BenZed

The braces in my car definitely help, it felt a lot better than my last Zed in that regard. Sorry Phil

It wasn't as bad as I expected. I was able to do six laps flat out and the braking was still about 80-90% of its best... but its best wasn't too impressive.

The car still has solid front discs and drums at the rear, plus the suspension that was fitted when I bought it. I was hitting the limiter in fifth on the straight before braking for the kink, so a 4.4 rear end would certainly help my times. Anyhow, it was a lot of fun and a lot of people commented on how the car soundedd flat out along the straight. Some photos here: http://www.speedshots.com.au/gallery/othermotorsport/trackdays/superlap/?g2_page=13

Went in Superlap yesterday at Oran Park. Ran 1.25:0030 on the Grand Prix circuit. No idea how that rates for a zed, but I beat these guys: 19 68 Graham Lilford (NSW) Lilford Performance Exhaust 300zx 6TR 13 11 1:25.2340 0:08.1070 20 70 Nathan Luck (NSW) Fast Fours WRX STi 4TA 11 3 1:25.4800 0:08.3530 21 86 Darren Corringan (NSW) Darren Corringan R32 GTR 6TA 11 6 1:25.9260 0:08.7990 22 78 Anthony Bilic (NSW) Drift Racing Industries Nissan Cefiro 6TR 14 12 1:26.2520 0:09.1250 23 55 Ryan Boslem (NSW) Ryan Boslam R33 GTST 6TR 20 19 1:28.0760 0:10.9490 24 81 Anthony Soole (NSW) Anthony Soole Toyota Celica 4NF 21 20 1:28.4390 0:11.3120 25 58 Chris Quick (NSW) Chris Quick R33 GTST 6TR 17 3 1:29.0030 0:11.8760 26 67 David/ Quinton Nicho QLD David Nicholson Landcruiser 6TA 14 13 1:29.9670 0:12.8400 27 71 Andrew Mara (NSW) Fast Fours S15 Silvia 4TR 15 2 1:30.2780 0:13.1510 28 61 Wayne Prenter (NSW) Wayne Prenter 300ZX 6TR 13 11 1:30.2790 0:13.1520 29 87 Modammed Khan (NSW) Mohammed Khan Mazda RX7 RTR 4 2 1:43.3460 0:26.2190

The Hoosiers have a couple of lines on them, but they're pretty much slicks with radial construction. The handy thing is they were exactly the same size as my normal tyres at 225/50 16

Please read second line again

My car just ran 12.834 at 103.92mph with a 1.682 60-foot time. Not bad for an atmo L-series.

I am stoked to report that My Zed ran a 12.834 second pass tonight at 103.92mph with a 60-foot time of 1.682 seconds. The 4.875:1 gears were almost too short as I had to change into second almost immediately and changed into fifth before the line, but the 225/50 Hoosier drag slicks did what they are designed to do and delivered an awesome 60-foot time. I think a 4.4:1 rear end would be the ideal compromise for this car, saving the extra gearchange before the line and probably launching better too. However I doubt if I will drag-race this car again as it was never built for this purpose.

Have a shit one for $100. PM me

Yes, the 71B box used in the L-series. I can also get them for the FJ20 versions of this box, plus the SR20 and RB20 versions of the 71C box.

Diff gears are $1400, close-ratio gears are $2100 (first three gears). I can also get 5.143:1 diff gears for the same price.

I have a bunch of old-school JDM wheels for Datsuns etc coming in late next month. I'll put them in the classifieds section when they arrive. Here are a couple of pairs for example. I have a set of Volk mesh just like you're looking at in 14x6.5 +8 front and 14x7 +13 rear for $450 landed. The Gold Enkeis are 14x7 +10 offset, $480 set landed. The Hoshinos are 14x6.5 +11 and 14x7.5 -1 for $650. There are lots more, mostly 15s.

I run 10.5:1 compression, no problem on 98-octane fuel if the car is tuned properly on a dyno.

Actually the P90 is a high-compression, big-port head and a better choice than the E88 if you can find one. They were used in the US L28 turbo engine (and others) and have good 'squish' in the combustion chamber. Here's a pic of my P90A combustion chamber.

OS Giken make a twin-plate for the L-series with clutch plate dampers and a light chrome-moly flywheel called a TS2BD. The plates are 204mm. It is rated for 480hp and I find it quite streetable. I had my engine balanced with this clutch attached for the best result. The Australian retail for the clutch is $2150 with the bearing and shorter carrier included. Anyone interested can PM me. For crazy power a triple-plate is available too.

Yes at 90mm the walls are very thin. I had to look at a lot of blocks to find one that could take this bore safely. My L-series has the 83mm LD crank and 90mm bore for 3166cc capacity. At 89mm it would be 3096cc. Kameari actually make an 85mm stroker crank, which gives 3171cc on an 89mm bore, but requires a 2.5mm head gasket. The other drawback is it costs $4000 in Japan (plus duty, shipping GST etc.) I've owned a turbo L28 too and they produce great midrange torque, but I chose atmo this time around for the sound, the instant throttle response and the ever-climbing power delivery. The 3.1 delivers as much torque as you could ever need and adds the searing top end sound and power. Ultimately you can get much more power from a turbo engine, but the character of an atmo engine just seems right for a classic sports car.

Back to the original topic, I found on my first Zed (about 15 years ago) that just fitting urethane bushes to the swaybar links made a big difference to the body roll and general feel of the car, as they take away the delay before the swaybar does something. Very easy to DIY too.

Here's my latest failure to save money The three photos are things I ordered from Kameari in Japan. The diff gears are 4.875:1, (39 to 8 ) which will be a big change from the factory 3.9:1 gears in my R200 diff. Hopefully I can get them in before tomorrow afternoon so I can get straight back to the track and test them. The gearset will take longer. This set replaces the firs three gears to create a close-ratio gearset. I also ordered the optional WPC sleeves at the bottom of the photo which are meant to help smooth shifting between these three gears. Note that the Kameari gears come with a special black coating known as solid film lubricant. The ratios are 2.624, 1.814 and 1.316. The last photo is a set of offset rear control arm bushes, which were supplied by Kameari but it turns out they're made in Florida. These allow you to correct the rear toe, to what extent I'll soon be able to tell you.

They weren't as bad as I expected, but they did let go changing into second. I have some 225/50 Hoosier drag radials I want to try next week.

The tyres weren't too bad considering their age, but I got wheelspin changing into second. I just tried fitting a pair of fibreglass headlight cowls, but they need a bit of work to be flush with the guards. A standard metal cowl is 1.3kg, the fibreglass ones are 570g. By the time I get them looking right they may weigh a bit more, so I'm debating if it's worth the effort for a bit over a kilo.

Got this sticker with the carbon tail light garnish from Restored, it cracks me up. For those who don't know, Ken & Mary was a company that sponsored the most successful GC110 (240K) shape GT-R race team, so that shape is known as the Ken-mary in Japan. The earlier KPGC10 GT-R is called the hakosuka, which translates as box-skyline.

I got them on Yahoo Japan, but they're also available from Kameari at about $250.

Yeah sorry, the quarter mile video kind of sucked. Like watching a small white dot move slowly across the screen. I'll try to get myself organised enough to take some photos this weekend and put together a feature.

Took the Zed to WSID today to do some quarter mile runs. The best was a 13.66 at 102.2mph, which was with the original 3.9:1 diff ratio. This ratio really kills it, as you barely get into fourth before the line. I'm fitting a 4.875:1 Kameari gearset next week, which should make a big difference. Also had old, stiff A032R tyres on (they were on the Watanabes when I bought them), so the best 60-foot was a 2.04. I should be able to get that down to 1.7 or so with some drag radials. I'm aiming for 13.2 or better from the current set-up. Here's a little burnout video, not sure why the sound is out of sync.

Yes, both are carbon