tholt29

Cool! Thanks guys! Sent from my iPhone using Classic Zcar Club mobile

Hey folks, I need a little help. Can someone with a 280Z with a stock front bumper, go measure how far it protrudes forward from the front edge of the hood? See the attached photo... Don't worry about the rubber over riders, I am just worried about the main metal part... I am asking because the rules for my race car allow me to change bumpers provided they do not extend more than 1/2" beyond the original... Not that I really want a bumper, but it allows me to do put a big splitter on, providing it doesn't extend beyond the bumper... Thanks in advance. Tom

Congrats to Henry! Like Rick said, he just crushed us right out of the box on Friday morning. I think the magic was his Avon slicks. Those are soft compound hillclimb tires which are designed to work best in cooler temps. Thursday was pretty hot, about 90 and sunny and The Hoosiers seemed to have a slight advantage, but not much. Friday was cloudy windy and cool (about 65 at race time) and Henry goes out and turns a 56.6 on cold tires vs my 58.1 on warm tires (co drivers help here). After that initial heat cycle, Henry couldn't get back under 57... A lot of folks are rethinking their tire options for next year! (not to mention suspension upgrades)! The next year could get expensive! Tom

Greetings from Lincoln Airpark! John took the year off due to car/time/family balance issues. With Toby moving on to road racing, it was time all of us perennial bridesmaids get to shine! :-) We drove the harder/ technical course today and move to a much more flowing course tomorrow. Rick and I are hoping it will favor the Z's. Tune in tomorrow to find out. The weather Is looking awesome for tomorrow we shouldn't have any rain to help the evo. But for what its worth, it was 102 and sunny on Tuesday until a small hail storm blew through! Tom

Wow, that sucks for Leeds. I'm so glad he's okay. That was a such a beautiful car and very meticulously maintained. I know it used to have a 10" spoiler on the back and that is gone so the car got smacked around pretty good. Hopefully it can be rebuilt like it was before. It was a VERY tough year for the old school FP crew. John drove the only car built before '98 to make it into the trophies. 40+ year old strut suspension is not the way to get to the top in this class! If we are going to keep the Z alive in Solo it's going to require a big step up in development! Congrats to Toby and Beverlee. THey drove the wheels off of that car and and had some great competition pushing ithem. They both deserved the wins! Tom 2nd Place in Vintage FP (if only that was a real class!) Solo Nationals 2011

Here is the easy answer list: If you run Stock class you will be in ES and you have to run the original engine for that year model, no engine mods beyond an air filter. One of the hottest new classes that the Z is legal for is STR, That still requires an original engine but allows headers and cold air intakes etc as well as suspension mods and real street tires. For Street Prepared you will be in BSP (that might change next year) but you can run any engine that came in a 240Z-280ZX, but that does not allow strokers. SSM is where you will end up if you run a stroker. You can run any Nissan block engine and do anything you want to it. It's a pretty brutal class in some areas of the country. F Prepared is the Z's happy place. More here than any other class, but the stroker is not legal here. you must run a stock stroke and bore is limited to 1mm over. X Prepared will allow you to run Any engine you want. V8, Rotary, Allison V12, you pick it. But all of the Prepared classes allow you to gut the car, run race slicks etc... it's not a street class. STR is probably the best place for a street Z. Tom

Thanks JMark... It was a tough year! I'm thinking my problems on day 1 were Toby's problems on day 2... Sticker tires... The radial slicks really seem to work better after they have been heat cycled. I showed up on day one with virgin rubber and the car was frustratingly slow... The next day I was back in the hunt. Toby used sticker tires on day two on a drying course and really fell back. JT was on the Hoosier bias ply slicks which had been heat cycled the day before and ran those all week. The friday course was drying throughout our heat and was basically fully dry by last runs. JT broke it off on that one. I was really happy with my friday times... if the car had continued to dtruggle I may have let it fall off the trailer on the way home! Congrats again John! Tom

It's going to be a slugfest! The big three to watch will be John, Fordahl in the 914-6 and Larsen in the BMW. The wildcard will be Berry in the EVO. He's probably not the driver that the others are but the car has >100 hp advantage on the next fastest. I'm gunning for fastest of the slow guys again! Rick Martinez had to drop out due to terminal engine troubles. That's one less Z in the fray, but we still have about 4 others. I'm just excited to see a field of 23... That's the second largest Prepared field entered. In 2004 we only had 10 entries... Tom

John will be there... He's always slow about registering... The first deadline is not until 8/11 so you will see a big surge in the next week or so. John won't be able to take it easy though... There are 2 or 3 cars/drivers coming to make him sweat. It's going to be a very fast and tough year to win in a Z. Tom

Also note the 240/260/280Z are listed on separate lines... Technically that would make any update backdate illegal... I suspect that was an error but we better make sure that's the case... Keep writing... Tom

It looks like the thought of moving the Z from BSP to DSP is losing some ground. The latest Fastrack is looking for feedback to move the Z along with the S2000 and others to CSP now... That's not much different than BSP as far as times go, but does move it away from the rally buggies and makes the competition a lot less course dependent. "Move from BSP to CSP: BMW M Coupe and Roadster, BMW Z3, Datsun/Nissan Z cars, Honda S2000, Mazda RX8" ... write a note to SEB@SCCA.COM if you like or dislike this idea and or prefer the move to DSP. The squeeky wheel gets the grease! Tom

When writing your letter, keep in mind that they don't care if you think it would be cool and serve you well. The more detail you can provide on why you think the Z's will be FAIR competition for the BMW's, Subaru Impreza, Lexus IS300 and the lone Merkur, the more influence you will have. Provide technical details, parts availability, strengths and weaknesses that will convince the SEB that a 40 year 2300 lb Z does not have the potential to be dominant over a bunch of newer 3000 + pound sedans. One of the awesome things about the Z's that makes it so attractive to us, is the interchangeability of the engines and drivetrain. That is pretty heavily restricted in street prepared, mainly because we have to use an engine as a whole with no internal mods. No head swapping, no bigger valves, no cam swaps. The things that really wake up a Z are not legal here and HP gains are limited to what you can get with exhaust and intake changes. Tell them what kind of documented power can be created from those mods. Don't mislead them by pointing out Rebello can build a 300 hp street motor because that motor would not be legal in this class. The ultimate goal is to grow participation. If this would have that effect tell them! I am on the Prepared class commitee have a some friends on the SEB and I will try and check their pulse on this issue once the feedback has leveled off and let you all know which way the wind seems to be blowing... Tom

The car in my profile pic is the remains of Andy's FP car... I think the only parts that remain are the right fender, the doors, the cage, the hatch, the diff and the cylinder head casting. Everything else has been replaced... some things a few times. :classic: Andy, any clue what Vic's HP was? Tom

...and some of the current DSP racers ARE getting worked up, so the more letters the better. Tom

It's true that Vic won on a single course event, but the same car won in 98 with Andy Craig driving. Both are excellent drivers and Vic can definitely set up a car well. That said, those were the days before the rally cars moved into BSP and unpset the balance of power dramatically. I don't think anyone can make a Z competitive with the boosted cars in the class now. In spite of that reality, it's a big jump back to DSP. Roughly 4 seconds separated the winners of those classes at Nationals and that had little to do with the weather. If Vic and Andy proved anything it's that the Z can be competitive with the 'Vettes. In 2009 the fastest Vette in BSP (8th place) would have won DSP by 7/10's. A very well built/driven Z could do well in DSP. Ultimately the SEB decides what changes to make based on feedback. If they did not think this reclass had merit they wouldn't have posted it for member comment. So the more letters they get supporting it will help the Z's cause. Now, if a few current competitive DSP drivers get worked up and send letters saying 'are you nuts?' this whole idea may die an early death. We won't know for a long while. The longer you hear nothing, the better the Z's chances. The SEB probably won't print a final recommendation until late summer... a retraction could come next month if the opposition is strong... Tom