johnc

From the latest Mark Ortiz newsletter (Ignore the Torque Arm stuff):

Some of you guys don't understand the forces in an impact and how they affect the human body. You're thinking that making a driver's door as strong as possible will help in a side impact. That's not the current thinking in crash safety. All modern cars (post 1995) have something called a Push Block designed into the outside floor of the car. Its purpose is to push the seat towards the center of the car in a side impact. It deforms with the rocker panel and attenuates the impact force while moving the seated person away from the point of impact. The cars are designed with an impact crush zone that includes the transmission tunnel. The crush zone is not just the distance between your elbow and the outer door skin. The S30 chassis has an early version of that idea. Look at the seat mounts - the rears are separated by only the floor pan and the front has a deformable structure design. Look at the transmission mount (especially the later version). Its designed to fold down in a impact and pull the transmission down with it. The side impact crush zone in an S30 is the distance from your elbow to the door skin and the thickness of the transmission tunnel.

No roll cage, roll bar only. Schroth ASM 4 point harness will be good. Real race seats (FIA certified) are good. The car already has disc brakes and the stock brake system is fine if well maintained. No on the side/door bars. The #1 most important thing is to learn how to drive. Not just operate the car (which is what driver's ed, your parents, and the DMV only care about), but really learn how to drive a car.

Fix the coil issue: $25. Fix the no-start issue: $25. Fix the wiring rats nest in the engine compartment: $25 for wire ties and looms. Install a battery hold down: $25 for a good hold down clamp and fasteners. Install a fan shroud: $100 for junkyard parts and fasteners. Fix the intercooler piping: $50 for parts and $50 for welding. Reinstall the correct PCV system: $25 for parts from MSA. Complete tune-up including valve adjustment: $40. That's $315 right there plus a weekend of work. You're not ready for a new ECU or 12psi of boost.

Most likely a spam post got deleted after it was collected in the digest e-mail.

From a related post: S30s are not death traps. There are lots of guys here who were in big crashes in S30s and walked away.

Suspension setup is all about compromise. There are many different ways of setting up a suspension because there are many ways to work that compromise. We can argue based on theory, personal experience, or tea leaves which is the "best", but the ultimate objective measure is lap times and finishing position in the race. There are thousand of examples of driver's winning a race in an "ill handling" car and other driver's losing a race in an "outstanding handling" car (the story of my racing career).

All camber plate setups for the S30 are designed to work with 2.5" ID springs. The stock diameter springs are too large to get any meaningful camber adjustment withing the narrow strut tower. About the best you can do is slot the holes in the strut tower and push the insulator/spring combo as far as you can without letting it contact the strut tower sheet metal. That can give you .5 to .75 degrees more negative camber.

Yes. Very open chamber with lots of room around the valves. The pistons were domed JEs which gave 13.6 to 1 CR.

Let's see if I can confuse this a little more Another issue we're skirting is aero and center of pressure effects from downforce. As the car goes faster, downforce increases, and the center of pressure tends to move towards the back. This generally occurs because cars can generate more downforce from rear aero then from front. This forces an increase in rear tire carrying capacity, which leads to a staggered setup that's less then ideal at low speeds. The more a car relies on aero grip the more likely it will understeer when it has to rely on mechanical grip.

Actually, that's a good point. If your weight distribution is more rear biased then a staggered setup makes more sense, but there needs to be a significant difference in front to rear balance. On my 48F/52R 240Z I ran a square setup with great results. Also, comparing what OEMs deliver to what might be an optimal track setup is incorrect. Having some experience with the Honda S2000 it should be noted that it responds very well to a square setup. The current thinking is to run a square wheel and tire combo (245s for the AP1 and 255s for the AP2 cars) with a larger front anti-roll bar. Bob Endicott's AP2 S2K runs 255s all around. Same is true for RX8s and Jason Isley's car ran 245s all around. And my own 2006 350Z respounded very well to a square 245 or 285 setup.

Why don't you call or send an e-mail to Todd at Wolf Creek Racing?

Yes.

Widening the front track will reduce lateral load transfer at the front and will probably help. I'm still saying the main issue is the tires, especially after you say you're unwilling to add rear bar. Increasing front tire width will not reduce traction on the back of the car. It will increase traction in front.

It might depend on the model S30. My 1970 has an 8mm feed and a 4mm return hard line. 280Zs might have a larger feed line due to the fuel injection system (?). EDIT: I have a 280Z tank in the storage. Maybe I'll wander out and measure.