tholt29

I don't know for sure, but I think that is conservative... I think it's probably closer to 14:1

A friend of mine is selling his F Prepared Z car. The car is damned fast and has beat me more than any other car in the country. It is in need of fresh tires and probably some general maintenance since it hasn't been run in a while... http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1,1&item=4652540411&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT Tom

To Cary's point, if it is GT legal, you can still run it in FP, but you have to take a 10% weight penalty. I don't think adding a mid window is worth 200 lbs! My season is going along okay... I havn't worked on the car at all this year. Our local club has lost all of it's sites and won't have it's first event until next month. With the lack of seat time, my tire use is pretty light right now, so decided to go to the Houston Tour on my tires from Nationals. They had about 45 runs on them, but they seemed okay. They sucked, but everyone else in the class either broke or hit cones. I was third fastest, but still won! :classic: (that was good for 2 free tires) I ordered new tires for the Texas Pro Solo last weekend but Hoosier was backordered on the 22x10x16 and I could find a distributor that had any either. So I mounted up the old tires that I ran last summer... They sucked worse than the tires that were on the car, but they had about 20 fewer runs on them. Maybe there was hope? Nope, they sucked pretty bad too! I still managed to finish second to Stan Whitney's monster BP vette. (that's one more free tire!:classic: ) He hammered me by 2 seconds, when I had normally been about even with him. I guess I've been pretty lucky! Slow but lucky. I have been running the bigger 23.5x11.5x16 tires for the last year, but I am switching back to the smaller tires. I think they are significantly faster in transitions. The bigger tires have worn very well, and would probably be great on a road course or very open autocross course, but they give up too much through slolams or tight offsets. I've been tracking my nationals finishes against the winners and had been making steady improvements until last year when I dropped back about 3%. Not a very scientific sampling, but it's good enough for me! I'm going back to what had worked better before. Tom

I think you are correct that it is not legal... if you were going to call it a bulkhead it needs to be metal, otherwise it's really an aerodynamic aid of sorts... don't know that it would be a good aero aid, but an aero aid none the less... Tom

Hi Guys, Sorry I'm late to the discussion! Bulkheads to the ceiling are fine... it might raise eyebrows, but it won't be illegal. It's not uncommon in CP... Personally I just made a hinged box cover over my fuel filler cap. Sometimes it's nice to be able to see behind you or open the hatch for better ventilation. Bulkheads kindof impede that! The Prepared committee just issued a clarification regarding what is allowed when hacking up the trunk hatch area: 7) Prepared: Per the PAC, add to 17.2: "Trunk floors may be modified, removed or replaced. If it is to be replaced it must be replaced with metal panels of similar shape as the original. Removal of the trunk floor is allowable only when a metal bulkhead separates the trunk area from the passenger compartment." (ref. 06-025) 10) Prepared: The first sentence of 17.2.Q should read: "The fuel tank may be modified, replaced or relocated." It just kindof clarifies/legalizes what you were planning to do anyway. Tom

Oh yeah! That's the ticket! I wasn't even looking down there. The vent holes under the jet cover are epoxied shut. Ya see what happens when you let other people fix things for you? You miss out on the details! Tom

Panchovisa said: >I really like your strut brace, where did you get it? >__________________ >If you want it done right then do it yourself. You answered the question for me! I made it out of .062 mild steel tubing and some 1/8" plate. Cheap and effective... Tom

Here are a couple of pictures of my carb vents... It's the little black L tube to the right of the jet cover. I also included an internal shotvso you can see the baffle. This was all done by Rebello and I can't fully explain how it improves things, but it does seem to work! (as is evident by the blue tint of the race gas on the carbs) Tom

Chris, My car used to have a right hand turn stumble and I lowered the float levels to th epoint that I was starving on long straights... (not recommended). I ended up send the carbs to Rebello for a professional rebuild (Mainly because I couldn't get left and right barrels of each carb equal at low speed). They criticized my low float levels and told me I need to add external bowl vents to keep the fuel from sloshing into the air jets (or some other undesired bypass). They did that and the problem was solved... If you think it would help, I will try and post a couple of pictures... Tom

It's that non corvette back window that's screwing us all up... I never thought a vette could be confused for an AMX, but I guess I was wrong.. It looks like it is number 86, Bruce Leven's 69 Corvette... Tom

Nope... I'm pretty confident that's an old AMX. Tom

The reports I saw on other forums was that the grid of 50+ cars got too spread out on the pace lap so the starter did not wave the green. The front cars slowed down but cars from something like 4th -20th were still coming up the blind hill onto the front straight and cranking up to racing speed. Once they crested the hill and saw brake lights it was too late. 16 cars were involved, but no one was seriously injured. There were reportedly quite a few fist fights that erupted after the drivers got out of their cars. Go grab a box of tissues and look at the pictures here http://www.pbase.com/atrltd/bric2005 There is also a lot of commentary at the bottom of the page... Tom

Are you sure you need chokes? At the last couple of races, it looked like you had the whole choking thing down pretty good! Sorry... I just couldn't pass on the cheap shot! Tom

A smaller MC will make it easier OR a larger slave cylinder will have the same effect or a combination of the two!. Tilton does make a 5/8". I believe pegasusauotracing.com carries the whole spectrum... The math is: MC input force*MC piston area=Slave piston area * Slave output force Tom

Here's a cool website that will show you the differences between all of the different tranny/diff combos. You can even manually enter any ratios that are not listed. http://www.geocities.com/z_design_studio/ Since my car is a dedicated autocross-only car, I know I will seldom be going over about 70 mph, so I chose the tranny to give me a top speed of about 65 mph in 2nd. That way I only have to shift up on the fastest courses (but then again, my motor has LOTS of torque). If you know about how fast you will be going on the tracks you run, you can figure out the gears that will minimize shifts and/or optimize acceleration. Tom

For road racing? There are several classes in SCCA. The first gens can still be competitive in E Production and in ITS. Beyond that they go into GT2, I believe, where they are typically way outgunned. The early 300ZXs are also competitive in ITS. The 350Zs are competitive in GT2 and also in Touring. Beyond SCCA there is a lot of Z action in some of the Vintage organizations and I would guess there is a place for them in the NASA club racing, but I'm not familiar with their classes. Tom

In your list of SoloII classes you left out Prepared. When it comes to 1st gen Z cars, F Prepared is probably the most popular class. The allowances here are pretty wide open, allowing gutting the interior, full roll cages, slicks and pretty much wide open modifications of the original engine short of forced induction. Here's more than anyone wanted to know about my car... http://sth2.com/Z-car Also, as of the close of 2004, the SCCA pulled out of Club Rally and Pro Rally. Insurance costs were out of control on high speed off-road rallies and it was threatening the entire club, so they spun that off to another organization to handle. It still exists, just don't go looking at the SCCA for direct information. In it's place the SCCA has introduced Circuit Rally and Rally Sprints. Circuit Rally is closed course wheel to wheel off road racing and Rally sprints are timed events on a closed course or a hillclimb where the fastest time wins. Otherwise all of your info looks to be pretty accurate, except for the obvious exclusion of wheel to wheel road racing and lapping sessions... Tom

If this is not your daily driver, those spring rates sound kindof soft. I know Vic Sias was running 400 lb springs on each corner with the Advance Design shocks, when he last won BSP at Nationals. That's what I run on my FP car and they definitely work. That being said, for autocross, I am still of the opinion that spring rates are not nearly as important good tires, correct alignment and good damping. Autocrossing gives you so many opportunities to make mistakes that it dilutes the importance of spring rates. (that's not true in road racing) The shocks definitely need to be matched to the springs, so pick something and stick with it. I have run spring rates from 150 lbs to 400 lbs and won National trohpies with both setups. I've used the same sway bars so long I can't remember what they are (24 or 25 F/19 R, I think). Just make sure you are not bottoming the suspension (like I was with the 150/200 lb springs). You never mentioned what your car was doing to make you say it's not working. Tell us what's wrong and we can probably help you correct the problem. Chances are your hardware is fine, you just need to get it tuned correctly and then, as others have said... drive it! Tom

Another alternative would be to get the little trailer from Harbor freight or Northern Tool and tow the tires to the races... but I've always been a bit nervous of a bumper hitch on the early Z's. Glad you find my website helpful. I figure if I kept everything secret I just might end up racing alone (I almost am anyway). Let me know if you have any questions I can help on! Tom

According to the Goodyear site the tire is intended for a 7" rim http://www.racegoodyear.com/products/racect28.html ... so you are probably won't gain much going with the 8". That said, I used to run Hoosier 23x9.5x15 on a 8" rim with decent results. If you can afford it, you will see a big improvement if you get away from the cantilevers and go to the square wall slick on a wider wheel. But you probably knew that. Tom

It looks like you have 2 sets of parts in each photo. So there are 2 shafts with each set, so I'm assuming these are inner and outer pivots for a rear control arm setup. The machined block is the inner mount(?) and looks to have an oblong hole for the spherical bearing (hard to tell from the photo), so you use the jam nuts to adjust toe the toe angle. I assume it will utilize rod ends to attach the inner and outer pivots and that's how you control camber? The parts I don't understand are; (1) the inner sleeve that fits inside the housing has a flat on the back side so I assume that flat prevents the shaft from rotating, so the spherical bearings are only to allow for misalignment, not for rotation.(?) (2) The sleeve on the shorter shaft... what's that for? I am assuming that shorter shaft fits through the stock hub mount, but I'm probably wrong. (3) How does the housing mount? Is it missing a mating part or some mounting holes/features? (4) No obvious provision for a sway bar mount Tom

Yep! Finished 3rd this year. A personal best. John Thomas finished 2nd in Richard Holden's Z... John was trying to get his Z together in time for Nationals, but multiple hurricanes in his area made that impossible. He will be VERY tough to beat next year. Tom

I've run a Lexan/Polycarbonate windshield (and on the hatch and quarter windows) for years on my autocross car. Mine is 1/8" thick and mounts in the stock gasket with no other support bracing. I've never had a problem with it buckling at speeds up to about 90. I would be reluctant to run much faster than that without supports. I believe the requirements for club racing are min 3/16" thick, which I would also recommend for anything other than autocross. Scratch resistant would be a requirement if you plan to use windshield wipers, but if you're just using RainX, the normal stuff works fine. I need to replace mine every 4 or 5 years (unless you have a cat in the garage, in which case plan on a new windshield every year, at least). It easy to cut Lexan with a jigsaw and it easily conforms to the gradual bends of the Z's windshield frame. (at least it is easy with 1/8". 3/16 is probably not too bad. 1/4" is probably pushing the limits. I can make you a paper template from one of my old windshields if you are interested. If you want to rivet/screw it to the windshield frame and not use the stock gasket, you can just cut it about 1/4" bigger all of the way around. Drop me a private message at tom@sth2.com if interested. Tom

sigh... Yep... I think he got a great deal too! I watched one go the week before in mediocre condition for $128. I figured I would easily break $100... Oh well... that's Ebay! Tom

I just posted an old "NISSAN 2400 OHC" valve cover on Ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7909067921 It's in nice condition and would be a great piece for a early car! Tom