johnc

The manufacturers have no incentive to supply C&D with a car to get their butts kicked. And the collective "we" sure can't afford to buy 6 months of full page ads in the magazine to get the editors to make an effort on our behalf.

OK, I get it. I was backwards. Sorry.

For a street car powercoating is fine. BBS had a problem a few years ago when their street wheels with the silver or gold powercoated centers failed under prolonged race use. Seems that the power coating softened and flowed from the brake heat and the bolts holding the 3 piece wheels together lost torque. This happened only in very extreme conditions and I think they fixed the problem with a different type of coating.

The knurle on the ARP Chevy studs is slightly larger (.580 vs .560???) than the hole in the Z front wheel hub. You have to ream the stud holes in the hub to press the new ARP Chevy studs in correctly. You also want a shoulder on these studs to keep the threads from acting as a mill on the spacer you're building. Also, carefully measure the hub centers before machining you're hub centric spacers. Nissan did not design the hubs for hub centric wheels so there may be some large variances in the casting.

Make it out of steel. Don't remove the threads from the stock wheel studs. That will weaken the fastener and create stress risers. Ream the holes in the hub for the wheel studs and use a standard Chevy 1/2" stud with a 1/2" shoulder.

The transmission has to output some type of data (usually small voltage steps) to indicate what gear its in. You might be able to rig up two switchs to the linkage that can increment or decrement a counter.

Dave gave you some very conservative numbers regarding a/f ratio. If you can control it you should run 13.5/1 at WOT and 14/1 at any part throttle. Running a car rich hurts power.

I will be ready but my car won't. Unfortunately, a number of vendors have conspired to keep me from completing the work on my car. Bryan and I will be driving his ITS 240Z in the U3 class and we'll be down at elast 100 hp compared to our other competitors. We will be running slicks on the car so our only hope is to drive like Super Heros in the corners. But, our chances of winning the Unlimited 3 class are pretty much nil. A late entry of the Subaru factory USTCC WRX, a GT2 Porsche 914-6, and Don's GT2 240Z require at least 280hp to stay with. We'll have fun instead!

Pete, Drive the rental car in the autocross.

Drain the tank and put in new gas. Also, if the problem occurs when the motor is real hot, check to see if the fuel in the float boals is boiling.

No rocket science needed but you do need to be acquianted with algebra, trig, etc. The book is $64 if I recall correctly. I don't recall a reference in the book to the "Mystery Formula" you mention.

Race Car Vehicle Dynamics, page 32, section 2.3 Logitudinal Force.

The two F15s that did the flyover at the California Speedway NAPA 500 this morning.

Latest issue of Grassroots Motorsports has an article describing how to tune SU carbs. Most important is to get the timiing right, valves adjusted, and make sure there are no vacume leaks. Only then can you start tuning the carbs. Seems that you've covered all of the above. Try tuning the carbs per that article or one of the Z Therapy videos.

300+ horsepower with a single 60mm TB. Defcon 1

The engine is finally on the truck (after a couple months of tuning.) I get it next week. Final power numbers: 305 hp. @ 6,600 rpm 257 ft. lbs @ 6,000 rpm 300+ hp. from 6,400 rpm to 7,200 rpm 200+ ft. lbs. from 3,600 rpm to 7,700 rpm Now I've got less than 2 weeks to get it in the car!

I expect to see a bunch of little clowns come jumping out of it.

There was a segment on 60 minutes about a new kind of brain tumor treatment that was getting good results. And the guy running the program works insurance companies really hard and gets them to pay. Here's a link to the story: Desperately Fighting Cancer

Take a 1" diameter hole saw and bore a hole in the backing plate. You'll have to remove the halfshaft, remove the brake drum, and figure out where to place the hole. Then from the backside, use the hole saw and bore away.

Most any Kumho dealer can get the V700s. Maybe a local warehouse has a set that TireRack can't access. Go to the Kumho web (http://www.kumhousa.com), use their dealer locator, and start dialing.

All Nissan ring gears have this "39:10" (or a similar) notation indicating what ring and pinion ratio is in the car. Just divide the bigger number by the smaller number and you have the ratio.

240 would be the best choice because of the lighter weight. How the car feels on the highway is more a function of spring and shock choices than the chassis.

I guess we don't have an answer. I'm personally not up on shock availbility for the 280ZX. I suggest you continue the search but check directly with the shock manufacturers. Check Tokico and see if the Illumina 5 way is available for the car. Another good source is Sam Strano at Strano Parts (http://www.stranoparts.com/). He used to autocross a 280ZX about 5 years ago.

Unless you've done something to the front suspension of your Z, normally they don't have 18" of total travel. Its usually better to build droop limiters into the shocks, but until you can do that I would use the anti-roll bar to control droop. On each side, run a cable from where the crossmember bolts to the frame out to the the anti-roll bar end or link.

I've run my Z with BMWCCA and PCA and yes, there are some jerks in the clubs, but the vast majority I've met and raced against are regular guys through and through. Same is true of the Miata clubs and of many Z clubs.