Lovely Sign of Spring: Car Events

"BoulderZ" (BoulderZ)
02/24/2016 at 01:15 • Filed to: None

It’s unseasonably warm here in Colorado, and has been for a while now. We usually get a weird few days or so in January or February where it gets up to about 70F, but it’s been pretty much 60s for weeks now. Yes, we had an odd couple of inches of snow this morning and I’m sure we’ll have snow here and there through April, but it’s back to 60s again tomorrow and spring is definitely starting.

I’m looking forward to lots of warm weather outside fun, including car stuff, like track days, drives, and shows. I just registered for my favorite show, CUSCC. Last year there were over 2000 cars there, of all kinds. This will be the 10th annual installment of the show, so I’m sure it will be just as big. If you’re anywhere near the Denver area on May 1, it’s worth checking out. Free to spectate, and free to pre-register until late April: !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Z Car Club of Colorado has two track days on the calendar, 25 June and 25 September. Info at zccc.org as the events get closer.

I like winter just fine, but I’m eager to get back to the warm part of the year. At least now it’s reasonable to plan for it, too.

DISCUSSION (4)

Quattro-luvr, Powered by Datsun & Stinger > BoulderZ
04/14/2016 at 11:39

Hey BoulderZ,

How is the Z? I was wondering about your car the other day while sitting in my garage looking at my motor that I need to rebuild.

You had sent me your spec list of what you’d done a while back. You still having good luck with the motor?

BoulderZ > Quattro-luvr, Powered by Datsun & Stinger
04/15/2016 at 02:33

Hey, Quattro-luvr! Good to hear from you! I hope all is well with you. The engine in my Z is great. I wish I had more time to exercise it, but the winter here in CO just will not let go. It was 70F today, after a half meter of snow two weeks ago; and, we have three days of snow set to start at noon tomorrow. The only complaint I have with my Z is that I need to fix the lock/latch on the hatch. It just stopped working last November (lock, unlock, the latch won’t let it open). Well, and I have to detail it before the May 1 show, but it is a black car. It always needs to be cleaned. Anyway, the entire lock assembly is new, but it won’t open so I have to take it apart from the inside. Performance has been spot-on. The next item is wheels and tires. It’s gotten so difficult to get performance 15" tires that I think I’m going to get 17" wheels for track tires, and keep my 15s for street and show. That’s probably a smart move, but I know it’s one more step towards a towing rig for track use. The upside is I know I’ll never be good enough to need a dedicated track-only car. One regret I have on upgrades is not retrofitting a relay-harness with proper 21st century lights. I’ll get to that as soon as I can as it is more irritating than it might seem.

How have you been, and what are you thinking for your plans for work and modification? All the best to another motor enthusiast.

Quattro-luvr, Powered by Datsun & Stinger > BoulderZ
04/15/2016 at 08:51

Nice! Glad things are going well. Any new pictures of your car? I can’t remember the year of your car, 78'? It’s a black pearl, right?

With your tires, is that everything available is only from tirerack.com? I’d love it if there was a track close to where I live. The closest one is nearly 3 hours away.

I’ll be sending my Z off for media blasting in the next few weeks. I bought a 1970 1600 last June and have been giving it most of my time. It sat in a garage for 22 years and need a lot of items replaced. I’ve spent more on parts than I did the car.

I ask about your motor because I can’t decide on the direction I want to go with mine. I kind of want to build a 300HP crank monster (but it’s so expensive). What I really want is something with good mid-range torque but also that will rev to at least 7K. I love the sound of our six at higher RPMs. I’d like to be coming around a corner in 1st gear, step on the throttle and get the back end to step out. Will yours do that? Also, what kind of induction are you running? SUs, Webers or FI?

BoulderZ > Quattro-luvr, Powered by Datsun & Stinger
04/22/2016 at 01:28

Did I really not reply to this? I’m really sorry for the delay and silence, I thought I wrote back! Yes, my ‘78 is a Black Pearl, but I did have to repaint it. I decided not to re-do the pinstripes. Sometimes I wish I’d added them, but not often. For the motor, I have to preface it with: I’m in CO, so elevation changes everything. For that reason, I chose to stay with the stock EFI, but I had Web Camshafts regrind mine to their 94a profile, and I went to the flattop ZX pistons with a 0.020 bore-out, ARP rod bolts, new rod and main bearings. So, I’m NA with about 10:1 compression. I cleaned up the stock head a bit and had the valves reground with a 3-angle job. In CO, maybe adding a mild (sub 10 psi) turbo would have been nice. The thin air here is a performance killer. On the other hand, I do track the car at HPR, and the NA response is much easier for me to handle in the tight turns and elevation/camber changes.

The sound of the straight 6 is amazing. I went with the 6:1 equal-length headers, deleted the resonator, and 2.5" to the back. With the cam and exhaust, it is a loud, obtrusive car. When I drive it in town, on road trips, or for daycare drop-off (yes, really), it is very easy to be “that guy”, in the not-good sense.

If you want to make the rear step out, that’s easily accomplished. It will trash tires, though. With 2 to 5 track days per year, I get about 4,000 miles per set of tires right now. I think I’m going to switch to two sets of wheels/tires.

If I did it over, I might consider megasquirt for the EFI, and maybe a turbo. On a business trip to Japan a few years back I tried to locate an OS Geiken crossflow head, but... wow, that’s a downpayment on an investment rental property. If you want 300 hp, you probably need to consider the 3.1 L stroker setup (expensive, as you mentioned), or go EFI turbo, or go with the predictable and trite SBC conversion. There’s a local Datsun guy, Jeff Winters, who does wonderful things with L series motors, and of course Rebello produces nice art, but neither are inexpensive. Of course, “I got in to motorsports to save a ton of money!”, said no one, ever. If my kid wants to build a Z, I may have a chance to revisit some build choices, though. Maybe I get a new turbo motor and he gets my modified NA, or something. Hard to say. He’s 3 right now, so he wants to build a Z, a Porsche, a monster truck, a jeep, a baja bug, or a bendy bus depending on when you ask him. I guess we have some time to decide and start wrenching.