260DET

Here is one pic showing the engine bay brace, bloody rubbish Nikon editor has lost the rest.

You take some good pics John, must try that. With a chassis like yours you are going to have the fastest truck around. In a good way

Siping makes sense to me but what about semi slicks Gordo? Two grooved Hoosiers or Hankooks are basically slicks anyway and in 17" are available in a variety of sizes and compounds. Besides you can then say "Oh I'm only using semi slicks................."

Bastards Will see what can be done today, kicking myself that the video cam was not in use though.

Be careful with the colour, smaller vehicles like motor bikes can look great in a really bright colour, cars with their bigger surface area not so much. My KL Jeep Cherokee has a nice vibrant red, there is a current Mazda red which is pretty out there, a bit too much for me.

First run in anger in over two years yesterday, apparently the bloke in the 86 I was sort of following was not the son but the real Glen Seaton One difference between a pro and an amateur, he was working that 86 consistently hard and stayed on the track. Still I'm rapt, great to experience the rush of lapping fast again. More please

Wow, what a build Look forward to seeing this car in action, any motorsport plans other than drags?

Another test day with more progress, the auto is now good enough to do the next sprint but not good enough for Bathurst yet. One strange thing that has to be fixed is that when coming onto the straight the manual shift seems to go up two gears instead of one and then seems to realise it's mistake and shifts back a gear and takes off. Strange because it's supposed to be set to full manual with a downshift over-rev block being the only automatic function. Understeer is fixed, just a little softening of the front ARB did the trick, in fact it now wants to oversteer which is fun but can be problematical with a V8 calling the tune. Chased a 86 driven by Glenn Seaton's son and went alright until the back stepped out and persuaded the car to go grass cutting, maybe the three year old Hoosiers are stuffed a bit although Seaton was working the 86 hard.

Oh man, what a great video Noticed that Tom was doing some later apexes, nice driving both of you.

From memory the 260Z I had with FJ20ET engine and gearbox, R180, driver in, was 48%F, 52% R. Have not checked the 280ZXV8 yet.

Video from Easter Bathurst, run by the same promoter I think. There are two blokes from Perth who trail their Zeds over, Chris in the video says he is coming back this November for more.

About time we had a proper Z car

Driver out it looks like it, driver in is more relevant. With yours driver in would show pretty good weight distribution, maybe 48% F 52% R?

Was thinking more of spring rates and damper valving for this super stiff chassis, I'm sure you have the alignments etc under control.

Bloomin heck, that X brace, setting the suspension up for this will be interesting

Some pics here worth saving but how is that done? Right click and 'save as' does not work.

Those racing pics of Les Brennan's car, amazing

It's the latest model so I don't think that there is much experience with them yet. For a while on the track I was blaming myself but after a while it was, no, this thing really is not right. Plenty of zip from the engine, it does not have a restricter, so once it's sorted it will be lots of fun and it will help keep the brain active for the Z. Which always will be my main fun machine.

I was fighting it most of the time, it was not nice to drive at all so all advice and experience is welcome. Yes, looking through the setup guides it seems like the rear track is the place to start. Afterwards we watched a couple of kids going round, they were so smooth and it looked effortless, we'll get there.

Finally got the kart the other day and took it for it's first run this morning at the local track. The seat is pretty snug so didn't wear the chest protector, only did two ten minute runs due to horrible handling but so far my body feels fine which is a pleasant surprise. Yeh, the handling, yuk. Lots of tail wagging when exiting corners, felt like it stepped out a foot at one time and only just caught it. And it's real bitch to turn in, hard to describe but it's a fight to get the front wheels pointing where they should. Going to start with checking the front end alignment first and get that right, I suspect that it may have too much Ackermann. It wasn't a fun morning but I don't really enjoy driving anything that is handling like a pig, that should change with some sorting out though. The basics are all there, plenty of poke, lots of shiny new parts

It can definately be a DIY job but you need the right equipment, a place to do it and an understanding of the Z body structure to be able to do it properly. And it's a waste of time if it's not done properly. If it's best for you to get it done by a pro then ask them specific questions as to how they will do the job eg will the door trims be removed or will they just use holes for access? It's all about the time taken, one of those jobs where the integrity and skill of the applicator is everything.

Second Gav's comment about not keeping an old Z outside, there are so many things that will deteriorate besides the metal. Anyway, rustproofing is only as good as the person doing it and the effort they will put into it. Boxed in areas like the sills have to be done which may require holes for access, areas like the quarter panels and up inside the front guards, it's a big job done properly. I've DIY'd a couple, messy job using fish oil which runs everywhere but all S30's should be done. Hands up those here who have

Seriously, David is a bloody good organiser so you can be confident that he will do everything necessary to get this show on the road for us entrants.

The bloke who originally set up the auto transmission control unit (TCU) came up from Brisbane yesterday to sort out why the sequential shift was not working. In the end the verdict was that a software glitch was causing the problem. So rather than spend hours on a search that may still not identify the glitch he started again using the factory supplied auto map. The good news is that full manual shifting is now working, the only automatic function is a block on downshifting when the revs are excessive. The next step is Morgan Park again (13 April), the local guru is keen to do the tuning that will be necessary to have race type shifts where speed is the priority. That will be done one step at a time so if the glitch appears we can take a step back although it's thought that will not be necessary. Despite all this drama I'm sure that once sorted this will work great for me, these LS engines have unbelievable throttle response and torque spread out of the box and so are ideal for an auto where you can get on with actually driving the car rather than be interrupted all the time by having to shift gears. Incidentially the bloke from Brisbane would not accept any payment, well except that he did get to drive the Z around the block

Very nice, colour looks schmick. Has the 'cracked' door fallen off or otherwise self destructed yet