johnc

Finally saw it over the weekend. Amazing 3D and CGI. Absolutely beautiful! But... the plot sucks ass and the only actor in the whole move is the guy playing the Marine commander. Its Dances With Wolves "Lite" without the mediocre acting ability of Kevin Costner. Not as bad as Star Wars 1, the Phantom Menace but a close second. I actually laughed out loud a few times because it was so predictable, PC, and silly.

You basically have 1.75" of bump travel before those spring coil bind. Repalce the springs with what I suggested above.

The stock shocks and most aftermarket shocks that work in the 240Z strut tubes have 5 to 6" of total travel. At static ride height the shocks are typically in the middle of their range of travel which gives 3 to 3.5" of bump travel. If you're losing 1.7" of that, by your math, you will have (at best) 1.8" of total bump travel assuming no bump stops. IMHO, that's right on the border of needing to shorten the struts for a street driven car. You will need to run a bump stop of some kind which means you'll end up with .3 to .8" of free bump travel before you're into the bump stop. It they are the nice, progressive Koni bump stops, you'll be OK. If they are the standard urethane bump stops its going to suck when you hit a medium sized bump.

No sets have been spoken for. I have a list in the first post in this thread of those that are interested and when I have the side axles ready to ship I'll contact the first 20 people on the list and offer them a set. Everyone I contact will be given about a week to get payment to me and I'll ship the same or next day when I get the payment if by PayPal, Credit Card, or Cash. If paid by check I'll wait until the check clears and then ship. After about a week I'll offer any sets I have left to the remaining people on the list in order. Once (if) all 20 sets are sold I'll wait until I have some more folks interested and then make another production run. Unfortunately, I need to make them in batches of 40 (20 sets) to get the price where it is. I don't have the money to do a larger first production run. Also, for those on the list, please do not send me any money until I contact you. I've already had one person do that and I sent the money back. I'm not going to sell these side axles until I have them in hand and am happy with the quality.

This is HybridZ - of course any wheel can be made to fit. You want a 24" OD by 18" wide wheel under your 240Z? Start cutting. So, to answer your question: Yes, 18 x 12s can fit in the back.

Please remember that the STi is 4WD with a pretty sophisticated center diff in some cases. The R180 in the back is typically seeing 50 to 65% of the power that the engine is putting out. The ring gear in the R180 is 7" and is smaller then the ring gear in a V6 ford Mustang. Keep that in mind.

The 10s are a tight fit under ZG flres and lot depends on the sizer of the tire. 275s will fit, 285s are tight and require a slightly narrower track in the rear and a lot of cutting of the valance in the front of the car. 12s require much larger flares.

Tokico Illumina shocks so you can adjust them to a softer or stiffer setting depending on your mood and new bump stops (shortened to 1"). You'll need to check the springs on your car and see what they actually are. The Tokico 280Z springs are stiffer and linear which should keep your car off the bump stops. You might have to cut a coil or two out of them to get the ride height you want.

As a SCCA tech I would allow the curved harness bar. There's no mention in the SCCA rules about the harness bar being in the plane of the main hoop.

Typically $600 to $800 from the calls I've made.

As of 1/1/2010 this is no longer true. It must be the full width of the main hoop unless a double "X" brace is used.

SuperDan has had a few offers to sell HybridZ. So far he's being his old stupid self and keeping the site for the members. Send him nice "Thank You" messages (PMs) to keep him thinking you folks really care...

Mark Ortiz Automotive is a chassis consulting service primarily serving oval track and road racers. This newsletter is a free service intended to benefit racers and enthusiasts by offering useful insights into chassis engineering and answers to questions. Readers may mail questions to: 155 Wankel Dr., Kannapolis, NC 28083-8200; submit questions by phone at 704-933-8876; or submit questions by e-mail to: markortizauto@windstream.net. Readers are invited to subscribe to this newsletter by e-mail. Just e-mail me and request to be added to the list.

Typical mold abatement solution is water and 5% chlorine bleach. That might bleach the colors out if your interior so be careful.

I sent the PO today to my machinist for 40 side axles (20 sets). The pricing will be $250 each or $500 for a pair not including new studs. If Nissan comes through with the new studs that I've ordered and paid for, then the studs will be $4.96 each for an additional cost of $19.84 per side axle ($39.68 per pair) installed. No ETA yet.

Fix your tach?

The two hoses coming off the carb float bowls are vents. They will also spew fuel if your needle sticks. Buy longer hose and route them down so they will not throw fuel onto the exhaust manifold. Also, you're most likely making a little bit less power by switching to those K&N filters. Making that switch eliminates the stock air horns (inside the orange air filter) which are some benefit to the SUs. There are a couple threads here that discuss this.

My experiences mirror what's posted above except I never tried cryo soaking the pads. Once I started running cryo rotors I never had to surface them again. They just wore down to the limits and maintianed a nice, smooth surface. BTW... I had a set of rear drums cryo soaked and the inner steel surface separated from the aluminum drum once things got nice and hot on the track. Made a horrific noise and the car got all woogy under braking. Once things cooled down in the pits I couldn't figure out the problem until I pulled the drum off the car and the inner surface fell out onto the ground.

The famous BMW 4th to 3rd money shift I bet. Your friend is lucky the clutch went and saved his engine. I was riding with a student who did it on the front straight at Willow Springs in his M3. Engine went boom and we went for a long slide and ended up on the inside of turn 1. Saw two other cars go off the outside of turn 1 after they went through the oil the two big windows in the block left on the track. Track was red flagged for an hour as they cleaned up.

IMHO, if you have to run an exhaust, single is generally better even for V6 and V8 engined cars - although packaging the correct sized exhaust tubing can get difficult as power levels go up. Its been discussed on this site before.

True - based on my experience. I used to run cryo treated front brake rotors when I raced an ITS 240Z and when I raced the Rusty Old Datsun. The solid front rotors on my ITS car lasted much longer after cryo treating then without. For the two years I raced the Rusty Old Datsun the 11.5" x .781" vented front and solid rear rotors were never replaced and Bryan Lampe ran the same rotors on his VARA CP 240Z for another two years.

13s: Sumitomo HTR200. Hoosier A6/R6. Brigestone Potenza RE92 Kumho Ecsta V700, V710, and 722 Michelin MX4 Hankook H727 ...probably more that I missed.

Most 13s will clear the stock brakes.

I'm always amazing when dumbasses do something stupid (Let's burn the tires off!) and then are surprised when they ♥♥♥♥ up their car. If that was outside my shop I would be so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ pissed off and I sure wouldn't want a video posted. Would I ever take my car to those guys?

Jon is correct regarding the practicality and I was speaking more in terms of a pure race car. I tried an "ideal" front splitter/diffuser setup on the ROD but for trailer loading reasons it was about 3" off the ground. It was a big mistake and I pulled it off the car after three laps after scaring myself silly at 110mph. Rear downforce and front lift make for a real big push.