johnc

Don't weld in one long bead. Alternate short 1" backstepped welds on each side (flip the strut over). Don't weld too much (heat and filler). Bevel the joint. http://www.lincolnelectric.com/knowledge/articles/content/distortion.asp

When torquing wheel bearings its important to be spinning the hub while tightening the nut down. Its also important to back the nut off a small amount after reaching the specified torque

For what you're planning to do, the cheapest and quickest solution is an Autopower bolt-in roll bar (part # 60170L with the harness bar option part # HMT). Its fine for a street and drag car and OK for open track events on a road course.

What happens on-line, stays on-line... forever!

Here's the size wing you need to generate about 400 lbs. of lift (downfoce) at 100 kph. How much lift will a wing that has a chord of about 2" and a width of about 3" generate at 100 kph?

16" with 275/45-16 tires.

It... was... a... joke...

You have to be careful with the shape of the counterweights. If you end up cutting a wing shape the "lift" will increase the loading on the thrust bearing and cause it to fail.

Mine goes full red periodically. Generally when I give Dan some crap.

Damn! Dogpile! Reading TeamNissan's post again he might be referring to the oil put around the insert when its installed in the strut tube.

Both of you guys needs to find someone else to teach yourselves about shocks. Gas shocks still use oil as the damping medium. And ANY shock that is leaking is junk.

Fabricator (I get paid to build HybridZs): http://www.betamotorsports.com

Adding holes weakens a compisite hood by some amount unless there's an innner frame.

Bill Coffey's (no relation that he or I could figure out) 240Z is beautiful and fast. I'd trade a lot of things for that car.

Wasn't mine. It was never featured in any magazine.

That should tell you something about SCC. When they ran their first Time Attack at Buttonwillow they were all wet in the pants over a max'd out R34 Skyline that turned 1:58s in a specific configuration. Two months earlier my Rusty Old Datsun turned eight laps in the 1:55 range under race conditions in the same configuration.

As DavyZ said above, its really the membership that makes HybridZ what it is. Any decisions that the admins make are based on our feeling of what the membership wants, and sometimes that goes against what one or more the admins feel personally.

Whether and open diff or a limited slip diff will break the rear end loose in a corner and slide sooner is one of those "it depends" questions. With an open diff the inside rear wheel will break loose first and the amount of lateral grip provided by the wheel drops significantly. If the outside rear wheel is not at its lateral traction limit, it will most likely be able to handle the additional lateral grip that the inside rear wheel was providing. If it does slide it will start in a more gradual manner but is more difficult to control. In that case, no rear slide. But, there's an added rear grip loss caused by weight transfer forward because acceleration is reduced. This might be enough to induce a slide. With a LSD you don't have the inside wheel traction loss problem so ultimate lateral grip under acceleration is higher. But, depending on the LSD (and more so with a spool or welded diff) once the accelerative traction limit is reached, breakaway is quicker then with an open diff, but more controllable. So, to summarize, the LSD will have higher lateral traction limit under acceleration then an open diff but will breakaway in a more abrupt manner (depending on the style of the diff). Once sliding it is very controllable with the throttle. The open diff will have a lower lateral traction limit under acceleration then a LSD and will break away in a more gradual manner, but be less controllable once things start sliding. Throttle changes will not affect the slide very much.

Here it is: http://www.betamotorsports.com/products/240StrutKit.html I actually lowered my prices at the start of the year because I can get a better deal on the shocks. I've bought enough over the years that I can now get jobber pricing. Whoo Hoo! You can also save another $200 if you supply the strut housings.

If that was my percentage, I would be running a car at Le Mans instead of an autocross at Cal Speedway. I think the difference might be in what was used to reinforce/span the cowl box on my old car. It was a .095" thick 4130 plate with four .080" 4130 vertical ribs. That structure itself won't flex under the loads from the strut towers. The load from that structure was spread out over a square foot and tied into the cowl box.

The Tabco panel replaces the outer rocker panel (from the seam out). There's no replacement for the inner or the backup sheet metal. Those, if rusted, have to fabricated as in the examples here: http://www.betamotorsports.com/services/RustRepair.html

From a cold start, one minute.

In the past, SCCA allowed an "X" in the main hoop rear braces in lieu of a diagonal bar on the main hoop - the roll bar in my old car was built that way. The allowance was eliminated in the late 1990s I think. FIA also used to require an "X" in the main hoop rear braces with the main hoop diagonal optional. They have since changed that to require a main hoop diagonal. The "X" in the main hoop rear braces is optional unless the car can achieve some level of speed and then the "X" in the main hoop rear braces is also required.

Or safety. There really are sound engineering and field tested reasons why SCCA and other sanctioning bodies specify tubing material, OD, and wall thickness in their cage rules.