johnc

I'll have some photos soon when the car comes back to my shop. I'm past the high blood pressure part - its like being tortured, you fight and resist at first, but eventually you get worn down and just become passive.

You can run any CR on the street as long as you run the right fuel. VP Racing makes a DOT approved unleaded that has a motor octane rating of 102. That should be good to 12:1 on any L6 and is street legal in all 50 states.

I just got off the phone with Darrell at Kodiak. DHL is coming to pick up the wheels and overnight them to Kodiak's shop in BC Canada. They will immediately machine the center bores to the correct size and send them back to me overnight. Darrell apologized for the mistake and said it was his fault. Right now I'm OK with that. If he comes through as promised then I will settle down and not speak ill of him and Kodiak. I'm still thinking I should have bought a new M3 instead fo trying to build a 30 year old car into an M3 killer.

Some of you may have heard rumors of the hell I've been going through trying to get two sets of custom 16 x 10 wheels built for my 240. Well, tonight I descended into the depths of custom wheel hell. First, my general opinion of these custom wheel makers: Monocoque, BBS, and Kodiak - They are liars, cheats, incompetent, and just plain scum. Second, here's the story. It starts back in September of 2001. I contacted David at Monocoque Wheel in California and ordered a set of 16 x 9 race wheels (my original intent was to not flare my 240). Weight was my #1 concern and I was assured by David that the wheels would come in under 15 lbs each. Numerous missed delivery dates, lots of phone calls, etc. and my wheels arrived in February 2002. They weighed 18.5 lbs each - basically useless for what I was trying to do with my 240. My next step was to work with Bill Baker at BBS. I worked out a killer deal for some super light (under 14 lbs each) 16 x 10 wheels. Bill said I would have them in two weeks. Four weeks later I was told the wheels were machined for 5 lugs instead of 4. It would be two more weeks. 4 months later, after many, many phone calls I was given a UPS tracking number. It turned out to be bogus. When confronted with this fact Bill blamed BBS in Germany (he had been blaming the Germans for everything). I cancelled that order. My latest effort was to contact Darrel at Kodiak Wheel. He eventually came through with a set of 16 x 10s weighing in at 14 lbs (after two months of delays) but the center hole was bored at 2.5" which isn't enough to clear the front hubs. I called Darrel about the problem, he apologized and agreed to build set #2 with the proper (as specified by me on the original fax) center hole diameter of 2.9" and give me a huge discount for my trouble. Now I would have 4 front and 4 rear wheels. Two months later, I just got the second set today - 2.5" center hole! Did you every just want to kick some guy in the nuts as hard as you can - 20 times in a row!

Not sure about the street gas part. I'm making 305hp and I have to run 108 motor octane leaded.

No US 240/260/280Z came with a limited slip diff from the factory. The LSD was (and still is) available from Nissan Comp. Here's some info about the Nissan Comp LSD and what to look for when you take the cover off: http://www.gordon-glasgow.org/lsd1.asp

Drive the Saab as your building a Z. For your first year or two at autocross and track stuff it doesn't matter what you drive. The issue will be you - the driver. Time and money spent on driver education during the first two years is worth orders of magnitude more then time and money spent on a vehicle. And, BTW, fwd can be very fast and it teaches you patience, tire conservation, and correctness of line.

Take the cover off! I know I sound like a broken record, but that's the ONLY way you will know of you have a limited slip. The spin the wheels, turn the driveshaft, or burnout tests will not tell you if its a welded diff, a LSD, or if some guy has filled the unit with sawdust and 140W gear oil. Take the cover off!

Exactly! The issue is behavior, not the vehicle. Wow! Someone from CU seems to actually have a sense of reality!

I've heard rumors of a Hot Wheels movie, similar to the Fast and Furious but with all the various Hot Wheels cars as stars.

From, "I'll look at the control arms if John Williams gets them back from the Sandrail guy..." to John and John going into a business venture. It just seemed to me that Mike needed a little help to meet some commitments. Again, I'll look at the control arms and see if I can fab up a few sets for a reasonable price. Right now I've got 5 guys waiting for roll cages, 846 tools to weld up, and some guy wanting me to make him a second 235" wheelbase sand dragster - and my new shop just got wired for 3 phase 240 yesterday.

> 315 flywheel hp (correct me if I'm wrong, John) > in a 3.0 liter 13.5:1 race motor. 305 @ 6,600 rpm. And again, the only valid comparison between the P90, P90A, and N42 is with stock, unmodified heads. Once someone starts cutting metal, the power producing abilities of the head has more to do with the skill of the cutter then the head itself. Also, flow bench numbers are meaningless without information about compression ratio and cam profile.

Join the NHRA. You get the rule book as part of your membership.

VP Racing C12 - 108 motor octane leaded. BTW... I questioned Jim about why leaded fuel when I'm running closed loop. Wouldn't my $220 Lambda sensor get fouled up? Jim's reply was that O2 and Lambda sensors get lead fouled only from idle and low speed operation. I can expect to get about 18 to 24 months out of the sensor before it will have to be replaced.

I think I've found the answer to that age old question - forklift masts! Bought a used forklift for the shop and I spent 8 hours today scraping and cleaning gobs, wads, clots, strings, and crusts of grease off the mast. And I've probably got another 4 hours of work to finish before I can clean the remainder of that machine.

Take the head to a good performance cylinder head shop and have it flow benched. Be sure to get the printout of the flow numbers on each port at various inches of mercury. Now you have some information to work from. You can talk with cam grinders and select an existing cam grind that would work with the head. Now you've got even more information. If you want to sell the head, your e-bay ad would look impressive with the head flow numbers and a recommended cam grind. If you want to keep the head and use it, you've got a good start.

A welded diff is fine for road racing. Lots of ITS folks run them. The car just needs to be setup looser in the back because the welded diff tends to induce push on trialing throttle.

Most people don't realize this, but brake pads actually grip a thin layer of their own friction material that has been deposited on the rotor. They don't actually "grip" the rotor surface. The whole point of bedding brake pads is to lay down an even, thin layer of the brake pad's friction material onto the rotor surface. So, a new rotor always needs bedding and you're always better off using the same pad material that was used previously on an old rotor.

If you're going to run on a race track (any race track) look for seats that meet or exceed the 24g 8855-1999 FIA homologation standards. Sanctioning bodies are starting to enforce this due to pressure from their liability insurance companies.

8 into 2 into 1 works very well if the primary, secondary, and exhaust tubing sizes are correct. Most vehicles have space problems running a 3.5" or larger mandrel bent exhaust from the "Y" Grumpy posted above. Again, TransAm, Grand Am AGT, and lots of Late Model circle track cars run a large single exhaust when given the chance.

EP cars are pretty damn fast. They are also built to a strict set of rules (15 x 7 wheels for one) so a comparison is not fair. My Z is more like an illegal GT2 car with an interior.

The 352 is a deep skirt FE big block design which first came out in the 332 form in 1958. Same family as the 332, 360, 361E, 390, 406, 410, 427, and 428. It has the same external dimensions and weight (650 to 670 lbs for a long block) as the other engines in that same family.

Measurements from my 1970 240Z. Every Z will be a little different due to accidents, age, stress movement, etc. 25.5" wide between the frame rails. 16.5" high from the bottom of the frame rails to the top of the radiator core support. 14" high from the top of the frame rails to the top of the radiator core support.

Well... you've picked probably the most expensive engine and drivetrain (except for something from Ferrari) to install in your Z. Tilo, a local exotic car dealer, raced a white 928 S4 at NASA and TCRA events and he said that whenever he needed to do anything to the car the price started at $2,000. He claimed that included a simple tune-up and oil change at his reduced ($25 per hour) labor rates. Here's where to start your research: 928 International

From NADA (assuming you've got a loaded Grand Am SE V6): January 24, 2003 1995 Pontiac GRAND AM-V6 Sedan 4 Door SE 145,000 miles Trade-in: $1,710 Low retail: $2,735 High retail: $3,510 Fix the tranny and then sell it. You can get any new car with 0% financing for 5 years.