cygnusx1

Yes, it's all contracted EXCEPT for the fuzzy logic surrounding the value of the car. In a classic car that is not widely popular, it's a major piece of the equation that can be used by the insurance company to "make" the equations work.

Is your 240Z an early model? Wasn't there a change in differential position in the later years? Mine is a 72 and has a curved support. Yours looks like it is supposed to be straight. Maybe someone tried to use an early straight bar on a later car and "made" it fit with a hammer.

Sorry to see this. This is all too common. I hope they make it right for you. Even if you have to shell some cash out of pocket yourself, get her fixed. Almost anything can be fixed. Then, get classic insurance with an agreed value policy. Make sure the agreed value is accurate and has some wiggle room. I went through this last Summer. My damage was much less than yours. Still, it became very close to a total, and I lost nights of sleep over it. Even with $8,000 agreed value with Hagerty I was looking at a total loss because I chose an expensive restoration shop. I have since upped it to $15,000 agreed value. Hagerty haggled with the restoration shop for me to get the repair cost down below the totaling threshold, which was around $6000 for my $8000 agreed value. Now that is service!

Yes it's bent. Does this photo of a mid 1972 help?

200 crank power, is achievable with both engines, and with some dollars. You will need them to rev pretty high, and may lose some street driveability/low torque in the process. The L28E Turbo can make you 200 hp at the wheels very easily, quietly, and maintain excellent street manners. However, I did read that you want N/A power. I understand. I have both methods, and enjoy both equally well. However, the turbo will scare most passengers. If you want to keep originality, use the original 240Z motor.

I put one into my 240Z. I won a new 2-row version for $90. What a steal! It fit great, looked great, cooled the car fine, but after a few weeks, I noticed a micron sized leak in an upper tank weld. I took a round file to the weld, notched it, and filled it with JB weld. Problem solved so far for almost a year. I can't complain for the price I paid. I also replaced the radiator cap with a Stant. The one that came with the tank looked so cheap and had sharp edges.

One side cracking before the other is just happenstance. 300 miles after the bodywork? This has got to be poor workmanship. Stiff suspension places higher loads on the unibody, and more often. It would simply accelerate the cracking. My 280Z has begun to crack again, after 11 years, and with about 70k miles on the bodywork. I don't know how the seam was handled when the paint was redone. The chassis has about 180k miles on it now. I run a pretty tight street suspension, heavy sway bars, and no other chassis stiffening besides strut tower bars. The car is relatively rust free but has had its lower frame rails replaced at the 70k mile mark. How about you totally stock Z cars with high miles? Any roof cracking NOT related to rust on the car.

C-clip? Did you mean c-pillar?

This is probably one of the cleanest photos I have taken of my turboZ. I shoot with the Canon 20D. And then there is this one taken in total darkness and "painted" with a flashlight. This photo was created in one long exposure. The only post processing was to vignette the edges of the frame, and to selectively color the corner lights and turn signals. The "Z" was painted with the flashlight during the exposure.

Monster power can do that, but a stiff suspension combined with years of fatigue and or rust, can cause the paint to crack in that area. It is a factory body seam that can crack. Although it is often just paint or sub-filler crack. It is very common, and usually not a huge deal. It's not a fatal sign by any means. Look closely for rust elsewhere. C-Clip? I only know of a handful of C-clips on a Z car. Shifter, throttle linkage, brake linkage, clutch linkage maybe, and a few other places, if that is what you are asking. Again, RUST, RUST, RUST, and it can be hidden very well, so look deep. A little bit of rust, the size of a dime, on the lower portions of the car, is often the tip of a large iceberg.

As for cooling, you may want to take a look at the aerodynamics section at hybridz as well. There are basic aero tricks that a racing S30 should have. Some of which relate to cooling.

Get yourself an R200 if you don't already have one. I am not sure if the 260's are setup with the 180 or the 200. My 260 specific knowledge is weak. If it's a 180, you need to get appropriate axles and stub shafts to switch to the 200. All Datsun R200's are open diffs with much stronger spider gears than found in the R180. There are internals you can swap to make the R200 into an LSD. Search OBX, Quaiffe, or you can track down a Nissan R200 LSD which came in one very specific model year turbo 300ZX (1986?), white in color. You can also convert to an Infinity Q45 LSD rear end with more custom work. A must, as mentioned above, is to replace the front diff mount with an engineered RT style mount, or a solid mount. Oh, and one more thing, left and right axles are not interchangeable, as far as I know, due to lengths. Search over at HybridZ.org for all the terms and acronyms I mentioned here.

Stub axles, I would venture to guess. Maybe get a set of billet ones from MMS. Do the rules allow you to modify or upgrade the ignition system in any way? If so there are dozens of systems that can be more reliable. Get rid of the welded diff and get a good LSD unit in the car. The welded unit could be helping to tear up axles. Quaiffe comes to mind. A locked diff might make it push on corner entry as well.

Weather Tech floor liners for the BMW, a really nice Winter coat which is coming in real handy this evening's MASSIVE bliZZard, warm socks, a battery grip for my Canon SLR...and various other stocking stuffers. Sitting between the wood stove and the lit Christmas tree with a tall glass of Tanq and tonic with a load of lime. Let the snow fly!! 15" of fluff is probable tonight. The generator is gassed up just in case. The Z's are sheltered and 100% ready to crank whenever next season arrives...

The Subaru boxer-4 is an acquired taste. At first, I was not buying the odd-beat rumble. However, in a sort of reverse Clockwork Orange fashion, after driving a hopped up WRX for many years, my psyche associated the sound with pleasurable chemical brain excretions, aka adrenaline. I now salivate at the sound of the Subie boxers at full song. Here is a little WRX memorial video I made, called "Save it for a Rainy Day" Here is is with the full 2.5" exhaust system. I recently sold the car and miss it dearly.

So much nicer with that bumper. Good work.

Looks like a bad deal to me unless there are some low VIN shells in there. Nice photo of clouds, but poor photos of the merchandise. Shady marketing...pun intended.

Beautiful Z, and a cool hovercraft too! Merry Christmas to you up there too.

That BRM sounds "hair raising". But listen to Greg Ira's machine at VIR, top speed! It's probably my favorite Z sound ever. <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/0ahZ4xg6fJU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Very cool and creative!

In NY last year the going rate for taxation purposes, of a 1972 Z was about $12K. The DMV looked it up for me when I went to register the car. BTW where can I see a copy of Classic Auto Trader with the Z article? Is it a national magazine?

This Fall, I had an acorn slam the hood of my silver Z as I was driving. About 5 minutes later, BING, another acorn slams the hood. I get home and look to see two dents, about 2" apart on the front right corner of the hood. My paint is show level, better than factory...argh. What are the freaking odds! I know the feeling. Hats off to the non-trailer queens!!!