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Mike Kelly's Zcar Project


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Tom, The porsche now has full monoball suspension at all corners, and actually I was in the race seats that will be transfered to the Zcar. The funny thing is that the Porsche actually scared me driving it this past weekend. I haven't been in it on the track in 18 months, and the car is so fast everywhere, it's hard to contemplate.

 

Time will tell, but at the risk of the pricks and assholes coming out of the woodwork to hammer me for doing a comparison between two wonderful machines, I'll write up a very detailed comparo once the Zcar has had a very thorough shake down for a very fair comparison. Having been in the Miata, the "harshness" of the non-power assist cars has already been exposed. However, in order to properly drive the 996TT at the track, we've turned of much of the "assistance" in the car...

 

The goals for all three of these cars are very different. My goal for the miata is to have something we as a family can enjoy together. The Porsche is currently being developed to compete in the Ultimate Track Car Challenge. We've upgraded a lot over the last 18 months in order to make it a better car overall... The Zcar is the beginning and the end of my "builds". When it's done and tracking maybe those who have spewed so much venom upon me will finally be silenced.

 

Who knows... I guess time will tell...

 

Mike

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Nothing like chasing a 2560 # 450HP race car with sequential shifter...That's a 2008 Cup Car with some 2010 upgrades in it... I'm still rusty from 18 months not tracking the 996TT, so my times were off slightly, but man it was fun reeling him in under braking and corner entry...

 

More in a few days...

Mike

 

Really enjoyed your video and the captions. In a way it puts the viewer in the driver seat. The GT3 had a better power to weight but it looked like you were out braking him. Are your brake upgrades superior to the GT3?

 

BTW, your car is amazing quiet for the power level.

Edited by jgkurz
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I'm actually not reving the car to my normal shift points. I'm short-shifting by 700-1000 RPMs depending on the corners, so I was leaving a lot on the table and could have exited key point corners much quicker. I'll easily drop 5-7 seconds at VIR full over the course of this season.

 

His brakes are superior to mine, so he should have been going deeper and later into the corners, but who knows. He's running 380mm setup with the newer caliper design, and I'm using 350mm setup with the old caliper design. They had two days in their car to sort theirs as I did mine, so I really don't know what was up. My power level should have closed the gap and would have, but I "restricted" myself as the grass and dirt was soaked from the storms the night before, and I didn't want to risk putting the car into a wall. Still getting used to all the changes...

 

Mike

 

Really enjoyed your video and the captions. In a way it puts the viewer in the driver seat. The GT3 had a better power to weight but it looked like you were out braking him. Are your brake upgrades superior to the GT3?

 

BTW, your car is amazing quiet for the power level.

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Update:

 

The car hasn't made progress this week. I had gotten some CV flanges in a trade or maybe they were given to me, at some point, so long ago... Anyway the long and short of it is they won't work. They'd "work" but wont' WORK for long, exposing the shoulders of the bolt puts them at risk to sheer. So I got intouch with Ross at MML and ordered his R230 units. Should be here next week some time. I'll install them and the rear axle issue will be done.

 

Yesterday was lost to picking up a four post lift I'd purchased from a long time friend who had actually welded in the front halo to the first "cage" I ever had in a zcar, back in the early 90s. Dan S. is upgrading to a twin post lift and sold me his four post unit for $1500... It's only 2 years old, and comes with casters to move it around, so I couldn't turn it down... I've already got a twin post lift, and really wanted something that would help in doing suspension setup work. For now it clears the twin post lift, so they'll share the same bay until we do a few mods to our facility.

 

Once I get our current consulting company to our target size, I'm seriously considering a performance shop that will focus strictly on suspension and brake upgrades for high end and unique project cars. Over the last few years I've had a number of Porsche owners ask if I'd consider receiving their cars on shipment to my location and transforming them into duplicates of mine... So we'll see... This would be something that would be able to float on its own without the stress of it "making" money or not...Being profitable would be nice, but breaking even would be just fine...

 

More later... should have the car "running" this coming week...

 

Mike

Edited by Mikelly
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  • 4 months later...

Well I'm down and out for a few weeks... Crashed my FJR1300 and won't be able to use my left ankle much for about 3-4 weeks. Hit a slick that the state police said was about 2ft. wide and about 1/2 a mile long and never even saw it... I was in the turn lane making a turn one minute, and on my bum the next. Happened so quick I didn't have time to react, so I didn't jack up a shoulder or arm, but did tear the ligaments in the left ankle... So I'm in a walking boot and crutches... Lovely...

 

Mike

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Well I'm down and out for a few weeks... Crashed my FJR1300 and won't be able to use my left ankle much for about 3-4 weeks. Hit a slick that the state police said was about 2ft. wide and about 1/2 a mile long and never even saw it... I was in the turn lane making a turn one minute, and on my bum the next. Happened so quick I didn't have time to react, so I didn't jack up a shoulder or arm, but did tear the ligaments in the left ankle... So I'm in a walking boot and crutches... Lovely...

 

Mike

 

Didn't anyone ever tell you that you weren't supposed to do that?

 

In all seriousness though, get well soon. Don't over work yourself. Enjoy the down time with some good reading.

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We've already rented a house for the week, and I "think" there's a DE scheduled for earlier in the week, so I'll be hopefully getting some track time in with the Zcar on the course. We also plan to do the parade laps thru town on Friday. Hopefully Pete P. and Tom Harris will be up there as well, along with other suspects from my neck of the woods...

 

This is an excellent event motivator for finishing the Zcar...

 

Mike

 

Thanks for the WGI Datsun event reminder.  Hope to finally meet you up there!

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