Zvoiture

Not sure...Big tracks like this are tough (to get on)....Clubs will rent Buttonwillow and Willow springs and Thunderhill and such, but LS and SP? It is nearly impossible to get info off the web sites of these places too. You pretty much need to just be 'in the know'--a regular at events, belong to a big club like POA, or just know "somebody" to get track time. steve77

No oil cooler. The ride back was plagued with traffic and CHP officers, so never did another sustained run, although a Civic and I did a little 120 for a minute... steve77

VERY NICE rattlecan job, SMG..... Back to the topic, it seems logical to have a Project of the Month and then we will have to have a Resto of the Month and then we will have to need a Modified of the Month in addition to the Daily Driver of the Month and of course the Car of the Month that we have now. So I propose again a Car of the Week. Just one. That way there will be plenty of spotlight to go around. This week a junk yard dawg, the next week a 30,000 mile garager, and next week a Chevy 305 with double 650's. Next week a sleeper. Next week a rattle-can paint job. steve77

Unfortunately, it seems at times Datsun/Nissan people are "the worst" when it comes to representing their marque at Laguna Seca. And yet there was a time when the big-horsepower GTP Nissans dominated the track during the IMSA Camel GT Championships. But that can all change! We have been in touch with Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca to establish a "Datsun/Nissan" corral for the October 4-6 U.S. Sports Car Invitational. This is an inaugural event and a historic one. This will be an extravaganza, with GTP and GT cars from the 80's and early 90's competing in sprint races on Saturday and endurance races on Sunday. The endurance races each last 90 minutes. Saturday night is an Oktoberfest at the track with German beer and brats, along with live bands. The awesome Nissan GTP cars will be racing. These cars dominated the IMSA Camel GT Championships for three years just before the demise of the series. If you have never seen these monster bhp Nissan beauties run, you've missed what Nissan racing is all about. Also in attendance will be the GTP and GT cars of Porsche, Jaguar, BMW, Mazda and Toyota. For the members who haven't seen these babies, they resemble the mighty Group C LeMans cars. Go to www.laguna-seca.com for the skinny on this great race. The deadline for purchasing the corral is 9/20. We only have to buy 20 tickets at $10 per pass. Our corral will be be near turn 2. This beats the hell out of parking on the side of a bumpy, dusty hill and walking half a mile to the track. $10 corral passes are IN ADDITION TO regular admission tickets ($40/two day pass...less for one day, etc...) There's gotta be 20 of us who would like to caravan and/or park together at this incredible event. (Some of us are going with or without the Corral!) If you are interested, contact Steve McConnell ASAP at: ZVOITURE@aol.com HURRY! Steve McConnell (with writing and organizational credit to John & Sherry) Central Coast Z Car Club 746 Via Bandolero Arroyo Grande, CA 93420 805-441-6856 FAX 805-473-5871 ZVOITURE@aol.com

Time for a drive to the coast!!! Sunday, Sept. 15. Custom House Grill on the new Avila Beach Promenade. 11 or so...Lunch at noon. If you can, let me know if you can join us. ZVOITURE@aol.com steve77

>>>>a good friend who i know and is well knowledged with Z's has had nothing but heart ache from them >>>> I have heard these rumours too and I have never purchased anything from them. I suggested them because they SEEM to have pretty straightforward pricing and options in their cattledog. I feel they are probably not much more than a large machine shop which has specialized in import engines and turned it into a fairly nation-wide commodity. It's too bad they don't have it right. steve77

Castrol GT 20-50 steve77

He doesn't want you to know his pen name. AlexanderMolesworthTaylor77

On a recent trip to the Bay area, something strange happened. Fresh oil change and filter ZX pump with maybe 10 hours on it Sending unit has maybe 10 hours on it Gauge always real consistent...moves quickly and easily to expected levels depending on driving conditions...about 1/4 up at idle, slightly under mid-way at most driving, slightly above half to 3/4 at 4-5r's... Cruising up the 101 at a sustained 90-95 mph. Not much traffic so it was going solid at 42, 4300 rpm for upwards of an hour. Oil pressure ran at it's usual slightly above half-way for an hour and then started dropping slowly. Over a span of 15 minutes or so I watched it fall to below the 1/4 position on the gauge! This is all without dropping below 4000! Temperature and all other gauges normal. I was really getting nervous and pulled in for lunch. After lunch, I checked the oil and found it completely 100%. Exactly the level it had been upon leaving my garage. What happened? steve77

Mike, have you checked with Paeco? I am sure they would be very comparable to (the engine company formerly known as) ATK. Also as mentioned above, there are plenty of good Z engine builders on the West Coast. I'm not sure what you are lookin for in terms of performance...and the more liberal your goals, the more builders available, obviously. Just check around with local club members or AutoXers. There are plenty of good engine builders around here, that's for sure. Check with Paeco. steve77

That's what I thought too (2 300's and 2 240's) AND going back and reading the SportZ column a little better and one finds a very gentle segue in the first paragraph from OTC to SCCA ITS. My bad. steve77

The R33 is usually classified as the most conservative model of them all....... >>>> With the obvious exception of the G35, of course steve77

Wow, I just received my Fall2002 SportZ magazine today and it too has pix of at least 4 1st gen. Z's running in the OTC and AGAIN THERE ARE NO CAPTIONS OR NUMBER/COLOR REFERENCES to who the drivers/owners of the respective cars are! Amazing. I guess I am just supposed to automatically know who everybody is.... steve(will start paying better attention)77

How about COTWeek? Keep things moving... Everyone has a COTMonth! Kinda like having a amp that goes to 11 (everyone under 30, just ignore that...)! Spread the love around a bit. steve77

If you only subscribe to one car rag, this should be it! What a great magazine...Just got my Sept issue...Can somebody tell me which Z is who's in the Open Track Challenge pictorial? I assume one is Coffey's.... steve77

I have two visibly identical dipsticks from the same lower end (N47). I changed them today to see if one fit tighter and discovered nearly a quart difference in "H" level readings. The rubber seat seems very well fused on to the shaft on each, so I doubt any shifting. The printing/checkerboard is a teensy bit different but the interesting part is how much longer one is. The one I was using is 7 1/4" from seat to top of checkerboard. The other one is 6 7/8". That's a lot of oil! Which one is right? Anybody care to measure their dipstick for me? steve77 PS: YES I know how that sounded! Try REALLY HARD not to drag this down...

Holding a banner for 240z.org? Where's that photo>>> Yeah. I was there all day and never saw that. Who invited who? they don't complain if you are seen in another car. >>>> 2Mz's you obviously have not seen the look on my Z when I jump in the truck and drive off.... steve77

Very good idea. And one that doesn't necessarily need coding to accomplish. I will be happy to do the COTM selection each month. Just send $100 and a picture of your car (no checks or credit cards, please. CASH only) to: Steve McConnell 746 Via Bandolero Arroyo Grande, CA 93420 steve(completely unbiased)77

Exhibit A: I feel Nissan is taking a giant step backwards in moving from a straight motor to a V. Right there they are signalling to a world full of 3-liter straight-6 success stories, "WE SURRENDER!" steve77

I worry that the Skyline bloodline will be altered in the 'watering down' of the line to create the current G35. Several Nissan sources say, "The G35 IS the new Skyline." It just seems to me no good can come of taking a mad, violent road warrior like the R33 and "Re-designing it from the ground-up" (READ: "re-packaging for an American market"). steve77

They appear to be an attempt at equal length, so that narrows the field down quite a bit. If they are for a round-port head, do they have a smog port? That would narrow it down a bit more, although I don't know of any equal length headers available with a smog port.... steve77

A new E-mail address? The old PacBell one just quite working! ZVOITURE@aol.com steve77

A-dog...it was simply a case of something very small and seemingly innocent growing into this giant malignant tumor that NOBODY could ignore and required the removal of several limbs to get all the rotted flesh out. 1. ZCAR was LARGELY unmoderated. Vince and Derek are busy guys, and the volumn of posts meant a lot of stuff slipped by. 2. There was a forum not horribly different from our 'Open Discussion' on which posters were allowed to get WAYYYY off topic. Nothing too bad so far, huh? Lots of fun, good banter, no worries...right? Now add: 3. A lot of personal issues were discussed (religion, war, politics, health, crime, racism, etc. etc. etc...) amongst a large group of people--many of them criminally immature or blissfully uneducated. Stir very well and quickly! Stir at a rate of up to several hundred posts per hour. Result: Personal attacks. "Your opinion is WRONG!" leads very easily to, "You are a loser because of your opinion." which grows very quickly and becomes, "You #%@#&^*%$#! If I ever meet you I will %#^*$@%^& you!" Some of it good-natured, some it not. I am not a sore loser. I did not get involved. But it became very hard to ignore and the 'cringe factor' was nearly unbearable. So I just turned it off and (fortunately) found this place. From what I have heard, ZCAR is all cleaned up and nice again. steve77

I was a die-hard ZCAR.com person (winoman). Earlier this year there was a certain 'element' loose on that site that made me embarrassed to be a member. It really was quite unbearable. Many of our new-ish members will know what I am talking about--I think we gained quite a few here shortly after that 'situation'. A good friend (actually a Z31 driver!!!) told me about 240z.org and thought I might enjoy it in light of my uneasiness with ZCAR. What a Godsend! This place is great. Hardly ever go anywhere else. I live here. steve77