Mikelly

Couple pics of the work Tom did... Moving that wheel inboard 1/2 inch really made a difference. But this is a lesson on custom parts fitment... The guys at CCW took specs from another Zcar customer and never once did I think "Hub diameter, and never once did they mention it.. Even though I'd said "5 lug conversion" and they'd said "we have another customer with that pattern"... So it was just an oversight on all parties... before: After: Right now I'm waiting on the Fuelsafe surge box to come in. When it arrives, I'll have the parts needed to address that issue, and then I'll just need to re-do an alignment on the car and loc-tite the header bolts. Summit Point main in three weeks... Mike

Big Big thanks to Tom Harris for machining my front aluminum hubs to essentially make the wheels "hub-centric". No more need for front wheel spacers and now I can dial back in the caster I pulled out when we installed the CCWs and had hub diameter interference issues... No more!! Everything is bolted back up and fits like a glove!! The 275s up front actually look like they're perfect tucked under the fender flare with plenty of room for compression of the suspension without issues. Mike

Pictures or ban...

You know, I saw that listed on racerpartswholesale's website... Oh well. Parts shipped yesterday and I expect to have everything in house and ready to complete later next week. I am running by front hubs over to Tom Harris' place today and getting them machined down on the OD so they will fit the CCWs in front without having to use spacers. Need the OD to be less than 2 5/8th of an inch. Getting her closer to "debugged". Mike

So I went ahead and ordered the FuelSafe fuel Surge box/high pressure pump, new fuel line (20 ft.) and all new fuel cell foam. Hopefully these parts and the revamp on the return line, I'll have the fuel deliver issues resolved! Shooting for July 7-8 at Summit Point. 7th is my B-day, so I'm hoping the gods will smile down upon me and let me have a drama-free weekend at the track. Anyone wanting to get a few laps in the passenger seat, ping me off line and I'll work it out! Mike

Ugh... Apparently my mother (who is 69 years young) decided to hop on the train to crazytown last night and got herself arrested for threatening to burn her house down and to kill my nephew. You guys will remember about 18 months ago she was diagnosed with Dementia and Alzheimers. So the cops took her in and were going to put her on a 72 hour hold/eval... Someone had the bright idea to actually contact social services who made them release her this morning. Getting old is hell... I'm sorting out issues with the car. Right now I'm planning to install one of these in the fuel cell: http://www.racerpartswholesale.com/product/656/Surge_Tank_Collector Along with new line from the fuel rail all the way back to the fuel filter, then to the port on the fuel cell. Hopefully that will resolve the fuel starvation issue. After that is resolved, I'll order a Fire supression system and a coolsuit setup to sit in the passenger footwell... Summer is officially here and I don't see it getting any more livable in that thing... Mike

...And after working on the Zcar for oh four hours, I decided to sneak over to the Battlefield drive and take a few pics of the new daily/weekender. I'm fortunate that I live within a national battlefield park that is low traffic and overlooked. Not to bad for a crappy iphone camera! Mike

So today I went ahead and removed the driver's side CV axle and installed the OEM Nissan boot on it... And cleaned up the mess the old boot made... I also ran a new solid one piece/no joints fuel line from the cell to the return port on the regulator. I'll do the same with the main feed one I sort the resolution of the cell/surge tank issue! Mike

I'm pretty sure we need the identities of these two gentlemen...

Hahahahaha I needed that this morning... Last weekend I sat on my glove in the seat, was half strapped in, and started looking for the glove... it was second call for instructors... I'm like "I ain't doing Michael Jackson impersonations going around the track, where the hell is that glove?" Had to get out of the car (and you know that whole cage/Steering wheel hokey pokey) and "find" the glove... The things we do... Mike

Matt, I'm not there yet, my friend. I have to get a few more things resolved, install more safety equipment (fire and cool suit) and troubleshoot some more issues...Hope to have this thing run a full day without issues this season. Wish you luck and hope to be there at some point in the next year...

Matt, Let me be the first to say holy cow... 2:04s around VIR in a Zcar is wheeling it and your times give me something to shoot for in my own car later this season... WOW... Mike

Unfortunately no video... I couldn't reach the damned camera once strapped in... Ugh... Pete, I don't think we hurt anything... I only went 6-7 laps each session before the starvation got the best of me. We'll pull the oil filter and install a new cartridge and inspect the element and see what we see... Mike

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Matt, What kind of times were you seeing on VIR's full course? Mike

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Highs and lows today. Not sure of the damage to the car, but it was having fuel delivery issues and the motor isn't sounding quite "right" at the moment. I will say that when it was running properly , it was damned fast.

Datsun is loaded up and ready for the track event at NCCAR on Saturday! Mike

It's an 04 with the Metzger 3.6L drysump motor. Thing redlines at 8200RPM. Not doing turbos on this car... Love it as is... Going to get a clearbra on it and drive it. The Datsun is my track car. I don't plan to track this car as much as I did the last Porsche... Mike

It finally arrived today... 19 days after I booked shipping... Just after offloading... At home infront of my house... Has a fabspeed exhaust, Nitto NT01s, Adjustable rear links, Full OEM Carbon interior trim package, OEM Short Shifter, DaSport Rollbar. I'm tickled... Mike

Yesterday evening I went over and inspected a GT3 owned by my buddy Jim McNemar. Jim owns the Red Zcar in some of my pics that people always ask about. After looking at the GT3 for another member over on Rennlist, Jim, his wife Maureen, my wife Donna and I went to dinner together. We hadn't seen or spoken to each other for several years, due to work, both of us trying to keep afloat during the financial downturn, and life in general. We're all new grandparents as well, which was a common theme during our 4 hours long visit. I came away from that evening thinking about how many great friends, in person, that I've made over the years through the Datsun Zcar. It made me stop and think "what if you'd never bought that first Z back in 1987?" What if I'd packed it in long ago and stopped collecting parts and building cars, and imparting my rather opinionated advice on others over the years? I'd never have met those I consider friend. These cars are an extension of who we are, but also of the relationships we forge over time. We didn't mention that little red Zcar I've been storing for Jim over the last 5 years. And we probably won't mention it for another 5. Who knows. And it doesn't matter. It brought us together as friends, and that is far more important than the car itself... Back to your regularly scheduled programming. Mike