Donor Idea... I've Jumped off the deep end

[Gollum]

Ok, so I was sitting there the other day thinking "Z suspension geometry isn't the greatest. It basically need to be totally rebuilt to perform it's best."

 

And right that second FactoryFiveRacing came to mind. The idea of a single car donor for a project. It's genius. So why not go buy a 1.5k donor car that will have your motor, suspension, tranny, brakes, steering rack? It would save tons initially and leave more room for improvement.

 

So who thinks it's possible? I'm talking about the Fox body stangs if anyone didn't know. 87-93. I know the wheelbase is a bit wider about 105" if i remember correctly, so major modification would have to be undergone to the chassis and true widebody is a must.

 

First REAL question about all this. Would it be more logical to do this to a first gen Z or second gen ZX?

[JMortensen]

Z suspension isn't the greatest, so you want to go Mustang suspension instead???

 

Stock the Mustang is an ill handling vehicle to say the least. Yeah, you can buy a bunch of aftermarket suspension for them and make them handle well, but why not put that same effort into the Z suspension??? It's lighter, IRS, and fits under the car. Wheelbase is front to back BTW. a 105" wide car would be almost 9' wide.

 

BTW I used to work around the corner from Maximum Motorsports and autox against them all the time. We did some track days too. What I learned from that is that the Stang needs some SERIOUS work to handle. It can be made to handle GREAT, make no mistake, but it needs a lot more work than a Z to get there.

[Tim240z]

I've also wondered about using the Jag front suspension unit. I have one sitting in the driveway. It is a good bit wider, and a Damn sight heavier, but ha really nice brakes (vented rotors with 4 piston calipers - which, BTW bolt up to the Z caliper pickups - just can't find rotors to use). Also not sure if the jag suspension would be any kind of an upgrade, or if it would be backward engineering.....it is double wishbone and is a complete "bolt up" crossmember unit...

[tube80z]

Ok, so I was sitting there the other day thinking "Z suspension geometry isn't the greatest. It basically need to be totally rebuilt to perform it's best."

 

Okay, so a few others have questioned this. I'm here to say BS.

 

You aren't going to go a lot faster with some magic suspension under your Z compared to what you have. Will it be better, maybe, but it's a package deal. You need everything to work together.

 

I have a 71 240Z that's not in very good shape I autox. The car was totalled 2 or 3 times before I got it. I use this a testbed for ideas to put onto my EMOD car. The car runs in SCCA prepared classes and so far this year has been TTOD at all but one event ( I got beat by a cart so technically I was still the fastest car) and won PAX at all but two.

 

This 30 year old technology worked significantly better than man tunered STIs, EVOS, etc. It beat Vipers, ZO6s, ... This isn't meant to sound like bragging. But an old car with less than 10K in it is creaming cars that have as much as $50K in mods.

 

How is this possible? It happens because I spent a lot of time fine tuning what is there to get the most out of it. You need to understand the limitations of the Z's suspension and work around them. The Z has a large advantage in weight and size over a lot newer cars. Don't screw that up.

 

Cary

[Gollum]

Good posts everyone, to be sure. I'm sorry I got wheelbase and track width mixed up. I was in too much of a scramble trying to type out my thoughts and it all got mixed up in my head.

 

Well, it's true that the stock stangs don't handle great, conversion to 3 link rear suspention and an aftermarket front k member & control arms. This would be much superior to the mustang design but still accept stang parts, wich is the benefit that makes me think about this idea.

 

Ok, so the first gen Zs don't handle so bad with the correct/smart modificatoin & tuning. Maybe it's a moot point all together. But I do have one question for tube80z. Does your car have the stock steering rack, and if you changed the motor to something other than L series (assuming it's L series already) would you change it?

[260DET]

As others have indicated, the S30's suspension is basically sound, it just needs some careful modding. Look also at improving body stiffness, the more the body flexes the less the suspension is able to work as intended, a very important and much neglected consideration.

 

As an example of possible suspension improvement, look at using S130 or even Z31 front struts. Various strut settings and angles were changed in both models eg scrub radius. If I was going to do more suspension mods to my S30 thats one area that would be looked at.

[tube80z]

Ok, so the first gen Zs don't handle so bad with the correct/smart modificatoin & tuning. Maybe it's a moot point all together. But I do have one question for tube80z. Does your car have the stock steering rack, and if you changed the motor to something other than L series (assuming it's L series already) would you change it?

 

The car is an L-series with the motor set back per GT rules (#1 cylinder is inline with the front axle line). The PO did this and it was a botch job par none. I've cleaned up numerous bits but this is a parts car that turned into something more.

 

The steering is stock but the rack has been moved back as far as I can. If I were to keep it I would be changing the front lower control arms to be much longer and adding more ackerman to the mix.

 

The tube frame car is built around a Ford 5.0 but if I were to do it today I would use a LS-1 Chevy. A friend of mine put one in a Z and it is sweet (the red one at Shasta)

 

Cary