johnc

Yes and no. One of the more subtle aspects of a splitter is that the front edge (about 3 or 4 inches) needs to actually tilt up a few degrees to pack more air under the car. I didn't do that and relied on tilting the whole part up just a little bit. Yes. Lower the car significantly. One of the problems with making a splitter work is that it has to be close enough to the ground to actually accelerate the air under the car. If its too high (as in my case) the air doesn't really accelerate, it just packs up. This, because of the slight upward tilt, causes lift. I was told that my splitter needed to be at most 3" off the ground. "If you can get all of the toe of your shoe under it, its too high off the ground." - Charlie Cook, ALMS Tech Chief.

Normally you get one made by your local muffler shop or a race shop.

My cell phone pissed me off for the last time. Here it is in the last seconds of its malfunctional life: And here was it after being severly beaten with a 10lb. sledgehammer: But, it appeared to be still malfunctioning, so I gave it a bath in Methyl Ethyl Ketone: And just to be sure, I lit the bath on fire (did you know that NiMh batteries make a loud POP when burning?): Now, that miserable POS sold to me by the heartless, cruel folks at Verizon Wireless is dead. Its one ex-Cell Phone! I feel better now...

That would work but make sure the belly pan is flat and level to the road surface at static ride height from the very front all the way back to the break for the diffuser.

Nope. The wheel for/aft location is the result of design. You would need to move the lower control arm mounts and the upper strut mount.

Sounds like it can lift a ship out of the water. Let's see some pictures of your new Drydock.

http://www.phy.anl.gov/limits04/Abstracts/Sharma_abst.pdf Einstein wrote "mass diminishes by L/c^2", where L is used instead of E to represent energy, and if you multiply both sides by c^2 you get the formula we're familiar with. And yes, Einstein's Generalized Mas-Energy Equation is a derivation of previous work.

Here's an example of a splitter on a 240Z (mine) that didn't work. In fact, it made things worse and at over 100 mph almost caused the car to understeer off the track: I've since cut it up and used the aluminum for other projects.

No, completely wrong... The idea behind a front splitter (and a splitter is the ony way to get a belly pan to work), a belly pan, and a rear diffuser is to accelerate and then decelerate the air underneath the car creating a low pressure area. The high pressure air above the car (particularly in the cowl area and in front of a rear spoiler) then presses down on the car creating downforce and improving tire grip. Its a complete system that must all work together or, at best, you're just creating drag, and at worst, you're creating lift. Splitter A splitter works by accelerating air from the high pressure area in front of the car and sending it under the front of the car. Often small front diffusers are added that direct the air into the low pressure area in the wheel wells. These small front diffusers often have vortex generators to create additional low pressure vortices and the wheel wells must be vented at the top to increase the low pressure draw. Belly Pan A belly pan directs air flow longitudinally under the car and prevents high pressure air at the sides of the car from spilling underneath and disturbing high speed low pressure flow. You do not want any airflow above the belly pan, that defeats it's purpose. Diffuser A diffuser "releases" the air under the car creating a drop in pressure. Diffusers often include vortex generators and/or strakes to control and direct the flow. Diffusers also must be built to specific angles and volume to prevent boundary layer turbulence or flow separation. Again, you do not want any airflow above the diffuser. Also, a rear spoiler or wing is needed to generate a high pressure area on the car's body above the diffuser. Without that, the diffuser is less effective and the center of pressure will move forward causing instability. When you start adding aero to your car, you have to really start controlling ride height and pitch changes. Any change in the car's attitude disturbs the flow and reduces the downforce you're trying so hard to generate. FYI... all the above are general guidelines. If you're a F1 team you can basically ignore them and do what your hundreds of millions of dollars of wind tunnel testing tells you. For the rest of us, sticking to the above will make your aero efforts pay off. Ignoring them just means you're adding weight and drag.

Today is the 100th anniversary of the publication of Einstien's famouse equation E=mc2. But, that's not the actual equation he published. For the physics afficianados on this board: 1. What was the original equation published? 2. How do you get E=mc2 from the original equation?

Simple question, why? http://www.mulsannescorner.com/

BTW... I'm not saying Ackerman is of no value on our cars, but IMHO, its ROI is much less then other things you can do to improve steering (bumpsteer, front track, etc.) Given a limited amount of testing time and budget, I would rather do things like build splitters that generate front end lift...

It sounds like you're asking us to make the engine swap decision for you. From your paragraph above it appears that you've already decided on the L28ET but are discouraged becaused you can't find an engine through traditional auto parts sources. L28ETs are basically sourced from junkyards and you'll most likely have to source on from the US.

Myself and Erik Messley spent a lot of time (more then we should of in hindsight) trying to determine if Ackerman would help the handling of my 240Z. Initially in setting up the car for autocross (low speed, tight corners) we felt that there would be an advantage. We did a little bit of testing at two different practice events and couldn't discern a difference. Suprisingly we found that shock tuning had a much bigger impact on transitional steering behavior (turn-in) then toe changes. Thinking about it we determined that how quickly the outside tire got loaded was the biggest determining factor in transitional response (at least in my specific example). So, we tried a test where we put a 225 width tire on the inside front and a 275 width tire on the outside front and tried a few turns. Although there was an obvious difference in transient (turn-in) response, it wasn't as big as we expected. That stupid little test convinced us that a decision about Ackerman wasn't as important as the time and effort we ended up spending on it, so we went on to other things. IMHO, Ackerman is one of those interesting theoretical engineering discussions that is of little value on production based racing sedans. 95% of the benefits supposedly available to the sedan racer through the use of Ackerman can be achieved through static toe settings. Now, in the world of purpose build race cars (Formula Fords, F1, etc.) Ackerman is of more importance.

There's no way of knowing until you get the car completed, put it on the ground, and set the ride height. For a street driven car you'll want at least 3" of bump travel at static ride height before the bump stop contacts the gland nut.

Buy offset inner control arm bushings or adjustable rear lower control arm. Typical rear alignment numbers are 1/16" toe in or 0 toe.

Weight distribution on 240Zs starts at a stock 51F 49R. The additional weight of an RB and the associated turbo plumbing will probably bring it to 52F 48R is things are done right. 300lb. in. springs are pretty stiff for your 260Z and may result in stress cracks in the chassis if you haven't added some additional stiffening. On my road race only 240Z I ran around 300 lb. in. springs and would not recommend that spring rate for any street driven Z.

Not sure exactly whey the combustion chambers were done the way they were (I'm not an engine guy). I was limited by the rules to 3.0L and the block was o-ringed so that might be some of the reason for what was done. My specific design goals for the engine was a flat torque curve and as much torque as possbile. It peaked at 262 (actually 275 in the final tuning iteration) but what was more important was that the engine developed at least 200 ft. lbs. from about 3,500 to 7,200 rpms. Rev limiter was set for 7,500 and the max rpm was 7,800. BTW... the Sunbelt cam and valvetrain design allowed installed spring pressure 25% less then OEM and it uses only a single valve spring. Car weighed 2,160 lbs. but was geared for road racing (gearing/rpm limited to 152 mph but the max speed anyone say was 146 mph with Erik Messley driving it at WSIR). It would probably suck big time at a drag strip.

Drill a hole in the bottom of the strut tube and use a long pin punch to knock the insert out.

I think of head and flywheel bolts as single use items. Both go through countless cyclical loads over their installation life.

Nope, I don't make or sell them because: 1. Fit issues - its really hard to find a good, correct OEM fender to make a mold from, plus once you unbolt a fender, it changes shape a bit so it would be hard to make the mold dimensionally correct. 2. Most racing classes don't allow fiberglass fenders. 3. Weight savings - 240Z fenders are pretty light. You won't gain much for the money spent.

I think you're adding 2 + 2 and coming up with 5. A turbo works by transferring energy from the exhaust to energy in the intake. To some degree that process is independent of the engine itself. Let's try this example: Turbo A spins at 20,000 rpm, creates 300 horsepower, and generates X btus of heat in the intake. Turbo B spins at 30,000 rpm, creates 300 horsepower, and generates X * 1.25 btus of heat in the intake. Does that additional 25% heat load in Turbo B's intake reduce the expected longevity of the engine? IMHO, probably not if the mixture is correct, the cooling system works properly, etc. Does that additional 10,000 rpm of turbine speed affect the longevity of Turbo B? IMHO, probably not considering how infrequently a turbo is spinning at max rpms (at least on a street car). But, then again, the above might be a bad example.

No. SCCA doesn't allow pink seatbelt harnesses.

Paul, Here's a writeup of the Rusty Old Datsun. The only thing that's left from it is the Sunbelt N42 cylinder head. http://www.betamotorsports.com/products/rod4sale.html

Where you run pistons like this: You can open up the combustion chamber and unshroud the valves for better flow like this: That makes more power then building up the combustion chamber and shrouding the valves.