Good Luck to the Z Racers at the Solo Nationals!

[John Coffey]

After a few years of trying, a BMW is now the FP National Champ!

[jmortensen]

Congrats to you John, for helping him get there. I haven't seen any results and wasn't able to find any online. What was the gap, and was JT second?

[Steve Parmley]

http://www.scca.org/eventresults.aspx?event=17058&hub=3

John Thomas was second.

[John Coffey]

Margin of victory was .516 and it all came down to a miracle 2nd run by Toby yesterday. Toby's wife Beverlee also won FPL.

[conedodger]

It's going to be a slugfest! The big three to watch will be John, Fordahl in the 914-6 and Larsen in the BMW. The wildcard will be Berry in the EVO. He's probably not the driver that the others are but the car has >100 hp advantage on the next fastest.

I'm gunning for fastest of the slow guys again! Rick Martinez had to drop out due to terminal engine troubles. That's one less Z in the fray, but we still have about 4 others.

I'm just excited to see a field of 23... That's the second largest Prepared field entered. In 2004 we only had 10 entries...

Tom

The Fordahl Racing car might have to be rebuilt for next year. Leeds Gullick rolled his Suburban and trailer on the way home. He apparently lost a tire on the trailer and in the high winds, lost control and rolled the truck. Not a scratch on him but the truck and trailer look to be totalled. The 914 doesn't look too bad from the pictures but I can only see a bit of it...

Glad he is ok!

Edited September 4, 2011 by conedodger

[tholt29]

Wow, that sucks for Leeds. I'm so glad he's okay. That was a such a beautiful car and very meticulously maintained. I know it used to have a 10" spoiler on the back and that is gone so the car got smacked around pretty good. Hopefully it can be rebuilt like it was before.

It was a VERY tough year for the old school FP crew. John drove the only car built before '98 to make it into the trophies. 40+ year old strut suspension is not the way to get to the top in this class! If we are going to keep the Z alive in Solo it's going to require a big step up in development!

Congrats to Toby and Beverlee. THey drove the wheels off of that car and and had some great competition pushing ithem. They both deserved the wins!

Tom

2nd Place in Vintage FP (if only that was a real class!)

Solo Nationals 2011

[JTZ23]

Good to hear Leeds is OK. Ugly pics. A lot of bad things can happen when towing 3,000 plus miles.

Tom is correct, the competition has increased with the addition of newer cars and talented drivers, time to step out of the box with the Z's development.

Toby drove great and consistent and the new car on the block, Porsche Boxter, will definitly be a contender when placed in the hands of the Dr.

365 days to figure out how to spend our money..................

JT

[jmark]

Time to start a new run JT.

[John Coffey]

365 days to figure out how to spend our money..................

JT

Shocks, shocks, shocks.

[jmortensen]

I like shocks as an answer, but there are some other options too. You could get that airdam lower to the ground very cheaply and easily by adding a little skirt on the front and might pick up just a little bit of time, a splitter would be another option too. I'd say droop limiters but your car doesn't seem to have as much body roll as the other Zs in the class (judging by pics of last years Nationals) which makes me think you might already have them.

I bought a 75% faster than stock power steering rack for my autoxer, I think something like that would probably help you too.

[260DET]

Shocks. The track cars that I see with teeth rattling suspension going over ripple strips makes me wonder when with my custom stuff I hardly notice them. It can be surprising how compliant a suspension can be with relatively heavy springs if the shocks are valved and adjusted right. The more compliant the suspension, within reason, the more the tyre maintains 100% road contact.

[260DET]

Don't know what the US rules allow but if it was me with appropriate $ the idea would be to input all the relevant S30's suspension data into a good suspension program and go from there. It happens here in AU, big $ 'classic' cars outperform modern cars in competition, the educated opinion is their suspension is the reason why. And we are not talking bolt ons, we are talking a complete revision and change where necessary of all, all, suspension alignments, whatever it takes to optimimise suspension performance.

I get the impression that the US is a bit behind when it comes to anything other than what can be bought from some vendor or other.