preith

This Sunday, Jan 1st, at 1 pm EST, Speed is showing the very last Runoffs race of the season, the GT2. All of the Nissan front runners have abandoned the L28 in favor of the VG30 in the past few years, but there is a 280Z in the feild.

I was happy for the 2nd place guy in the 914, but I wonder If I'd be that happy with an accomplishment achieved just by sheer luck. The yellow Z that went out on the first lap was Ken Kannard who hails from East Troy, WI. He's my local Z guy I root for, too bad for his luck.

I thought I'd put this here since 50's are for the most part a "race only" item. I emailed him asking if they were Solex/Mikuni's, or strictly Solex. He replied with the following: Theses are made by solex before Mikuni took over. These were made when Solex and Mikuni first started merging. They are cast Solex made in Japan Ebay auction here The N42 head is also included. I wonder what Mikuni parts, such as jets, will transfer over?

Great, thanks again Steve. That #3 car looks very familiar, and the situation he's in seems eerily familiar too: Here's me:

Thanks again Steve. Please don't put too much effort into it just for me, or the group, but the photos are much appreciated. Agreed, I think it looks better, but I suspect the other ones offer more downforce with less drag. With that said, the more I think about it, it wouldn't be too difficult to modify the stock steel fenders and healight buckets, and make mold patterns similar to that. The flares could be made with some flat sheet steel and no rolling, just kinda bending it over one's knee once the pattern is cut. As far as making the molds themselves...no experience there, but I'm die'n to try. If only I could afford the wheels and tires!

It's not a Z, but did you guys see this GTO? It caught me off gaurd a bit. You don't see too many road raced ones, maybe on the open track challenges though.

Thanks Steve! I knew I'd hear more about it from one of you guys. I'm curious if he's raced at the runoffs; searched a little on SCCA's archives, but they only went back to '02 and he wasn't on there. Do you have any pics of his older body? Yup, my thoughts too. The wheels were a dead giveaway there was much more to that car. I wish that the rules didn't favor the solid axle cars so, but I guess that's the way it is. From Steve's engine shot it appears to be a well prepared car, up to par with the front runners out there today.

I was going through my HRP catalog and noticed a really wild looking GT2 280Z that I've never seen before. From the photo it looks like it could be a pretty competetive car. I did a google search and couldn't come up with anything. Does anyone else have info? EDIT: I also forgot to add, there's some really cool non-z cars here

Oops, made an A$$ of U and ME. I found the entry list as well with the car makes, but at glance I didn't see Chet listed on there anyways.

Here's the ITS results Unfortunately they don't have the car makes listed too. Looks like Chet won again, I'm assuming in a Z, which makes me think maybe the Z's days in ITS aren't as numbered as some say.

What aftermarket brand was it? I'm curious, I purchased mine from Victoria British. It's made by PPG. When I saw that, I didn't have any worries since it was from a reputable brand. How old was Mark's? With the age of these cars It wouldn't surprise me if it's been around for a while even if it is an aftermarket unit. I've owned 2 vehicles from Texas, both with the original glass, and were both pitted badly. One was a '77 Z, and the other, my current tow vehicle, '94 powerstroke Ford.

I find it much easier to listen to someone who is obviously very knowledgable, but is quick to state that they don't know everything. I was going to mention the same thing. I'll probably get some heat for this, but one of the reasons I chose to stay with the softer springs was because I'm using Illuminas and don't want to fork out dough for those AD's as of yet. $1600 is not a cheap proposition. I know, I know, stay out of racing if you don't want to spend money, but I think for now at least I've made the right choice. I need much more seat time before I start tweaking the suspension more; 5 race weekends just doesnt' cut it.

Hey Cary, thanks for the input. I guess I quickly forget to ask the z community "suspension expert" to join in on the conversation. According to your equation for DOT R's, with a nominal weight of 2150, this would put the spring rates betweeen about 270# and 375#, which very close to the two setups which katman refers to, interesting.

I really think part of your problem may lie with the difference in spring rates. Most setups I see don't vary more than 50 lbs, and yours are by 100. Also, I don't know what kind of struts you're using (illuminas??), but in the thread he mentions Illumina's don't react well to any spring rates over 275, and I've heard this elsewhere. But you say you've ran the car like that with the slicks, so who knows... If you do in fact have smaller diameter bars, I'd try the rates that he has on his car, or in other words increase your rear rates by 50#. As a stop-gap measure, you can slot the strut towers for camber adjustment.

A Corvette wrecked at Putnam, a fence post went through the car, then through the drivers seat and broke his shoulder blade. Could've been much worse... There are pics about 1/2 way down. http://www.nasaforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=6643

I don't have any real world V8 Zcar experience, but IMHO the Rover V8 just isn't worth it. The weight savings over a Chevy V8 with aluminum heads is minimal, the Rover doesn't have anywhere near the same amount of aftermarket parts, and the Chevy will be much more powerfull for less money. Also, It's been stated many times before that a Chevy small block with alum. heads is only slightly heavier than the L6, something like 50 lbs.

The spring rates issue really seems to be a can of worms. You don't hear it too much anymore, but especially in IT there was the east vs west coast set-ups. The east coast guys liked stiff spring rates, stiffer up front, with small bars, and the west coast the exact opposite. Here's a VERY good thread on the topic: http://zdriver.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6075 From what he's written, your numbers seem to be in the ballpark, even with the stiffer up front, but you might still want to try a slightly stiffer rear spring. Basically I have a west coast setup on my car, which I run 225/50/15 Kumhos on. I must have gotten lucky with the setup, because right out of the box it was pretty good, and it doesn't push much. I'm at the 250 front/275 rear numbers which he scoffs at, but it feels real good to me. I'm running a 1.125 front bar and a 7/8 rear. He mentioned chassis distortion, but my car is more like a production class chassis, which much more rigid than an IT car. It seems like the toe setting is critical on these cars. Right now I'm at about 1/32 in on the front, but many guys run a slight toe out, which he describes as well. Also, this will bake your noodle. I remember a discussion on HybridZ a while back about NOT running the same spring rates on all 4 corners. I was talking with a local autocrosser, Mike Tews, who also co-drives John Anderson's Z at the soloII nationals. This car is very competetive. If I remember correctly, he said they were using 300lb on all 4.

I don't seem to remember mine being 2", maybe an inch at best. I ended up cutting the end to a point, or a knife point, and putting as much surface area of the 1" sq tubing as possible on the rocker side, but yet still have enough area to form a T weld if that makes any sense. I did not use any plating to reinforce it on the floorboard side. All in all, I thought it was a pretty easy mod.

Man, I have GOT to get a digital camera! Unfortunately, I don't have any pics, but I think it's pretty self explanitory. I don't have any data or proof to back it up, but an old timer I used to hang out with, has tried both methods seperately (across the tunnel and to the rocker panels) said they both have the same affectiveness. So it was my guess that both isn't needed. It also makes for something else to get in the way during engine/trans removals and installations. I suppose it would be pretty easy to fab some kind of removable one if you really wanted both.

I actually haven't played much with camber. There was a very good link on Zdriver.com in the racing section which had a guy's setup on his IT car. I figured I would copy his as a starting point. The fronts are at about 3 degrees and the rear 2.5 degrees. This past summer was my first serious attempt at road racing and I really haven't played with the setup too much. I figured my car feel should get better first. I have the Arizona Zcar chromoly arms and tension rods (castor/radius), which utilize a clevis pin on the control arm and a rod end on the chassis side for a solid link. Right now the tie rod ends are actually stock units, but I plan on converting over to rod ends for that as well this winter (heh, your summer). I have the "bump steer" spacers as well. I've heard many guys complain of instability during hard braking if their bumpsteer isn't just right, but I haven't bothered trying to adjust anything and it's been rock solid. I think part of that may be because of rigidity, there is 1" square tubing connecting the tension rod mounts to the front corner of the rocker panels. This is an old trick and I can't take credit for it.

225/50/15's, and I don't know what compound. As far as I know there isn't any selection available.

From what I've read on the SCCA forums they are in somewhat limited supply, but nobody on that board has had any problems getting them. Per my 1st post, I'm really interested in buying a set but am a little apprehensive how they will react to road racing.

The V710's were discontinued temporarily due to sidewall failures, or something similar to that, but were reinstated in the spring of this year. If they've been discontinued again, it's news to me. Even with that blemish on the record, since then they've received rave reviews from the autocross crowd who say they're better than the Hoosiers.

I checked out Kumho's Austrailian site, and it looks like the ECSTA V700 sold here in the States. I have these and am very happy them. These are the only ones I've ever used and there are so many variables, but they seem to be comparable to what other guys are using. I'm contemplating purchasing a set of V710's, but have heard mixed results with the wheel to wheel guys. Some say they're really good for the first 10 laps, but then fade off quickly. The autocrossers really like them, which would confirm this in my mind.

My 8 gallon ATL sports cell will be for sale shortly. It's manufacture date is about 5 years old, but it's only actually been used a little over a year. Anyone who's interested PM or email me.