johnc

Congratulations and have a beer on me. Just use your own money and I'll pay you back...

Sometimes the spring will bow a bit and rub on the threaded collar. This has a lot to do with the spring and the type of camber plate used. Cheap springs bow easily and EMI Racing/DP/MSA camber plates with a fixed upper spring perch tend to cause spring bowing. The little bit of wear on the threaded collar is generally way outside any normal adjustment range and, in my experience, has never caused adjustment problems.

If the rods are not connected to the crank or the crank is no longer a crank.

These types of saws have been around for a while. Electrical contractors use them for conduit, drywall, 2 x 4s, etc. Its just a different kind of marketing. They are generally accurate +/- 1/4" in metal depending on how securely you can hold it which is a little too far off for me, IMHO. I prefer a very thin (1/32") abrasive cutoff wheel in a high speed die grinder.

No, its not supposed to be like that. I would be OK with a 1mm bow without any pushing on the part, but 3mm is too much IMHO. Its going to put a lot of stress on the front and rear mounting studs and will eventually blow out the gasket on #6 for sure and probably #1.

I honestly think the steering wheel is superfluous in that car. All the steering is done with the throttle.

New rule regarding Group Buys: A Group Buy is a purchase of an EXISTING product by a number of people with the intent of reducing the per unit price by combining their purchasing power. We support those kinds of transactions and the Rota wheel buy is one example of it going well, even though there were a few bumps along the way. What is no longer allowed on HybridZ is Externally Funded Product Development. This is where a number of people pool their money and fund the development and production of a NON-EXISTENT or HIGHLY MODIFIED item by a third person with the intent of receiving those items after the development and production cycle is completed. Any threads that solicit funds for Externally Funded Product Development will be deleted immediately and the original poster warned.

Tony D told me that sprung center clutches explode all the time, lock up your engine, and throw your car over the guardrail into oncoming traffic right in front of a school bus full of little children! You'll die if you put a sprung clutch in your car and dozens of soccer moms will spit on your grave. BTW... I ran a Tilton aluminum flywheel with a Nissan Motorsports pressure plate and Nissan Motorsports competition spring center clutch for 25,000 miles of autocross and track racing over a 5 year period without a single problem. That was behind a 200 hp L28 that we regularly shifted at 7,000 rpm.

Try driving a 2,500 lb. yellow death trap with gobs of horsepower, turbo lag, steering kickback (bumpsteer), and an engine hanging out the back - around the 'Ring. http://jalopnik.com/5216411/faszination-nurburgring-ruf-ctr-yellowbird-reminds-us-to-keep-it-real

If you can, strap or rubber mount the aluminum cell. The local radiator shop sends me lots of aluminum fuel tanks that are solidly mounted and cracked all to hell. The hot rod guys don't understand the fatigue properties of aluminum.

Your father lives on, in yourself - the best tribute your dad could ever have. What tool out of your toolbox are you going to be buried with?

The term "fuel cell" means a lot of different things - from a simple plastic tank hung by straps to an aerospace certified Kelvar bladder in a titanium casing welded into an airframe. A SCCA/FIA certified motorsports fuel cell consists of a Kevlar bladder containing anti-vapor foam and a bolted-in filler plate with anti-spill rollover valves on all plumbing connections. This bladder has to mounted in some kind of container (typically steel or aluminum sheet metal) that completely surrounds the bladder. Sometimes the Kevlar bladder is mounted in a plastic container but that also has to be mounted in a metallic container to meet SCCA/FIA installation rules. Both Fuel Safe and ATL sell these certified fuel cells and you can get either an aluminum or steel can as an option. The steel cans come with a flange mount and the aluminum cans require a strap mount. IMHO, the paragraph above decribes a "fuel cell." Everything else is just a fuel tank.

A lot depends on your expected driveshaft rpm. The smaller the angularity difference the faster you can spin the driveshaft without developing vibration. Generally I try to make the engine/trans center line parallel with the pinion shaft with as little offset as possible. Vertically I also try to get the pinion flange and tailshaft flange/output parallel. Its generally +/- .5 degree. I've heard the arguement that there needs to be some variance in the angles but I've learned the smaller variance, the faster you can spin the driveshaft. On my old racer the driveshaft spun at 8,240 rpm at top speed and there was very little vibration at that rpm.

I'm thinking no.

Those are the few performance engine building companies that know how to make power out of your engine. And going from 150hp to 200hp (a 33% increase) NA is very difficult to do with just bolt-on parts.

Yes. Send your and engine and money to Sunbelt, Winters, or Rebello.

I got brake checked twice at Buttonwillow by a guy in a Corvette who thought I was following him too close on a race track. He was sent home.

You should be fine without the adjustable LCAs. I've installed the arms from Ross at Modern Motorsports and am happy with their quality. You won't have an issue with them.

Normal bushing/spring noises.

The three main contributors to ride harshness are: 1. Tire construction - low sidewall height and/or stiff sidewalls. 2. Tire pressures. 3. Shock compression damping. Spherical bearings will transmit more noise into the cabin but in the S30's case, most of the suspension cabin noise comes from the rear. The more expensive spherical bearings have Kevlar/Teflon linings which reduce noise transmission a small amount.

Yes.

Correct and a lightened flywheel will increase the rate of acceleration of a vehicle. The same as lighter wheels and tires. But it does not increase the horsepower an engine puts out - which is essentially a thermodynamic process. Remember, a chassis dyno measures the ability of the engine and drive line to accelerate a mass and then a calculation is performed to determine horsepower. If you were to hold the engine/chassis at the max horsepower rpm on a chassis dyno (as you can on an engine dyno) there would be a statistically insignificant difference in horsepower resulting from the calculation with or without the lightened flywheel.

It all depends on how low your car is and how you use it. On a street car that's lowered an inch the binding, if it does occur, will probably not be noticed. On a road race S30 car that's lowered 3" or more and is driven at 10/10ths on a race track, the binding will be very noticeable in right hand turns. On a drag car that squats a lot or is lowered it will also be noticeable on launch.

Street car? Autocross car? Road race car? Drag car? Lowrider with hydraulics and spark plates underneath?

Happy birthday Pete.