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This particular Z Car is a '78. Not much from '78 remains
today. It does have the original block. Sitting on top of that
is an E 31 head that has been opened up with 44 mm & 35 mm
tuliped stainless valves. The valves have titanium retainers for
upper RPM reliability. The cam is a proprietary grind from
Malvern. It is timed by a Dial in Cams sprocket. The block
had all of it's stress risers ground down. Then it was over
bored 0.040" and fitted with JE forged pistons. The block
also had O-ring groves machined in the deck for sure compression
sealing. Hooking the pistons to the crank are 133 mm 240 Z rods.
These were from the Factory racing effort of Electramotive still
wrapped in newspaper from El Segundo. They connect to a Moldex
billet steel crankshaft.
Feeding all of this rotating mass is a set of Mikuni 44 mm
carbs. They have a port matched intake from Logan Blackburn's
semi factory effort. They have a set of really cool short full
radius velocity stacks hidden inside an ITG foam filter element.
The stacks and filter are from TWM. Getting
the fuel from the eight gallon Fuel Safe cell to the carb setup
is a Barry Grant fuel pump with a bypass that will put unneeded
fuel right back in the cell without running fuel line back from
the carbs with hot fuel in it.
To fire it off we use an Electromotive Crankfire unit. It
picks up it's signal from the back of a Fluid Dampener on the
crank. On the other end of the crank is a Tilton Clutch
and full diameter Tilton flywheel. This engages a Houseman
modified Option # 2 direct drive. The Houseman is a Dog Ring
gear engagement transmission with straight cut gears.
No clutch shifting.
The final drive is a R-190 limited slip unit from Datsun
Competition with a 4.44 gear set. This can be a real fun gear
set on the street. No down shift passing.
Running under the transmission and final drive is may be one
of the coolest things on the car. A Datsun Competition 1
5/8" header. It flows into a dual exhaust that utilizes a
DR Gas X pipe cross over. This evens out the pulses of the
exhaust frequency coming out of dual 24" long stainless
Super Trapps.
All of this has been coated inside and out by HPC. All of the
connecting tubing uses mandrel bends and was made in house.
Keeping all of this cool is a Ron Davis radiator.
All of the cast bits and parts on the engine were also powder
coated semi flat black to get rid of the heat. Makes clean up
easier too.
Putting the rubber to the road can be a challenge. In this
department we wanted to have adjustment. We also had to have it
stay in adjustment. No concentric. Rod ends for us. The
suspension has a few. Koni shocks with Carrera coil overs
take care of the up and down part.
Carrera camber plates locate the top of the strut and provide
for some extra shock travel. A NASCAR type sway bar rides
in the frame for the front. One just like it rides in the rear
fuel cell subframe. These connect to a set of Arizona Z tubular
control arms.
All of this equipment locates a set of 16"X10"
Panasport C8 wheels. Hoosier 22"x10" slicks have the
tough job of dealing with my foot and the road. Being
smooth is not too bad if you plan your moves and the car setup
stays consistent.
 The
business end of the car has a Bulter Built seat to keep you in
proper position. A Personal 290 mm wheel controls the steering.
(the driver helps) An Autometer light weight tach dominates the
dash. This along with the other gauges from the light weight
series keep and eye on what is going on with the engine. The
tach is the only electrical gauge though. The wires that do
exist run from an Optima battery though Mil Spec switches.
Putting the brakes to all of this is a Wilwood pedal set that
push on a set of Wilwood Calipers. They could be easier folks to
deal with. I would do something different in hind sight. The
alternative would cost more, but doing all of this is an enough
of a hassle without bad attitudes.
Back to the fun part.... The outside is Red. The flares are
cut down IMSA flares from Motorsport Auto. Nice folks. By the
time I got to this car there was not much I could get from them.
The front spoiler is from Impact Parts. The rear spoiler is also
from Impact.
Right now the car is used for autocross with the Triad Sports
Car Club in North Carolina. We also take it to the Central
Carolinas Region of the SCCA. On top of that we do a
statewide series called The North Carolina Autocross
Championships (NCAC). This will make for a busy Y2k. We hope it
results in three championships.
Thanks,
Alan Giles
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