbing and HVAC Equipment slam into me at 45mph... It drove me into the Taurus. The doors wouldn't open and the rear hatch and front core supports were severely damaged. However, The passenger compartment was in tact. This was a BOLT IN cage, which really impressed me. The cage was distorted within the car. However, When we cut the car up for disposal, the cage was cut out of the car in one piece, cutting the footers loose with the sheet metal intact. The cage was then Xrayed and found to have no structural issues. I was amazed... The car was a total loss but the cage survived an amazingly hard hit... Although I got a bump on the head from hitting the roll cage padding, I walked away from the accident and was fine. A cage in a street driven Z (Not just a four point bar) is something every street Z should have... These cars are to darned thin... Mike

This case was botched from the beginning... LA County Persecuted JAckson for showing "odd" behavior. Do I think he is a kid toucher? I don't know. Did he touch this kid or get him drunk? I don't know. However, Much like the Robert Blake case, These Grifters who seek out the famous to extort money, whore out themselves or their children as bate, should be the last credible "victims" The state of California ever tries to exact justice for. Sad state of affairs, especially after botching the Simpson case and then the Blake fiasco. Mike

I drove a Zcar on the road for a number of years with a full cage in it, and it was totalled in a bad accident and I DID have contact with the cage padding... without a helmet on... You can never have enough PROPER safety equipment! Mike

And people wonder why we run this site the way we have for so long... These trolls are everywhere on the web... we do our best to keep them out. What's sad is that azzclown is going to go out and knock some young girl up, in the process making her more stupid in the process, and will then go on to raise some little urchin that will no doubt be another stellar example of our "future"! And they wonder why I drink! Mike:cool:

Dude I'm with you on that comment abou the thin doors and SUVs... I'm having a cage installed in two weeks, and I'm thinking about blowing out the door framework in favor of some serious door bars. Go spectate and take lots of pics... Then you'll have something to work off of. I know when I went to a club race at Road Atlanta two years ago there were five Zcars running! You should see a few! Mike

Addressing a couple of technical comments first... I'd bet dollars to donuts you're full of CRAP on the whole "hanging around higher end cars like lambos corvettes and porsches" They're NOT EVER called gear boxes... Diffs, Ring and Pinions, Rear ends, but NEVER gear boxes... A gear box, when refering to ring an pinions is something to store your selection of GEARS in. All the circletrack and quarter mile vendors carry them and they are usually plastic boxes. Second, if you were hanging around those cars, my guess is you'd know quite a bit more than has been displayed in the couple of posts you posted. If you want to impress us around here, leave your attitude at home and bring in some real technical knowledge... I don't see much more than hard to read pipe dreams in your project planning... Is it a chevy swap or a Nissan TT 300ZX you're gonna mod? Is it the rear diff or the tranny your thinking about keeping? Are you gonna squeeze a high compression V8 with twin turbos??? Maybe you should have taken the time to structure your sentances better, rather than follow my BUddy George Bush and butcher this thread from the get-go with poor grammer and english... For me to point that out says something... Read a few more of my posts and you'll see, it's hard for this spade to call you out on that one! Now on to being an administrator.... AbsolutePower, Here's YOUR ONE warning...and it is VERY PUBLIC! You might want to Read our rules... You've copped attitudes in TWO threads and you're just what oh a couple of DAYS into being an active member here? Did you suffer a head injury? Do you not SEE how we conduct ourselves here? Or is this some kind of record you're trying to achieve? If you'd like to stay and play, Get your attitude checked at the door. If not, See ya... We don't want, or need, and certainly do NOT TOLERATE the kind of behavior you've displayed here in TWO threads within 24 hours. One more and you're out of here... You caught me on a VERY GOOD day, or I'd have ban'ed your azz on the first one... I'm done. Mike Kelly Administrator

He did BLKMGK's Cage on his 722WHP supra in a DAY with the interior in the car when it was delivered to them! He also did my buddie's AIX Iroc Camaro in 3 days and that was a full 14 points and door bars. These guys have an impressive staff and only do Cage fabrication and race car construction... They do truly amazing work and MOST of the cars in Northern Va. that are on Summit Point and VIR USE this shop! Their reputation speaks for itself and you guys locally can check it out at the next cook out! Mike

SUCKER!!! John John John! Congrats Man! Often it's the woman that makes the man! I know mine does! Here's to years and years without stressful tears! Mike

So I've got a date set for dropping the car off to get a cage welded in... It won't be cromoly as I had wanted, and it will be in Manassas where I can get it done by a FIA cage constructor who has an extensive history with cage construction for road racing. $75 per hour to weld in a 6 point cage in DOM .120 1.5 inch tubing. This will allow me to be able to weld in tabs for a dash, brackets, and add ons as I need. I'm gonna get it welded in similar to Jim McNemar's car, and have it welded in tight to the body. Car will be dropped off on June 27th and I'll get it back to start the bodywork within 48 hours. I'm offically stoked! Mike

I've done quite a bit od research on this topic as well, and I can tell you that being competitive in a Zcar in anything other than historical racing at this point is hard. Even SCCA ITS has made the Zcar a less than formidable car to race. Can it be done? Yes. Will you be very competitive? Even the best Zcar drivers are struggling in this new century! Goodluck! Mike

Because I HATE using an internal hydraulic release bearing, My plans are to use an aftermarket slave Cylinder from Quartermaster OR I'll be using a unit out of a C4 Corvette. I'm gonna order a couple different units and test fit them to see what works best. I HAVE had success using the Nylon bodied units you describe, but in a T56 application and tapping and rethreading them is truly simple and easy to do. Mike

So after more than a month after finding out the "OTHER" bellhousing (made by Lakewood) wouldn't work with the TKO600 Tremec, I had returned it to the guys who bought it for me (replacement for the one I gave them for JIm's car) this unit finally comes in... very nice Unit. Comes with its own locator ring, so do dial caliper to make sure it is correct in the plane of the crankshaft/ input shaft alignment. It also appears that the McLeod unit comes well made and with very good hardware. However, I'm gonna have to remove at minimum 1/8th inch of the surface OFF the flywheel, per the instructions from McLeod. Clearance issues between the bellhousing and the clutch assembly I guess. Bottom line is it needs to have some weight taken off due to the thickness... nice... One other side note... the McLeod unit is setup so you can use it with a cable clutch system or a hydraulic system. Kinda cool, and it seems lighter than the other unit.. That Lakewood was a pig. Although not aluminum by any means, the McLeod unit isn't what I would call heavy. I'll snap pics over the weekend... Gotta pull the motor BACK OUT of the Z and start doing fitment tests, and send the flywheel out for machinging. Mike

Get onto corner-carvers.com or some of the other road race and track day specific boards and join a few of the track day clubs in Florida. They have a ton of track days scehduled in Florida. You want to look for key words like "HPDE" or "high performance driving education" in the searches you run. I'll be with the advanced group of the Mazdadrivers.com club Next weekend at VIR and then back at Summit Point raceway with FATT (Friday at the track!) through BSR on July 15th. You can also check with NASA.com or SCCA.com Mike

Now you guys have me thinking I should be carving up my Z... ACK! Pretty sure I'm gonna need it! Mike

Welcome, and you have a close knit group here in the North cacilacie/ Virginia/ Maryland/ Pennsyltuky region... I host a number of cookouts through out the year, so get your butt up here to visit with that ride the next time we have one (Probably August timeframe!)!!! Mike

I had a kit and sold it... wasn't impressed with the routing of the tubing... S&W is within driving distance of me, so getting a cage isn't an issue... Getting one that fits the Zcar properly is. JEGS is the same way... I'd recommend going to someone and having the proper tubes bent for your car... Go HERE: http://photos.yahoo.com/dat74z Look at the folder "JIm's Red Scarab Z" or whatever the title for the Red Flared Zcar... Look at those pics of that cage and how the tubes bend around the fenderwells and how far forward the front tubes go... You won't get that with a Jegs or S&W cage... That impacts seating, head clearance, and other fitment issues... In a Zcar, a custom cage is the ONLY way to go... Mike

These numbers are very encouraging... Notice those with Roll cages, sub-frame mods and full interiors are still in the sub-2700# range... That is truly amazing. This weight figure is the sole key to the advantage of a datsun Zcar in my opinion. Mike

YUp, The LS1 Will PASS smog 100%... It must. That was the goal and why we chose the cam I went with for the build. That is also the absolute beauty of the LS based small block chevy motor. And C5s are a dime a dozen, but you can make them look different in your own way. People always argue that "Some rich guy bought a Vette and will never drive it!" or "he'll never work on it or mod it"... I'd LOVE to see a STOCK C5. They are getting be a lot like Mustangs in that No one leaves them stock because tweeking tham and getting an extra 65-75 Crank HP is cake. To each his own, but I say don't assume you'll always have your datsun, and don't pass up the chance to get another alternate sports car... Like the Porsche Turbo that Yasin just bought... Life's short, experience them all! Mike

Yasin, You made the right choice... That Porsche is a WORLD CLASS sports car... Simply can't say that about the car it replaced... Excellent taste and an excellent pick! Mike