johnc

Hoosier is coming out this March with a 275/35-15" A6/R6 tire that is probably the perfect size tire for a racing 240Z. Should be about 22.5" tall and 10" wide.

One thing people forget is that Carroll Smith was writing mostly from the perspective of an open wheel car and an unequal length control arm suspension. Essentially an ideal suspension. In our strut based suspensions things are more limited and we have to work with what we've got. Both the front and rear suspensions, while the car is on the road and in a corner, are droop limited by the ARBs. Looking at suspension droop while the car is on a lift has little relevance to the actual droop available while the car is on the ground. On the inside wheel in a corner, the rebound force of the spring and weight of the suspension corner is matched by the compressive force of the ARB. That is the droop limit and is inches above the free hanging droop limit (assuming the shock is taken out of this discussion). This should also give us a clue as to why bigger ARBs are not always better.

From Mark Ortiz's latest newletter:

From Mark Ortiz's latest chassis newsletter: The highlighted section above is why I keep harping about how a properly setup stock 240Z braking system can work better then a slapped together 13", 6 piston caliper setup. Its all about balance and control.

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding! We have a winner! Its a Pig Gurney for launching and receiving pipline inspection and cleaning Pigs. I did like the pork rhinds guess - like a big lathe that peels the skin right off the pig.

Your Mileage May Vary - its an e-mail way of saying your results might be different.

Structural foam can be used to stiffen parts of the chassis by filling voids. I looked at doing that to my racing 240Z and, after reading up on the stuff, I realized that the benefits would be outweighed by the drawbacks: 1. Cost - the proper structural stuff was pretty expensive and I figured it would be about $400 to do all the areas in my car. 2. Repairability - any area or panel that has this stuff stuck to it is basically unrepairable. The panel or area needs to be removed and repalced. 3. Benefits - The siffening benefits are not even close to what you get with a proper roll cage. YMMV... on a street car.

OK, first hint: It has something to do with Pigs.

This is the prototype, which came in to be modified. I've built two others like it that are out in the field working away. Guesses on what it is and what its used for?

From the extremly simple FEI analysis I saw done on the 240Z front strut towers, they tend to twist and bend towards the rear about the same amount that they move laterally. This makes some sense if you look at the chassis structure in front and behind the strut towers. The structure is significantly stronger behind the towers then in front. Also, the don't move in parallel laterally (as if in a big parallelogram) but more in towards each other. The lateral brace is important to keep the tops separated by a consistent distance.

Yeah, what's up with that?

You'll probably want to paint it too and maybe move the toilet into a proper loo. I'm off to polish and dress my statue.

Sometimes, for some customers, I tend towards overkill.

http://rumandmonkey.com/widgets/tests/lunatics/ I'm:

Strakes are really not needed in our application. You just need sides to the diffuser. I mounted my Borla muffler vertically on the left side of the fuel cell and the fuel pump/filter frame on the right side had a sheet of CF wire tied to it. I'm sure the whole setup generated about 5 lbs of actual downforce but I felt it made about 50, so I drove faster through the corners. In that sense it worked.

OK, I have to admit it. I put a Big Ugly Ass Wing (BUAW) on a Lotus Elise for a customer. You might have seen in the a SCCA Solo2 Nats coverage in Sports Car and you'll probably see it in a few othe rmagazines soon. I took the main element out of the AMod BBR Special and mounted it on the engine cover of the Elise. It actually worked very well, but it isn't pretty.

Unfortunately, DE will probably be no more... They have (had) a good product. Hopefully Paul Brown buys their product line.

Updated... FYI... the fuel cell I used was a custom ATL with a 7 degree bottom rise and an aluminum can. There was no mounting flange on top, it was just a big aluminum box. That's why it was strap mounted.