The 260Z project has been moving painfully slowly while everything else gets done, but there have been little bits of progress here and there.
After assembling the extractors:
I found that they won’t actually fit on the engine without the collector wanting to live in the passenger foot well area. Obviously someone designed them on an engine, but not in a car!
So, the next step was to add a bend in the otherwise work-of-art collector…
Once the exhaust is done, there is some wiring and plumbing to do and I should finally be able to test run the engine!
After that it’ll need a proper intake made to fit the throttle bodies, so I’ve been playing with some ideas in Solidworks – which will then make it much easier to have the parts CNC cut so it’ll all go together perfectly.
I also picked up some light weight fibreglass doors and a rear hatch, which will save huge amounts of work vs making custom ones or modifying the original parts.
Yellow Box Spring Carnival was on again this year, so of course I had to build a new kart
This time I kept the frame design pretty simple, and used basic “scrub” brakes – but made some over complex machined wheel hubs to run proper bearings. The wheels are from Segways
The kart was pretty fast, but the Segway wheels proved to be less than ideal on the rough terrain, and it was very hard to drive! Still came second overall, and didn’t manage to drive off a cliff this time
Just a heads up to any of you that may not know. NSCC is having their first ever Eastern Creek trackday combined with the HSV Club to be held on Saturday the 2nd of June. NSCC is a non profit cams car club a great and inexpensive way to get out on the track and let off some steam. There a great group of people ranging from novice to seasoned drivers making it a great place to start out.
Head over to their site here its not too late to get in!
So we finally started stripping the car in the gaps when nfi’s car was off getting tuned or we were waiting for something to be done before we could start on the next thing.
Took some quick shots of the car before I started but lighting was bad and the workshop was messy in the lead up to WTAC so space was limited.
The first task was to remove the body kit to allow easier access to the rest of the car for strippage and so it doesn’t get damaged during the process. At this stage the same kit + a new front bar was to be going back on the car as funding wouldn’t stretch enough to allow me the luxury of a new kit and paint. This has kinda started spiraling out of control now though as you’ll see in the coming months.
The front guards turned out to be rather difficult to get off due to the sills being crushed over ontop of them at the base. The side skirts required some serious massaging and a heat gun to get off as whoever fitted them had bought a tube of sikaflex and gone to town! After I’d pulled them off we discovered that the sill panel on the passenger side had been given some rough love too. Another thing was added to the list of “to be fixed”
We were very happy to lay our eyes on the end result of a Lowdown photo shoot done awhile back. An awesome article and set of images guys, together they really capture the spirit and raw character that both cars were built in.
If that wasn’t enough Tith Brothers have also released this very cool video clip from the same shoot. We cant thank you enough guys the end result is killer!
For the full article along with the rest of the photos click here
I stumbled across this footage on the official Nissan youtube channel. Its great to see these beasts up close and the crazy aero they’re running also found the footage of the pits. These things are seriously moving too! No sound track and little editing just the raw good stuff, enjoy!
I came across this new BAC Mono single seater car which is made and is also street legal in the UK. Wow I’d be keen to get my hands on one of these if funding permitted. Very cool! =)
I kept having issues with the gauges I’d bought because in the daytime you could hardly see them. The oil pressure gauge being near useless cause you couldn’t look at it while driving. So I shelled out for a defi link unit and 60mm boost gauge. This let me set parameters which if anything goes outside of it sets an alarm going. Also you can record several minutes of replay and record your peak values. The alarm and peak values are very handy. Especially when setting up your boost controller or flat out on the track. You can concentrate on driving and know you dont have to check any temps unless it screams at you.
The sensor kits I got were oil temp, speed, revs, oil pressure and water temp.
Got a new carbon stereo surround. Highly doubtful its any lighter than the standard Item but it looks way cooler =)
I also imported a smart camber gauge to help us do our own alignments on the run.
World time attack 2010 came around I had my car in the NSCC club display not that I really though it was show car worthy but we got a good club deal and it was a nice close place to park and it fitted in with the JDM theme. A car that really changed my perception of what a 180SX could and should be was Wanyes 180. This thing had some serious styling and is hell fast. I was and still are blown away by the attention to detail on both this and later his brothers car, serious dedication.
Had had the NSCC day the weekend before. This was the first superlap with all the international cars. Was an awesome event!
A short clip I took of Wanyes car at WTAC2010. Clean on a whole new level.
