My Latest Track Car Build...
 

So I've owned this car for 9 years, but it's sat for long periods while I played with Corvettes, Porsches, SpecMiatas, starting a company, moving homes and shops to new locations, and finally getting around to getting this thing "driver" ready:

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Video Clips of a walk-around tour of it idling, and the maiden voyage at the track... shortlived, but great first drive...


The Tire rub issue has since been resolved and I plan to get the car to VIR or Summit Point within the next few weeks. We need to drive the car a few more times before heading to Watkins Glen in Early September for the Historic GP weekend where Nissan is the Marque of Honor for this year's event!

Mike

Specs on the car are as follows...

1976 Datsun 280Z Chassis
MSA Type3 Front bumper
BetaMotorsports Carbon Hood
APR Rear wing
Lexan Rear Hatch Window

Motor
Chevy Bowtie Block 383 stroker
Eagle Forged Rods
Weisco Forged Pistons
Scat Forged Crank
Dart Conquest Aluminum Heads
Isky 530/550 Cam w/ Harland Sharp 1.5 roller rockers/valvetrain
Victor Jr. Intake
Holley 4150 750 Carb
Mcleod Bellhousing
Cat LWFW
Centerforce Clutch Kit
Tilton Clutch Hydraulics
Custom Exhaust system

Drivetrain consists of:
Tremec TKO 600 Roadrace transmission
Custom 19inch drive shaft
Infinity Q45 Rear LSD
Speedway Engineering custom CV Axles
MML Axle adapters
MML Forged Stup Axles

Suspension is all monoball:
Ground Control Coil Overs
Koni 8610 race struts
QA1 Springs (various assortment)
Ground control front camber plates
AZ Zcar Rear Camber plates
AZ Zcar rear cromoly control arms
ZF Racing Front Control arms/TC Rods (My former company/ Design)
Adjustable Rear Sway bar and non Adjustable Front Swaybar
custom 5 lug conversion with Aluminim front hubs

Brakes:
Ford Mustang Cobra front and rear calipers/Wilwood TwoPiece Rotors

Piper Motorsports cage
UltraShield Driver's seat

The car should weigh in at under 2400# and should make well over 400 wheel HP. Although I only got six laps in on the maiden voyage, the car drove straight and didn't exhibit any adverse behavior. Looking forward to more time behind the wheel of this car on a roadcourse near me!!

Mike

Watch out for those ITS or E-production Z cars.

They somehow lap really fast at summit point with solid rotors and about 200hp.

Looks like fun! Does the fire bottle get in the way of shifting? :p

wow thats an awesome Z.

Very nice car, good job!

Well done, it looks great!

I'm used to lapping summit main at 1:20s on street tires in my 996TT and 1.29s on street tires in our SpecMiata (seen in the background in one of the pics) so I don't think I'll have problems with those ITS cars... I owned one many years ago and know their benefits, and their limits!!hilarious

Zero issues with clearance of the bottle/shifter! :D

Wow, looks GREAT!! Nothing like a classic car restored for track duty IMO. The old Z cars are of course beautiful.

-Matt

Looks awesome! Great project. Those are Kumho V700 right? How do you like them?

Nice to see you used the design of the original rear suspension.

I see so many people just throw on a 240sx rear subframe with it's semi-trailing arm rear suspension without knowing that the 1970-1978 suspension design is superior in camber and toe control through it's range of motion to anything nissan has put on later cars.

This is truly one of the best Z car builds I have seen......and this is coming from someone who's worked at "Z-shop of miami" and "Datsun Dynamics".

The guys who originally established Datsun Dynamics have a new shop where they build and service some pretty fine nissan race cars.

They are now called auto expectations................I'm sure you already know these guys.

If not, they have quite a bit of Z-car experience and are still racing nissans.

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...7_288759_n.jpg

Yup, They've been working with a guy I sent them, Joe Gonzalez. He's got my 5 lug conversion/mustang brakes on it, and will soon have my custom designed front control arms/TC Rods...

Thanks for the kind words guys. This is the 22nd Datsun Z I've owned/built (started in 1987) and this particular project is 8 years on and off in the making... Lots of other projects and life scattered throughout those 8 years, along with a lot of other car and motorcycle projoects along the way.

We'll be taking the car to EB3 Motorsports for some tuning in two weeks, and I might try to get it down to Paul Overstreet for a corner balance in the next few days...
Mike

They seem OK. We'll be moving to hoosiers as the car checks out and becomes more developed.

Mike

So Mike how long ago did you start this project? sounds very smooth,