Mikelly

There are a lot of places you can track at for cheap... Even amatures like us... My schedule is filling up fast, but it looks like I'll have about 25 days on the books by the end of this season, if all goes as planned. GREAT news about highrock... Just gotta map it and figure out how far it is from me... Mike

Sadly, you just hit the "nail" on the head. To build it to current technological standards would bump classes. This is the same reason I'd never attempt to build a competitive Zcar in an open class. Mike

Yup, I used to be the same way... "You want how much?"... I had a guy I know give me a TON of grief because I paid a shop this week to do a clutch upgrade on my 996Turbo. 10 hours labor, at $95 per hour... No cussing. No "Porsche-specific" tools needed from specialty shops. No blood or gashes from hidden sharp hungry metal waiting for their next meal... Just stroking a check... For the first time in a long time... Felt damned good too! Some day remind me to tell you the story about wirnig my lift up at the old place... Nothing like 230 ZAPP! I tasted peanut butter for a week! Mike

Great find man! Mike

The Kirkey Roadrace intermediate has shoulder bolsters... Mike

It's the overall design around the halo, and as jon said, the depth of the "pocket" in the headrest area. Mike

I have several different FIA approved seats... The two different Kirkey Seats I have were generic off the shelf units, both I took measurements for and measured my body so I could insure I'd fit properly in. I currently have these in the Porsche 996TT: http://www.instaitems.com/products.asp?stid=7481&cat=Motors&product_id=330214617704 These: http://store.cdoc.com/detail.asp?id=12617&str=0142-0359&name=OMP Are the seats I'm thinking about putting in my 996Turbo, even though I've got some high end Recarro GT3s in it now. I want something that is HANS specific and will likely go this route over the coming season. If possible, sit in a lot of seats. Honestly the Kirky roadrace aluminum intermediate seat in size 16 fits me perfectly and is as good as those $2000 (each) GT3s in the Porsche. Mike

It would be worthwhile to get those numbers on Alan's car, for sure, but every windtunnel is made differently and will read numbers differently. Ask any of the engineers who work in them and you'll get an education on the various conditions that can skew results. Swap tunnels and it'll only get even more confusing. It would be great to get a collection of Zcars together in the tunnel that Dartman has access to. This would validate a sub-set for that particular test facility, and certainly be worth comparing to those we captured in North Carolina, just for comparison's sake and to get yet more more set of current data. Mike

Alan, That "magic bullet" comment was geared at the masses. We got a LOT of requests from people wanting to test that piece with the clear misunderstanding (one that several of us had before the windtunnel test) that this one piece could possibly correct all of the areas that impact the aero numbers on the chassis as a whole. It just isn't so, as there are many many areas that simply need to be "fixed" to get the car into more modern automotive aero standards. Funny thing is that the Dodge Viper, for all its "glory" is still very inefficient in the windtunnel as well. Mike

This is pretty tame, and "i think" very acceptable... mike

One of the issues the windtunnel engineer keyed in on at our dyno test in North Carolina was the issue of all the sharp and abrupt edges on the S30. the edges at the top to side of fender transition, the sharp edges at the nose and headlight buckets. He refered several times to my 996Turbo sitting in the parking lot as contrast to the 30+ year old technology of these Early Zs. Here's the real issue though, Do you change the look of the Z so much that it loses all resembelance of a Datsun Z car? I think we need balance here, and maybe baselining a period correct works racecar would show great benefit for improving on the chassis without making it into some transformer-ish car that sort of looks like an early Z... Sort of... It' depends on each owner's goal. And I'm 110% sure you couldn't take $500 in materials and make a Gnose... No way, no how. I almost bought into a fiberglass/composit business. To do it right and make a quality part that will last will cost you a lot more in time and materials than one could imagine. Mike

There are a number of good reasons why that particular test on that particular car didn't fare well... The Car the Gnose was bolted to didn't have enough weight it in, so we loaded the car up with a bunch of "stuff" to similate the approximate ride height of the car. This was not scientific, and was short notice because we didn't have another Gnose candidate. The Gnose wasn't a bad reproduction, certainly not the worst I've seen. However, it was telling to see the results when compared to the headlight covers on the stock Zcar. Let's also not forget that although the stock 240-280Z is the purpose of this site, keeping the stock appearance or performance really has never been a goal for the site. Although we appreciate the examples that Alan constantly presents, the goal is to improve upon the S30 chassis with the most current technological trends from across the automitive industry. Part of that success is learning from our past, and moving forward from there. That Gnose affixed to another Zcar, with the right suspension height/settings with a set of head light covers and a large rear wing, along with a set of ZG flares and a few tricks borrowed from Roddy Sugg's car, would have been an impressive set of numbers... Mike

I was very satesfied with my parts... Didn't get them in the most timely manor, but they look very good. Mike

260DET, Yes, Alan Should write a book or something, because if he continues down his path of attacking members on this board, as he has done since he's been a member, updates to the information he has posted will be nolonger available. Being a wealth of information and technical data is only worth so much. Mike

I don't think the testing of the Gnose on John Tedder's car is a good example of the potential of even a "modern" duplicate of the original works piece. That said, I'd bet a lot of money that a period correct Gnose on the same car wouldn't perform much better. It has a lot to do with a lot of other things related to, but not a part of that one piece. The Gnose isn't the magic bullet. Never was, never will be. Mike

Happy Birthday you old Coot! Mike

I saw several on 2.6 motors that were stock and didn't appear to be worked on over the years. Mike

I ran the SPec Stage3 and loved it when I had my C5 Vette. The Z06 clutch is fine for stock HP and torque ratings up to a stock C5 Z06. Exceed them an you will kill that clutch in short order, so if any future mods are inteded, don't go stock... I replaced 2 of the OEM Z06 clutches in the 2.5 years I owned my vette. After the 2nd one, I went with the Spec Stage3. Mike

Best advice I can give is to draw out the circuits you know you'll need on paper... There is a LOT of JUNK in the 18 circuit kit that you won't need. I carved a lot of wire out of mine. You won't need the power mirror/door/window circuits. You likely won't need the AC circuit. You won't need the Cruise Control Circuit (If one exists). You really don't need the stereo wiring setup, but it'll be handy if you choose to run it... Beyond that, I don't know anything about the SUmmit Racing deal, but the painless wiring has the circuit numbers/names written on them. Just plan to buy a magnefying glass to be able to read them. Mike

Brian, You're correct. The problem is the car isn't "valued" at the asking price. One of our own members had his totalled and the insurance company didn't want to give him what he thought it was worth, based on buyer market. They were looking at it from a property value view point... Those Mark IV Supras won't get a loan value of the asking price, or anywhere within $10K of the asking price most of these people "think" their car is worth... The hype of the fan base for a given platform inflates the price of a given model beyond the reality of the worth, hence the problem we see with the Supra and some other low production cars. Believe me, it's no better in the Porsche market either... Mike

That's the problem Michael... All the "fan boys" will hype this car up the way they did the last generation Supra Turbo. You still can't touch a clean Supra Turbo for less than $25K, and that car hasn't been made since 1998. NADA value of them is in the toilet, but the "purschase" price is still unrealistic. Mike

Tests #25-28 are the SDI Blue Zcar of Roddy Sugg.

Added Vortex Generators - Test #15 MSA Type 3 - Test #16 Blocked upper grill - Test #17 Base model 240Z - Test#19 Test Mule with Flares - Test #21 Test Mule tests - #21-23 settings... Pantera Hatch - test #24

John Tedder's Gnoze Zcar in the tunnel - Test Number 1 The red Test Mule in the tunnel - Test #2 Headlight Covers - #3 16inch wheels - Test Number 5 Rear Hatch Trip Strip - Test #7 Windshield Trip strip -Test #8 BRE Chin Spoiler - Test #9 Whale Tail Spoiler - Test #10 MSA Short Spoiler - Test #11 5.25 Tall Spoiler - Test #12 SDI - 4inch side skirts - Test #13 Blocked off lower Spoiler Opening Test #14

"Our" crowd isn't GMs target audience. We aren't Nissan's either. Any of you guys want to dig up some of the old posts from 2002 about the 350Z??? Most of us felt the same way about that abomination of a new car platform. Now we've "accepted" it. All the "fans" are flipping out over the power levels of the GT-R. Yet none will buy it because it's gonna be about $80K out the door in three years... I know exactly how much my local dealer wants for one right now, and that price will probably stay above the MSRP for atleast another year. And even when it does come down, how many HybridZ members will buy one? Our crowd likes to tinker. Hell, My wife damned near had heart failure when 12 weeks into owning my Vette, I had every piece of suspension torn off it and was knee deep i a Z06 Suspension Swap... She had similar experiences when I removed the rear of the Porsche to install new boost hoses and when I upgraded the brakes recently to 6 piston units... Everytime she's seen me do something like that, she's asked "I thought the car was perfect when you bought it, that's what you said"! Point of all this BS bitching and moaning about these cars is that most of our members don't want the damned cars anyway, just the parts off the wrecks that will become available when some hack idiot puts it into a guardrail and totals it. The manufacturers aren't building cars to our customer market because we don't exist in their eyes. Mike