Please forgive my ignorance but aren't these throtal body spacers on my carbs???

http://www.classiczcars.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=5629&password=&sort=7&thecat=500

WHY? Do they help or hurt the performance of this car?

That is the way they are susposed to be. Make sure there are no vacuum leaks in them.

Really? I have never owned a Z and this just looked strange to me. Looked like a throtal body spacer to me; you know like the ones you can buy for newer cars that have a spiral on the inside to create a vortex. I know a little about those one because I'm planning on getting one for my 4Runner.

Thanx for the info!

The phenolic spacers serve a couple purposes.

First is to insulate the carb body from the intake so that heat will not migrate from the intake to the carb body.

Second, to lenghten the intake runner slightly to help better atomize the mixture, as you will notice the intakes are a bit on the short side.

Third, would be to help insulate the carbs from vibration, although the spacers are quite hard so that may not be a critical issue.

They don't have anything inside them, they are merely what could be considered a very thick gasket.