johnc

You guys got it figured out. You want the front and rear suspensions to oscillate at different frequencies. In many cases shocks can dampen short moments when the springs oscillate in opposite phase, but you want to keep that from happening. If you drive a car with this problem it often feels as if it needs more rebound in the shocks. Sometimes this leads you down the path of stiffening rebound so much that the car is picking wheels up off the ground.

> John, what kind of mods to make that kind of > power? If you're referring to the ITS prepared L24, the SCCA Improved Touring rules limit modificattions to: 1. Head milling to the max specified by the manufacturer. 2. Compression ratio 1 point higher then stock regardless of the modifications. 3. Stock engine internals. 4. Stock intake except the air filters can be repalced/modified. 5. Stock distributor housing by you cna use an electronic trigger and coil. 6. Exhaust system can be modified. That's basically it. Totals parts price for modified parts (the exhaust and ignition) is easily under $1,000. The horsepower numbers quoted above come after hundreds of hours of meticulous machine and assembly work of the stock parts. That's why an ITS prepared L24 (and L28) costs over $5,000 - its all in the labor.

Don't buy it.

Hint: springs oscillate at a specific frequency depending on rate.

Always remember, stock piston, cam, head, intake, and carburated L24 ITS engines are making close to 200hp at the crank and 170 to 175 rear wheel horsepower. Preparation, preparation, preparation! Just slapping parts on a motor doesn't cut it.

The term "rice" has been around a long time and it generally refers to any Japanese vehicle. I remember Harley guys from the early 1970s referring to Honda 750s as "rice burners." Its traditionally been a derogatory term when referring to the vehicle (rice burner, riced out, etc.) and when referring to the person (ricer, rice head, white rice, brown rice, yellow rice, etc.) With the increased respectability that Japanses cars and racers have achieved the derogatory aspect of the term regarding the vehicle have decreased. Its still a derogatory term when referring to a person.

I think John Perner at CCW has stopped making custom wheels. He stopped by Erik's shop on the way to SEMA and he's focusing on one peice castings. Having gone through custom wheel hell for the past year I think I understand a lot of the problems these vendors have with suppliers. This is what I was told: Almost all of the rim halves used in making custom wheels use 6061 T0 aluminum flat stock. Alcoa was the last supplier manufacturing this specialty material and they stopped in late 2000 when the cost of electricity went through the roof. The available stock was then hoarded by two distributors. Recently, Alcoa has said they are going to start up 6061 T0 flat stock production "soon." The two distributors have started releasing more of their hoarded material so things are easing up a bit. Custom wheel vendors were caught in the middle and have had trouble giving and meeting delivery dates. Again, this is the story I've been told by two different wheel vendors. Whether its true or they were just feeding me BS 'cuz they couldn't get me my wheels, I'm not sure.

They are made of fiberglass and I purchased them in March 2002. Mine have been cleaned up and paintd black.

Say you've got a car with equal weight distribution (50/50) and equal wheel rates (struts all around). Why wouldn't you run equal spring rates at all 4 corners? No prize for correct answers.

I think you have the basics in place. Now its a matter of testing and tuning spring rates, anti-roll bar sizes, shock adjustments, and alignment settings. My suggestions: Spring rates: 175 front 200 rear Anti-roll bars: 1" front 3/4 or 5/8" rear Shock settings: 1 or 2 front 3 or 4 rear Alignment Front Camber: 1.5 negative Caster: much as you can get - try for 6 degrees positive Toe: 0 or 1/4" out Ride height: 6" measured at the bolt holding the bottom of the front fender on the car Rear Camber: 1 degree negative Toe: 0 or 1/16" in if you can adjust it with offset bushings Ride height: 6.50" measured at the end of the rocker panel If I had a performance street Z this is where I would set things.

You can go which ever direction you want. First figure out your intended use, how much money you have, what level of comfort and handling you want, etc.

MSA sells the ones pictured above. I bought my set from them and here they are on the car (scroll tot he bottom of the thread): Defcon 2.5

The stock cam would be the best for a good combination of bottom, mid, and top end power. And with the stock cam, bigger injectors won't help.

Going fast in a straight line is easy: 122 mph, turn 8 at Willow Springs.

spotfitz was watching the same show as me...

I heard that the 4.6L 4 cam engine is wider then the old Boss 429. I've got a V10 in my F350 with the Gale Banks system on it (headers, 3.5" exhaust, intake, chip) and I love the thing.

What's the fastest a man has ever gone without a vehicle?

Air nibbler. Opened the wheel wells on my 240 perfectly and it took all of 5 minutes for all 4. It took more time to draw the cut lines.

> Also, it was my understanding that, although > the needle has reached the maximum point of > it's travel at roughly 4-5k revs and can't > adjust mixture anymore, it is NOT all the way > out of the nozzle at this point, a small > section of it, fractions of an inch, still > extend down into the nozzle. Is this not the > case? I don't remember if that's true for a stock SU. I've seen a number of SUs prepared for ITS where the needle is all that way out of the jet, but those engines are run WOT almost all the time.

Its most likely not been done before. If you do it, let us know all about it.

Whoo Hoo! I learned something today. Thanks.

the 71B transmission is a pretty strong and reliable one, plus they are easy and cheap to rebuild. The weak points are the roll pins and the synchros. I don't know much about the roadster transmissions but I assume they are similar to the type A untis found in the early 240. Those were marginal for the 240 applicaiton.

Years ago Erik Messley, Rich Maloney, and Javier Guiterrez (two ITS regional champs and an L6 engine builder) spent about a week with calipers and an engine dyno comparing every single type of SU needle and jet that would fit in the Hitachi SU. All three ended up agreeing on a certain profile to help mid-range torque and it wasn't any of the profiles available over the counter. They used to grind their own. Of the ones available over the counter I think they preferred the N47 - but I could have that number wrong. BTW... Anything over about 4,000 rpm and the needle is completely out of the jet.

Looks like the score from a football game. Don't have a clue.

I guess I'll drag my reply from ZCAR.COM over here too: Formula 1, CART, IRL, ALMS LMP 900 and 675, and even Winston Cup (when they are cheating) cars almost all use some sort of rising rate (or progressive) suspension system. When aerodynamics become the major factor in how a vehicle handles then rising rate suspensions are critical. You do need very sophisticated software to design these types of suspensions and you have to test them on the track and in the wind tunnel. So, are progressive springs and suspensions bad? Absolutely not - if you have the smarts and the money to design and test them. BTW... tapered bump stops are a form of rising rate suspension and are used very effectively in Showroom Stock and Touring classes.