A 240 for XP?

[jthub620]

I recently sold a Factory Five Cobra replica which was pretty competitive in XP, (2300lbs and 471rwhp, 800 and 1000lb springs F/R) and I want to build a Z for Autocross and mild track work (HDPE) and hill climbs.

I'm currently thinking a LS2 with a wide-body kit, stripped interior and cage. I don't plan on serious competition, so absolute adherence to the SCCA rulebook is not required. The groups I intend to run with aren't that retentive.

From some research here, it's obvious there's some very experienced and knowledgeable folks. I'm open to ideas and advice.

I'm in the early research phase. Purchases are a year or so off.

Thanks in advance for the help and advice!

Cheers,

John

[John Coffey]

The direction you're planning is probably better suited to the HybridZ.org membership. I mean no insult to this group.

[jthub620]

The direction you're planning is probably better suited to the HybridZ.org membership. I mean no insult to this group.

I'm registered there too.

[jmortensen]

I'm working on an XP Z with a 5.3L. That puts min weight at 2250 lbs which should be doable with the V8 and cage. Dave Kipperman (viperredls1z) has had an LS2 Z car and a KA24DET Z car both in XP. Steve Parmley (zlalomz) has an XP car in the works, as does Cary McCalister (tube80z). I'm sure there are others. Dave has put two of these cars into competition, the rest of us are taking our sweet time. I've been building mine since 2003. Time, parts, and $$$, you have got to have all 3, and I'm just hacking away bit by bit when all 3 of those come around simultaneously.

In terms of pure speed, you might actually do better to do a SR20DET or KA24 turbo swap, because the weight can get down to 1800 lbs or so. If you really cut up a tub it's probably doable, and you can get 400 hp out of those motors pretty easily. Dave only ran his 4 cyl a couple times and then he got a Lotus 7 clone which in truth is probably the best platform for an autox car in XP.

As John said, Hybrid Z is the place to be on this one for sure, much more geared to XP as a class, where swapping in parts from other manufacturers and cutting up the chassis is going to be considered a GOOD thing.

Edited June 17, 2010 by jmortensen

[jthub620]

Thanks for the replies. Jon, I agree on the Lotus 7s. Even with almost 600hp at the flywheel, Locosts and Brunton Stalkers were usually beating us; but it was a battle. There were about a dozen of us who could be in contention for FTD any given day with Lotus 7s, Cobra replicas, and Reynards in the mix. It just depended on the driver....and luck!

I'm going the LS2 240Z route for a couple of reasons. I think it can be relatively inexpensive. It took me the better part of $50K to make my Cobra competitive. Enough money that I didn't really want to risk it on a big track and they wouldn't let us run hill climbs since we had no HALO cage; I wasn't willing to put one in the Cobra. Besides, I didn't build it for big track work in any case. Seems to me I can build a fairly fast LS2 Z for quite a bit less than 50K.

I like the idea of a hard top and a cage without ruining the lines of a car.

Finally, I miss having a Z. Sold my last one in 1992 and I've missed them ever since.

Thanks again folks! I look forward to future "spirited" discussions. Maybe I can even meet a few of you. I know there's at least one Z on the East Coast running SCCA events in the DC area. Several of my Cobra club members run there as well.

Cheers,

John