johnc

When you care enough to only "spend" the very best...

I got mine from Chino Ice Company down here in SoCal. Look in your local phone book for ice or specialty gas companies. You can also check http://www.dryice.com.

Imagine this scenario: New used car (condition suspect) No front anti-roll bar Snowing and windy leaving Chicago Man, all you need are four bald tires...

Look at it this way: R200 Quaife diff for an R200 Ross' CV conversion For $1,500 to $1,800 you'll have a "hell for strong", maximun traction rear driveline. Anyone priced a complete Ford 9" rear (including axles) from Currie?

You need to do some figuring. The wedled ring should be positioned on the strut tube so that, at your desired ride height, the adjustable spring perch is about in the middle of the threaded collar. That way you have enough adjustment either way to do corner weights and compensate for shorter or taller tires in the future. I think GC recommendations are for competition use with a ride height around 5 1/2" with 225/50-14 tires (~22" diameter). That's a bit low for street car.

IO Port, Racer Parts Wholesales, and Pegasus all sell battery jumper connectors.

I used the dry ice method mentioned above. Layer it on the floor pan for a few minutes then bash away with a rubber mallet. The asphalt stuff all broke off nice and clean like peanut brittle. I ended up throwing the leftover dry ice and and asphalt into the trash. Don't know what the concern is about that method of disposal.

I can't answer your CV/halfshaft questions, but as far as LSDs available for the R200: New - Quaife and Nissan Motorsports both still sell units. Used OEM - The ZX Turbo's you mention. Used - Torsen and Nissan Motorsports LSDs come up for sale periodically.

The Tokicos are a better built, higher quality product than the KYBs. Whether that's worth more to you or not...?

In February I'll let you know what my N/A 3.0L makes after it finishes on Sunbelt's dyno. I think you will all be pleasantly surprised by the horsepower and torque from a motor that redlines under 7,500 rpm.

240Zs manual trans came with a 3.36 ring and pinion R180 and auto trans cars came with a 3.54 ring and pinion R180. This thread should be in the Driveline section.

Heh, heh... The 15 x 8 Monocoques I was trying to sell weigh... drumroll please... 8.6 lbs each. The 16 x 9s I'm having built will weigh... 11 lbs each and the Hoosier A3S03 245/45-16 tires weigh 18 lbs each, so my total wheel, tire, lug nut weight will be ~30lbs per corner.

An early 240Z is about 300 lbs lighter than a 280Z and I remember a C&D article where they say the 280ZX was another 300 lbs heavier than the 280Z.

Unfortunately I don't have answers to your question but I do wonder what electronics you have on your HybridZ that would require 140 amps? You must have an incredible sound system.

Use the stock Nissan nuts and bolts, something from ARP, or go with AN/MS. Its almost impossible to find good Grade 8 nuts and bolts anymore.

Aluminum is fine. AP, Brembo, Alcon, et. al. only sell aluminum brackets to mount their calipers. A 3,100lb, 800hp, 14" wide racing slick shod Viper I know used brackets similar to what's picured above to pull 3G stops for 24 hours straight at Daytona last year.

If one side locked up consistently, in most corners, then I would check the caliper on the other side.

A fiberglass rear hatch and a Lexan rear hatch window would save a lot of weight. Some other options: Early Z bumpers Steel headlight buckets Thin wall stainless exhaust system Racing seats No radio No spare tire, jack, lug wrench Tilton starter Keep looking for little things to remove or replace.

> According to a lot of people the scarab > mounting position makes the weight distribution > worse, and in doing so, makes handling worse. > But then with proper suspension tuning that > takes into account the front weight bias I > guess the weight distribution thing wouldn't be > an issue? If you use the all qualifying term, "all things being equal" then a good argument can be made that the Scarab mounting position will not handle as well as the JTR mounting position. Unfortunately, the "all things being equal" qualification is generally used by engineers (and philosophers) when they are exploring some bit of minutia or trying to shoot down someone else's assertion. We all know that all things are never equal. If I was building a V8Z from scratch then I would go with the JTR mounting position. If I already had a Scarab conversion, I would spend the money on a great suspension and make the JTR conversion owners eat their words. The same applies to the FWD vs. RWD debate. Michael Galati or Pierre Klienubing in a Real Time Racing Acura Integra would make 99.999999% of us in our HybridZs look like loosers on any road racing track in the country.

Depending on which Penske you price, they can be anywhere from $500 each for the single adjustable 7300/7500 to $2600 for the quad adjustable 8760. What makes them even more expensive is that they are not inserts. Erik at EMI Racing had to do some engineering to use the Penske threaded shock body as the strut tube itself. At that price they are really for racing and then only for those folks that have more money than sense...

The chassis will be laterally stiff at the front strut, firewall, and rear struts, but the area between the firewall and the rear struts could use some help (but, remember, we are talking about taking the chassis to unheard of levels of stiffness for a 240.) I've seen people run a small tube inside the rocker panel and connect it to a rear roll bar and the front firewall. I suggest 1" diameter with ~.080 wall CroMo tubing. You're not building a roll cage so you don't need the strength of .095 or .120 wall tubing. BTW... I wouldn't use the Viper as an example of a stiff chassis. Production based racing Vipers add a huge plate underneath that completely boxes the trans tunnel from the bellhousing to the diff. They also add a diagonal brace across the front just behind the radiator, two diagonal braces in the rear, a 6 point cage, an X brace over the engine, and lots of little gussets on the existing square tube frame.

The backbone you are designing will help with longitudinal stiffness on the Z (and it needs help there) but it will do little for lateral and nothing for torsional stiffness. If, in addition to your top of the trans tunnel backbone, you can box the bottom of the trans tunnel then you will create a large tube that can better resist torsional bending.

As with any product sold in the automotive aftermarket, there are good ones, bad ones, and dangerous ones. Generally, a well made wheel spacer is safe and effective. When you start combining a wheel spacer with an adapter (4 lug to 5 lug) or purchase an "all in one" piece then the quality of design and manufacturing becomes critical, so expect to pay a lot more for a safe and effective product. I suggest that you avoid any wheel spacer/adapter that is designed to work on more than one vehicle. Universal fit pieces univerally fit every vehicle poorly.

Shocks are the major contributor to how a car "feels." All the low priced performance shocks for the Z (Tokico, KYB, Koni, Bilstien) have too much compression damping at high piston speeds and you feel this as an impact on expansion joints. A good race shock will have medium compression damping at high piston speeds allowing the suspension to follow the surface. The car will feel more supple and will actually be more comfortable to drive. In my 240Z, with 300+ springs all around and Penske triple adjsutable shocks, the car rides much nicer than when I had 250 lb springs and Tokicos Illuminas. Sharp bumps are felt more as a "push" on the car than as an impact. BTW... Mike - 500 lb in springs!? Whatever shock you had (short of custom Penskes or Konis) could not control that spring in rebound. My guess is that your car (on a bumpy road) felt like four pogo sticks traveling in loose formation (to paraphrase Carroll Smith.)

From 250 to 300 front and from 275 to 325 rear depending on the track and how big my balls are that day.