#238 - UK based - project thread

[craZed]

Congratulations Patrick We'll be looking for those images of the Z on Eau Rouge

[pat_t]

My beast has finally started it's 4000 mile journey to the UK:



Thanks to Mike (didon1972) for making sure it was safely loaded for transit to the Miami docks

Once loaded on the boat (shared shipping container, 4 cars per container) it will be about 6 weeks on the water to Southampton.

Once there, and once all customs charges are paid, I can collect it but I will need to take it for light conversions and registration test to make it UK-legal which will take another 2-3 weeks. From there I can take it home and once I've then paid road tax and insurance I'll be able to start driving it!

Hope it's worth all the effort and sure it will be. Left-hand drive, track-tyres and 578rwhp during a UK winter is going to be an experience!! First track days should be around February 2017.

I've now sold the V8 Westfield, but not before a brilliant late-summer's trackday at Donington at the end of August.



Beforehand I managed to get it down to 662 kg (1459 lbs) wet weight which meant with 335 bhp it had just over the magic 500bhp/metric ton! It was unruly fast.

My Z/28 even with 650bhp will only be about 374bhp/metric ton, however it has significantly less drag than a Seven, real downforce, more gear ratios, and a huge amount more mechanical grip. I'm expecting it to be the fastest thing I've driven on track* by some margin.

*excluding single-seaters/sports prototypes


So now the Westfield is gone, while I wait, I'm having to make do with the RenaultSport Twingo mini-hot-hatch daily runabout which is no bad thing. We are having a lovely Autumn here with great colours in the trees so this morning I just had to go out for a quick blast it's not a quick car on the straights by any stretch of the imagination, but it has a great chassis and damping, really tenaciously hangs on to corners and has amusing lift-off oversteer at will. It's also nice to have a slower car you drive at 11-tenths on the road without feeling irresonsible/dangerous/at risk of losing your licence.


that's all for now
cheers,
Patrick

[pat_t]

So the car has cleared UK Customs this evening!! Just in time to make a mega Christmas / New Year present to myself!

I've updated the title of this thread to make this a project thread so I can keep the online documentation for this car all in one place. I'll try to keep the 1st post updated with latest spec and pictures as I go.

Planning to collect the car next week and then drop it with the company that is going to be doing the necessary work to make it EU legal, which mainly involves amber indicators and some other lighting changes.

Stay tuned, 2017 is going to be a wild ride...

[X77-69z28]

Congrats! Looks like they crushed your chin spoiler though!

[pat_t]

Originally Posted by X77-69z28

Congrats! Looks like they crushed your chin spoiler though!

I thought that when I saw those pics, but then the Shipper took a load more at Miami docks and in those it looked undamaged.. Since then it's shared a shipping container with 3 other cars, been across the Atlantic to Antwerp (Belgium) when the container will have been unloaded, then reloaded onto another boat and then across the English channel to Southampton, so it's anyone's guess what condition it is in now! However it's fully insured for any damage and was mint when handed over to the carrier so I'm not too concerned. I'll find out when I set eyes on it for the first time next week.

[The_Raging_Bull]

looking forward to seeing a UK Z/28. What would Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and Captain Slow say? Cheers Mate!

Give us some pics at Southampton!

[Zebedee]

Well done Pat,you're gonna love it.
What tyres are on yours?
Trofeos totally suck,but to appear hardcore,are totally necessary.
Happy Christmas.

[pat_t]

So I collected the car yesterday and drove it ~40 miles to the company who will be completing the UK legalisation.

On arriving at the distribution warehouse and signing a few bits of paperwork a chap then went off to fetch the car, so my first glimpse of it (or any Z/28 for that matter) in metal was as he pulled it out of the warehouse for us:


First impressions - wow what a noise with the 114 LSA Comp Cam the idle is really lopey, sounds absolutely fantastic.



The car survived the crossing with no ill effects, just a bit dusty now so needs a good clean inside and out. Peeled off all the stickers and chucked in some fuel then we were ready to set off.



The interior is nice enough, not up there with latest Euro cars in terms of quality but the alcantara trim gives a motorsport feel that I liked.
Ergonomics seemed great. Steering wheel and seats very adjustable to give a decent driving position. I'll be adding proper harnesses at some point.

As we set off the next apparent thing was is how stiff and well damped the car is. This is exactly the sort of ride I like, tied-down and responsive like a car modified on coilovers, but without the harsh 'crashy' and noisy ride that can sometimes bring.

It was 0°C (32°F) with icy/frosty/muddy roads yesterday so I left the TC in standard setting and even driving gently it was flickering away at me, so I haven't really had any chance to get a feel for the car's performance. Hopefully once the car is road legal (probably at least 4-6 weeks) it might be starting to get milder here and I can start thinking about getting onto some trackdays!


So this makes I think 3 Gen5 Z/28s in the UK now. Derek's (black), mine (white), and the one EVO magazine have been using (AGM). I think there was a red one used in the Chris Harris videos, but that was some sort of European Press Car I believe.

Originally Posted by Zebedee

Well done Pat,you're gonna love it.
What tyres are on yours?
Trofeos totally suck,but to appear hardcore,are totally necessary.
Happy Christmas.

Cheers Derek, it came on Nitto NT05s but I am planning on getting some Trofeos ASAP!




Merry Christmas to all, hope everyone on Camaro5.com is enjoying their holidays.

[Mark_Z28]

Your white Z28 is beautiful.. Love the twingo and the Evo 4!

Born in leicester. I'd like to eventually take my z28 on a cross-europe trip one day.

[pat_t]

Originally Posted by Mark_Z28

Your white Z28 is beautiful.. Love the twingo and the Evo 4!

Born in leicester. I'd like to eventually take my z28 on a cross-europe trip one day.

Thanks for the comments Mark. I'm only ~6 miles from Leicester!

------------------------

Happy New Year all. Starting 2017 it's about time for some audience participation in this thread! In the UK we have nowhere near as much free reign as you do in the 'States regarding private or personalised number plates. Only certain combinations of number-letter formats are allowed, certain letters are completely unavailable. Unfortunately this includes 'Z' for most of the traditional UK numberplate formats. The reason for putting a private plate on is that our current default plate system acts to age a vehicle, so starting today registrations will be xx17 xxx. With imported vehicles the default plate would go back to the date of 1st registration in the USA. So I would get a MY14 aged plate, immediately marking the car out as 3-years old.

Luckily we do have some 'dateless' plate formats and I have found out that Northern Ireland dateless plate formats often include Z followed by number combinations, and I should be able to have the car registered from new on a Northern Irish format plate if I sort out the correct paperwork.

So here are the best Z/28 plates I could find available. I thought to include the /slash as a 1 or 7 in a couple, but I'm not sure I like the look. Prices for these vary, but compared to trying to spell out common words or names are pretty reasonable.


My favourite at the moment is definitely UHZ 2800, the spacing I've displayed is technically illegal, but I'd be prepared to run with it and claim ignorance if pulled!

Let me know which you think I should go with.

cheers,
Pat

[frenchsquared]

UHZ 2800

Unless you can get away with the last two of your serial number

UH Z28 XX - Last two go here

[pat_t]

Finally the day has come (tomorrow) for me to collect the car for the final time and bring it home! The car has now had the lighting converted to UK legal, and has passed all the relevant tests (noise test by the skin of it's teeth apparently! ) and registered on the Uh-Oo plate.

Driving back will involve around a 150 mile drive (maybe a bit more if I take some backroads) so a chance to start getting to know the car properly.

I'll post some first impressions and a picture once it's safely home in my garage.

[MiniBig]

UH Z28 OO. Looks the best to me, the Z28 stands out. Congratulations

[pat_t]

Well, it wasn't a great first drive home.

Got the car back and is now safely tucked up in my garage, but the car is suffering from terrible clutch slip when you try to give it some throttle! :(

1st/2nd/reverse are also very difficult to select from stationary.

The car has only 1310 miles on it from new. I am hoping it is a simple case of the clutch needing to bed in or something being out of adjustment, but I am fearing the worst.

The car has 511 rwft-lb so a good chunk more than standard. I am going to fire an email off to Redline Motorsports who did the conversion to see if they have any ideas.

Not the fantastic 1st driving impression I was hoping for :(