Gollum

a SOHC 4.6 yes, a DOHC 4.6, not so much. People have made well over 800hp (up to 1000 in some cases) on the stock internals.

I see what you're saying completelly. Honestly, I'm just trying to fix all my issues with the stock look of the car. I think the stock overhang in front of the wheels makes the front end look longer than it really is. In my mind the car looks very unbalanced. Taking off the bumper the car looks 10x better already, but that's just the first step to me. I would plan on cutting the hood to match, and I'd have to reshape the nose a bit to fit the new line of the bucket for sure. I was also thinking I would design mini buckets for fog lights in the valance. In my mind I see a flush clear cover that's covering round fog lights set 4-6 inches behind the surface of the valance. Personally I think this will help the look I'm going for and still keep some of the OEM ideas, and maybe even accent some of them. Wide body is a must for me, that's all there is to it. But i'm having trouble balancing functionality & looks when it comes to blending into the door. I'm also working on rims, but they suck so far. I just can't get a mental image of what I want. Maybe it'll be easy when I can look at the car as a whole. When I first stared dreaming about redesigning a ZX to be the car I want it to be, I wanted to chop the top, but but i'm really starting to stray from that idea. Beucase to do that (even if I had the skills) I'd have to lower the seat a good 3 inches for helmet clearence (might not be as bad as I think once the t-tops are removed from the design) and sitting that low in that car sucks. You can't see over the hood very well. When I sit in the car I really respect the designer's choices becuase it's the "feel" of the car that made me choose it over the S30 at the time. As for the back, I'll be removing the bumper and making the whole back end more flush. Not 100% positive on what I'll do, but I think roud tail lights (something close to R33 skyline) will be used. Mirrors will be a big issue for me. I want them to have good aerodynamics, but I still want them to have good visibility. The stock one's aren't great and I think I could really improve them. I think that's close to all the basic ideas covered. Motor is still undecided, and the cage extent is also undecided. Origonally I wanted to go crazy insane nascar reinforcement but I've starting leaning more towards a 6 point that's as hidden as I can get it. I think my priorities have changed becuase I don't want this to be a track only car anymore. I want to retain the good nutral nature of the car. So it might end up seeing some track days, but nothing wheel to wheel I think. After all this body work I'll be too scared to ruin it. That's kinda the reason the car's goals have changed (that and I've decided a fully track ready ZX to my liking would weight 3000 pounds easy) Man, that was a whole lot of typing for how little informaiton I feel I expressed. Thanks for the responce blueoval, It really means alot. I've loved the look of your car from day one here. Not 100% my style, but seriouslly sexy still. To me it looks like it has a bit of a daytona coupe in it, wich is one of the better looking cars of it's era to me. EDIT: I realised that my side shot you couldn't see enough of the front end to get a good mental image of the relation to the stock valance and wheel well. So here's a better picture.

Ok, not sleeping pays off. It's past 4am and I've finished a rough 3d render of what I'm going for when I eventually get to body work on my car. Here's the origonal bucket, somehow I screwed something up and didn't have a vertex I expected to have on the right edge (the knife edge sharp looking area), so there's some minor inconsistancies like that. wireframe is always nice so you can see what's really going on And MY version that I just mocked up in the last 20 minutes. I'm going for the dual circular headlight style like in drftn's scketches, but I'm going for a wider stance for the bucket all together. I haven't drawn up the headlights themselves yet, but all in due time. You'll also notice it's a bit shorter in length than the stock unit. I want to create a clean look once the bumper is removed. I hope to fill in the missing bumper with some FG and then get an air dam I can modify to kinda have a "smoothed mach 1" look. We'll see what I come up with in the coming weeks as I progress through this mess of idea creation. So here's what I got so far. So comments? Opinions? Flames? Bring them all, they're all welcome. And I plan to have the whole car modeled/rendered in about month with stock/mine versions for every part.

^ smart lad. I wouldn't say that's ALL that matters to ford though. Ford has yet to produce a good halo car for the company other than the GT500. It will sell stangs for sure, but there aren't any other halo cars at all. You could call the ford GT a halo car, but it's got no cheep sibling for it to actually help sales for. The GT is actaully a good example of ford trying something new. GM in the past has been mostly about quantity sales (wich is changing for the better ala cadillac) and dodge hasn't been drastically different than the two. This helps explain the serious lack of supercars. Call all the american "superbeasts" "supercars" all you want. They're still not ferraris. The mustang will sell well. But I've lots much respect for the stang. Maybe I'm just growning up, but it seems to me the new chassis will never be a viable option for me for any project. It's a shame, beucase I want to like them so bad. BrandonZ made a good point that most people don't realise. Manufactures must attain a certain "emission average" so in order to have a viper there has to be a neon. For a mustang there has to be a focus, and for the GT500 the "emission friendly" focus. GM has this concept nailed, platform build and make a ton of model variants. Honestly I think the fact that they had so many V8s in thier linup is genious. It's amazing, and it's rare that the buisness side of GM grabs my attention like that (at least i'm honest about my feelings. just know i KNOW they're feelings and not facts). Dang I talk too much. EDIT: Responding to mike just below me The joke me and my brother have is that if it's a convertible V6 it's GOTTTA be a woman. Beucase only an idiot of a man would spend that much on a stang and not get a V8... Majority of miata buyers are women, but they're still popular among racers and are common club racing cars. The percentile of female interest is purelly a looks standpoint imho. I don't factor that into my perception of a car (or at least that's my ideal). Although if one cared about what other people thought, this might be a serious factor. To be fair, a local student here (pinole CA,) got a BMW M5 for 'her' 16th birthday... There are women in every car sale, on the title or not so the argument is moot (i'm just having fun with ya, please be light heared about it 8) ) I think though out of all muscle cars, the "girl muscle" car has to be the mustang. The GTO might take the cake for the classics, but over the years the mustang has proved it's appeal to the opposite sex.

You know.... as much as this topic has kinda seperated some of us, it's amazing how well we all take it compared to these other boards. Most of the people here at least appreciate it on some leve. Most of the people so far that don't like it just state "they're prefference" not like "gosh whoever did that should burn at the stake". I love it here.

I'm on the younger side, and as such don't have the same attachment to V8 power. But I LOVE mustangs. I don't admit that much because for the most part most stang owners are idiots, and rightfully so, with how many are sold every year. Between me and by bro (bigger stang fan than me) we know production numbers, trim options, engine options, ect. for almost all mustangs (mustang lls aren't mustangs). We've both been accused of being able to smell mustangs coming becuase we'll say something like "nice 68 fback about 6 cars up" and there will be like 2 semis blocking the view, and after a couple of minutes someone will shout "I see it!" and we'll usually even be right on the motor it has in it. I don't say all this to boast. I just say it to show how much I love the mustang. I honestly didn't know how my brother would react to this swap when I first saw it. But it turns out he's just like me, it's a great idea. Maybe not the perfect motor for the car, but absolutlly awsome for the fact that it's got as much if not more power potential than any ford production pushrod V8 and it's unique, wich means it's more than just a mustang, it's "someone mustang." I always love to tell my brother about all these cool things people do to Z cars and he's always like "why do all that work when it's not even a Z at that point" and I'll simply reply "becuase this way someone ends up with a car better suited to them than any production car and it's a cheep foundation that's a good starting point" to wich he usually reconsiders and agrees. Cars are about enjoying them. It doesn't bother me if someone admits "that mustang wouldn't be for me, and I couldn't enjoy it". That's fine. What I can't take is "oh my GAWD that shouldn't be done. He just ruined that car". Would anyone here be mad if someone took a 280Z and made it look like a AE86 and put a 100hp NA 4 banger in it? I seriously doubt anyone would get hot headed about it. Now, if this were a 67gt500 and someone put a rb26 in it... well, i would be pissed at first, but I might get over it. But those are truly rare, and works of art at that. If the AWD was transfered I might be able to get over it. For me it comes down to this. Cars are ment to be driven. Museums are for things that don't work anymore.

NON T-TOP! :drool: I don't care if it's running or not, that car alone is worth at least $400 to me running or not. Livermore eh? That's not too far from me, I should convince the local bank in my house (parents) to loan me some money. I doubt the money would be the problem, but space would be. As it is we don't have any room for ONE more car, let alone two. ...maybe a storage unit...

Hey I've got a good idea. Since many of us seem have similar PC game collections we should setup "events" so to speak so we can set aside some time to race with other HZ member. Just a thought.

The main issue is that the pillar is 100% on it's own just floating there. There's not a single line on the car that gives that little piece some symetry. I've been looking for an alternative for this puzzling little section of the ZX. Maybe I'll start up some photo projects I was working on now that you've mentioned it. I'm currently trying to 3d model a ZX with the body i'm going for, but it's proving difficult making the little desisions. I hope to have some good 1st draft renders in a month or so. We'll see what I've decided about the B-pillar by then... hopefully...

if you're gonna do all that work to put in a different IRS setup why not go withsomething that's double wishbone type? There are many cars to choose from. But the suspension of the S13 has really proven itself. They're some of the best cars for tight & technical courses (ie mountain racing). But it call comes down to money. They're not great out of the box and needs lots of modifications just like anything out there. Personally, I'd be looking at miata suspentions. Dual wishbone on all 4 corners. As long as it's strong enough it would be great. It's probly about as light of a setup you'll find too.

I wouldn't touch socket A. Sure I have one and it's still awsome for it's era, but it's a dying breed. You can get into an AMD system for near the same price with much more potential for the future. Dual core support has nothing to do with the mobo or anything else other than you cpu. XP reconises it just as a normal dual cpu setup. dual cpu might be an issue in 98, but i know it's possible. Your optical drives should be fine. The graphics car is fine, I run a 9700pro (read: 9500 solder modded) and it still run most games at 1280 X 1024 at good FPS without all the fancy filtering. I personally wouldn't get a SLI board. Radeon has proven the X1500 can give the 7800 GT a run for it's money. ATI hasn't made a crossfire (ATI's SLI name) version of the X1500 yet so dual card they don't compete yet, but crossfire is already proven that it can look superior to SLI for image quality. I try not to discrouage people from buying a name I don't own, I just try to show people all the facts. If someone earlier had told you to buy ATI all they way, i'd be arguing more for Nvidia. Just in: Asus has just released a dual core SLI 7800 GT, so you get quad GPU. ...needed? not really. Fun? OH yea. Would you personally see the difference between that and something 1/3 the cost? No. So check list. Case: Depends if you want to reuse the old one. I sugest a good case becuase cooling is much better and a good case tends to be quiet as well. Hard drive: you seem to have plenty. Buy more if you really think you'll need the space. Optical drives: You're set unless you want a DVD R Mother board: Gigabyte, Asus, DFI, MSI are all good brands CPU: An entry level AMD64 would be fine, I run an athlon XP 2700+ and I do 3d modeling... Graphics card: You're fine with what you've got at the moment. But getting a quality mobo with an AGP slot is hard nowdays, and if you get a mobo with PCI express you'll have to buy a new graphics card. Decent cars that won't be a waste of money start at aroud $110, and I wouldn't spend more than $200, beyond that 200 mark you loose value. Sound card: almost all mobos come with onboard sound, but a good card is always nice. A well made 2.0 card can be better than onboard 7.1 LAN: Well, you said you have some, but it's always nice to have gibabite ethernet onboard. RAM: 512 is a little low nowdays. I run 768 of close to the best PC2700 (DDR 333) ever made. And it's by far not enough. I'd consider 1GB (512x2 for dual channel ram) a good number so you wouldn't have to put more in for a while. PSU: 400W MINIMUM. Remember, higher wattage doesn't mean more power consumption, but more power availability. Now, power supplies have an efficiency rating and the more efficient it is, the less power it will actually used to distribute a given power to the system. I like antec & silverstone PSU's for thier quality, matched with quietness. I believe that's everything. I'm on aim & msn all the time. Feel free to stop in and say high. PS: I build high performance systems for games for a computer service/repair company But I still wouldn't recomend paying someone to build you a system becuase it wouldn't be cost effective over buying a system unless you're spending more than the 1k mark. Wich you could be well within 8)

LOL, MCO compared to LFS?!?! Don't get me wrong, I loved MCO, but that engine when on to be thier main arcade racer platform, and thus gave birth to NFS:Underground. It wasn't physics that mad MCO awsome, it was it's part's system and thier effect on the car. Now, the LFS modding has REALLY got me interested in LFS again. Being a programmer that might actually make the game entertaining for me. Sure the game was always fun, but I almost view it as pracetice, not entertainment. Because of the lack of feeling from the car's movements like real life it's much harder to driver under the same physics, wich is why most games out there have simplified physics. LFS really forces you to pay attention to the little things that a car does. I'm picking up GT legends today, we'll see how I like it EDIT FOR CRUEZ (didn't want to generate a new post): Part of my problem with MCO physics might be due to the fact that I never truly experienced them. With 56k dial up (no broadband availible at the time) my car skipped all over the place until much later versions of the game that let the player seperate times from the other players, so winners weren't calculated until everyone had crossed the finish line. The community started out great, but the game wasn't very good. The game got much better at time when on but the community went down hill. I was still having tons of fun even until the last time I logged in though. Truth be told the #1 reason MCO was closed was because EA wanted the servers for "Sims Online." Don't believe me? That's ok, beucase I know two people who were EA employees at the time that I had investigate the whole thing. MCO wasn't making decent profit and wasn't growing as much as they'd hoped, and the didn't have as much money as expected for servers for the sims online. So the MCO servers helped ease the launch of the sims online. Gotta love video game politics.

One of my friends recently got back from marines... During boot camp he caught pneumonia but they kept him in a normal schedule. He soon developed a bad case of viral pneumonia and his lungs are now permanently damaged. The military paid for all the medical and now they're giving him full benefits for life... Not too shabby for just boot camp. When I saw him for the first time since he got back he weighed only 110 pound, and he said he was just dissapointed they won't let him go back in. Truly a different breed of a man. I hope everyone has a great christmas! Dispite what people/media say, this is still a great country, if you just look for it. I hope everyone's holidy wishes come true

And a whole clip would be better, becuase you'll be guarenteed all the sensors, wiring, ecu, throttle cables, clutch cables, master cylinder, ect... Those "little" things really add up in the end. I've always been a fan of donor car building or clip building. Makes it all much easier. It's even better for FF cars (obviously not any of our's case) because they assemble the whole front together on the assembly line and then attach it all later. This means you cut off the front you've got virtually a 100% working drivertrain. The main difference for FR cars is that you don't usually get the drive shaft or differential. And you probly wouldn't be able to use the stock S2k parts for that anyways. Also, I'm assuming this is going into a presmog car. Becuase if you were gonna have to smog it you wouldn't want the JDM front clip. You've have to convert much of the efi system to the USDM version to smog it. Just a note. But if you make sure it's reversable then you can always just swap motors to smog

^ one of the best soundtracks I've ever bought. don davis did some great work. I really like the rob dougan songs as well. It's so awsome that thee main names created all the music for the second two movies and they all blend so well that you'd thiink one person wrote all of it. Back on topic... I know what it's like to drive by mirrors. First time I drove a mountain pass I had a 95 cobra literally glued to me the whole time. I don't think he ever got more than 10 feet from me (not kidding!) so inevitably I came it too hot and ended up sideways. I was lucky, but it was what little skill I had at the time that kept my car from hitting the mountain side.

I just realised this would be a good thred to post this in case anyone's wondering... The GT4 wheel "Driving Force Pro" works fine on XP and is true plug and play. For older windows systems you just need the logitech "wingman" drivers (or at least I think that was the name of the identical PC wheel. If you search thier product line up you'll find the identical wheel with a different colot scheme). I love this wheel as it's capable of insane feedback that can feel stronger than a car without PS. 900 degree turning is nice too I don't think the PC version works with a PS2 though. But I just thought some people here might like to know this little tidbit. And mikelly, it's probly a game/OS problem. These kind of things are the main reasons games have patches to begin with. But as many game comapnies say "if it works fine, don't worry about updating." Well, you're isn't working fine, so I'd look for the latest updates.

Even NA motors have come along way. Show me an NA V8 with 140hp per liter. The S2000 did it with a good honda warrenty But true, most jap motors that have huge potential rely on force induction to get there. But they can still take more of a beating on boost than most V8 motors. 8) In my mind they're all equal until you're going uber high HP drag only. I can get 600hp out of a honda 4 banger, but at the cost why? I could build a 900hp 2jz, but at the cost why? I could build a 400hp V8 for next to nothing.... I could build a 800hp V8 for cheeper than most any motors. I personally preferr V6s for NA aplication for thier reduced weight, but V8s are so dirt cheep the build by comparison to most motors out there. Is there anyone out there that's had to fork over the cash for good proven race cams on a 2jz? Dang those cost MONEY. It's all personal prefference, but all cars have potential with money, wich is why I can't understand why so many people "hate" so many motor/car combos. Lucky us we're better than that here.

meh, if you want to make better videos, you won't want me or anyone else to tell you what to do, so I'll just say this "make lots of videos." Experience in it is key, just like photoediting. Good though. Audio was thought out so + on that Was kinda cool to watch that evo fly by. Man I love seeing those at the track. I think too many end up with owners that don't really understand what they bought. Car sounds great too

mikeelly, it could be your graphics driver. If you're cpu is overclock that could be an issue. Expecially if it's an amd. cruez, he probly means the horrible graphics and the very low techness of it's presentation.

Ok, I wanted to reply to the "how to tune for less turbo lag" but I would have been entirely off topic. To understand why I'm posting this, go read that thred. Ok, I'll prove simple physics with a simple 4th grade science project. For this you'll need 1. A glass jar 2. A Latex glove 3. A popsicle stick 4. A rubber band. 5. Simple scotch tape Cover the opening of the jar with the letx glove and wrap the rubber band around the end so the surface of the latex is flat and tight. Then tape the stick to the top with one end in the middle of the jar opening then going directly out. It's good to extend at least a good 2" off the edge to get a good readout. Now put the jar in the fridge/freezer. Then check on it in a couple of hours. If the seal around the edge was good you'll notice a slight concave in the surface and the stick will be pointing up. Now take the car and put it in direct sunlight, or even better, a black car. Once you've given enough time check on it again, you'll have a convex bubbleing out with the stick pointing down. This simple little test shows that hot air requires more space for the same mass. The molucule count hasn't changed (to a noticable degree) but the space taken has changed considerable. If you wanted to pass the mass in the jar through a given nossle you'd have to propell the hot air faster to get it all though in the same amount of time as the colder air. Anyone with some firm physics grounding should now be able to understand why heat is GOOD for turbos. In the test we're talking a difference of 100F degrees at most (depending on where you live) but the temps between exhast at the muffler tip and the exhast manifold are MUCH more different. So difference are much more dramatic. Now, with turbos it's still air that's turning the turbo, but for STS to try to sell people on the fact that thiers is more "eficciant" is BS. Sure thier system creates power and it's very reliable, but I'd never use it in any serious engine simpley because the same parts can make more power with more heat.

My brother's 93 cobra would light up the pipes upshifting at night, and get some good minor flames coming out when pushing it hard and then getting a good downshift that brings it up to 5k. It had 4 cats (CA model) and it was completelly stock... If you just take a cat out of most cars you can get the tail pipes to light up at night. I've also seen fairly stock cars in japan though some good flames visible in daylight (BMI comparison races). So to some effect almost all cars have excess unburned fuel under some conditions. If this wasn't the case why would a EGR do anything for emissions?

dang, that's pretty sexy. I'm gonna go hunt down the origonal to that pic and take a swing at it. Just a though, black on top blue on sides with black ZG flares oooOOOooo

oOo, the back is very close to what i've been envisioning. The sides aren't quite the direction I'll be going, but neither was your front. It's still hawt enough to get my bloob pumpin though. The lines of the second back shot are just awsome. The top doesn't look chopped at all. Is that supposed to be stock? I understand you like to take your time with your work, but man keep these coming, they're awsome. Great motivation/inspiration.

I LOVE MY 280ZX POS! Ok, i just had to get that off my chest. But I really do like it. I drove several S30s before I bought my gold ZX, and I just really like the way the ZX drives. No major understeer, in fact it feels very nutral. But I think if I had waited longer to buy I either would have gone with a 280ZX turbo, or a presmog 240. As it stands I don't think i'm gonna buy a S30 for my first ground up build. I really want to see the potential of these ZX cars. They get bashed on alot, but I don't really see the reason. Sure they weight more, but they came with alot more comforts. Removing all the extra stuff to reduce it down to a S30 trim type would provly show that it's not much heavier than a 280Z. Like pop n wood mentioned the ZX didn't do as well on the SCCA, but i'd atribute all of that too suspention desgin. And who ever said you can't modify it? Even the S30 is dated in alot of areas. Nessesity is the mother on modification It seems to me most people just don't want to have to do so much work to get a car to handle well. The ZX also doesn't quite look as good, but comaring the two I'd take the ZX as a base point. I think it has dimesions that I could get a look I like out it easier.