gira

Oh, I didn't know there was a metal piece. I guess both if they're attached. Greg

Hey everyone, I am looking for the rubber piece that sits on top of the radiator core support that blocks off the small air gap between the radiator and the hood. Does anyone know where I might locate one of those?? Greg Ira

Hi Terry, The BMW is in it's newer 2.5L trim. They got 200 lbs off the 2.8 model and from what I have heard, almost the same horsepower, somewhere a good ways north of 300. We wrecked into each other again. He's 3 seconds off my pace and just blocks me in the corners. The last race he took the front half off my car and won, this time we got together and he spun and I won. That was in the first race where I started sixth because of a qualifying issue. In the second race I was on pole and walked the dog on him. That car just doesn't handle very well yet. Did you know that Kevin Leigh is building one too? The new trans shifted OK but I am not sure about the gain vs the weight penalty. Then again, we could never get down to 2150 lbs anyway.

Classic Z folks, This is just a note to invite anyone that is near the VIR racetrack to come out next weekend, April 15-17. There will be a lot of great racing and we'll have our E Production 240z. We have stiff competition in the powerful BMW of Sam Moore and the Lotus/Caterham of Kevin Leigh. We are also debuting our new Quaiffe Rocket gearbox, so here comes left foot braking and no clutch!! Call or email if you'd like to get in free on my team. Hope to see you there. Greg Ira

You guys are all pretty much dead on. Remember this is the last lap of the last race for the points championship. My car could only catch him at the end of the straights. He guarded the inside which would have been my preference of course. He moved left for his normal brake entrance. I was willing to hold there and force whatever happened. We were deeper into the brake zone already when I figured out where we were and we touched front to back into the brake zone just enough where the RX7 got loose. That's all she wrote. I believe he went off the track on the back straight trying to late brake me there. I won the title by one point. SAWEEET! BTW- The RX7 driver was a very experienced driver. In addition to this I have never met to this day a driver with red mist like this one. We went through 3 protests this year with this driver, two from my team and one from his. We won all 3. The move in this video was the 3rd protest, and the one filed by him. He lost, mainly because of my video. The steward told me that my move was a very low percentage move. I knew that, but that doesn't give him the right to run me into the grass. greg

Fellow Z folks, Thanks for following us in our quest at the Runoffs. My comments. Don Bunt got hosed as he came around a 115mph blind corner to see an RX7 bouncing off the walls in front of him. Bam! That's it. Epperly is right, time on that track is very important and he did an excellent job learning and keeping the car in one piece. We've got our 240Z rung out as much as humanly possible. The fact of the matter is Jon Brakke just flat has us covered. RA is considered his home track, his car is very well prepared, he's on the committee that helps promote competition adjustments, and he's a great driver. Oh, how about his little 4 cylinder engine that is roughly the cost of my entire effort. He had us covered by about 1.5 secs a lap and just didn't really show it, which is exactly what I would have done if I were in his shoes. My car will inch in front of him on the straights, but not by much. My car will pull out of the corners a little better than his, the rest is his, cornering, braking, etc. Believe it or not, this makes 5 (five) second place finishes for my car at the Runoffs. Ugh. We really go there to win. I guess we'll try and get a lead trophy for the Miata for next year, otherwise we're all racing for second. What fun is that?? Again, till next year..... Anyone that wants Z car track help, contact me. See you, Greg Ira

Yeah, here's a cool Z vid at VIR. This was the last race of the season which determined the points championship between me and Jeff Dernehl, a long time RX7 driver.

Unless you plan on running your Z in GT2, you better check and see if this change is legal. Just a thought, because I don't think it is. Greg

Thanks everyone. This was a drama filled weekend. The bummer is I didn't get to meet anyone that said they were going to be there from Classic Z page. Jon Brakke in a super trick Miata has been the guy to beat up there. He's almost always at least 1.5 seconds ahead in qualifying. Home track, perfect car for the track, great driver, etc. This weekend I heard his engines cost 25k, for a four banger Mazda. Internals must be titanium or gold. Firstly the darn rain was almost identical to the Runoffs, where we made the wrong decision on tires. We went with the same decision this weekend. Although it started sprinkling on the grid (exactly like the Runoffs), we stayed with Slicks which ended up being the right call. We jumped out to a good lead early only to lose it to a double yellow because of two cars in the inside of turn 1 wall. I led about 7 laps while driving my mirrors the whole time. Brakke's car in the corners and under braking is incredible and I just squeak by on the straights, so he was dive bombing me in all the brake zones. My clutch started misbehaving and bleeding down when I was on the straights causing me to mis-shift coming out of T5. I couldn't get the gearbox into 2nd gear. That tiny mistake was all it took. Brakke was out to about a 3 second lead that I didn't have time to get back. He took the checkered first, stood on the top of the podium, etc. Rob Hummel and I sprayed him off the podium, literally, then helped him back up. THEN... Here's what happened. The track was damp. Brakke actully spun his car off course on the pace lap while trying to warm his tires. This happened at the exit of T3. He joined the field in the 11 position or so and proceed to zig zag his way back to his pole position. All the yellow flags were being displayed as flag stations do on the outlap/pacelap. I knew this rule and immediately radioed my crewchief about what had happened. There was no need for a formal protest as the stewards were clear on the rule and there were lots of witnesses. He was docked 3 finishing positions. SCCA Triple Crown, here we come! Greg

Classic Z'ers, We're heading the Elkhart Lake Wisconsin this weekend from Florida, ugh, to defend our EP title. We have clinched our division and are eligible for the Chicago Regions SCCA Triple Crown. If anyone is up for coming to see some of the best racing in USA, we'll be in garage 7. This is the next biggest road racing event of the year next to the national championship runoffs. See you, Greg ira

Really cool stuff Ron. Nowadays the still have the ARRC and the Runoffs. The ARRC has never left Road Atlanta as far as I know. Greg Ira

3 degrees negative is too much for the street. It may look cool. If you aren't going to roll the fender lips, just make sure you carve every turn when you are out driving around town. This will help the wear. Greg Ira

Try the red shock proof. It's like sludge but the most robust diff oil I know of. We run the 1.5 hour enduros with the lsd R180's. They get very, very hot. In fact, I put a cooler on my EP car after mounting a diff temp gage. I bought the highest temp gage I could find that stopped at 340 F. When I was about 2/3 through a race I had a chance to check and it was pegged. If the graduations on the gage remained constant, this would have put us at 400 degrees. Greg Ira

Mike, I PM'd you. Greg PS. the track of this car has been spaced out in the front per modern EP rules. I am sure this additional leverage or moment is helping this hub flex.

Come to think of it, of all the Z cars I have driven on the track, this is the first time I've run into pad knock back. Is that weird? No issue on the ITS 240Z that I know of. No issue on the EP 240Z, with ZX brakes. Do you guys have pad knock back on your IT cars?? Greg

Great information guys. Yes, the bearings were tight. That's the first thing I checked. I mean the flex is huge, just in a warm up lap going straight and going back and forth caused the flex issue. Gees, if I rode up a curb that would be even worse. We'll work on it for next time and let you guys know what works. Thanks Greg

I have this big brake set up on one of my race cars. This is the first time I have tried this before on a race car. Here is my problem. Something up there is flexing enough to cause the pedal to be very long in between using the brakes. As Long as I am going straight, the issue doesn't come up, great pedal. If I swerve as to warm up the tires, pedal to the floor. Everything up there is tight. Anyone run into this before? Someone told me they have heard of this and spindle is flexing. Wow! Greg Ira

Mark, thanks for posting the cool pictures. We had a great weekend. That track and atmosphere is unbeatable. The weather, the kart facility, the lodge, the pit suites. Why can't anywhere else do that? Thanks also for the well wishes. Everyone wanted to see a good race on Sunday and they got it. My car just got loose and slippery. Actually I believe it was track conditions, that didn't affect the caterham ( 1490 lbs ) as much. Although I couldn't pull and maintain a significant lead on him, I did have the advantage of being able to draft by him on the straight after the Oaktree. This is a huge advantage because you can only block so much there and there really aren't any other passing opportunities from there to the flag stand. If anyone's interested, our next racing will be at the Mitty in Atlanta, then the June Sprints to defend the title, then the National Championships. The latter are both at Road America.. Thanks again. Greg

Hello Z'ers, This is just a note that my team will have three cars running the SVRA/HSR vintage support race this year in Sebring. This happens this week. Sorry for the late notice. If anyone is coming to Sebring to party for the 12 hour, please stop by our tent and say hello. We'll have a large canopy with lots of Nissan and Datsun flags. See you, Greg Ira

Here's a cool Roadster. VIR

Hi, I plan on bringing at least two cars to enter the Mitty. Both will be 240 Z's. We might have a 280ZX too. We're also going to run at Sebring before the 12 hour. I am trying to get more involved in Vintage racing because I am sick of all the cars being Porsches. If these rich guys only knew how fast, reliable, and relatively inexpensive it is to run a Z! We're gonna make the Porsche weenies run home to mommy. Greg Ira

Marty, My SU's are stock. Cam type doesn't have anything to do with it. It's the amount of power and the amount of breath the car is asking for. We're pushing 250 hp. The truth be told, the triples will ensure the intake capability is not the bottleneck for you. The SU's are reliable and easy to tune at WOT but the rest of the around town use might be a little bit harder to tune. If money is no object, the Triples will outperform the SU's. It is possible to make the SU's work though. We really don't spend much time working on the carbs on our racecars since we aren't supposed to do anything to them anyway. The needles are special for sure. Good luck, Greg

Marty, Ha ha, my car has SU's!! You should use them. They work great! I would say the driving around town might not be so great though. Greg

Marty, This video should help you decide.

Hey Gnose, Yeah we've done all of that. At this level, each ounce counts. We also can't touch the door material with our rules. They have to be kept on but I have got them down to 15lbs, and that's just the skin! All the glass is long gone. Try to get a z down to 2000 lbs with the driver. It's tuff but we're currently running about 25 lbs heavy. Greg