Z equals Zero (Page 1 of 5)

orly...

i sence a team union forming in the pits.

by this i mean....

say like three teams cars break down one being a Z they pull off a cut an shut Lemons vehicle in the pits

Z car body with engine from one trans from the other and all come together to garboon and monster garage one car together all in the paddock.

if that happened would it be dis-allowed having all three teams toss their transponder into the one hack jobbed car to make up for teams bombing out while celebrating a union of the Lemons crap cans?

sounds bizarre but cool in my head at least.....definately be cool to see or be done in a Lemons weekend

p.s. it sounds evil but im sure someone will tempt it at some point

Oh yeah, a V8 Z would totally win! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Also: ha ha ha ha ha!

Maybe I need to plan a little fishing expedition next race.  There's even a pond at MSR.

You know what?  Now that I think about it, you are absolutely right.  Why waste your time, we have no chance of winning whatsoever. 

We have never, ever cheated (just like everyone else) and even if we did, it would be pointless since chances are we are not going to finish anyways.  We should be let through without question.  To check under our hood would just be a waste of your time.  Time that could be spent on real cars like RX-7s, Jettas, and Monte Carlos.

Thanks for letting us through tech so easily.  It has been and will continue to be appreciated.

Without Zs, would we get to witness scenes like this one?

Wow, you would do that for us?  The though of being treated with that level of respect brings a tear to my eyes, but I must decline.  It wouldn't be fair to the other Zs or the Z legacy.

Thanks again for the offer but we don't mind being treat like every other Z and just waved right through.

Ha!

To let everyone in on what Loren is talking about:
After running two races at CMP (~30 hours) without any mechanical problems, Loren gets in our Z and after 3 runs ( ~ 3 mins) the car coasts to a stop at the finish line and refuses to restart.

Pair that with the information in his sig "EuroTrash E30 - Lemons South 2008 (cooling probs) & Spring 2009 (fueling prob), 2Slow E30 - Lemons Detroit(ish) 2008 (transmission problems), Jackie Ickx GT30/3000GT - Lemons South Fall 2009 (spun bearing) & Lamest Day 2009 (exhaust & fuel leaks)" and you start to wonder if he has a car gremlin playing pranks on him.

Luck for him he is a great driver (that is when he can get in a car that will stay running.)

Slant six Z?

KT

Gotta say, me and my teammates that were at the BS inspection at MSR on Friday laughed out loud as we were watching Murilee BS-inspecting ... I think... the gray 'Celica-Audi' when the owner of said car was bristling at something. 

At that moment, a Z-car rolled up to be BS'ed and Judge says "oh, you want me to piss you off, watch this... Z EQUALS ZERO!... Zero penalty laps for all Z-Cars, I don't even want to look under the hood... "  (paraphrased from memory, I was laughing too hard to remember exactly). 

He then sent the stunned and amazed Z-car crew on it's way while the other guy was just mouth agape.   It was funny as hell!

I think that was a 300z.

Hmmm... Z car with a volvo diesel motor in it?... what is the biggest single point of failure on a Z?... motor, trans, or is there just no one thing and -everything- just falls off of them?

Typically our 73 240Z has had clutch/transmission problems.

More recently, we have been having cooling problems.  We have been sucking our lower radiator hose shut which may have been part of our problem.  By Sunday we had a hose with a spring that won't suck shut and changed the radiator but we are still getting hot.  We are running 10+:1 so tuning can screw us too.

One problem with the early S30 Z cars is finding a reliable ignition system.  The vacuum advance on many of the electronic ignition systems will fail and take out the whole thing or just not work right.  Dave @ Rebello also talked about this and made some suggestions similar to some ideas I have had.  I just have to do it.

Once I get a distributor modded, I share the info.

As old as the early Zs are, finding parts can be difficult, finding good parts can be really difficult!

My car has not had an fuel problems.  I installed a cell and it has been good so far.  Some cell installs in other cars have not worked right.  Some stock tanks have had issues too.  Like Jeff said, most early cars were abused and neglected.

With carbs our car doesn't need a lot of electronics to run, just a questionable distributor.  EFI cars are probably like an E30.

Brakes should not be a problem but you have to properly set them up.  My car has had no brake problems.  Rear drums on early cars are less than impressive and may need adjustment to maintain good pedal through a race.  If you put on rear discs, that problem is gone.

Old rubber stuff in almost any brake system will die if you run a long time in a race.

Clutches/transmission is pretty much all driver error.  The more drivers you have the worse your odds get.

Added compression stresses the head gaskets more.  Long aluminum heads do not like to get hot.  Add heat and compression and you are playing with fire.

The 80's Zs are glorified Touring Sedans, especially the first gen 300ZX.  They are like the Cadillacs of the Z car line.  Some 280ZXs head light washers for crying out loud.  However, they are newer and seem to be more reliable.

Zs are fun cars but they have their issues.  Once they are in the $500 range they start having MORE issues.

In a Non-LeMons form, the 240Zs still set records.  I think they set a new record in Florida this year.  There are solutions to many of our problems but they can get very pricey and exceed the Lemons budget.