johnc

That's what I was thinking. Get a supercharged 3800 series 2 and an auto from a Firebird or Camaro. You just have to be sure to get ALL the electronics. [ October 30, 2001: Message edited by: johnc ]

Excuse my ignorance about things GM, but is the late model 3800 series V6 based on the Buick 3.8 turbo engine? Thanks.

A real US patent would cost you upwards of $10,000 and you wouldn't get any protection from foreign manufacturers. If your tool is a good design and has some market potential, a rival will buy one from you, sent it to Taiwan, and within 2 months be selling copies for $5 each - legally. Patents are basically worthless now-a-days. They are just a money makers for lots of lawyers. Make your tool and sell it. Save the patent money for marketing.

I don't have the calcs, but Jim Thompson at Sunbelt says the stock 8mm fuel line that came on the 240Z is good to 450 hp at 45 psi.

Let's keep it simple (us racers and engineers tend to get focused on the minutia because its fun)... All the ITS and BSP racers I know shorten their front struts about 1.5" and run the MR2 or the GTI strut insert up front (with a spacer underneath) and the 240Z front strut insert in the rear. I forgot off the top of my head how much the rear struts are shortened - I think its 1". FYI... Don't even bother shortening the struts unless you're running a racing coil-over spring set up. If you're just cutting the stock springs or installing progressive Eibach/ST springs in the stock diameter, limit the lowering to 2" max, and install good urethane bump stops. That's the best and simplest advice I can give.

If you measure a car's lowering at the rocker panel (let's say 2") and then you measure how much travel has been removed from the strut there is a difference in the two numbers. In my example above, I overstated the difference - my guess it would be more like a reduction of 1 3/4" measured at the strut.

Weld in a roll cage. Then you're the manufacturer and you can certify it up to 800hp.

The amount you section the strut depends on where your designed ride height is and what inserts you're going to use. What you are trying to do is get back some of the compression travel that you lose when the car is lowered. Lowering the car 2" at the rocker panel works out to a loss of about .75" in shock travel at the strut tube (I forgot the actual ratio, hopefully someone has it on the top of their head). But you're limited by the available strut inserts so you really can't cut off more than about 2.5". I cut 1.75" off my strut tubes with a designed ride height of 5" measured at the front of the rocker panel. This is for an autocross/track car. [ October 25, 2001: Message edited by: johnc ]

Uuuuhhhh, the Viper brakes are not made by Brembo. They are made by AP. Now, since Brembo bought AP a little while ago, someone might argue that, but they are manufactured by AP as an OEM part for Dodge (FYI... Dodge engineers spec'd the part, not AP or Brembo). AP also manufactures OEM parts for other, more mundane, vehicles. EMI Racing can do a complete REAL Brembo brake kit for early Zs (and Vipers and Honda S2000s, and BMW M3s, ...) if anyone is interested. Call Erik at (714) 713-9096 and have lots of money ready. Here's a shot of Brembos going on a Honda S2K:

John Perner at Complete Custom Wheel. http://www.ccwheel.com/

It wasn't obvious in my post, but if I'm increasing rake I'm transferring more static weight forward. Let's say the corner weights are: LF - 580 RF - 550 LR - 540 RR - 530 If I add in 1/4" more rake then I move weight forward. The new corner weights might be: LF - 610 RF - 580 LR - 510 RR - 500 Because of the additional weight up front I've compressed the front springs an additional amount (and uncompressed the rear springs some amount). With linear rate springs that's not big deal. With progressives, it "might" be a big deal but you won't really know that unless you've done some testing.

Never heard of a P30 or an E30, but that doesn't mean much. I would check each head closely for cracks and warpage and rebuild the best one. I would then rebuild the matching block.

From a racing perspective, you have to be able to do a lot of testing and have good data acquisition to develop a progressive spring set up. I have yet to see a set of progressive springs that have a linear rate increase. Basically, they increase at a somewhat linear rate until they reach their designed coil bind for the softer part and then the spring rate is basically flat until full coil bind. One of the critical adjustments made to a race at each track is ride height. If I lower my car 1/2" in front and 1/4" in rear to get some additional rake, what is that going to do to my wheel rates as I use up that softer part of the spring? I will obviously hit the flat line spring rate sooner, but is that desirable? What if it isn't? Its so much easier to tune a race suspension with linear rate springs than with progressives. If you do need rising wheel rates (which is really what you should be meauring), then a rising rate suspension is a much better choice than progressive springs.

Cool Jeromio, I updated my profile with a picture too. You can call me the ultimate HybridZ. [ October 18, 2001: Message edited by: johnc ]

http://www.hybridz.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=10&t=000579

Don't I know it! Got an e-mail early yesterday from Donn Vickrey. He's selling his ITS 240Z and I'm seriously thinking about buying it. My home has a 2 car garage and my wife and I own 6 vehicles right now. I must have rocks for brains...

If you're running slicks (as most Prepared cars do) then you do need to back off the negative camber.

240/260/280s are famous for their reluctance to "turn-in." As an example... About 5 years ago Tom Berry and Erik Messley(the previous owner of my 240Z) traded drives for some fun runs at the end of an autocross. Tom is a multi-national champ driving (at the time) a highly modified Mazda RX3 in CSP. He was driving my very well prepared BSP 240Z and at the first turn he pretty much plowed over about 8 cones on the outside of the corner. Tom was convinced my car had a flat outside front tire. When Erik drove Tom's RX3 the exact opposite happened. He hit just about every apex cone and spun once. Rita Wilsey (multi-national champion Corvette driver) also drove the car that event and couldn't turn the wheel with all the caster (+8 degrees) Erik had in the car at the time. She screamed as we came to the first slow corner and he had to reach over and help her turn the wheel to keep from going WAY off course. A good Z autocross alignment is: Front ----- Camber 3 to 3.5 degrees negative Caster 6 degrees positive Toe 3/16 to 3/8" out For track work I would run both toe and camber and the lower end of the scale. Rear ----- Camber 2.5 to 3 degrees negative Toe 0 to 3/16" in [ October 16, 2001: Message edited by: johnc ]

Cutoff saw or a die grinder with a cutoff wheel. You will usually get a little bit of fray but you can clean that up with some side cutters.

FI. Most folks who race with carbs generally do so because of rule requirements.

Ross, I've done a lot of lapping days and haven't experienced the shock issue you mention above. Its probably caused by a normal operation of the Quaife (or a Gleason/Torsen): the diff will go "open" if an inside tire is significantly unloaded and then will return to normal operation as load is reapplied to that tire. On my 240Z, this unloading is rare becuase I've softened the rear suspension since installing the Quaife. When it has occurred I end up with wheelspin which cushions the "reloading" of the diff. I could see, if you were getting one of the rear tires airborne and then slamming it back down, how shock loads could be transmited back through the driveline. But if you're banging off curbs that hard, you're going to break something on the car regardless of what diff you're running. There's a bigger issue with the Quaife. Within four months of installing the diiff in my 240Z I broke both rear stub axles. One at an autocross and the other at a track event (at over 90 mph). I attribute this failure to a couple things: 1. 30 year old 240Z (25 spline) stub axles that had 7 years of racing on them (7 years is way to long to run a set of stub axles on a race car). 2. The better torque application the Quaife gives. The Quaife will put more of the available torque through the driveline, so any weakness will be exacerbated. Since then I've put new 280Z (27 spline) stub axles on the car, replaced all the fasterners on the driveline, rebuilt the driveshaft, and replaced the diff mounts. [ October 11, 2001: Message edited by: johnc ]

260DET, A couple questions: 1. Is your front belly pan solid from the air dam to the crossmember? If so, where is the air exiting the radiator going? On a stock Z Nissan designed the radiator air to exit down right behind the radiator. If you've blocked that off then you are pressurizing the engine compartment and creating a lot of drag. One option is to cut some openings in the front wheel wells (a low pressure area) and build some aluminum panels to duct the radiator air there. 2. You said the front lip of the air dam is higher than the lower front edge of the crossmember. By running a flat plate from the air dam to the crossmsmber haven't you created an undertray that's angled up at the front? That would create front lift. Any front undertray must be perfectly flat at racing speed. Hopefully 1 and 2 are not the case. [ October 09, 2001: Message edited by: johnc ]

Nissan Comp still recommends 45 ft. lb. breakaway. Ron Johnson "suggests" a higher breakaway torque number for high horsepower and autocross applications. I ran 70 ft. lb. in mine. Autocross is very hard on clutch type LSDs. If you campaign a full season you can expect to rebuild the LSD once a year. But, since I bought my Quaife in 1999 I don't have to worry about that stuff!

Ruben, You'll be happy with the Quaife. Its worth every penny.

If you are going to spend time on the track, spend the money and get FIA certified racing seats. Both SCCA and NASCAR are moving seat safety requirements in the direction the FIA has been for years. Racing seats are a safety item just like racing helmets. There are a lot of unsafe seats out there including the ones (Jamex) that are in my 240Z. Those will be replaced in a month or two with some Cobra Suzukas. With FIA seats you are not required to install the back brace that attaches to the roll bar/cage. And for a 240Z application, you need to make sure the seat will actually fit in the car.