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Old 05-18-2018, 09:51 PM   #141
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Great pics, Pat! Your car is the essence of cool!

Track vid was fun... post more (car sounds awesome, btw).
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Old 06-19-2018, 11:55 AM   #142
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Re: Towing. Isn't a Lexus RX rated around 3500 pounds maximum for towing?

A Camaro and a small car trailer would be at least 5000-5500 pounds, no?
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Old 06-19-2018, 03:35 PM   #143
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Re: Towing. Isn't a Lexus RX rated around 3500 pounds maximum for towing?

A Camaro and a small car trailer would be at least 5000-5500 pounds, no?
The DVLA V5 registration document for my model (equivalent of your official Title document in the US) states 2000kg max permissible for a braked trailer.

My Z28 is around 1600kg currently, so leaves about 400kg for a trailer which might be tight.. Although I know PRG make a 500kg trailer with a 1500kg load capacity so it won't be far off.

Need to get that Lithium battery and a few more Carbon panels fitted ASAP!
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Old 06-19-2018, 05:28 PM   #144
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Interesting!

That is more than rated for in the states. My wife had a 2008 400h. It was 2000 pounds standard towing max and 3500 pounds max with factory towing package.
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Old 07-04-2018, 08:26 AM   #145
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Had an absolutely brilliant day in the Z yesterday.

Whilst we all know straight line racing isn't the Z28's strong point or what it was built to do I fancied having a bash at this event as it was quite local to me, it often attracts extremely nice machinery and some quite extreme cars, and I'd never driven at these sorts of speeds before. Also present were McLaren 650S, 720S, MP412C, Lambo Aventador, lots of Nissan GTRs (winner & 3rd place) and a 2600bhp Toyota Supra (2nd place) and a host of tuned German cars. I was the only 'Americana'.

The event takes place at a current active military base, previously known as RAF Cottesmore when it was an Royal Airforce base, now Kendrew Barracks as the Army has taken it on. The runway is 2744 metres long (1.7 miles) and the brake marker was put out with 650 metres braking distance giving just over 1 mile flat out from a standing start.



I'd been checking the weather for the past week before, and whilst the UK in in the middle of a heatwave/dry spell with wall-to-wall sunshine and temperatures up to 30*C (90+F) at the moment, there has also been a pretty consistent Easterly wind coming in. Annoyingly this ended up directly as a headwind down the runway, it was about 15-20mph all day and it never let up.

The event was very well organised with a group "sighting lap", then a single run for everyone to get their eye in, and then doubling up to side-by-side running for the rest of the day. This meant everyone got plenty of runway time, and I probably ran about 10-11 passes in all including a couple of pairs immediately back-to-back.

The good thing about the naturally aspirated LS7 in the Z is the power is always there and not really affected by heat soak, so I could go and run again and again with no concerns. A lot of the highly turbocharged cars were making a lot more power but had to keep stopping for 30 mins or so to get their intake charge temperatures back under control!



In terms of speed - this is where it gets really interesting....

I had always planned to start with the full downforce configuration and work through gradually removing bits to see what the effect was. So first run of the day was completed with wickerbill in the highest position, Carbon splitter, and my ZL1 1LE front diveplanes.



The result was 154 mph.
And a broken splitter.

So it turns out that at 150mph + 20mph windspeed, giving a total airspeed of 170mph over the front of the car, that my new front downforce package produced so much downforce that it completely closed up the gap to the concrete runway under the splitter and completely ground away the splitter lower surface through friction meaning by the time I got back to the paddock area after Run#1 it was looking pretty sorry for itself.

What is very interesting about this is that I ran the exact same setup at Rockingham back in May, and looking back at the phots from that day, even hard on the brakes from around 100mph with a bit of 'dive' on the front suspension, the splitter is still quite a way off the tarmac - here's a picture from Rockingham that shows what I mean:


So despite now needing to buy a new splitter I was actually quite pleased about this as it shows the new package is producing significant front downforce but not so much drag as the car can't still easily reach 150-160mph, so must be working quite efficiently.

As there are very few (if any) tracks where I'll actually exceed 150mph I'm planning to just replace the splitter as it was, but I will slightly improve the way I had it mounted and try to add a sacrificial rubbing strip of marine ply or similar material on the underside that can be replaced after events that protects the splitter itself from damage. Another possible option would be stiffer front springs.

So back to the event report - for run#2 I removed the diveplanes, removed the wickerbill, taped up the whole headlight and upper grill area and straight away we were upto 160mph.

Then for run#3 onwards I removed what was left of the splitter entirely and taped up the boot [trunk!] leading edges, removed the passenger windscreen wiper (extends beyond the bonnet [hood!] cowl)

I tried taping up the carbon vents on the bonnet, but the tape came straight off, showing that significant airflow does exit the engine bay through those vents.

Run#3 was upto about 163mph, and then at that point there was no more I could do with what I had around me to make the car itself any faster, so Runs#4 - #11 were all just trying to optimise the launch and gearchanges as best as possible, but all of these runs were between 163 and 164.5mph and within about 1.2 seconds over the 1.6mile run showing how consistently the engine performs (and how the headwind never let up!)



So all in all a great day, getting a feel for the car at 130+mph in a safe environment, getting some new learning on the aero balance which will help with my trackday setup. And making noise like this:


(turn speakers UP)
This is really cool and Ive got the same plans to try something like this as well with mine.... bucket list stuff.

One thing I noticed on your video is the big drop in RPM when you shifted to 5th gear, I would think that if you tighten up 5/6th gear ratio with a overdrive gear swap that would have to gain you a few MPH in this area with the engine kept more in the peek RPM range. This is only my thoughts only but if you do plan to do more of this thats what Id look into doing next, for some reason GM went with gas milage overdrive ratio's with the Z/28 unlike the 12-15 ZL1's manuals with a lot closer ratio in 5/6th gear. Again just me thinking but do a little research on this if you plan to do this kind of thing more.

Love what you have done with your car!

Are your front fender custom made vents? maybe I missed it somewhere
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Old 07-08-2018, 08:12 AM   #146
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pat_t

Thanks for the front wing info, noticed those on your car a wile ago and wondered who's they were or custom. Did you actual weigh the difference stock vs fiberglass? Also how was those to install, did they fit like the OEM or was there some tweeking like most aftermarket panels?

I'm with you on the fact that straight line stuff does get boring and it could never replace open track day type driving experience (at least for me) but with how popular these 1 mile events have become it is something I want to try a couple times. Fact is for me I like seat time and the open track days events that you get 20-30 min. session's is where you can really connect with your car and get into the groove, find your limitations and work on improving those...almost like becoming one but these are the things that as you know you don't experience with any straight line stuff.....hard to explain but you know what I'm saying.

Coming from a ZL1 that was the very first thing I noticed was the big change in the overdrive ratios and thought now why did they do that with such a performance car and I know most tracks (like you said) you never see 5th gear, cafe standards, bean counters, or EPA standards who knows but if they put a more closly matched overdrive gear ratio in the ZL1 why not the Z/28?? Take a look at the Nurburgring video when the Z/28 came out and clearly you can see at the high speed part of the track when shifted to 5th gear that RPM did not fall out of the peek power range like it would have with the production gear 5th gear. Just my obsevation but from that alone tells me that car had the .80/.63 5th/6th gear ratio from the ZL1 and not the .74/.50 that made its way into the production Z/28....does this mean they didn't sell us what they tested or advertised to us....who knows but the good part is I got you to stop and think a little!
I could go on about this topic but all I'm going to say is .50 6th gear is useless to me, even cruising highway speed just makes the car feel like you want to shift back to 5th to smooth out the engine some... small talk yeah I know

Keep posting pictures of your car and what you are doing with it, love what your doing over there with it and I don't thing Im the only one that agree's

have a great day
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Old 07-09-2018, 04:54 PM   #147
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Awe man, wanted to see more than just a glimpse of your car. If mine were white, you'd have a twin back in the states. Your car has the looks !
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Old 08-03-2018, 11:39 AM   #148
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Rigid collars fitted.

Quick update, got the Spoon Sports rigid collars fitted on Wednesday evening. Picture #2 shows how much slop there is in the standard bolt holes. Pic #3 shows how the tapered shims centralise the bolts perfectly aligning the front subframe with the chassis.

There are 8 shims in the kit. It's just about do-able on axle stands (if you don't mind wriggling about on your back), only took me around 2 hours. Probably doable in less at a proper shop with a 4 post lift.

Next hoping to get some camber plates on followed by an Alignment before I can feedback with driving impressions.
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Old 08-03-2018, 01:10 PM   #149
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Ooo. Awaiting your feedback on how it feels now that you've replaced them.
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Old 08-03-2018, 08:47 PM   #150
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I tried that on my own, really needed a lift. Did a shop do those for you?

-Don
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Old 08-04-2018, 02:46 AM   #151
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I tried that on my own, really needed a lift. Did a shop do those for you?

-Don
No I did it myself, just loosen off all the subframe mount bolts, put some extra jack stands under the subframe and just drop it like half to 1 inch or so, that's all you need to get the shims in.

Go round one bolt at a time fully removing the bolt, slipping the shim in the gap and refitting the bolt loosely.

Then once all the shims are in, retorque all the bolts to factory specs which will lift the subframe back into position, centralising on the tapered shim as it does!
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Old 08-06-2018, 02:17 PM   #152
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took a cool video last night!



Will try to do more of these, would like to get a friend to film it on a flyby!
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Old 08-06-2018, 02:37 PM   #153
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No I did it myself, just loosen off all the subframe mount bolts, put some extra jack stands under the subframe and just drop it like half to 1 inch or so, that's all you need to get the shims in.

Go round one bolt at a time fully removing the bolt, slipping the shim in the gap and refitting the bolt loosely.

Then once all the shims are in, retorque all the bolts to factory specs which will lift the subframe back into position, centralising on the tapered shim as it does!
Hum, I lifted the body so maybe that was the issue... thanks Pat!

-Don
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Old 08-25-2018, 06:57 AM   #154
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Hey man, looks like I'm moving to the UK. Did you wire your rear fog yourself? I'd assume you used a reverse light socket? Apologies if you showed it somewhere in this thread!

What about the side turn signals?

I've lived there before, but I'd like to do most of the light conversion myself
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