New to Z-cars, what's the potential?

[ZmeFly]

If your wife likes the old 2002's then maybe you might want to turn her onto a late 60's early 70's 510 and keep it in the family so to speak, they are great little cars, and there is always the SR20DET swap for that:devious:

[Bruce Woolmore]

...I very much agree with SteveK, though the TR6 in the non-US maket (Lucas PI) would be a good match for a stock Zed -

but like Steve, I got sick of my brit sporties falling to bits. I had a paper weight made up of my TR's broken spider gears, joined on to its stub axle with the sheared keyways, with the split axle flange at the end! three separate incidents! that sums up TRs!

but yes, great styling (courtesy Ghia), lovely sounding engine,

I'd own them all again , in a flash - for a fine weekend

but stick to that wonderfully reliable truck, the Zed, for the serious stuff! I couldn't agree more when they named it the spiritual successor to the Big Healey.

Now will history be so kind to the 350Z? can't help feeling they lost something when they didnt put a Skyline straight six in it!

[symon]

This guy with the TR6 is really off his rocker. I was out with a friend of mine recently, he has a TR5 ( TR6 with TR4 body) with the 150 bhp Lucas fuel injection engine & me with a fair tired euro spac 260z. He has hillclimbed & circuit raced here in Spain, me well I´ve rallied &circuit raced. So as drivers all pretty even. Around the short circuit here in Barcelona my best time was 1:28.4 his 1:30.9. Enough said the TR is no competition for a good Z. Interestingly on the same day a S4 lotus Elan 1:29.6, 2.2S 911 1:28.9.

At least I got a free lunch, we have a bet on our times !

[zorro]

My uncle was a very lucky man to purchase one of the first 240Z in Australia back on there debut release. Much to my dissappointment he never kept it cause a stupid sales person told him the bigger engine in the 260Z L26 vs L28 was more powerful blah blah blah so he traded it. The point to this story is out of the box 150bhp and 135mph by the speedo all day every day....................... Long live the Zed......................!!!!!!!!!!!

[zorro]

OOOps sorry guys typo there L26 in 260z vs L24 in 240z my bad :stupid:

[moyest]

Guys, it probably wasn't so much the "petrol"/fuel injection in the TR6's that made a difference - it depends on where the HP was measured!

The 240Z has around 95-105HP at the rear wheels, which is probably what the TR6 had. Once the injected TR6 came out, 150HP "gross" for both the TR6 and 240Z suggested a pretty even comparison in terms of raw horsepower.

But once you dump the respective engines into the respective cars, THAT'S where the difference in performance happens! Suspension setup, responsiveness, exhausts, etc... Plus convertibles are usually heavier because the manufacturer has to add structural rigidity somewhere else (which equals more metal, more weight!). So a better "handling" comparison on the track or twisty roads might be between a TR6 with full roll cage -vs- a 240Z with strut braces front & rear - now THAT would be interesting!

Hawaiiankine - I've worked up my L24 with porting/polishing the head, mild (not SO "mild" really) cam, a good manifold ("TWM" brand) "port-matched" to triple DCOE45 webers. I also have headers, leading into a 2.5" stainless exhaust system.

If you consider the original HP was 151HP "gross" at the flywheel (i.e. around 100HP at the rear wheels), then my recent Dyno result of 133HP at the rear wheels might be as much as 200HP "gross"!? :knockedou

I don't care much for "gross" horsepower figures, but I'm happy with a 33HP gain at the rear wheels - it's noticeable! The revs climb like crazy, and I feeeeeel fast! :classic:

[hawaiiankine]

Aloha eveyrone,

Kind of lost track of this forum for a while and didn't keep up on the thread.

Its been a long while and I'm still sans Z-car, but hopefully that will change in the near future. Someone posted something about getting a 510, I would definitely consider that, but they are so hard to find down here. My wife likes 510's as well as the Bimmer 2002.

Kammy - pretty sweet sounding car. Sorry I didn't email you...didn't keep track of the forum here. Maybe you can point me in the right direction for a Z-car here in Hawaii. BTW - was that the road from Hilo to Ka'u?

Mahalos again everyone,

Joel

[beandip]

I recently went to a club function and it was at a dyno day. They were putting there Zs on the dyno . One of the cars '79 running about 11 to 1 compression, head work headers and a hot cam the pulled 152Hp to the rear wheels on 100+ gas. and it was running strong. There was a supura there owned by one of the techs that were running the dyno his inline six on gas turned 740Hp and not on nitrus . He did it twice , the first run of the three when he punched it in fourth gear he broke the rearend loose so bad it went to red line . They put two big guys in the back for weight and then turned the 740s . This is a twin turbo and he has a nitrus setup but dident have a bottle in the car. As you said speed costs money , how fast do you want to spend.

[hawaiiankine]

Aloha Beandip,

I just noticed that you're from Beaverton, OR. That's where I grew up! Graduated from BHS in '97. Small world eh?

Anyway, those are some impressive numbers you quoted. I wonder how well those cars handle with all that HP behind their wheels. The Z probably does pretty well, but the Supra...

Joel