johnc

No plans to do a CV conversion - there are already two good vendors selling CV setups for the S30. You can buy the CV conversion setups from Wolf Creek Racing and Troy Ermish Racing which will then bolt up to the side shafts I sell.

None right now. I've traded e-mails with Todd at Wolf Creek and talked on the phone with Troy Ermish but no decision has been made yet.

The STi R180 was designed for CV shafts so the stand-out is a bit more then with the Datsun R180. It also looks farther out because I didn't build the stamped steel shield that covers the side seals. The retaining clip is internal to the diff. Run any GL5 gear oil.

I wouldn't be as worried about cables. The turn buckles kinda (a little bit) worried me on Jon's setup.

Abrasive media blasting with an aggressive media. Clean those strut tubes out. That's generally all I've needed to do if I make sure I weld the shortened strut tubes together perfectly straight with no drop through.

Most likely it was development time. 280Zs were carried over until 1982 (typical SCCA Stock category allows for 5 years from model date) while the 280ZXs were being built/sorted. 1980 would have been the first real competition year for the 280ZX for the early adopters. Typical competition for the 280ZX was the 280Z, RX7, Porsche 924, and the Saab 900 Turbo.

At full bump?

Well... I don't know which "GT2" he means. If its SCCA GT2 its a slow GT2 car - seeing that it still has most of its interior tiny tires.

Regarding installing the studs: They are a tight press fit. You should be able to tap them in with a hammer. Wire brush and clean up the shoulders on the studs and try placing the studs in the freezer for an hour before tapping them in. We cut the holes based on new studs from Nissan and older studs may be a tad bit larger OD due to use, dirt, etc.

Skip the convertible. While its nice you'll probably only enjoy it 10% of the trip. The nice views are out the side windows, not up through the roof. Besides, being from NY, you'll probably get a nasty sunburn on Day 2 of the drive. It will sometimes be foggy and pretty chilly in the mornings. Watchout for the cazy hippies just north of Santa Cruz on Hwy 1. Don't pick up any hitchhikers. Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) 1 is cool through Monterey and Big Sur (lots of RV traffic on the weekends). There are a couple nice resturaunts in the Big Sur area that have balconies overlooking the ocean. You'll pay for the views but the food is good. Check ahead to make sure there are no road closures on Hwy 1. We've got a lot of rain here this winter and rock/mud slides tend to take out/close Hwy 1. San Simeon has Hearst Castle, Cambira/Harmony are arts colonies where you'll find some cool stuff for stupid prices, Morrow Bay is a sleepy fishing/tourist town, and SLO is a college town. Lompoc is an Air force town (Vandenburg is right there) and a tour through Vandenburg might be cool if you like rockets. If you jump inland and run down (or up) Hwy 101 there are some other neat spots. Be sure to take a side trip to Laguna Seca Raceway if you're in Moneterey. At Paso Robles if you head east on 46 to Chalome you'll see where James Dean was killed in his Porsche 550. There's also a small cafe there called Jack Ranch Cafe that has pretty good food. Very small, very local. If you're into wine, the whole Paso Robles, Santa Inez area has some of the best Rhone wine varieties on the planet. You can easily blow your whole vacation budget with one stop in Los Olivos. Solvang is a Danish themed town that your wife will enjoy. The Pea Soup Anderson's in Buelton is a good place to stop for lunch if you like touristy places and pea soup. Santa Barbara is a must stop and you can spend a whole day walking around and looking at stuff. Celebrities are often eating and walking around State St and some of the other downtown shopping districts. We've stayed at the Inn of the Spanish Garden. Nice, cozy, and romantic and just a bl;ock or two from shopping, restaurants, etc. A Jeep tour (Cloud Climbers Jeep Tours) of the winerys and back roads is fun. Here's a note I posted on my Facebook page. Its more for people who want to drive fast on windy roads.

For a street driven car mount it in the engine compartment. When mounted in the passenger compartment its far too easy for you, your kids, the car wash attendant, valet, etc. to bump/play with the knob and screw up your brake bias.

Well, first we would need to define "performance" and that's something that not many agree on - as evidenced by this thread.

Make sure the limiters don't interfere with the brake lines and find some way of keeping the turnbuckle from rattling around of they loosen a bit. Looks like it should work just fine.

I think that's Hwy 38 up to Big Bear.

There's some terminology confusion here. The term splitter generally refers to the horizontal lip extending forward from the bodywork/air dam/spoiler that divides the airflow between the upper body and lower undertray. From there you have three main underbody sections: 1. The front undertray which can include a diffuser(s). 2. The mid undertray which is generally flat. 3. The rear undertray which can include a diffuser(s). In general racing practice the front undertray has two diffusers which exhaust to the front wheel wells - which are designed as low pressure areas. The rear undertray generally has one diffuser exhausting out the back of the car with the rear wing positioned to act as a pump on the rear diffuser increasing its efficient by a significant amount. Splitter angle (up, parallel, or down) depends on the front undertray design. If there is no front undertray then the splitter needs to be parallel or pointing down a couple degrees. If there is front undertray then the front undertray design and intended function will determine the splitter angle.

FYI... the 280ZX won the SCCA SSA (Showroom Stock A) championships in 1982, 1983 and 1984 with a completely stock front and rear suspension (except for shocks).

You assembly order is fine. The metal ring is used if the shock is slightly loose in the strut and it goes between the gland nut and the shock. The white plastic disc goes on top the gland nut around the shock shaft. The extra nuts are used to lock the top nut. The bushing is used if you're running a 5/8" spherical bearing as the top mount. It takes up the space between the 14mm shaft the the ID of the spherical bearing. You are missing the bump stops. You must run those with the Konis.

Actually the contact patch total area will remain basically the same. Contact patch size is determined primarily by weight and air pressure. 600 lbs. on a tire will require X number of square inches of contact patch (based on air pressure) regardless of the tires width, sidewall height, diameter, etc. The shape of the contact patch varies based on tire and rim width and sidewall construction.

Build it, test it, and let us know the results.

That's OK with us. We are not an all inclusive site. I do understand your point but our focus here is on performance. I also agree that some of us (me included) focus a lot on track performance, sometimes a bit too much for the topic at hand.

Just a double a-arm setup.

The 18" wheel example I posted above weighed about 45 lbs - 25 lbs tire, 19 lbs wheel, and 1 lb lug nuts, valve stem, and wheel weights. In a wheel like that most of the weight is the center but the mass center could be 9 to 11" out from the center of the wheel, I never did the math and it really wouldn't matter anyway. Having done testing on Toby's DSP 325is we found that the car was quicker to the first corner from a standing start ProSolo launch running 285/30-18s then 245/40-17s. It was also quicker through the course by about 3% with the larger tires. I thought the 245s would be quicker and argued against the 285s to the point that I arranged and paid for the testing setup. I was wrong. We don't have a definitive reason why it was quicker to 50 mph. Toby felt he could launch the car harder and wheelspin was easier to control.

No. I was replying to this statement earlier: But the vast majority of the weight is STILL 17-18 inches from the center of the wheel, The vast majority of the wheel weight is 9" from the center of an 18" OD wheel. You know, the radius of an 18" diameter circle is 9".

Yup. An 18" OD rim generally has the rim itself 9" out from the center.

Yes, but you have to wear gloves and not look directly at it.