johnc

I'm not sure how things get all turned around, but here's the story I got from Kurt: 1. No clubs get a guaranteed spot or row. 2. All clubs are treated the same and MSA simply asks that ALL the participating vehicles for that club arrive at the same time. That allows MSA to get the vehicles all in a group as close to center as possible. I know at the last event the HybridZ folks showed up at different times which kinda forced us out to the fringes just so we have extra spaces for the late comers. 3. Many clubs take this very seriously (GroupZ is one), co-ordinate their members arrival, and thus get the good spots near the center of the event. 4. Pierre is a vendor and is given one spot in his display booth to display a car. He is also, informally, given additional spots near the front for his customer's cars because of his long association with MSA and the volume of business that he does with them. Pierre is an exception and DOES NOT have spaces to give away to other people. He has to negotiate with Greg for the spaces he eventually gets every year. So, there's not any evil conspiracy to exclude HybridZ folks from the event and MSA does not hate us. If we can get our collective shit together and arrive with some level or organization AS A CLUB then we should be able to improve our location. But that means getting their as a group before 5:30am guys! Last year when I arrived at 6:00am with my car on the trailer, GroupZ and a number of other clubs were already there in force and they got the better locations.

Stop guys! Let me talk with Kurt and see what's up.

Just watch Monster Garage, American Chopper, American Hot Rod, or any other fab show and you'll see dozens of examples of what not to do. Spend the money on a good auto darkening helmet.

The car isn't what's advertised and the guy advertising it is a wanker. "Steel forged pistons" The first Nissan engine ever built with steel pistons! "Interior was completely updated to allow for multiple seating" 2+2? "close ratio rank and pinion steering" The whole friggin' ad is rank! "Traction bar for better handling." Just one? "High Performance fuel injected 300 horsepower 6 cylinder engine Z Tech block." Amazing! 300 horsepower with the stock fuel injectors! I guess that little Z Tech decal near the dipstick is worth 50hp alone! To answer you questions: 1. Slapper bars as shown in your picture are a solution to traction problems with a leaf spring live axles rear suspension. Wouldn't work unless you swapped in the same type of suspension. 2. Have no idea who Z-Tech is but if I was the owner of the company I would be embarrassed to be associated with this ad.

Most folks can "operate" a TIG welder and lay down a reasonable bead on steel with about 15 minutes of instruction and a couple hours practice. That's an in-position butt-weld on a welding table. Where it gets more difficult is when you're welding out of position, tubing, fillets, aluminum, stainless steel, or trying to solve problems with your welding. TIG requires more practice because you're using both hands and one foot independent of each other to control the weld. Its like learning how to ride a bike, it takes some time but once you get the hang of it you've learned a skill that will stay with you the rest of your life. Don't be cared of it. BTW... for 99.99% of the automotive type welding a good MIG welder with a spool gun for AL is fine.

No racing sanctioning body that I know of allows rectangular or square tubing of any size or wall thickness in the construction of rolls bars or cages. Its OK for the frame itself in a tubular framed vehicle and maybe OK for a formula car of some type, but its not allowed for driver protection in a production based vehicle. For a 240Z used on the street I would only install a roll bar and, maybe, some type of door bar but I would have to spend a lot of time figuring out a good design for the front mount of the door bar.

Dan's fix above worked for me. Look for cookies like: johnc@hybridz.txt johnc@hybridz(1).txt johnc@hybridz.org johnc@www.hybridz.txt johnc@www.hybridz(1).txt johnc@www.hybridz.org and delete them all.

You don't own the car, your boss doesn't own the car, and the police don't own the car. Ownership of the vehicle doesn't change when a vehicle is impounded. It takes a court order as a result of a trial where a person is found guilty of a crime for the property to be forfieted. Remember, the guy that was arrested is innocent until proven guilty. You, the towing service owner, and the lot owner have a responsibility to provide reasonably care for the property you all have been entrusted with. Regardless of whether its a "common practice" in your industry, you stole his car and took it for a joy ride. Your boss is a clown for telling you to take it for a drive and you made a mistake by listening to him. What would have happened if you had an accident while driving the car?

1952 Buick with a straight eight and a Dynaflow automatic transmisison. Drained all the fluids out of the engine and drove the car for 3 months. Sold it for $5 and the new owner put oil and coolant in the car and drove it for another 2 years.

What Nathan said. You don't want to go too big on the piping because velocity is important. Usually the TB will be the biggest diameter opening in the intercooler plumbing. I wouldn't go any larger then the largest opening. 18 guage steel tubing is fine and is the cheapest. Even cheaper then silicon hose if you don't need any tight mandrel bends.

Absolutely! Why would a suspension bolt require any less attention then a head bolt. In fact, a failed head bolt costs you money while a failed lower control arm bolt could cost you your life.

I don't think any production cars are "square." All manufacturers ahve tolernaces and sometimes they build up during assembly and you get a car that's really off. In the case of our Zs, you also have to account for 30 years of use.

So you stole someone's car and took it for a joy ride?

Safety is much more fundamental then what even ZR8ED posted above. Its doing things like: 1. Periodically checking EVERY fastener on the chassis and suspension. 2. Replacing ANY fastener that has even one damaged thread, rounded heads, galling, etc. with NEW OEM or better. 3. Properly torquing EVERY fastener with a torque wrench (you'll need two torque wrenches, a 1/2" and a 3/8" swivel head). 4. Periodically checking every suspension and steering bushing. 5. Replacing ANY bushing that is cracked or worn with NEW OEM or better. 6. Constantly inspecting all parts of the car with the thought in your head that your life depends on the proper functioning of that part at all times. When I'm working on a customer's car, I'm constantly throwing away fasteners I take off the car. I sometimes get complaints about having to pay for new nuts and bolts, but after I explain my thinking, my customers realize the benefits of my "wastefulness." Remember, these cars are 30 years old and in most cases, we have no idea what the car has gone through before it came into our hands.

That thing's a monster.

I don't think the top surface of the ball joint mounting flange on the ball joint is machined parallel to the bottom surface of the ball joint mounting flange. You would need that done to ensure the bolt head is square and true when torqued to spec. You'll also need to ensure that the welded on nuts are centered properly and no lateral torque loads are applied to the ball joint mounting flange when the bolts are tightened. Remember, that flange is a casting and is designd to only take compression loads on torque down. Don't know. Are you planning on racing the car?

Yup. Just find the 4.11 R180 diff somewhere and take it to a weldor to get locked up. When welding the diff the weldor needs to make sure the side gears are square to the diff case or the diff will be out of balance and there will be a vibration.

The helper springs are only available for 2.5", 2.25", and 2" diameter springs.

Turbos attach to the end of the headers. Remember, these were designed for a tube framed race car if my memory is correct.

BTW... someone left a hand held welding mask. You can come by anytime to get it, but call the shop first to be sure I'm here.

Not true. The inside tire does drag a little bit, but at track and autocorss speeds that drag is very minor compared the friction induced by the tire's slip angles under load. In slower corners the locked rear tends to induce understeer but that can be easily overcome with trail braking and throttle application.

Thanks guys. I had fun and I'm keeping Rick's paper so I can de-bug the SR20DET swap in Demon's car if we have vibration issues. He also has the information on his web site at: http://www.tootechracing.com.

Cost is the big reason. For road racing you normally need at least two sets of gearing if you race at different tracks. At higher track speeds the lack of rear differentiation isn't an issue and can be adjusted for with springs, anti-roll bars, and alignment.

Well... is just goes to show you that a person can't reply on anecdotal information. I had heard the same good news about 201 from a lot of Porsche racers and had to try the stuff. Literally in one day of racing (3 hours of track time) I lost the second and third gear synchros. The morning session began fine and then a little graunch started during the shifts at the end of the session. By the end of the day I had to double clutch the downshifts into third and second. Air temps were 105F and track temps were about 140F which may have had something to do with it, but the coolant and oil temps stayed resonable the whole time. I checked the tranny fluid levels twice and they were fine. I've still got the tranny and haven't torn it apart to check it. When I drained the 201 out it was still that nice blue/green color and there wasn't much stuff on the plug magnet. The only change before the PIR event was the change to straight 201.

Magazines exist to make money. They make money by selling advertising space. They can charge more for advertising space if they have more readers. They have more readers if they pander to the lowest common denominator. Look at what's been happening to Grassroots Motorsports.