Zvoiture

Very good idea. And one that doesn't necessarily need coding to accomplish. I will be happy to do the COTM selection each month. Just send $100 and a picture of your car (no checks or credit cards, please. CASH only) to: Steve McConnell 746 Via Bandolero Arroyo Grande, CA 93420 steve(completely unbiased)77

Exhibit A: I feel Nissan is taking a giant step backwards in moving from a straight motor to a V. Right there they are signalling to a world full of 3-liter straight-6 success stories, "WE SURRENDER!" steve77

I worry that the Skyline bloodline will be altered in the 'watering down' of the line to create the current G35. Several Nissan sources say, "The G35 IS the new Skyline." It just seems to me no good can come of taking a mad, violent road warrior like the R33 and "Re-designing it from the ground-up" (READ: "re-packaging for an American market"). steve77

They appear to be an attempt at equal length, so that narrows the field down quite a bit. If they are for a round-port head, do they have a smog port? That would narrow it down a bit more, although I don't know of any equal length headers available with a smog port.... steve77

A new E-mail address? The old PacBell one just quite working! ZVOITURE@aol.com steve77

A-dog...it was simply a case of something very small and seemingly innocent growing into this giant malignant tumor that NOBODY could ignore and required the removal of several limbs to get all the rotted flesh out. 1. ZCAR was LARGELY unmoderated. Vince and Derek are busy guys, and the volumn of posts meant a lot of stuff slipped by. 2. There was a forum not horribly different from our 'Open Discussion' on which posters were allowed to get WAYYYY off topic. Nothing too bad so far, huh? Lots of fun, good banter, no worries...right? Now add: 3. A lot of personal issues were discussed (religion, war, politics, health, crime, racism, etc. etc. etc...) amongst a large group of people--many of them criminally immature or blissfully uneducated. Stir very well and quickly! Stir at a rate of up to several hundred posts per hour. Result: Personal attacks. "Your opinion is WRONG!" leads very easily to, "You are a loser because of your opinion." which grows very quickly and becomes, "You #%@#&^*%$#! If I ever meet you I will %#^*$@%^& you!" Some of it good-natured, some it not. I am not a sore loser. I did not get involved. But it became very hard to ignore and the 'cringe factor' was nearly unbearable. So I just turned it off and (fortunately) found this place. From what I have heard, ZCAR is all cleaned up and nice again. steve77

I was a die-hard ZCAR.com person (winoman). Earlier this year there was a certain 'element' loose on that site that made me embarrassed to be a member. It really was quite unbearable. Many of our new-ish members will know what I am talking about--I think we gained quite a few here shortly after that 'situation'. A good friend (actually a Z31 driver!!!) told me about 240z.org and thought I might enjoy it in light of my uneasiness with ZCAR. What a Godsend! This place is great. Hardly ever go anywhere else. I live here. steve77

Everything of any value comes from Europe. Everyone knows this! After all the Europeans have been doing (fill in the blank) for hundreds of years before the Americans or Asians were. This goes for cuisine, wine, furniture, architecture, religion, literature, art....you name it! Oh, yeah, and cars! Face it: Eurocentrism and 'American Iron' ways of thinking drive classic automobile values. These little Jap things--they are just little econo-boxes. They're not REAL automobiles! The Japanese are just great copiers, right? Who cares if they just look around them and create marvelously efficient products to replace the over-priced, balky, glam products we have been force-fed as 'home-bred status quo'. To wit: From a Magnavox, a Sony. From a Rolex, a Seiko. From a Mercedes, a Lexus......... steve77

Have seen a couple 240's that allegedly started "coming apart at the seams" after years of sustained autoXing. Then again, have met a few people who claim this is complete BS. Frame plates/ gussets...and a roll cage....preferably frame plates gussetted TO a roll cage. steve77

I just spent $6000 in 6 months to turn a clean--but boring--77 into a clean-running, easy-driving, comfortable but aggressive cruisemobile for road tripping and autoX that my originally gung-ho wife now finds excuses not to ride in. My next Z will be a pre-74 240 and will be MUCH more aggressive but much lower-budget. Everything on it will be begged, borrowed, bartered or stolen. It will not have lush interiors or operating lights and guages. It will have undercoating for carpet. It will not have a change compartment in the console. If you choose to ride along on the milk crate on the passenger side, I will provide you with a roll-bar to hang on to instead of a door pull. The wheels will be gun-metal grey spray painted 15" whatevers instead of polished alloy. Lowering springs? CUT springs, baby. The headers will be a rusty, dented set I get free on-line. I will re-model a bathroom for the head work. Hood? What's a hood for? You know that color of dark, flat, splotchy, hand-applied charcoal paint that you see on '30's and '40's Ford bucket rods and roadsters? I'm learning to really like it. Priorities have definitely changed.... steve(maybe it's for sale?)77

True, you can identify many cars by sound. But Mustangs sound REALLY different! What's different about the engine? Ford trucks don't sound like them...or T-birds or Marquis...etc.etc.etc... A chevy SB sounds the same in a Silverado or a Caprice Classic or a F-body. It can't be just the exaust, because Mustangs have that same 'tone' whether the exhaust is stock or modified. steve77

Berry fuddy....BERRY fuddy

Not knowing too much abour Ford powerplants, I have always wondered about this. You can hear a 'stang coming a mile away. The motor sounds unlike anything else. It doesn't matter if they have Flowmasters or Dynomax or anything else, they just sound different (although the aformentioned really accentuate them). I'm talking about the Fox mustang and onwards (early 80's or so)....Is it the intake? Lately I have heard a few really late model F-body's that sound somewhat like the mustang. Close, but not exactly. steve77

what would it take for the 280Z to beat the 300ZX A miracle. steve77

I would think the #1 cause of restriction in the exhaust of a '77 would be the cat. Mine was ALL plugged up. But then, maybe where you are you don't have one??? If you don't have smog inspection, replace the cat with a short 'bullet' style straight-thru muffler (Cherry Bomb, etc...). Then install a good muffler in the rear. A decent 'non-name-brand' turbo muffler with at least 2.25 ports will probably flow just fine, and be the quietest....a Dynomax or Flowmaster will supposedly flow a bit better and be a bit more 'throaty'. The aforementioned bullet muffler will take care of a bunch of the noise--especially the really annoying resonance. A straight-thru muffler combined witht he bullet will be somewhat louder. steve(none of the above)77

Have you seen the 'clear' license plate covers? They look clear, but have this prism or hologram type thing built into them. From straight on, they look normal, but at the angle of the cameras, they are totally blank. Pretty trick, but I wouldn't want to have one on my car if I got pulled over by an actual cop... steve77

In CA we have cameras at crucial/large/frequently run/on the list of top accident area intersections to catch left-turn-lane runners. Your front bumper trips a beam that is activated as the light turns RED. As the beam is broken, several high-tech cameras with flashes take pix of your car from several angles, including one with a very good telephoto lense of your face through the glass. You get a little letter in the mail and it costs you $270 a pop. Most major cities in CA are doing it now. steve77

Ok, my attorney is on the phone.....he says you are going to drive to your local KRAGEN and ask for the Bosch VXC35dq-783 in the yellow box and when they don't find them and laugh at you, you will sue me. (imadeitupsorry) steve77

"and in bosch line?" That would be the VXC35dq-783, but make sure it is in the yellow box. If you use the one that comes in the black box, you will have troubles. NGK NGK NGK NGK NGK NGK You will sleep now, and when I snap my fingers, you will not remember anything happening here, but you will motor to your local NAPA and purchase NGK BPR6ES. Six of 'em for your trusty Datto. It deserves them! Gap them to 40 but make sure your coil and wires are less than 30,000 miles old and your cap and rotor have less than 10,000. If you live in an area that gets in the 80's or 90's, you might try BPR7ES and if you are in the sunbelt (90-100+) you might try BPR8ES. NGK NGK NGK NGK NGK "snap" steve77

Remember when you sold candy bars door-to-door for 3rd grade band uniforms and got a few 'slams'? I had run-in with Z31 owner today that made me feel the same way.......Downtown San Luis Obispo...middle of a car show...traffic at gridlock...I have hole-shot at light perpendicular with nice grey Z31. I'm in my 280...Z31 owner is nice-looking young Asian man (maybe mid-40's) with his wife. She kinda points at me and converses with him. I make eye contact with her and gesture a sort of nod/approval/acknowledgment. Z31 owner stares straight ahead. We inch through the intersection and I end up behind him. License plate frame says, "Cal Poly Alumni" (remember, this is downtown San Luis Obispo. It is natural to assume if he doesn't live here, he has strong ties to the area). At the next light I am alongside him and nobody is going anywhere anytime soon....I have a fresh stack of lime-green CCZCC flyers handy and grab one and get out and approach his window. Holding up the flyer (GIANT letters proclaiming: CENTRAL COAST Z CAR CLUB), I say, "Hi. Do you live around here?" Z31 owner never looks at me. Just stares straight ahead and tersely says, "No." His wife is looking at me and him kinda confused. I start to say, "Well, we have pretty nice Z club here......." and he puts it in gear and pulls forward never once looking at me. Steve McPheeters, I love you, Bob Howard, you're the greatest and the club wouldn't be the same without Debbie Swarens...but DAMN! Z31 owner really makes 'Z spirit' a rare commodity. Had to vent steve77

Thanks, Owen...I said the same thing, "I don't remember a Chevy 383?". LastAngel is correct. steve77

Somebody said in the "Only 240's?????" thread, "If you put a 280 in a 240, doesn't that make it a 280?" Which got me to thinking...... steve77

OK, it is pretty well documented here and elsewhere my preference for the 75-78 body structure. So it weighs a bit more and blah blah blah...weight is easy to lose: plain and simple it is a stronger body.....The problem of course being the complete IMPOSSIBILITY of registering a 75-78 body here in CA with a motor that puts out any sort of pleasant umph. How hard would it be to simply switch numbers? Who is going to know? I always do something radical with the bumpers anyway. How else could anybody tell? without weighing it or having a Master's degree in Nissan manufacturing techniques and history? The 70-73 body is identical to all but the most trained eye. Just build the motor you want and register it with numbers from a rusted out 240 you crushed. I am a completly upstanding, law-abiding, tax-paying citizen who--most importantly--respects the law and the reasons for them. HOWEVER: You all know a finely put-together motor runs well and CLEAN. Much cleaner than scores of the hulks on the road and assuredly cleaner than a poorly maintained 280. Couldn't I just say a couple 'Hail Marys' or something? steve77