preith

Good reading, I'd like to add some points if anyone is interested. In regards to the seat time comment, a lot of people may laugh or scoff at this, but I whole heartedly feel lots and lots of practice on computer simulator with a quality wheel/pedal set pays dividends; the acquired skills are transferable. I have countless hours on an old sim called Grand Prix Legends. For me the largest gain has been aquiring the ability to maintain a heightened level of concentration for long periods of time. Also gained are the “ingrained driving habits”, hitting all your points, shifting, etc, almost becomes subconscious. Shifting: Many rookies, and even the pros, have a tendency to downshift too early. This should not be used to help slow the car down but rather to match rev’s only. Also, I always tell people if they can “heel and toe” shift on the street smoothly under light to medium brake pedal pressures, they have it made. It is much easier maintaining consistent braking pressure when mashing on the pedal. As Mark pointed out, this really is something one should be well practiced at before putting a wheel on the track. I also feel the “heel and toe” term isn’t really the best one to use and can be a bit misleading. I personally find it easier to roll the foot off the brake pedal in more or less an upright position, not cocked at a weird angle. I welded an extension on the gas pedal to aid with this too. I’ve also seen the pros do it this way on TV. Also, a lot of people don’t want to bother auto-crossing and jump right into road racing. My heart was never really in it, but I’m soooo glad I did. Again the skills are transferable, but at least in my area where the courses are very tight, I’ve always felt it doesn’t teach finesse as there’s much more man-handling of the car. If anything it will prepare one to participate in a controlled, sanctioned event. As silly as it sounds, this alone can be a bit nerve racking the first few times out.

I've been meaning to revisit the dry sump project since I've got mine going, this is also a major point I've been meaning to bring up. As Mark stated, the ARE pan actually provides LESS clearance than even the wet sump comp. pan, which has a shallow scavenge tray added to the front underside of the stock pan. I too had to do some grinding, but only a small portion of the ribs at the very front. I opted to modify the stock cross member by lowering the steering rack about 3/4". This of course threw off the bumpsteer big time which was remedied by drilling out the knuckes, converting to rod ends and spacers. I bolted the cross member to the engine while on the stand checked for clearance but it wasn't until it was in the car and at the proper angle that additional "clearancing" was nessesary. BTW, I had been meaning to switch the outer tie rods to conventional rod ends anyways, but drilling the knuckles turned out to be big PITA. The pieces are heat treated from the factory. After burning up standard and cobalt drill bits I took it to a machine shop; he ended up using a $200 carbide bit to get through. The end result was a car which handled noticably better then before the entire project, so I was happy.

I remember that car was for sale in the old Zcar magazine for quite a while back in the mid 90's. Interesting they removed the Hemi. The FAQ at HybridZ specifically states: The stock Z brakes are adequate for street driving, autox, and drag racing, which I agree with, but when road racing, that's debatable.

Just thinking out loud, but with a 35mm SIR I wonder if 50's would be the best choice. The TWM airbox would be an obvious choice, but hear they don't pass the SCCA stall test, which essentially is blocking off the intake and forcing the engine to stall. The GT2 tube cars have a miniumum required weight of 2080, so they'd have to balast a whopping 200lbs. I suppose it's not out of the question, but most of them are running 16" wheels and believe it not they don't want to go to 15's.

In an effort boost the number of GT3 entries, the SCCA competition board has agreed to move the Z over from GT2. More appropriately, the rules have been written to encourage the older uni-body cars to come out of mothballs. The requirements are a minimum weight of 2200 lbs (w/driver), 15x7 wheels (w/cantilever slicks), GT2 spec L28, and the only draw back, a 35mm SIR (single inlet restrictor). The current EP Z-cars would be right at home with an L28 transplant; they're already on the same wheels and rubber. The inlet restrictor would be one area where some creative engineering would probably pay off. As little effort would be required in my case, I’m seriously considering converting, however I’m not up to speed (no pun intended) with the race slicks they use. I assume Hoosiers are the preferred choice, but what size and compound do the production guys typically use?