trs

There is a a series of corners at wakefield park in goulburn, which makes you(forces you almost) do a scandinavian flick if you aren't smooth with your inputs. there is a longish left hander quickly followed by 2 closely connected sharp right handers. Ive found in my 240, that even the merest enthusiasm on turn in or under brakes can see the tail step out like a valentino rossi braking pass which can be gathered up fairly easily. The few times I have gone for the bigger directional changes have resulted in the car pretty much on full opposite lock through the two right handers- combined with brown stains in undies. *used to find the scandinavian flick much more useful in FWD cars for that same corner.

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=106354 have a read of this entire thread. Good info Bilstein P30-0032 with the different gland nuts for the 240z struts (forgot part number). Whilst they are inserts, it's not a plug and play proposition.

Didnt see these last few posts until now sorry. Nigel- I used vw golf bilstein sport struts. The shocks themselves are very cheap in america- I forgot exactly how much, but it was less than 500 AUS for all 4- bought from shox.com. Shox will also be able to revalve the shocks to what you want for a bit extra before shipping them to you. I picked them up personally- had them revalved for my purposes at heasmans in Sydney- and then modified my existing cut down struts with ground control components. so i guess the answers to your question are- shox.com and ground control. Misc fabrication of strut tops/ camber plates I had done at Stewart wilkins in sydney. Sooley, My zg flares are from japan. I decided to trek out to Spirit Garage one day in hopes of seeing their race car beast (thanks to HS30-H) for directions. Unfortunately they keep the racecar at a different garage, but I did manage to score a set of old 2nd hand flares from their basement for a bargain price. Also got a photo of the racecar, stickers, a cup of coffee and some other freebies. Was worth the 2 hours I walked in the rain. This is the boss and Im assuming wife of Spirit Garage. * Ive since taken the Z back to the track with some proper overflow tanks and cooling mods and it ran fautlessly all day in >30 degree heat. The gearbox however packed it in, and I'm picking up an option4 rally dogleg gearbox on wednesday! cant wait!

have been to a few more track days since I last posted. The most recent one on labour day, was on a 30 degree day. Car ran without missing a beat 6 laps at a time [have since got a proper oil catch can and radiator overflow tank]. My gearbox did however decide to pack it in after 1 lap, I lost 2nd gear at high speed. It was never the tightest box, and an opportunity arose to purchase a rare Option4 rally comp box from SWR. Like a desperate crack addict I made the foolish decision to purchase it. The box will be going into the car in 2 weeks time, once stewart wilkins finishes putting it back together. will report back on the difference at the next track day in a few weeks time.

Cheers for the comments! Had a great day. The super high res shots came from a spectator on the day. I have some 7mb photos of the sliding z ones, but they would probably take up the whole screen!

<-this dude was also bloody quick. <-- thats me in the far off distance at the hairpin facing the wrong way after spinning, stalling, then flooding the carbs, then watching my oil temp rise. cheers, would be great to have some company next time!

Went to an open practice day with the wuzza a few weeks ago. Just some pics from the day: The car in its current setup is great fun to drive. As it stands, even on street tyres/no lsd it has admirable traction out of corners [ignore the first few pics, that was on corner entry!]. The tail does like to come out a bit if you turn in too jovially, but in general the car is relatively neutral. The suspension consists of custom valved bilstein struts ( digressive front, linear rear) with shortened struts and coilovers. Wilwood front brakes, sigma rears. It's not as quick down the straight as most of the cars there on the day, but it sounds pretty sweet with the webers! here are some of the more choice pics..

I know it is short notice, but I will be heading down to Wakefield again this sunday for an open practice day. Forecast is frosty to sunny, so temps should be nice and chilly. They don't often have practice days on the weekend so it should be a good day out! rough costs off the top of my head are: 100 for the day 40 for a license if you dont have a cams one already and you need a helmet and long sleeved clothing

it's the skyline of love baby¬ nice one! That's gotta make your day... now go and sue their arse. *the english actually sounds like it's pulled from a forum post as well.

Made it back in one piece. Car handled fantastically on track for what was basically an untested setup. I was expecting some degree of understeer and possible guard rubbing issues. Even on street tyres had brilliant grip (similar level to when i've used semi slicks on econoboxes). Neutral to slight oversteering nature, very controllable. Very good turn in and good traction out of exits. Thankfully didn't bin it into the sandpits otherwise would have torn off the front spoiler or exhaust. Had a few problems with oil catchtanks, and radiator overflow bottles or the lack thereof. But after raiding the local soft drink bottle stand and the pirtek store we were good to go again. The brakes are still not 100% confidence inspiring, but will get better once I get used to them. All in all, not a bad day!

I did indeed end up cutting/rewelding the guards and got the front's rolled. I might need to do it again if I decide to run the car a bit lower, but we'll see how the car handles tomorrow at the current height. No idea who owned the 2j-Z, but it looked like it had a fair bit of money in it. Custom rear end, weld in tower to tower cage, spare tyre well was cut out(fuel cell?), big turbo and programmable ECU on the engine. It's a bloody beast.

Quick update. Since I last posted, car has undergone a few changes. I travel to america semi regularly and managed to haul back a bunch of goodies on my last visit: * bilstein sport shocks- digressive valving front, linear on rear. Seems to absorb bumps much better than the tokicos illuminas but I didnt have suitable spring rates for them previously so it's a bit of a meaningless comparison. *baffled oilpan - custom stewart wilkins. * azc wilwoods 4 stud front, sigma 280mm rear disc conversion at rear. The wilwoods rub on the inside of the watanabes by the smallest of bees ****'s, but I am running spacers now so no worries. * triple 45dcoe13 webers on a TWM manifold. Picked them up for a relatively good price but ended up rebuilding them and dyno tuning them for about double that! The induction noise is amazingly illegal... Surprisingly not much power gain over the SU's. Was making 118kw@wheels before, now it's at 120kw but with a much fatter torque and power curve. Power now comes on at 3000rpm and pulls through to redline. I shall be taking the car to wakefield tomorrow AM for a bit of a shakedown run. Hopefully will make it back in one piece. Some happy snaps* my driveway isn't the greatest place to take photos so apologies for the crappy angles.

As of 3 weeks ago: triple 45 webers Wilwood brakes front Sigma rear disc brakes bilstein shocks baffled sump. Off to wakefield on thursday to see whether it was all worth it.

Jim, I see your s20 and raise you an LZ16 http://page9.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/k29542080

oops double post

If you are looking local, noltec should be able to make something up to suit. If you were in sydney I'd recommend these guys: http://www.full-throttle.com.au/Suspension/Suspension.htm

Sorry if its gone a bit offtopic, Gavin, I've listed the mods in my photo gallery. Jim, I've been working a lot lately, but the car has also been slowly getting some upgrades. Brakes and bilsteins being some of the latest toys i picked up on a trip to the states recently. I'll actually be taking the Z up to SWR in a month or so's time to get a baffled oil sump made up and some other bits and pieces. Your spare engine sounds interesting- sure you don't want to run it in my car as a test bed?

SWR does fantastic work. They get the job done even if it means thinking outside the box. Just as an aside, they had my L6 on the dyno and my initial tune looked very similar to yours. A few hours of tuning changed the figures from 60kw@the wheels to 120kw@the wheels. I wouldnt be surprised if you could get something significantly over this figure once your engine is fully sorted, seeing as you have more 'fruit' than I. Are they happy to play around with the Mikuni's?