preith

Unfortunately Greg wasn't able to pull it off. I watched the live web cast, which was very good BTW. The race weather started off with a sprinkle but degraded quickly from there, it rained quite heavily at times thereafter. Just going off my memory, Brakke spun in T1 on lap1, Prather went off in T8 also on lap1 (maybe lap2). Greg, who I'm assuming was on full slicks, kept it in check but was soon passed by a few guys and later came in to change tires. Looks like he set fast lap of the race after, finished 9th. Here are the results: http://www.scca.com/popup/raceresult.aspx?event=13506&file=1008 I can't help but be happy for the race winner, Sam Halkias and his TR6. He's been racing that car FOREVER and usually a mid-pack car at most runoffs IIRC. Prather had his car painted in Tom Thrash livery and flew the Texas state flag on the warm up lap, nice touch.

Thanks! Good vids.

I never tire of seeing the car, beautiful, and thanks for the photo links Alan. A dream venue of mine, I hope to make it there one of these years. The sounds of vintage race cars at speed AND Merlin powered aircraft.. heaven!

Thanks for the update. Great news, .1 seconds is a huge improvement over 3 at the Sprints. Interesting note about his competitors, I would've thought Brakke was the guy to beat. Anyway here are the provisional results from Q1: Pos No Name Make Model Sponsor Q1 Q2 Q3 1 89 Jon Brakke Mazda Miata Margaret Peterson Bars 2:29.402 No time No time Fargo - ND 2 34 Jesse Prather Mazda Miata Prather Racing / Carbotech / Moss 2:30.314 No time No time Topeka - KS 3 2 Greg Ira Datsun 240-Z CU Yacht Charters/First Coast Auto 2:30.487 No time No time Plantation - FL 4 07 Robert Coffey Honda Prelude Si CKPR 2:31.172 No time No time Thunder Ray - ON 5 5 Aaron Downey Mazda RX-3 roundpeg.com/Mazda Motorsports 2:32.027 No time No time Corona Del Mar - CA 6 17 Sam Moore BMW Z3 Bavarian Motors/Hoosier Tire 2:32.449 No time No time Kannapolis - NC 7 9 Wayne Graham Mazda RX-7 Mariah Motorsports 2:32.646 No time No time Santa Barbara - CA 8 97 Kevin Leigh Caterham 7 America Hoosier/JBS 2:32.775 No time No time Harrisonburg - VA 9 62 John Schmitt Honda Prelude Si Hoosier/Red Line Oil 2:32.914 No time No time Sunbury - OH 10 48 Michael Sturm Honda Prelude Si Honda City/Hoosier/Shorewest Realty 2:33.355 No time No time Grafton - WI 11 99 David Lemon Mazda RX-7 Mazdatrix 2:33.557 No time No time Signal Hill - CA 12 95 James Simaras Mazda RX-7 Maszk Motorsports 2:34.888 No time No time Oconomowoc - WI 13 75 Meredith Haupt Mazda RX-7 Carriage & Motor Works 2:34.939 No time No time Overland Park - KS 14 41 Kenneth Shreve Mazda RX-7 Mazda/Hoosier/Vholdr 2:35.303 No time No time Sammamish - WA 15 88 Terry Jesk Mazda Miata Deerfield Construction 2:35.974 No time No time Mokena - IL 16 64 Austin Snader Mazda RX-8 Snader Racing 2:36.147 No time No time Brookshire - TX 17 50 Gary Gist Mazda RX-7 K&G Racing / Intersil 2:36.911 No time No time Del Mar - CA 18 83 Samuel Halkias Triumph TR6 Catawba Island Marina/Goodyear 2:36.948 No time No time Westerville - OH 19 01 Michael Heintzman Mazda Miata Western Metals/RPMotorsport/Mazda 2:37.001 No time No time San Jose - CA 20 86 Michael Hart Mazda RX-7 Lucas Racing and Restoration 2:37.756 No time No time Cypress - TX 21 15 Brian Haupt Mazda RX-7 Carriage & Motor Works, Inc 2:39.403 No time No time Spring Hill - KS 22 53 Guy Ruse Mazda RX-7 Pearl Auto Body/RK44 2:40.342 No time No time Boulder - CO 23 71 Jason Albright Mazda RX-7 H.I.P.P.I. Racing 2:43.668 No time No time Clayton - OH 24 0 Don Bunt Nissan 240Z BuntSoft.com HypermileME.com 2:44.838 No time No time Rockford - IL 25 52 Jeffrey Willert Mazda RX-7 R&SSportTuning/EnterprisePwrSystems 2:45.541 No time No time East Troy - WI 26 8 Ron Olsen Mazda RX-7 Barrington Performance, Hummel 2:45.894 No time No time Barrington - IL 27 46 Sydney Davis Mazda Miata JAWS Racing/MAZDASPEED/Goodyear 2:49.778 No time No time Cypress - TX 28 81 William Albright Mazda RX-7 H.I.P.P.I Racing/Mazda Motorsports 2:50.063 No time No time Tipp City - OH 29 38 John Longwell BMW 318is E36 Turner Motorsports 2:50.845 No time No time Kittredge - CO 30 77 Richard Kosdrosky Caterham 7 America Over Fifty Motorsports/Hoosier Tire 2:54.283 No time No time Granbury - TX 31 66 Rick Olsen Mazda RX-7 Olsen Engineering 2:55.136 No time No time South Barrington - IL 32 47 Donald Walsh Mazda RX-7 Classic Auto 2:58.027 No time No time Orrtanna - PA 33 7 Steve Smyczek Mazda RX-7 R&S Sport Tuning/Precision Coatings 2:58.948 No time No time Brookfield - WI 34 87 Richard Adams Jr Caterham 7 America 3:11.827 No time No time Deadwood - SD

Many years ago I mounted 240 bumpers on my 280. I simply sandblasted them inside and out, welded all the trim holes etc, skimmed a coat of bondo on, and painted. They turned out pretty good. Sandblasting aids paint adhesion as well.

No hard feelings personally, I was only joking thinking it was a misprint. Nonetheless it sounds like a wild ride, any pics?

Try some searches, there were some very good rebuilding posts by a member both here and on Hybridz, wanna say his user name was hisandhers on both sites. To reiterate, quite often simply replacing the brass synchros themselves won't entirely cure the grinding problem as the synchro hub springs tend to "relax" over time. Zdoctor - last I checked he hung out on zcar.com, sells some stiffer stainless replacement springs. I picked up a set from him but have yet to use them and can't offer any first hand experience. Here's his website, but last time I tried to contact him the email listed was invalid: http://www.thezdoctor.com/ EDIT: Welcome BTW!

Yes, congrats to all z guys! With that said it looks like Tom "jumped ship" and is now running a vintage 1974 Evo

Just reading through the SVRA group 8 rules and they list two acceptable rear spoilers. The first is the infamous BRE style, 4" tall, Nissan p/n 98100-E3300, which we're all familiar with. The other which I'm curious about is the 280Z rear spoiler, p/n 99996-R8Z01. Does anyone have a picture of this? How tall is it?

Very cool. Any individual, higher res pics available too?

Pretty cool, that's an autocross on steroids! I'd love to try out a course like that. Heh, I forget you're in that line of work, I was expecting some home video footage, not these, nicely done!

Thanks for the vid. A friendly fyi, your link doesn't go directly to the EP race, for the others it's race #4. Ironically, I met the driver of the #47 roadster (the "smoker") this past weekend, he was instructing at our club's Sat drivers school. I hadn't planned on attending the runoffs but some of my fellow drivers had talked about going as spectators. Nothing concrete, but there's a chance I'll be there. Tell that to the 5 of 7 Z drivers who DNS'd, DNF'd, or had limped through the race with problems at our Council race @ Blackhawk this past Sunday. We had no less than 6 Z's (including myself) in Vintage - possibly a record. Bill Oakes and I were the only 2 who escaped the "bad karma". A good weekend for me, won the race with a 19 second lead over 2nd place.

I found a good gallery with many good pics of Greg and John's dice: http://dennisw.smugmug.com/gallery/8736269_bXH6W#587324618_fTFha Here's another one, not though quite as good: http://gordon.smugmug.com/gallery/8893659_iHYkF#P-4-15 Both photographers have a gold mine of years past Sprints as well as other events too, just click on their username. Greg, the #67 on the airdam was a nice touch!

2 seconds, great to hear! The real test for myself will be next weekend @ Blackhawk, can't wait! The first event on the Bilsteins was at a new track (for me), but I appeared to be running faster than my nemesis - a wild Ford of England '72 Escort with a twin cam Lotus F2 motor. I'll also be on old rock hard tires deliberately (victoracers at that). In my case, the car is not loose with the rear bar either. For anyone interested, here's a vid from the aforementioned race - from Bill's perspective in the ex-Mountain Motorsports ITS 240. Unfortunately he was just a bit too far back to catch my duel with the Escort, just a dot in the distance. I missed the grid call and started a lap down (don't ask why :mad:) , doh! Ran with the escort for about 5 laps but let up after that, what's the point?

Looks like a run-of-the-mill "b" box 4 speed (F4W71B), to me.

A popular swap is the earlier non-EGR N42 manifold, found on the 75-76 years.

Good points, you should probably hold off on diving in with the checkbook just a bit. A good starting point for diagnosing any head gasket problems would be a leak down tester, done both at cold temps and after warm up. Also, if it's truly leaking antifreeze into the exhaust it will give a very distinct smell otherwise the smoke could be something else. Yes, I don't envy you, the climate here in Wisconsin is bad enough! On a side note, I'm pleased to see the IRL kept the Edmonton race on their scheduled this year, in just a few weeks too.

The intake manifold only has a mounting provision for the "cooling loop", there is NOT any orifice at that point which would allow coolant to seep in, it' my guess you overheated and warped the head. The loop is only needed to warm the air regulator, it operates independently from the Thermotime switch. Its only function is for high idle warm up - without the "coolant loop" the car will high idle indefinitely in colder temps, speaking from experience on that one! For anyone in warmer climates, I would recommend removing it completely.

The internal-strut-housing spacers were fab'd using rigid plumbing pipe from the local Home Depot. The 1/2" tall spacers at camber plate area I made by cutting the tops off the old tokicos and drilling the abandoned adjuster hole larger. Sounds ghetto but it worked pretty good. I was worried the struts would be hardened steel but they drilled very easily. I already owned the GC camber plates and made no mention of the Bilsteins when ordering the coil overs. BTW, I have an older set camber plates, p/n CPZ.

It's a bit confusing but no, I meant remained. They were changed/shortened from OEM back when I installed the Tokicos and in my case "remained" the same when converting to the Bilsteins. I suppose we need Coop to clarify. I interpreted his post as the rears were sectioned (w/spacers), only too much for the AD's travel. IIRC, GC's instructions were originally written for the Tokico's - using the front S30's as mine were. I feel safe saying he had to use a spacer as well.

I sectioned the front to fit the struts and used a spacer in the rears. I don't have my notes in front of me but wanna say about 3 inches. Essentially the difference between the Tockico's and Bilstein's body. In other words the overall length of the strut tube (from gland nut to hub) remained the same as before.

I can emphatically say no. I've recently sectioned a set of 240 struts for Katman's somewhat infamous re-valved Bilsteins and DID section the rears. One race under my belt on them so far (@ Autobahn CC if it matters), the car the most stable it's ever been, with lap times a good second faster. Maybe I'm able to get away with it because the rear squats considerably under acceleration with the GT2-ish motor. The rear ride height is actually about 1/2" higher than the front too. Current spring rates are 325fr/275rr, bars are 1.125fr/.875rr. I'd imagine the bar diameter would affect this too. I kinda-sorta followed GC's instructions, sectioning the rears to the same overall length as the previously used Tokico's (forget the p/n, their "front" S30 replacement). Because of the stepped design on the Bilsteins I was forced to use a 1/2" spacer up top for camber plate bearing articulation, thereby making the overall piston length close to the old Tokicos. I actually sectioned the fronts as much as possible, the end result about 1" shorter than the Tokico MR2 struts prior, NO spacer. New coil over sleeves were purchased from GC well. My biggest complaint was their high tolerance, about .060 larger than the struts. Thinking they sold me the wrong ones I called Jay and to my amazement he said "no, that's how they're supposed to be", and went on to ramble about how grinding down a weld will thin the area around it, but in my case the area was chamfered prior and TIG'd. My solution was wrapping the struts with 22ga sheetmetal, tightening with hose clamps and tacking welding. I completely agree about mounting the camber plates on the underside, a big pet peeve of mine, I can't fathom why anyone would put them on top.

I assume you're referring to the Mid-Ohio Vintage Grand Prix this past weekend? If so that's an SVRA event, they have detailed rules on their website as well, http://svra.com/, click under the car info tab. Not all vintage clubs run the same group numbering scheme. The VSCDA you referenced is an exception, they pretty much parallel the SVRA, but HSR differs - wanna say a group 8 car would be group 3 there. The 1972-3 rule doesn't apply as much anymore. SVRA released new S30 rules in '07 for the 260/280Z (also in group 8), '74 to '78 years, which allow an L28 and 4 wheel discs to name a few. This fits nicely with my car, I'll be applying with SVRA shortly, If all goes well I may even be at the M-O event next year. The S30 could technically run group 10 as well in SVRA, but this is catered more toward a later GT2 SCCA prepped car (with slicks). They're pretty much "throwing you to the wolves" in that group anyway as you're up against some exotic machinery which includes newer AMLS cars.

Thanks for the insight, makes sense. I'm always amazed how much you can learn, even on a single lap, following an experienced driver (a fast one) at any given track. Great to hear you already had Brakke too before he broke. IMO Road America is not the most technical of tracks, it probably requires more bravado than anything. The long straights provide plenty of time to think about the next corner, very different from the Alan Wilson style tracks of today, or even an older course like Blackhawk Farms. WOW, one handed through the kink, that takes some moxy! For some reason I'm reminded of a spin one of our members had through there a few years ago in an ITS 944. Amazingly he never touched a wall: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8567454532851601546&ei=uxxBStz3LImyrgKkv9GeAQ&q=+kink+road+america&hl=en