johnc

If you go to my fab album (http://album.hybridz.org/showgallery.php?cat=702) you'll see some pictures of one way of installing a cell. Cost depends on the cell used, type of mounting, and what rules we have to follow.

You're mistaken in assuming the TC rod is acting as an independent link in the front suspension. Its not. The TC rod acts as one of the arms of a lower a-arm. Think of a line connecting the LCA pivot and the TC rod pivot as the base of a triangular a-arm. The LCA and the TC rod itself are the other two sides of that triangular a-arm. The fore/aft angle of that base line on the triangle determines dive behavior, as Jon said above.

I've got a set but shipping would be expensive.

You're just going to have to come up with that list yourself. If I or someone else ever takes the time to come up with a comprehensive fastener list for the 240Z (which year, what options), the list by itself would be worth a couple hundred bucks.

Next time make the title of the thread something meaningful. Thanks. (fyi... I changed it)

A Datsun 280Z with a LT1 V8 is not legal for any SCCA GT class. Its also not legal for any national SCCA road racing class, but within your region look for a Super Production class (SPO). Here in Cal Club that would be your only choice. They would not let you run the car in their ITE class because of the rim width and the engine swap. Buy the rule book.

IMHO... the car is a driver and is not worth putting much mony into. Drive it and enjoy it but find another car to build into a track or show car.

I've never had to cut the OEM frame rails off. My intent when installing the BD frame rails is to reinforce what's already there. Using a hammer, jackstands, blocks of 4x4s, etc. I get the frame rails and floor pan straight and fairly level and then fit the BD rails. It takes a few cycles of fitting and hammering to get things correct. Once that's done I tack the BD frame rails at the firewall/floorpan junction and then weld forward up to the TC rod mount. Then I weld backwards, alternating sides from the firewall/floorpan junction to the end of the BD rail. FYI... the last car I did looked much worse then what you're working with. Take your time and whack away.

The 280ZX semi-trailing arm rear suspension gains negative camber in bump (squat) so you lose some outside tread contact with the pavement.

Last set I did I very carefully heated the sheet metal ring on the new inner to about 200 degrees. I was able to easily peen it over the CV housing without having to make any cuts or slits.

I guess it comes down to power and/or aero. A Spec Racer Ford with all of 110hp should have all 4 wheels on the ground. A 240Z with 350hp can lift an inside front wheel and not have it affect lap times. If your car uses a lot of aero then lifting any wheel or having large changes in pitch angle is bad.

A good welder can get the job done using cheap equipment. A bad welder will screw it up using the best equipment money can buy. Good equipment helps and its a bigger help to the inexperienced then to the journeyman.

Read the stickies at the top of the forums. Also, when building a race car your money and time priorities should be in the following order: 1. Safety - Its all for nothing if you die or are stuck in a wheelchair drooling on yourself for the rest of your life. 2. Reliability - Its a waste of everyone's time if you can't complete (or even start) the race. And no, its not fun to run 5 laps and then work on the car for the rest of the day. 3. Repeatability - Its a scary thing when you aren't sure what the car is going to do every time you get to the first turn after the longest straight. 4. Speed - Its very, very difficult to build a car that can run consistent fast laps over a 30 minute session. Sure, anyone can turn one fast lap and walk around like a big swinging dick, but no one remembers that person during the trophy presentation.

What class?

I can only state what was told to me and the little experiments I did. This was running aluminum offset inner bushings and Hydlar/Kevlar outer bushings on 240Z LCAs. The diff and mounstache bars were solidly mounted. Simply moving the diff forward made putting power down a whole lot nicer. It also allowed me to reduce rear wheel toe-in by 1/16". Maybe dynamic toe was not affected. Maybe stiction in the strut was reduced. I don't have a clear answer as to exactly what was affected by this change but it worked in my specific application.

From the latest Mark Ortiz newsletter: I found the above to be true when tuning the suspension on my 240Z:

When tuning the suspension of the ROD I was not happy with putting power down and was having to very careful applying power at mid-corner before the apex. It was suggested by a 240Z ITS racer that I try moving the diff forward to the original factory location. I happened to still have the parts so I gave it a try. Suprisingly the car became more forgiving about power application and I could consistently give it about 10% more throttle before and past the corner apex. Lap times dropped by about 2% overall. As it was explained to me, dynamic toe change under power was reduced by have a slight forward angle on the halfshafts. To test this I reduced rear toe-in to 1/16", which was marginally stable under power before (and downright scary in Turn 9 at WSIR), and the car tracked better under power. Before I was running 1/8" of rear toe-in which was eating up stub axles. This was with a R180, Quaife, and halfshafts.

Had a neighbor who put a 125cc two stroke Yamaha YZ engine on his mower. First time he ran it up to 5,000+ rpm the steel blade snapped at the center bolt and the two halves shot through the sides of the mower. One blade stuck 4" into a railroad tie and the other shot into the garage and skewered a metal trash can.

Ding, ding, ding ding! Nissan had the diff position optimized on the early 240Zs but there were enough vibration complaints from customers that they de-optimized the position to eliminate that warranty complaint. Putting a R180 or a R200 back in the forward position helps driveline angles.

Yes.

You didn't waste half a day, you spent a half a day learning something.