Video BRE from Road & Track

[Ron Carter]

As many of you know, there is an article coming out in Road & Track with my BRE Tribute car and the Stillen modified BRE 370Z.

Road & Track has just released the video, and it is a good one!

Enjoy!

**

[Jeff G 78]

Very cool Ron! Your Z looks fantastic on the track.

[MikeW]

Very nice. I even like how they modified the new video footage to look like old film by fading the colors and adding dust and scratches. It really makes you think it's old footage.

[sblake01]

I agree, very nice! Too bad we can't copy YouTube videos and burn them to DVD like we once could do........

[Goose52]

Very cool ! I still have the R&T issue featured in the video - will have to get it down from the attic !!

[1970Datsun240z]

Your BRE Tribute car is beautiful!!! Great Video.

John

[Ron Carter]

See you guys in Tennesse in a few weeks, we will be there and at the track day. It should be great fun!

Ron

[HS30-H]

Great video, Ron. Congrats! The car looks stunning on the move.

Can I ask: Is there anything on the car that you think isn't representative of the original '46' BRE car? Anything that you couldn't accurately replicate, or were not allowed to replicate ( EG due to modern safety regulations, etc )? Anything you'd ideally like to change? Any missing parts you'd like to find?

After seeing the video, I'm wondering about springing & damping too. Does your car have similar spring / damper / ARB rates to those on the original car?

Cheers,

Alan T.

[Ron Carter]

Alan,

Very good questions. There are a couple of items that are not correct on the car, some more obvious than others. Keep in mind that this is a tribute car that Nissan and BRE has graciously chosen to use as the "replacement" for the original car. As I am sure you know, I have never represented my car as the original.

That being said, there are a number of safety relatated issues that had to be addressed. There needs to be a bulkhead between the driver and the fuel cell. The original car's fuel cell was installed directly in the spare tire well with no bulkhead. I have installed a current spare tire well, fuel cell, but there is a bulkhead that covers it that was not part of the original car.

The Drivers seat has been upgraded as I have no illusion of being anywhere near as small as John Morton, and I wanted to be able to drive my own car.

The dash has modern gauges because I did not want to risk such an investment on old antiquated gauges.

All of the modifications that were made to the car from the original are modifications that would have been allowed if the car had continued to race. I did take a few liberties.

I see what I did as a continuation of what the car would have become to some degree. Only I know what is and is not "correct" on the car.

As far as parts I don't have, or might be looking for. After about 10 years I have all the original parts I think I need, not all of which are on the car. Some parts are in better condition than others, but I feel I have all the parts. Including a pretty large collection of spares, with the exception of one. The original red oil pressure warning light.

The spring rate on my car is different than what was originally on the car. The car is set up to compete in US vintage events and conforms to those rules.

This was the first time the car was driven on the track at speed and there were a few things that need to be done to my Z in order to make work a little better on the track. Although I will tell you the lap times between the 370Z T2 car and my Z were very similar.

I have spoken to Peter Brock about what I have done to the car, and his opinion is that anything to make the car better than it was in the day is a good thing. He appreciates the accuracy, and effort that went into the building of my car and it goes, sounds and looks like the original, and he is very proud of that.

Alan, you and I and a very short list of other Datsun experts would be able to tell that there are a small collection parts of the car that are not 100% correct on the car. Most notably the serial number.

Thanks for your interest let me know if you have any other questions.

Ron

[Bruce Palmer]

Ron,

Great stuff........

[John Coffey]

Ron's car is probably closer to the original then the original would be if it still existed and had been raced in the last few decades.

[Ron Carter]

Thanks John, that is nice of you to say.

The real comparison was at the Mitty this year, with the #3 BRE 240Z there. Gerry Mason, Jr. and Sr. were very complimentary, they thought that I did a great job recreating the #46 BRE Z car. From someone who owns the real deal, it was a very nice complement.

Looking at the video that has been "aged" looks great, like the real deal. Of course we did not race/test it on the American Lemans Wheels. Other than that, It looks pretty darn good to me.

I am looking forward to Tennessee and hope that I get to meet a bunch of you at Zcon.

R