SJGREEN71

Victor posted this to the calendar: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/calendar.php?do=getinfo&day=2007-4-12&e=298&c=1 I'm wondering if anyone is planning on doing this. I am in Northern Cali, so I plan to meet up at Ollie's in Taft on 4/12 rather than drive all the way to Pasadena.

No, most driving courses held at a track tend to be more oriented toward track driving. Threshold braking, proper line through the corner, trailing braking and the like. These skills will also be very useful, however, if you find yourself in an emergency situation on the street. Defensive driving on the street boils down pretty much to pulling over and letting the asshole who wants to drive 20 miles per hour faster than you in any particular lane when you are already doing 10 miles over the limit. That and maintaining a safe distance between cars.

Why is a European style balance tube better than the ones that came stock on the early 240's in the US?

TomoHawk, I believe NASA (National Auto Sport Association) not the guys with the rockets, puts on track days and perhaps driving schools at Mid-Ohio. Their website http://racenasa.nasamidwest.com/ doesn't seem to say anything about this, but it could be worth a call. NASA is based on the West Coast and sponsors track day events for street legal cars and at reasonable cost. Check it out.

TomoHawk, I don't know about Ohio, but I believe this guy is in Washington. Portland International Raceway (PIR) hosts a driver school for $159: http://www.cascadesportscarclub.org/training.asp?page=home We have one in Northern California too at Thunderhill for $225: http://www.thunderhill.com/html/driving_school.html I have not attended either of these schools, so I am not endorcing either one, but the track time alone seems worth the price of admission to either.

BJHines is right. High performance driving is not the kind of thing you want to learn from mistakes made on public roads. Track time with an experienced instructor is fantastic, and SCCA and other organizations host training events at relatively low cost. To learn some theory behind the techniques, including double clutching, I highly recomend Bob Bondurant's Bob Bondurant on High Performance Driving . You can pick up a second hand copy on Amazon for a couple of bucks. Well worth it.

Well they are both pretty big boys.

Mark, I just sent you a paypal. I know my '71 Z can use this bit. Peter

I will be traveling on business in two weeks, and plan to do some senic driving the last Saturday in September. I will be leaving Woburn, Massachusetts in the morning, and plan to roughly follow the route John at Bad Dog Parts sent me. This was the '03 ZCCA convention route and goes from Nashua East to Hancock, to **** Hat Hill via Hwy 123 before looping back to Hwy 10 North, which I plan to take to Hwy 89 into Lebanon where I spend two nights. I hope to rent a Chevy Cobalt, but would love to meet up with some Z owners along the way on Saturday. If there were anything planned for Sunday, I would be happy to hear about it.

I took a look at some of the videos on youtube. It looks like an interesting road, but there also seems to be a lot of traffic, SUVs, big trucks, and loud obnoxious Harleys to share the road. Is it really that great a road that it is worth traveling a long distance just to drive the 11 miles?

I tend to agree. Some people will save a few bucks at Summit on a widely available part, then pick the brain of the Z specialty suppliers like Classic or MSA when they can't get it to work. If enough people do this pretty soon those Z experts stop waisting their time giving free advice, and the community suffers. When I see vendors who are contributing to the community by answering questions, supporting events, etc., I tend to buy from them even if they might be a little more expensive some times.

And for $9,000 you can get a Datsun roadster that is in good driving and cosmetic condition. I don't think Datsun made that many more roadsters, it's just that so many of them are still on the road.

Bambikiller used to have a post on how to install the pertronix but it seems to have disapeared. The main thing to remember is that the wires on the pertronix are too short, and you have to lengthen them by about 12 inches in order to reach the coil. Other than that, the instructions with the product are okay.

I like the quote from this article where it says "with 7-sec 0-60 mph and 18.2-sec 0-100 mph figures recorded before the head gasket gave up...." Somehow I don't think I want one of these on my Z.

I'm an accountant by profession and $150K does not equal $28K. I am not saying that there is not someone out there willing to pay the $150K, just that that person may not be that good at math.