TO DO LIST UPDATED

Just wanted to let you guys know that we have been getting alot of work done so I have updated the "To Do List"

FRIDAY UPDATE

So on fridays ,to prepair for the weekend, I like to try and find some some pics of other 280 zx's that inspire me to work on the car. Maybe try and find one with a cool mod that might work on ours to give us a edge, some thing that we can try and make work for us on the cheap. First of all this is very difficult because, lets face it, the 280zx is one of the most unloved ugly Z cars ever made, when I google image "280zx" I see so many god  aweful butt ugly cars I want to just give up on life ( this is where the need for inspiration comes in). And then like a hobbit that finds a wizard in the forest when his shire is being besieged by orks, I see hope, that maybe all is not lost, that maybe just maybe we can make a cool ZX. THIS is my ispiration for today

This is one sweet ride!!!!!

PROPER INSTRUMENTATION

Well it never hurts to have a big rediculous tach in a race car, come on now, its the one place it belongs.

I picked this up on craigslist this weekend off a guy that claims it set him back 300.00$ ( I "us"ed him down to 50) it has a digital adjustment to set shift point, I think this will help us to not rev the hell out of the engine when we get excited cause there will be a big red flashing light!

WING!

So Buck and I were kicking around ideas in the garage the other day when lighting struck. Let me start a few steps back, So Buck has been going crazy trying to figure out the weight of the car ( I have to admit that I have been to) so he brought home the scale they use for weighing boats at his work. If our measurements are correct the shell including ,suspension ,brakes, front bumper, is around 1500lbs. The engine and transmission should add in about another 550. but most of that weight will be up front. Even once we get the cage and a full tank of gas (20 gallons x 6.25 lbs= 125lbs) we are gunna be a little light in the rear. THIS is when the lightning struck, obviously we need a wing but it need to be chump worthy, and thats when we saw this siting in the corner of the garage!!!

Yes that is a tailgate of a old Datsun pick up, and since technicaly the 280zx is a Datsun that makes it even more awsome. You cant realy see from the photos but it says DATSUN in big black letter across the gate. I cant wait to get working on this. Oh and we have full coil overs to adress the hight of the rear suspension yikes!

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE !!!!!

So I think every one on the team has become fond of the "Japans-am" idea (Japan+Trans Am = Japans-am which is the squrae root of the 280zx) It seemed to be the natural conclusion for any one with a shared intrest in classic J-tin and Burt Rynolds. But while casuall browsing one of my favorite Japanese blogs (http://www.banpei.net/) I came across this!!!

What the crap?!! Thats right I am thinking the same thing you are, Zac Smith very well might have a long lost twin brother that is living somewhers in Japan. Or possible I was cloned, Iam not sure yet. Cause I dont know how any one else could be so bold as to think they could Rock this hard. This was the caption to the picture
"Now this is something different: a Nissan Skyline DR30 with a huge american influence. Maybe better to referred as the Skyline Trans Am "
Skyline Trans-am.....  wow.

*PROGRESS REPORT*

Things are really starting to come together now that the whole team is jumping in on the work. Last weekend Buck , Ben and John did some much needed weight shaving on the doors, removed the glass a lot of other stuff I am sure ( I wasn't there, so i going on second hand information) I think even more importantly is we got Johns brain gears turning on how to take this project to the next level, From what Buck tells me John is diligently digging threw Chump rules and 280zx forums to squeeze out any secrets that will give us a edge on the competition!
         On Monday night Buck And I got a chance to sort out how we are going to work the rear suspension, we have decided to go full coil over since we have about 190 $$ worth of wiggle room in our budget ( in case you didn't know I have established the AIV of the car at around 208$$) and coil overs are only about 35$ on ebay these days. So next we are going to be focusing on the tie rod end situation...

UPDATE NEW TRACK CONFIGURATION IN SPOKANE

So, I dont know if anyone has been as glued to this issue as I have been. The Spokane race way is changing  the track layout. Why? because with the old layout the pits where inside/ or in the infield of the track meaning that the entire racing fireld would have to be stoped at least every 3 hours to let people in and out. Now the new layout has the pits outside the track so this means that there will be no saftey stops to let people in and out. This means that this upcoming chump race will be THE FIRST TRUE 24 HOUR RACE that spokane has every seen!!! Also the suplemtry rules for the spokane race are now available at the chumpcar site if anyone is interested (gives some rules specific to spokane raceway)
FYI,  We will be running the long course

PAYMENT FOR ALL DRIVERS DUE ON APRIL 22nd

All right guys every one needs to put there big boy pants on and pony up the cash if they want to drive.
Also you will need to got to our team managment page at the chumpcar web site and Fill out the drivers form. PLEASE DO THIS ASAP. And forpayments please submitt all the payments to me at my PayPal address cruelaswinter@gmail.com, Because i have already payed most of the fee's and it will be easier to keep track of who has paid what this way. Please include a note as t what you are paying for if you are not paying the entire 300.00 all at once. thank you.

FIRST BATCH OF STICKERS

So incase you dont know I made a executive decision and change the name of the team. Its now RAG&BONE MOTORWERKS, this to go along with Buck and I finaly deciding on a name for our shop. So if you would like to show you support or some team pride let me know and i will get you some stickers, first ones free. like crack

HOOD ORNAMENT

So I dont know if you have ever heard of Jeremy fish but he is a amazing artist and I saw one of his pieces made into a big vinyl wall sticker. I think it would look pretty Rad as the back ground graphic for our hood, I made a very crude rendering of what it might look like.  Let me know what you think

LAST YEARS RESULTS

How many laps will we do in 24 hours?
What kind of speed are we talking about?
Whats a good lap time at spokane?

If you have been pondering any of these question I am sure this information will be of interest to you. This is the race results from spokane for last year. As you can see to be competitive we will need to keep the car together for 550+ laps! I dont know about you but that sounds like a good time to me.

UPDATE

Wow , Thats what your thinking, a update! Yes, A real update because some REAL work has been accomplished! This post is for anyone who didnt make it to the build day last weekend, We got alot of work done guys! Just a re-cap, we got one of the extra Zs over to bucks house to harvest it organs

• Engine (heart)
• ECU (brain)
• 5 speed tranny (Spine?)
• Wheels (Hands and Feet)
• Wire harness ( nervous system!)
• Rear diff and half shafts ( Pelvis?)
• Brakes ( No idea)
• Rear suspension (Knees)
• Hood and fender (Skin)
• Gas tank (stomach)

As Buck said, "Were like indians with a Buffalo, nothing goes to waste",  no truer words have ever been spoken. INFACT we took it one step further than any Indians , we took that Buffalo carcass and used it as a coffin to stuff the remains of even deader more picked over Buffalo's in, then we sold it to the White man !( we stuffed the gutted out chassi of the Z with scrap metal and called a scrapper to come haul it off) .
Some of the stuff we pulled off the Z will be used to mish mash the best combo of parts onto the race car. Some of it is for spares when stuff brakes  and the rest is to hopefully sell to recoup some money. We also got about 70% of the gutting done on the race car, we still need to pull the glass,gas tank and get to work with stage 3 weight shaving (relentless use of hole saw!).

PAYMENTS

Hey guys, so do you want to make a payment for your entry fees for the race? But you really dont want to go to the chumpcar site and figure out how to do it? Totaly understand! You can just pay pal me the payment to cruelaswinter@gmail.com ( along with a note please ie: licence fee of drivers fee ect..) this way I can keep track of what still needs to be taken care of. Also, Did you know building a race car cost money? If at any point you would like to help with build cost that would be much appreiciated also.

SMOKEY AND THE DATSUN

I belive this car is the long lost japanese cousine of the infamouse Bandit Trans Am,
black gold trim, check
t- tops, check
snow flake wheels,check
Badass behind the wheel? check x5

Anyways this is the new addition to the stable, we are guna be turning some wrench on it starting on the 23rd if anyone one wants to come lend a hand.

RACE TEAM?

Talks are in the works with a certain Midwest based racing team to form a partnership. BS-Racing (Brian Steffen)  is Preping a car for the 2011 season also. It may be fun to do up the cars in the same paint scheme and represent a consolidated effort! Plus we get a discount if 2 or more members race in multiple races. This might mean changing the team name to reflect the new partnership. More on this as it develops

oh and on a un related note Japan is now making Gundams,  I guess its not totally unrelated, cause when japan takes over the world we will all be in Nissans,Toyotas and Hondas!

SO IT BEGINS

I know the Blog has been a little slow but think of it as the calm before the storm. There is one big update We have recently accuired a 3rd 280zx, this one is a Turbo so we will be harvesting some real treasures for the build! Plus it has alot of parts that can be sold to fund the build. The previous owner of the car said all this engine needs is a new distributor and it should roll, well we will see but either way we can use it. Pictures will be posted this weekend.

This is just something funny I came across while thumbing through the official Chump blog

Its from John the head organizer of chump car, this is his response after a million complaints from people saying 240sx's and Miatas should not be considered 500$ cars

UPDATE

Sorry for no updates but there has not been anything major to report. Other than a very large stack of parts in the garage and a wife that thinks I need to go to a 12 step program for people obsessed with cars. The reason we are still on hold to start the build is because the Jive5 (The corolla) is still in bucks drive way and we cant start a new project till we finish that one! But the wheels are finally in motion to get that wrapped up, Naz is welding up the intake, the ecu is getting chipped and the exhaust flange is in the mail. I will just need a few days to assemble every thing and it should be road worthy... once every thing arrives. Plus its cold and it gets dark early so Iam kinda getting lazy.
      Also check with me before you buy a helmet, i might have one for you, I have been buying them on ebay every time i see one for under 100 cause I figured not everyone has as  much time to hunt down deals as I do. And I have also put down the deposit for the race so our spot in Spokane is secured, which is good cause its one of the only 24 hour races on the west coast and is expected to sell out.

RACE UPDATE

So the latest news is that as of a few days ago the Chumpcar guys got so many complaints about the too 7 hour enduros they changed it to a proper 24 hour race! Also the official title of the race is "The Long and Winding Road...", not the most epic title but who cares. I am currently puting together a turn by turn track map, yeah I know its over kill but since i cant get to work on the car yet its all I can do! well that and buy parts but Iam running out of parts to buy.

Chump Car Spokane County Raceway 2010 Practice

Here is some spy footage, watch,study it and watch it again cause this is guna be the only practice we get till the day of the race. If you know what corner is coming up next you will be able to drive faster with more confidence.