fp280z

Here ya go. Enjoy! http://vimeo.com/38283015 Use 5k298gt for the pw.

I do. I've softened up the rear shocks in the past to try to address it but then my corner entry turn-in suffers. I'm running the 300ZX Turbo clutch diff. I rebuilt it with new friction plates about 7 years ago and I think it's a little on the tight side (compared to driving Tom's car) but seems to let me put power down fairly well out of slow corners (other than the push). Certainly something that could be tuned but not something I've tried to play around with yet.

Course videos! East Course West Course

Congrats to Henry, he threw down a flyer of a run on Friday that none of us could match! Great driving! As for me (and the car) we definitely had a chance at the win. I was a single driver and had to take advantage of every run as the tires heated up to temp. Unfortunately I made a couple of errors on each of my third runs and had to stand on my second runs. That's the difference between a champion and third place! The car was certainly not holding me back though. I'm very happy about my first podium finish at Nationals! Jon, shoot me some info on your power steering setup if you don't mind. And John C., let's talk shock valving. I have the SA race Konis.

I haven't forgot about you guys. I passed along the digital copy to DT's son last week and my understanding is that he still has a few legal issues to work out but he is planning to share the video once those are resolved. I promise, you will be the first to know!

58 minutes.

I got the new copy and have converted it over. The transfer came out pretty good and it's the whole thing. I'm working with DT's estate to determine the best and most legal way to share it. Stay tuned, a few of you should get a PM from me soon.

I've got a line on a fresh copy and a friend of mine does conversion work on the side. I'll keep you updated.

I have this on VHS. I'll look around for it next week...

Congrats once again John! Really cool to see so many different cars in the FP mix this year. Wish I coulda been there to see how the 275 A6's would've compared, there's something to be said for an autocross-specific compound for inconsistent conditions, IMHO... Hope I can return to the class next year! (Although XP is a possibility as well at this point.) -Rick

West course, my fastest run. Would have put me in third place for the day right behind Toby for the day but I coned it. Awesome course! http://www.vimeo.com/6573605 It looks like vimeo squeezed it to 4:3 but you can download the original file to see it in 16:9. -Rick

I'll be there too of course! As Tom said, on paper it's looking like a great year for FP. +1 on the weather cooperating!!! (Although my only National trophy in FP was helped out by first day drying conditions in 2007. Hmm.) Hey John, I may not be your best customer but I will be running the hood I bought from you this year! -Rick

Looks like my throwout bearing theory was incorrect. My best guess is that the rivet on the pressure plate spring failed and vibrated everything else loose, eventually throwing two of the clutch cover bolts and two of the dowel pins out of the tranny. http://www.typeischeap.com/clutch2008.html -Rick

Thanks. The video was taken with just my point-and-shoot Canon PowerShot SD450 on a rollbar mount. As for what broke, something wanted out of the tranny bellhousing and made its way out. My theory is that my clutch was not adjusted properly and the throwout bearing was dragging, finally giving up on my second run. With the stock hydraulics and stiff pressure plate it takes some time to get it adjusted just right. I adjusted it before Nats and still had plenty of freeplay at the actuator arm but I guess I was a little off and it started "pumping up", eventually enough to take up the slack I had adjusted in. Just a theory, I haven't pulled the trans yet. -Rick

Hmm. Since the hatch was not latched I could also see some side effects of the airflow through the windows of the car pushing the hatch up. This would skew your numbers down, no? -Rick

My first run on Thursday: http://www.vimeo.com/1803106 As I mentioned in the comments, it was all downhill from there. My big mistake on this run was braking way too much at the end of the chute going towards the final left hander and finish. I fixed that on subsequent runs but I never got the slaloms right again after this run. As it turned out, all of my Thursday runs were within a half a second but they went in the wrong direction (each one slower). I've got a video from Friday also but I've got to trim it down since I forgot to turn the camera off. That was the run where the car broke. -Rick

Stumble was still there, I just tried to go faster, keep the rev's up, and get on the gas earlier at corner exit. Didn't affect me too much and I certainly can't blame it for my slow times. I did buy some extra pilot jets and I'll be trying them on the dyno once I swap the tranny, whenever that may be. As for the spoiler, I did try Tom's car for one run after mine broke and I have to say that it was less twitchy at high speed than I remember it being. He's changed a bunch of stuff since the last time I drove it so it could have been anything. -Rick

Congrats again, JT! Hope to see you in the class again next year (I know you'll be there BTW). This was Canack's second year in the same car, very good driver as well. The motor worked fine, could use some tuning still but definitely was not the limiting factor. As for me, I made a few mistakes on every run the first day but at least I know where I lost time. And then I went and broke the car the second day. Looks like I lost a throwout bearing through the bellhousing but I haven't taken it apart yet to be sure. No worries, I got spares! Looks like I may have to make some trips to Ft. Worth next year to see how that Evo is doing... -Rick

The cam is a Schneider .540 lift and 292 duration. No problems here either, I used the "above 3000rpm for 20 minutes" break-in procedure. -Rick

Thanks Preith! Good info. I know that my builder either advanced or retarded the cam to help with low-end torque, I'll follow up with him on exactly which. So many variables! -Rick P.S. And, yes, it does feel like a turbo spooling up. Great fun but not the best for the autox course.

Lots of pics of the header, Y-pipe, and exhaust here: http://www.typeischeap.com/stahl.html -Rick

I posted this on HybridZ.org last night but I figured I'd cross-post here since I could really use some help from the carb experts...and quick! -Rick I don't know if this is too much data (I'm an engineer, can there ever be too much?) but I was hoping someone could assist me in honing in on the root cause of my issue and I always enjoy the threads that have a lot of data to go along with the HybridZ troubleshooting! Ok here's the deal, the SCCA Solo National Championships are less than two weeks away, I spent all last week thrashing to install my new Stahl header and fabbing up an exhaust for it, dyno'd on Saturday and got some decent numbers up top but I seem to have introduced (or exacerbated) a bad bog between around 2250rpm to about 3250rpm. This is a terrible place for a flat spot on an autocross car. Obviously, eliminating the bog is my goal but even reducing before next week it would help tremendously. Attached is the dyno chart from Saturday and a chart from April that is pre-exhaust work, the only major change between the runs. As you can see, the exhaust work really woke up the motor above 3250rpm! These dyno runs were performed starting with a load at WOT at 1800rpm then then removing the load and allowing the car to accelerate the drums, at least that's how I understand the basic concept. I only mention this because this method takes most of the mechanical action of the carburetors out of the loop (in other words, this is probably not an acc pump issue, progression drillings, etc.) Also plotted on the dyno charts is the AFR for each run. I tuned the jets so that the target of ~12.9 hit just over 5350rpm and the upper AFR "step" in the midrange was a little leaner than that but not dangerously so. Based on my understanding of the carbs (I have read the Mikuni manual and several Weber books) that seemed like a logical tuning plan. If I'm way off base here, please educate me. Maybe the "step" is a clue? At the point of the bog the AFR goes way rich (<10:1) and the torque drops. The same dip in the AFR is on the pre-exhaust pull but it's not as drastic, and you can see a similar dip in torque. So, it looks like this issue may have been present before just not as bad. One troubleshooting step I tried at the autocross today was to drop the main jet down one step and the air down two. Seemed to help a little and the in-car wideband didn't look too lean but I have not been back to the dyno. I also leaned out the idle circuits which helped the idle but didn't to much for the bog. Here's the other pieces of the puzzle: 13.5:1 GT2 motor .540/292 cam Stahl Header 1-5/8" primaries 2-1/2" to 3" Y-pipe to Magnaflow muffler Mikuni PHH44 carbs 39mm venturis 170 mains (165 mains) 230 airs (220 airs) 55 pilots 35 pumps Fuel pressure 3psi Electromotive XDi, crank triggered, timing is set to 15 at idle and 36 total by 3000rpm. Spark plugs are a half-season old, autocross only. Valves adjusted beginning of the summer. That's about it. I was hoping one of the carb gurus may have seen something like this in the past. Or it's something simple like my jetting being way off. I would welcome any technical feedback, I enjoy learning about the carburetors but books don't really tell you everything. At this point, a "dude you didn't have to write a huge post, it's obviously ..." would be great too. If it's just a matter of dropping jet sizes, I can do that and if I need to head back to the dyno, it's a possibility. Even if so, I'd love to know the theory around "why". Thanks for reading. -Rick

Albeit with a "few minor modifications" to our Z's! Hopefully we can give the Berry's in their "modern" Evo a run for their money next week. Will this be an all-Z trophy year? We're sure going to try! -Rick

Todd at Wolf Creek Racing has a couple listed on his classifieds page: http://www.wolfcreekracing.com/classified.htm -Rick

I ended up making a simple frame out of 1/2" square tube. Not the prettiest thing in the world but it should do the job! More pics here: http://www.typeischeap.com/new.html -Rick