RebekahsZ Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 (edited) After laying down a bunch of low-11 second 1/4 mile passes last weekend, I decided to visit my mother this weekend in Arkansas. So, I swapped the street tires on, checked the oil, gassed up the HybridZ and drove the 6 hours from Alabama to Arkansas for one day of chores then drove back. On the return trip, I stopped in Conway, Arkansas and visited Will, screen name wfritz to compare project cars. Will is an amazing, 19 year old college sophomore studying mechanical engineering at the University of Arkansas. This kid has his act together! How many college kids go race at the dragstrip on their way home for Thanksgiving break? He built his conversion in about 2 weeks (it took me a year) and it is a super sano, clean machine that has a big appetite for axles (he had 3 spares in his trunk). He built his own motor mount system, replaced all the wiring and gauges. He is a great welder. With the headers sticking out of the hood, I expected the car to be loud, but at idle it wouldn't even catch your attention if you were walking by. Of course it is louder when accellerating, but amazingly his car is a lot quieter than mine. We spent about an hour checking out each other's cars, then we took them for a drive then drove each other's cars. His car was a great driving machine. Only problem my car had on the trip was poor venting of my gas tank when filling and unreliable fuel gauge readings. Aggrevating, but not a show-stopper. I'll add some pictures later, but the admins must be changing the way we add photos. Edited November 19, 2012 by RebekahsZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wfritts911 Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 Pfft Keith can't even get my screen name right, its wfritts, no z's in this guys name. But anyways Keith is being way to nice, his car is fantastic as well. He surprised me when he told me to get in his driver's seat, his drove great as well and that LS2 pulls hard! Naturally after I drove his I had to let him drive mine under one condition, if he broke an axle he had to swap it out! But anyways words get boring so I will upload the pics I snapped from the very large Central Arkansas HybridZ Fest. And last but not least, once I realized what Keith was doing, I scrambled to get my camera turned back on and barely got a picture in before he turned the line lock off. Definitely look forward to meeting up again next year to do some autocrossing! -Will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
240z72 Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 So jealous I couldent be there. Be awsome to get all the hybridz members we can get in one spot and just drool all over each others cars. Glad you guys had a good time! Glad the car held up Keith. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey303LSZ Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 Cool story... Thanks for the photos. RebekahsZ... I love the way your car sits. What size rims do you have? What size and brand street tires are you running in the photos above? How low did you drop the car? I would love to get my stance looking like yours... Thanks in advance for the help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted February 11, 2013 Author Share Posted February 11, 2013 Rota RBR in Gun Metal 16X8 with 225/50/16 Khumos. I used Khumos because they were the cheapest thing I could have find-I'm not very kind to them! Someday I'll spend the money on something with a cooler looking thread. I have coilovers on the car. I've changed the rideheight so many times I've lost track of the changes. I recommend a coilover kit as the first modification to any z-car. I'm actually going back UP an inch-it gets rather tedious worrying about where all the speed bumps in town are. The un-flared Z is a bit out of fashion and I must admit it must be nice to have flares that allow running wider tires. I do like the wide "lips" that everybody has with flared Zs, but 8" wide is about the max I can fit within the z fenders even with camber plates and all kinds of suspension work to accommodate as much tire as I can. I've tossed around the idea of running ZG flares just in the back. For now, I'm happy with what I have. Thanks for the compliments! This is Hybrid-z: which for me means "Hybrid-never satisfied!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wfritts911 Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 Man looking at those photos makes me realize how high my car sits. 4x4 status for sure! I need to get the rest of the parts for my coilovers. -Will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey303LSZ Posted February 12, 2013 Share Posted February 12, 2013 Thanks for the quick response! What camber plates did you use? If you could do it again would you use the same plates? Coil-overs are on the list of things to do in 1-2 months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted February 12, 2013 Author Share Posted February 12, 2013 DPs from Betamotorsport. I love them. Only limitation is that you can't get your camber "perfect". One side might be 3.5 and the other 3.25 degrees. But that's good enough for me. I'm not trying to be national champ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsicard Posted February 12, 2013 Share Posted February 12, 2013 Keith: From the photos from wfritts911, it can be seen the camber settings on both cars. Yours is set up for Road Racing. Very nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted February 12, 2013 Author Share Posted February 12, 2013 (edited) Actually, the front is set to johnc's street settings and the rear is de-cambered to as close to no camber as possible and might have been a little on the positive side. I'm going thru everything right now (trying to build exhaust at the same time) to allow me to quickly change from 1 degree positive to 2.5 degrees negative in the rear. I have to raise the ride height a little and widen the track back out about a half an inch. I'm installing taller springs of the same spring rate but gonna try using some spring rubbers between the coils to allow me to quickly increase the rear spring rate for drag racing. I'm increasing front camber to 3", maxing out my caster (which won't be very much due to fender/airdam clearance) and finishing some front droop limiters. It's never finished! The suspension stuff is fun when you get to to the point of just making adjustments, but there are a lot of compromises trying to make a car do a variety of things. I'm hoping to do some autocrossing in April, but its gonna be close. I think it is easy to make a handling car and it is easy to make a drag car. But, it is almost impossible and way more time-consuming and expensive trying to make a car that does both reasonably well. Comfort is last on the list, but I'd still rather do a road trip in this car than any other. Although not so much once it has autocross camber in-bad tire wear. Edited February 12, 2013 by RebekahsZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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