I started the build over 5 years ago. I had swapped the V-8 in there but it became too nose heavy. The car drove for a year untill the diff blew out. It sat in my garage for several months before making sketches of how I wanted the Z to be. I addressed all of the weak points and kept the attributes that I liked. This shot of the front end for example shows the factory style headlamps and grill opening. Large driving lamps, splitter, and radiator support were added.
The body kit added over two inches per side and allowed the use of larger wheels and tires. I chose CCW wheels and had them custom made for my application. The front rims 11.5 with 305/30/18 Kuhmo V700 and the rears are 12.5 with 335/30/18's. The exhuast was built using 2.5 inch mandrel bent stainless steel tubing. It was cut, positioned, and Magnaflow cans were added before being tig welded. The fuel system uses a 22 gal. Fuel Safe bladder cell with roll over valves and one way vent system. A Sparco flush mount filler door was added above the tank.
The front end was a hard part of the build. The entire firewall and most of the trans tunnel was removed to set the engine back as far as possible. Using 1.625/ 0.83 wall chromoly tubing I built new strut perches and everything was reinforced, and triangulated for strength. The motor itself is a load bearing structure of the chassis as it is hard mounted the the frame via a motor plate. A power rack & pinion was used to assist with the big tires at lower speeds. It uses a remoted pump and has a ratio of 2.0 lock to lock. I went with an electric water pump, 100 amp PowerMaster alt. and a serpentine pulley conversion. The radiator sits far forward so stainless tubing was used.
A custom dash had to be made to fit around the roll cage. I used 0.63 6061 aluminun to keep it light but strong. It was formed, smoothed, seam welded and then radiused. I had it powdercoated a crinckle finish black to give it some detail. All of the cars main funtions are controlled using toggle switches and a push button starter was added. I used AutoMeter silver Pro-Comp guages for all of the monitoring. I even have a funtional defroster made out of an aluminum oil cooler and a couple of high output computer fans. The complete assembly with wiring is only 11 lbs!
To keep the car sleek the drip rails were removed and all of the glass will be flush mounted Lexan. The windshield will remain glass so I can drive it on the street. I'm making Ferrari sytle sliding glass for the doors since the inner panels were removed for cage room.
The car is slow low you actually have to pour youself into the seat. It is a tight fit so I have a removable steering hub to make it easier. All said and done the Z is everything I wanted in a car. Old school style, extremely light, great power, super braking, tight handling, traction to spare, and perfect 50/50 weight distribution. Well that's it for now anyone intersted can go to Youtube under GT240 to see footage from this day. Thanks alot!
