bjhines

front frame rail plans... The yellow area under the strut tower is only one thin layer thick... I will add a section there.... the green lines will have 14g steel added.. underside as well... from TC buckets to the sway bar attach points... the purple lines are traingle gussets for the TC bucket and the frame to tower... the red line is a tower to sway bar point stiffener... there are other connections to the towers not shown here.... the outside of the TC buckets will have a connector to the rocker tips as well..

IIRC This panel does not even exist in the very first 240Z cars.... I think it adds stiffness... but it is overweight.... You can tell that this storage area was an afterthought... it has none of the attributes of the other sections of the original unibody design.... I have punched it full of holes... but i cannot use my flanging die on most of them....

I weighed my current track prepped 1972 240Z with stock drivetrain... that sucker has a lot of things stripped off of it.... and it weighs 2499 pounds with me in it and 8 gallons of fuel.... A fella in my club is running a very highly prepared 280Z chassis... with fuel injection.... he has gone through the entire chassis and removed every little bracket, nut, bolt, CF hood, etc... his car only weighed 2200 pounds with him in it and 4 gallons of fuel.... we both weigh about 170 pounds.... I am taking this car even further... I have a HUGE PILE of parts that I will weigh when I am done.... ANYONE who knows what they are doing in this respect will agree completely with my approach... lightness makes speed... EVERY ounce COUNTS.... race car builders get a hard on when they can remove another handful of metal... It is all part of the COMPLETE project... I have ABSOLUTLELY NO concerns about chassis flex.... the damn car is getting a full cage... I have another thread about the "tt cage" and chassis reinforcement.... the lightening goes hand in hand with the fact I am adding a whole lot of weight with the cage and reinforcement.

Here is a drawing of what will be used in the frame stiffening design...

Wow.. that is a reach.... considering it is getting a V-8 installed in this process I would say this car will have "nuts"...

Good quality hole saw and a German drill..... the thin metal was punched with a set of Greenlee panel punches.... the flanged holes were accomplished with a Mittler Bros. flaring die.... obviously I cannot get into a lot of areas with the flaring die... the flaring die also needs a lot of space around the hole.. so the 1" flared holes must be spaced 2" minimum on center.... the actual flared die is closer to 2.5" diameter... though the outside areas can overlap the die somewhat... I read some info about lightening holes and panel punching... I was not very satisfied with what I found.... I just take cues from aircraft information and pictures.... If anyone else has any more info I would love to see it... There are at leat a dozen nuts welded to the chassis panels that were not used in the finnished car.... I think they were there for the fixtures and jigs during assembly.... I am removing ALL OF THEM.... as well as punching and flanging areas that I can get into... Another challenge is the fact that most of the panels that I would like to punch full of holes will open up the interior of the car to exhaust and engine fumes.... soo there are really very damn few places I can go to town with lightening holes....

lightening holes that is.... Some progress on the rear end.... this area will be gusseted to the cage... but it will get lightened as well... the next step is to tackle the front end... there are more than a few things that can be peeled away or punched... like the 1973 frame rail bumper mount reinforcement... this 1973 still has the early style bumper mounts as well... I have a 20 pound box of blanks and brackets I have already removed... not including the spare tire well or any of the damping materials or undercoating..

road courses have long high speed sweepers where you are using maintenance throttle to control the arc the car travels in... you don't put a whole lot of power down in the first 2/3rds of the turn... but the unloading of the inside rear tire can allow it to spin with less than full power applied... Having more aggressive ramp angles... and/or (I guess) more BT will allow you to have some LSD action without a lot of torque on the pinion.... part throttle LSD can be important... A drag race launch will apply more than enough torque to lock the diff and launch wothout wheel spin.... Too much BT can make the rear end unpredictable in high speed sweepers... hence the 60* ramp angles and low BT ratings on the Nismo road race units...

More cage work accomplished this week.... I have boxed and reinforced the upper rear strut towers for the attachment of the rear supports and the longitudinal brace that extends through the door bars and firewall to the front strut tower. pic of the 14g plate that will attach to the rear upper tower.. it will allow tubing attachment to the top of the tower and the front of the tower. fitting the plate... welded in place... ...

well... the cross pin ramp angles are different on the factory and Nismo units which makes a big difference in how the LSD works under load.... regardless of breakaway torque ratings.... any comparisons between the Nismo units and the stock units are incorrect...

The Bently Blower featured on "Ultimate cars" had dual pull through SUs on a front mounted roots blower dating from the early 1930s....

wow... awesome job man... I can't wait to see how your LSD holds up...

It does seem a little odd in this context.... but the right handers are all practicly 180* turns where I am throttle steering.... The odd placement allows me to let the steering wheel give with the tire grip and road imperfections. I have a solid grip with my right hand on the spoke out of view. I play with hand position a lot on track... my normal position is 10 and 2.. unless I have wound it up to the point that I shuffle steer.. then I end up doing that weird grip pattern.... I also has to do with habitually keeping my right hand in a position that allows me to quickly reach the shifter... even though this more habit than need...

Here are the pics of the inside of my airbox... ...

Here are some pics I took of a Ford GT40 with the mentioned aerowork.... ...

Here ya go... speedo hits 145... more like 127-130MPH actual... It'll go faster.. but I run out of straight too soon....

They might not hold the highest standards for center hole centering because of the manufacturing technique... I very well may be that some people occasionally have a problem.... but the manufacturer will not be held responsible for every complaint.... It may be very hard for them to guarantee the wheels are reliably hub centric on a stamped/ punched hole....

Hmm.... A good friend of mine owns a tire shop and mobile changing truck... I have help him mount tires at MANY events... We see the Diamond Racing wheels quite often on budget cars.... Diamond wheels balance fine using the proper sized cone... just like any other wheels... I seriously DISAGREE with anyone saying that it takes a special lug hole adaptor to properly balance them.... We have never had any complaints from people who take them over 140MPH...

Hyashi Racing reverse mount mesh.... 15x7, +4 offset... JT1... we missed you at the event... It was the best weather EVER... I am now officially a THSCC INSTRUCTOR... Vitacco signed me off as an instructor and put me into white group... Even Stacy was floored... considering there are quite a few who have more experience than me that did not make the grade.... I am proud but humbled.... We had a lot of attrition due to engine failures....Kyles 300ZXTT and Bains 300ZXTT both had MAJOR engine meltdowns... both are completely blown... several Turbo Porsches also suffered MAJOR engine failures... A GT3 left oil all over the front of my car.... I think the lesson to be learned here is that TURBO cars basically suck then blow.... with due respect ot Kyle and Bain and Cameron who have all lost their 300ZXTTs to engine failure in the past year on track.... Screw TURBOs... just awful.... nearly everyone with a 350Z had to pull the fuses on traction control and ABS.... brakes overheated and then ABS started dragging people off course....

Roebling Road sure is tough on tires... they are repaving it THIS SUMMER... hopefully it will be easier on tires next season.... they have been rotated several times in several directions... though they have never been flipped on the wheels... as they appear in first photo... right front | right rear left front | left rear right rear right front These have made it through est~ 28 x 30 minutes sessions(14 hours) and ~ 2000 miles of street driving in between... all with negative camber... toe out in front... and toe in in the rear... pretty impressive... They still have tread left but they have been heat cycled to death.... The rear end simply WOULD NOT HOLD traction under anything but maintenance throttle.... I switched mid event to a brand new set of Toyo RA1s and picked up 4 seconds... with better manners. Best time was 1:30.2 seconds... not bad for a nearly stock driveline 240Z without coilovers, without pivot relocations, and without adjustable control arms... I really do need to shift some weight to the rear and find some way to further reduce curb weight....

I hear you.... I just dont see it actually happening... I troubleshoot home brake jobs often enough for people in my club... I have never seen the disk problem either... but what I have found is that peoples descriptions of their problems are inaccurate most of the time... If someone understands the system.. they would not have problems in the first place... It is ok to learn the hard way.. better to learn on your own with help from others when needed.... I would not entirely discount the reaction disk (assuming the pedal does not ACTUALLY go to the floor)... but I would suggest that you bleed the entire system FIRST...

I agree that the reaction disk can make pedal ""feel"" inconsistant through the stroke... if that is truely what he is describing... but the fact that he said the pedal moves to the floor with the engine on leads me to believe that there are more serious problems than poor settings or reaction disk. I contend that he has not pushed very hard on the pedal at all with the engine off... or that his description is lacking important observations. Please explain to me how a reaction disk would allow the pedal to drop to the floor... ultimately it has to move hydraulic fluid somewhere in order for the master cylinder piston to move through the bore. reaction disk or not. second.... the fact that he replaced the master cylinder without ever bleeding the rear brakes is a DEAD RINGER for improper bleeding for the service performed... You MUST!!! bleed the entire system when you replace the master cylinder. good luck... I just finished flushing my brakes with ATE and the car is on the trailer for a fun 3 day track event at Roebling Road in Georgia.... I will catch up on this next week.....

Don't just concentrate on the front brakes when bleeding... do them IN ORDER(front and rear).. and repeat bleeding IN ORDER...you say the pedal is "hard" with the engine off.... well my panis get's "hard" too... but not as hard as diamond...It is relative... If the pedal can move all the way to the floor... under any circumstances.. there is a problem with the hydraulic part of the system... You may "think" that the pedal is hard without the booster helping... but if you push with your weight behind it I garantee it WILL move all the way to the floor with or without the engine on... don't get hung up on the booster and rod settings until you have gotten the hydraulic part of the system truely "HARD"... not just "dickhard"...

Hey... I made a dumb mistake... I added a crappy resonator tip to my Z car... I did not weld it on... It leaked exhaust fumes under the roll pan... To make matters worse.. I drove it on track an entire weekend wondering why I was making so many errors after 20 minutes in the car...I would get carsick in someone elses car after I had driven my own... The engine is in great tune... It did not smell bad at all.. but welding the tip on and sealing it completely definitely fixed my CO problem..

the entire strut can bend... right at the bottom where it is welded to the lower casting... it can pop the weld as well... an IT cheater trick was to bend them slightly for more negative camber.