Gollum

Hot Rodding = Anything that's boss... Ok, that was a joke. I just saw american graffiti for the first time. Loved the over-use of the word boss. Ok, real answer... Hot rodding >= The customisation of any car with anything but bolt on parts. And whos the ultamite hot rodder that I look up too? Foose. I don't know what it is, but everything he does fits my dream profile for the car he' working on. He makes cars that make me say "I had a dream about that exact car". His work always reflects the style of the origonal car, yet is totally different. People look at his work and say, "it looks stock" and that's the perfect compliment. It's when you take a second look at the car you realise practically nothing stock is left. I feel your pain though. There are some real idiots out there that call themselves "performance minded" or "hot rodders" when all they are is gorified wrenchers. You should take the RX7 down to his shop and leave some marks.

Ok, there's a Z that i'm going to go look at sometime tomarrow or friday. I don't have and cash in hand. BUT i'm willing to part with my ZX for a straight swap, depending on the other side of course. It's an S30, I need to find out what year, becuase I'm not gonna buy a Z that i have to smog. Now, my ZX is ultra low miles (JUST hit 33k today) but it needs some TLC. The engine is great, tranny is almost perfect (snycros aren't perfect in 2nd) and the rest of the driveline seems great. The rear left disk vibrates at 1800-2000 RPM and makes a funny sound that I origonally took for tranny noise... It also has some serface rust that would need weld work, not just sand & fill type stuff. The spare area is rusted pretty well too. The interior is 80% perfect, but out of a different car. The car is in great shape other than what I mentioned. Would it be a fair trade for a S30 'IF' it didn't have any rust? The car I'm going to look at looked like it had the origonal paint, wich had some small nicks and such, wich is to be expected. But if it's in working shape and such, should I bother with a trade? Or is my ZX worth way more? I've seen the 280ZX span a HUGE price range on collectorcartraderonline.com so I don't really know what people are buying them for. Ideas? Opinions? Oh yea, main reason I want to go with a S30 Z is the smog deal. I'm sick of not being able to touch my car without worrying about smog regulations.

Warning!!! The fallowing post was written by a big headed kid with a biased opinion!!! Well... The fastest street tuned car challenge BMI had this year was won by a 3 rotor FD. Didn't even have the best power to weight in the field, just had REALLY good suspention and a darn good chassis to start with. I think the FD is the best chassis mazda has ever produced. It's extremelly light for it's size and era and it's fairly rigid. There's not a whole lot you can do to the chassis itself to make the car light, to attest to it's amazing engineering. So if you want to lighten it up look everywhere else first. I totally know what you're talking about though, you get into the car and everything seems to be where it should be. It's just a well designed car (unless you're a giant). I think it has just as much potential to be fun as the porsche. But that's where my opinion becomes totally worthless.... I don't really like porsches and don't know much about them. It's probly becase I've never really liked the looks of them and thus am kinda jealous when I see ones that are fast. If I see a corvette, wich I've never been a huge fan of, and watch it blow the doors off a 500hp stang, I'm inclined to befriend the owner and mention how drooling fast his car is. But if I see a porsche beat a 01' cobra R around sears point, something about it pisses me off and puts me in a bad mood. I can't explain it. So honesty, just pick wich one will be more fun in the end. Becuase that's what motorsports are about, having fun.

I really feel for ya man, even though I'm laughing uncontrollably. That really sucks man. I know a guy who owns a ferarri shop that use to drive an old 80's mazda 626 to work everyday. That's kinda sad.

I think an anaconda would have alot more going for it against a croc, then a python against an aligator. I'm surprised the python tried to start eating before the gator was dead, kinda stoopid. So, moral of the story? Don't eat the whole turkey unless you got thanksgiving pants.

An 81 without power windows, mirrors, cruise control? kinda rare dude. Does the N/A have t-tops? I own a 81 N/A ZX (the on in my signature) and I kinda wish it didn't have power windows and such. It's alot of weight. I also rarely use my t-tops because I'd have to put them back on and such whenever I get where I'm going. I've been driving my car now for just over a year, and have driven with the t-tops off all of three times, and everytime it's great fun, but it's really just kinda of a novelty. The choice is yours. And alot of what you do should be determined by what you want to do with the car. Rust repair is NEVER fun. Most people look at the body exclusively when buying a restoration project because rust is everyone's worst nightmare. Obviously as you might have gathered by now, I'd say sway the L28ET into the N/A car.

Our RWD (read not 4x4) explorer saw some dirt roads a couple of weekends ago 8) I feel so cool to have an suv that's been playing in the dirt.

Hey john... since nobody else said it about me. OWNED!!! My *** feels nice man, real nice. I somewhat understand what you're saying about wanting a rear bias under corner acceleration. But I guess it all comes down to weather or not turning force >= accelleration force. Since tires can only withstand so much force you want to put more weight on tires to keep from traction loss during accelleration and only need as much weight as needed to turn the car on the front tires. So i guess in most cases the acceleration force is greater than the turning force of the front tires, meaning you would need more weight in back. Correct? I guess a 50/50 distro would be most important if you're worried about controlability when sliding. I'll look into the book for by carroll for sure.

I couldn't get to the link in the first post the other day... I'll check again i guess. Looks like it's coming along nicely. It looks eager for road time.

But i bet that 10% is mostly in CA and in the SF & LA area.

i was just gonna say... um... someone doesn't know how to load a mag....

I personally though the SR20 had more support, just not here in the states. The L28ET would be a good choice, expecially since it'll mount right in no problems. And yes, the 280ZX is close to the same weight as a S13.

Dude, sounds like a very favorable situation. Glad to hear man!

freggin' nice man. Looks like a good amount of cancer repair though. fun fun fun. ...and you're hair isn't THAT long. 'I' have long hair.

yea, i've heard that about break in theology, wich is what it all really is. One of the more respected theologies in break in periods for motorcycle motors is at first start up bring the motor to redline ASAP and vary the throttle quick to get the revs floating 1000 rpm away from redline and back again. The idea is the get the piston rings broken it as soon as possible to seal the chamber as soon as possible. And oddly enough, it works. Go figure.

it's due to the AWD + Turbo. And there's no "production" 400HP evo. I can guarentee that. It must have been a shop tuned car. Also, a hybrid won't do half of what the evo does. An evo will beat pretty much anything in it's price range at sukuba except the STI.

18 miles per gallon. I guess there IS no such thing as horse power without fuel. Thanks for the write up.

Learn something new everyday.

Ideal padding would be a gradient padding that is stiffer as you get closer to the bar. But I don't know of anything like that. So maybe go with the stuff tube80z mentioned and then wrap that in the noodle stuff? Just an idea.

I just totally had a visual of a CPU heatsink strapped onto a caliper. It sounds like a good idea, but like johnc mentioned, if you don't have airflow what's the point? Personlly I'd put a fan on the heatsink. They're light and can really help flow air, and they're not THAT big of a drain on the system. And you could even set up a fan controller for certain temp perameters.

it's not THAT good.... Denial? Who? ME??? It's freggin' nice dude. I can't wait till I get some body work done on my car and get it painted. I'm expecting to do 100% of the work, but the main thing holding me back is money, and I'll need a commuter car first... suckface.

It controls the power output from left to right. So the harder you turn right the more the power travels to the left tires, to help the car turn. It's the simplest way of avoiding understeer in a AWD system. The STI AWD just uses a very well balanced LSD system to let the back end slide a bit to create mild oversteer.

kinda sounds like my band situation. I'm starting a new band with the other guitar player behind the rest of the bands back... becasue they all suck and won't ever go anywhere. Doesn't mean it isn't fun, because i do enjoy playing with them. Hopefully the new company will go well. I wish the best for you.

Amen It just needs a bit of TLC.

hmm... those bolt right onto the L28E block right? My tranny needs a rebuild. I wonder what condition this one is in.