Good Luck to the Z Racers at the Solo Nationals!

[Carl Beck]

Way to go JT - the only thing better than winning, is winning when there is stiff competition.

Fiddle with the Z if it makes you feel better, but I think most of us know that in this case it's 90% the DRIVER and perhaps 10% the car. Good car with a great driver plus several years of experience makes a very hard combination to beat.

None-the-less we love to see that old Z carry you to victory.

FWIW,

Carl B.

[Steve Parmley]

Congratulations to you John Thomas, Rick Martinez and Tom Holt!!! Congrats to Andrew Canak for second place, his first Nationals in a Z? How was your new motor Rick? And Andy Craig? Someone team up with him and get him back in a Z, he's my hero.

[fp280z]

Congrats again, JT! Hope to see you in the class again next year (I know you'll be there BTW).

This was Canack's second year in the same car, very good driver as well.

The motor worked fine, could use some tuning still but definitely was not the limiting factor. As for me, I made a few mistakes on every run the first day but at least I know where I lost time. And then I went and broke the car the second day. Looks like I lost a throwout bearing through the bellhousing but I haven't taken it apart yet to be sure. No worries, I got spares!

Looks like I may have to make some trips to Ft. Worth next year to see how that Evo is doing...

-Rick

[jmark]

Any video JT?

[jmortensen]

I want to know if Rick got his stumble figured out and what kind of difference Tom's spoiler made. Good job guys, congrats JT!

[fp280z]

Stumble was still there, I just tried to go faster, keep the rev's up, and get on the gas earlier at corner exit. Didn't affect me too much and I certainly can't blame it for my slow times. I did buy some extra pilot jets and I'll be trying them on the dyno once I swap the tranny, whenever that may be.

As for the spoiler, I did try Tom's car for one run after mine broke and I have to say that it was less twitchy at high speed than I remember it being. He's changed a bunch of stuff since the last time I drove it so it could have been anything.

-Rick

[JTZ23]

I got a few vids so I will try to get them uploaded. Rick I think this was discussed earlier but have you changed cam timing any?

JT

[jmark]

Look forward to the videos John.

[tholt29]

I can't out drive John, but I can post videos a lot faster than he can! I've attached my two fastest runs in one file... ahh crap... cant attach videos. I posted it here http://sth2.com/Z-car/nats2008-FP.wmv

The courses were not overly complicated, just very little room for error. Very easy to hit cones if you were pushing too hard. Especially on day one.

Mark Berry in the Evo didn't take his last run on day 2, because he had apparantly dislodged a kidney stone on his first run. He felt horrible on his 2nd run and couldn't drive back to grid. He was reportedly doing well later but did miss the banquet that night.

The day2 course definitely suited the Evo with a large 270 degree skidpad where could fully utilize the AWD. On the more transient east course he was less of a threat... We'll see. Rick and I will continue to fight him at divisionals in Texas.

We'll see you next year John!

Tom

Edited September 24, 2008 by tholt29

[jmortensen]

Any comments about your spoiler Tom?

[jmark]

Thanks Tom.

[tholt29]

When I first put the spoiler on the car this spring, it felt a little more planted in the turns at medium to high speed, then I switched to some used radial slicks to begin dialing in the setup there... that required enough changes that I totally lost the feel for the spoiler... so it's hard to say.

To put it in quantifiable terms, I was the only car running a significant spoiler. I had my lowest finish in 3 years. I slid back to fifth place, getting beat by 2 cars that had never beat me before and my codriver spun on his last two runs coming out of the high speed sweeper.

In fairness, 2nd to 5th were separated by .369 seconds and I slowed by .6 on only clean day1 run just to be sure I was clean. It was the driver not the spoiler. Also, I improved a bit over last year in comparison to 1st place going from 97% up to 98% (maybe John slowed down... Also looking at the datalogger info, my co driver thought my car would never spin and and tried to give it full power and a little more steering when he was pulling 1.3G through the sweeper. On Heartland parks asphalt, you can't expect much more!

One thing I would still like to do and will try in a couple of weeks is to put a corner weight scale under my rear hatch and try and measure actual down force while I drive at 40 or 50 mph.

One other minor thing for anyone thinking of adding a spoiler. I pushed through a rule change that allows the spoiler to over hang the body at the rear of the car. That becomes effective for 2009. I didn't fully read the rule and put my spoiler on the rear of the hatch and then realized I had to add a "bumper" to make it legal... The bumper was styrofoam and duct tape and will be dropped in the trash very soon! Picture with the spoiler and styrobumper attached...

Tom