PZG302

PM Patch on here, he has my old 240 race car shell, the front is fubar, but the rear would probably suit your needs. The rear has ad a hit, but is straight and the inner guards have been tubbed to fit slightly wider wheels. It used to run 18x8" wheels with 0 or -2mm offset and 240/640/18 or 250/650/18 slicks all round. Although going through the thread for the shell it looks like it might already be in Melbourne.

Yeah, nah on a GPS being accurate in a car. There are so many variables in terms of GPS operation that affects the accuracy from the time of day, weather, cloud and tree cover, where you are in the world and whether you are using GPS, Glasnoss, or both systems, and then whether you are using deferentially corrected GPS or not, and then if it is corrected data is that done on the fly or post processed. Even with a "good" accuarcy of +/5 metres your measured speed can vary by a few km/h quite easily. Only way to really know how accurate is to look at the data stream whilst it is being recorded and check the PDoP, HDoP and VDoP figures in conjunction with the number and location of satellites in the sky the receiver is seeing. Best way to get accurate speed of travel in a car is to use calibrated wheel speed sensors.

Yup, very expensive to get small runs made. When TCM started up the competitors approached minilite to get the original minilites remade in 15x10", apparently was near eye watering for us mere mortals, and the needed to make some horrendous numbers to make it worth while, but for those guys the numbers made sense. I approached rebel wheels in Unanderra a few years ago to get some rebel 15x8 wheels made, was told they do batches when they get enough orders and they were around $700 a piece and that was near 15 years ago. I have no idea if they can still be ordered.

I've got the latest retro sound for my Charger, also got a set of Valiant knobs and face plate for it. As I wanted an original look for the Charger, it suits it perfectly. They are old school in looks so not sure if it will suit the look you are going for, or if they do a Datsun kit yet. In terms of compatibility it has all you need with radio, plus Ipod/USB input plus bluetooth, and some adjust-ability in size for what you see poking out of the hole. From others I know they are happy with the sound they make, I only want radio and Ipod so I have something to listen to when driving, as an old valiant on triples and a side pipe is not a really good environment for audiophile spec gear.

Nah...... The kink is one of the easiest corners to drive in Australia. Head over to the left, drop the left wheels onto the shoulder at the gate tip it in and hit the picks either just before or at the bottom of the dip, depending on the car. It is only really challenging when you are driving beside someone and you have to give each other room so you don't touch, otherwise it is messy. I found turn one at the Eastern Creek more challenging, and the kink at Lakeside with the bumps is also more of a challenge. Paul Stubber managed 300km/h in his TCM Camaro, it certainly doesn't have modern aero. And back in the mid 90's when Keith Carling was running the 300ZX, still with VG power in sports sedans he cracked near enough to 300km/h with basic only aero of the time. If I was home I could drag out and scan my photos of the car's aero. The kink comes down to how brave you are. When I was driving the medical car at Bathurst I was doing a confirmed, by plod supplying the speeds to the officials for the shootout, 197km/h through the kink in a standard V6 moo VP wagon with three up and another 150kg of gear in the back. It came down to how brave you were. The brakes were pretty ordinary when I pulled up at the back of the field to wait for the start with smoke pouring out from under the guards. In my Zed it was probably at 210 to maybe 220km/h, so same as the kink at Lakeside doing the Chase descent starting at the Light Car club at the top of Conrod. And braking was at the bottom of the dip for the left right combination to get out of the chase. Much more fun was doing 170km/h or so across the top, where you had to be perfect in placing the car on the track as you didn't want to bin it for a variety of reasons.

So for track days just the basics I outlined above is needed. I wouldn't worry about changing diffs until you are playing seriously, I had a range of locked diffs because I was chasing times at each track and wanted the best performance I could get, plus R180 open diffs in a range of ratios were cheap and plentiful in the '90's. Just run a little extra oil in the motor. My race motor had nothing special in it and I never had oil surge or pressure problems. I was running slicks and generating a fair amount more mechanical grip than your car will. That would be the brake fluid, and for the other fluids just a good quality fluid will be fine. I never replaced diff oil in my diffs after the initial fill when they were welded up. I never had an issue except when a customer kicked a diff over so the oil ran out the breather, he cleaned the mess up and didn't tell anyone and the next day we put it in the car and it survived 10 laps at Amaroo before screaming enough with a fairly big bang. If you have the tyres already just use them and have fun. Pretty much prepped for track days with some better brake pads and a 2+2, well any Zed should cope with the 24 hours of lemans pretty easy.

Why the fixation with going fast through the kink??? One of the easiest parts of the track. Going fast across the top is where it's at for Bathurst.

So are you actually looking at doing proper endurance racing like the Group S one hour race or the six hour relay type races, or just a track day where you might get six to ten 5 lap runs? This will make a bi difference to what you need to do. For track days of 5 lap sessions, just check fluids, hoses for condition. If gauges work, then for 5 laps no need to do anything else. If they don't work, replace with aftermarket gauges, but by the time it shows on the gauge you have probably broken it anyway, you will smell, see and feel most problems associated with overheating before the gauge does, and if you lose oil pressure the damage is done. But as you have pretty much standard everything you will be fine. What tyres are you running? Unless you are running proper semi slicks you won't generate the grip needed to worry about oil surge, if you are just run another 250-500ml of oil over the full mark on the dipstick as insurance. Diff ratio?? I used to run a 4.9 or 4.8, but you will be fine with whatever you have in the car. Critical spares to take? I always took extra oil, some coolant, spare radiator hoses and if you still have it fitted heater hoses if they are old, a couple of spare rockers and some lash pads as my motor used to spit number 5 exhaust rocker off if i overrevved on a downchange. Also take a spare set of brake pads, and look to upgrade to a high performance road pad or a road/track pad, plus good quality brake fluid. Change brake pads and fluid before the track day if the pads are not new. Bed in properly. I would also recommend using Penrite Sin brake fluid, good price and the fluid works well, I used it in my race 240 with proper race pads no problems at all. Maybe also take a set of plugs, and also a set of basic tools, socket set, spanners plus jack and stands. Don't overthink it and have fun.

Give a John at Gasoline Alley in Brendale a call, 07 3205 3205, he is a Shannons approved shop, does top notch resto and repair work. If he is busy in the workshop, his wife Madonna will more than likely answer the phone. In any case tell them Matt with the Charger put you on to them. He mainly does US muscle, but has done a couple of Zeds as well. He won't be cheap, but as Shannons are paying that won't worry you, but it could take a bit of time as he is flat out all the time. He is currently restoring a Charger for me, a full bare body checque book restoration that in the current state looks awesome and the striping is till to go on. He also did a quick scuff and squirt on a MX5 for me that blew out from a quick remove replace front guard and a bit of panel beating on the rear quarter and blend it all in, after and small altercation at Lakeside, to a full respray with new rear garnish, badges, stone guard on the sills, and so on and so on, scope creep saw the quote blow out, but it was an amazing job and the new owner is still getting compliments on the paintwork after about eight years or so.

They are now available again brand new, albeit a bit more expensive than those ones, and able to get custom offsets as well. Looking at getting some black ones 15X8's in 0 offset for my Charger.

And Masling's Stanza is still around, was bought by a bloke in Brisbane, he played with it getting it pretty much back to what it should be and it has since been sold back to the family, or close connection to the family. There was a lot of really good stuff in it for the time, such as the brakes and a lot of aero industry stuff as well. Awesome little car when I saw it last. Also the Rover 3500 V8 and Leyland 4.4 litre engines are very different. The Leyland motor is very tuneable in comparison. Also, you could use things like A9X rockers for better strength and higher revs. The best developed versions of teh motor would have been the engines built to Formula 5000 spec by John McCormack back in the early to mid 70's, and used in the Charger Sports Sedan before he went to a Repco engine in that. You can take them out to over 5 litres, but the cylinder walls are near transparent when going that big. As the Leyland motor was originally used in trucks back in England the cranks were also able to take a lot of abuse compared to the Rover 3.5 litre engine. Back in the 70's the 4.4 was a great performance motor if built right, but generally a bit more expensive than a Holden or Ford V8 to build, more so because not a lot of people built them or saw the potential to develop them further as was the case with the Hoilden/Chev/Ford motors. The biggest problems with the Stag's unreliability was the timing of the build when Rover was part of British Leyland and all the industrial unrest at the time, that was the height of Thatcherism in the UK meant production quality was abysmal at best. If the car has the 4.4 litre V8, can be reregistered with it in it, then if you have the budget, rebuild the 8 and it will eat just about anything on the road of that era.

Yeah, nah, that won't happen. The diesel ban will be a very conditional one and will get some headlines and then disappear quietly to never be talked of again. It would have been one of many strategies that were tossed around, and may be announced. There is no way that England will have an alternative energy source and infrastructure in place within 23 years to replace the vehicles that use diesel. Particularly for heavy transport. Even rail uses diesel still for freight over there. I don't think that there is anything to worry about in our lifetimes regarding the availability of petroleum based fuels.

Just found my emails from the guy I bought them off. I got Enkei PF01 in 15x8 +35 offset and obviously 4x100 PCD Cost was $1100 delivered to my door. Matt Black was $60 extra if I wanted, obviously I went with the silver. Guys name is Gerald, he is Australian based and was very helpful. Email address is: cheap.wheels.direct@gmail.com He also has an Ebay store under the name cheap wheels direct.

The only reason to go for 8's over 7's is availability, or you are chasing every bit of tyre for grip, or for the stance points. I went 8's for mine as they were cheap. If you can wait a day or so I can get you contact details of the guy i bought my wheels from, was just over $1k for the 4 delivered to my door. They were a bit easier to find than the 7's at the time. And you don't really need to go up in sway bar size. If you have a look at the really quick prod sports cars you would be surprised at how standard they are in terms of suspension and how well they work with the standard bars and well set up springs and dampers that suit the car. Alignment will be pretty important to make sure it is right, and if you have visible tow out, yep it will be pretty darty on the road. I can't remember what toe I ran on mine front or back, but as usual as much caster as possible and I had about 1.5 degree of neg camber at the front and about 1 degree of neg at the back. To get a good spec jump on the hairdresser forum and sift through the posts about blow drying versus towel drying and the correct way to use your curling wand and you should find some decent info there for a reasonable road set up.

And if you are replacing dampers and/or springs don't go too stiff, these things need to have a little sway and lean in them. Most people I see at track days run them too stiff and wonder why they lose time through corners. As I said above, I ran the cheapest base spec BC coilovers, at their stiffest in the damping adjustment they were still softer than the softest setting in the race series that pretty much everyone else who ran BC's used in the Qld club track days. My car was able to go through corners quicker because the suspension worked better. Also, if doing bushes as well, I would recommend replacing rubber with rubber to have a little give as well.

They are a fun little jigger, my early girl was number 123 and in the first batch to Aus, Had air, no power steer and all I did to it was fit some BC V1 series coil overs to replace the 200K old standard suspension. Well worth doing the timing bump and running on 98 for a little extra zing, and if not already a little bit bigger exhaust with a suitable muffler to give it a nice crackle on the overrun and for the little rev as you double declutch for proper down changes through the box. Oh, and get some nice enkeis RFP01's in 15X7 or 15X8 to fill the guards and look a 10000% better than the Nb wheels......

I still would have thrown the extra half dozen blocks in. Even though I am using the standard tank in the S14 in front of the rear axle and below the floor, again a monster hit to get that far, I will still be filling it with foam. I just don't like the idea of free spilling fuel about in a big hit. Maybe I'm a little paranoid after a couple of decent hits and my time as a firey putting out some mighty big fires over the years, including Darren Pate's sports sedan that went in backawards after the kink at lakeside and split the fuel cell in front of the rear axle, and a few nasty fires at Bathurst in a variety of cars.

Why only partial fill of the tank with foam??? I would have filled all the tank as a safety thing. Especially after I had a fairly big shunt at Oran Park where the fuel tank was ripped from the mounts, and even with a full tank of fuel foam a few litres were still sprayed over the back of the car as the filler neck was ripped from the tank. Having the foam in the tank in that crash certainly prevented a much worse incident from happening.

Pretty heavy, the barra is a big lump of a motor that makes a L series look petite and lithe

In terms of driving with that engine package, I have a FG Turbo ute with auto and would have to say the auto is easier, better and smarter than the manual, if, and a big if you can get the electronics to work properly so it talks to the Haltech. For simplicity the manual would be easier for the conversion. In any case, that much torque will be interesting, to say the least, in a near 40 year old body that was pretty limp and noodly from the factory...... In summary a pretty stupid conversion, but one that is soooo right for so many reasons

Well that maybe the metric equivalent of the 44, a 200litre drum.....

How long is a piece of string?? Depending on what surprises or not there are after blasting it can get very expensive. My Charger is up over $50k for the body work alone and the base colour coat done. Probably another $5k or so to put the stripes and clear on. I made the mistake of wanting black, and also a sun roof filled in. There was about 40 hours alone in getting the roof right. All the body work on my car is file finished and probably less than 100 grams of bog in the whole car. And it has less rust traps than a Zed, and was pretty good in the plenums where they do go, so I would say you are looking at $50 to $60k for a checque book job at a minimum to get the body squared away and then the costs of the mechanical resto and then trim. In the same shop as my charger there is a Zeds that will be there for a looonnnggg time by looking at what repairs are needed after blasting.

Another vote for KBS. I painted the underside and engine bay of my S14 shell when it was on the rotisserie after getting all the sound deadening and sealant off. Only problem I have had is the colour changed from the nice bright white white to a creamy white over a few months. Because of this I will have to scuff the engine bay and hit it with the same white the rest of the car will get. In terms of the coating itself, I haven't been able to knock any of the coating off car when it was still on the rotisserie, or now on the ground with the suspension it it. Prep was as per the instructions after I had cleaned all the deadening material off with wire brush or plastic paint stripper wheels. After hosing with the high pressure water spray I used compressed air to blow dry the engine bay and underside before priming and then painting. The only thing I would do different would be to use a sponge applicator rather than brushes like I did. Spraying wasn't an option for me at the time.

Ebay or amazon will find the books pretty quick

In my case, it is a 16 year checque book restoration, why because the scope changed over the first couple of years and life gets in the way. I'm lucky the restoration shop is patient with me, as I am with them. When it's finished, it won't be the fastest Charger in the country, won't be the flashest, but will be one of the best restored ones in the country. Will it be worth what I spent? One day maybe, but as it is just and XL and not an R/T I have basically had a blank canvas to do what I want with it. If it was an R/T, personally I would feel obligated to restore it to concourse standard. I was also lucky that I was able to buy the car for next to nothing before the values sky rocketed for these cars. My S14, again a long term project because of life, but I am doing what I can with my skill set, and outsourcing the rest to people who think the same way I do and who are helping me in getting stuff done at agood price and some stuff that I wouldn't otherwise be able to get done because they know the right people. My old merc, the Teutonic Barge, I bought it because I like old cars and it was cheap, the paint is shot, but meh, it ads to the shabby Yakusa chic of the car. I prefer to drive than build, but like to tinker and do what maintenance I can. I also get my enjoyment from the thinking and research to arrive at the end point that I want with whichever car is being worked on at the time. My MX5 was a fun car to drive and still simple enough that I could do all the maintenance myself, and I enjoyed doing that work and the preparation work necessary for track days. My old 240 race car was the same, did all the maintenance and prep I could, but knew my limits and when to outsource work so that it would e cheaper and done right in the long run.