Yeah, I race a 280 in ITS. I originally wanted to do a 240, but the cost of a good (read: no fatal rust) tub has gotten out of control, even in the southwest. I got my car from a cone chaser in AZ, the proper suspension mods had been done and it had a fuel cell and race seat, for $1550, so the economics were there. I added a cage and a few other things and I was on track. I assume that's about where you're at.
If you are new to this, I'd hunt down a 280 motor and install it. As a beginner, what you need most is seat time, and a street 280 motor is cheap. Put it in there, get your annual, and get on track. A year or two from now you can decide if you want to build that L24 and find a 240 shell.
As for the five speed, I guess it depends on your track, at all the tracks around here (except Pueblo, CO) a five speed is just a waste of weight with a 4.11:1 rear end. The straights aren't long enough to reach redline in 4th. If you have a 3.90 or 3.54, I'd definitely forget about the five speed. With a 4.38:1 it may be worth while.
For practice and warm-ups, I use 205/50/15 Falken Azenis (sp?) sports on 15x6 turbo ZX rims. Yeah, I know max wheel size is 14x7, but for warm-ups and so forth the Azenis are so cheap (>$75 ea, mounted & balanced at Discount Tire) and run times within 2 seconds of RA-1's or Victoracer's. No one has ever complained to me about practicing on illegal tires.
For qualifying and racing, I either use Toyo RA-1's or Kumho Victoracer's or Ecsta V700's on 14x7 wheels in 225/50/14. The Ecsta's seem to be the stickiest, but not by much. The RA-1's last the longest but are the most expensive of the three. I'm pretty sure you can't get the Victoracer's in 225/14 anymore, but check, I may be wrong. Spend the money to get the Ecsta's shaved and heat cycled, if you run them too hard on a dry track with full tread the first few times out they will chunk. I usually inflate to 36psig front/34psig rear. My goal is to come in at 40psig front/38 psig rear hot, so I need to adjust that for different ambient and track temperatures.
For pads I use Hawk Blue from StrictlyZ. They had the best price I found last time I ordered, and they seem to be pretty good guys, so I probably stay with them next time. The blue pads are a little hard on rotors, but you can machine rotors once, or maybe twice, and then you will probably need pads anyway. I just use Taiwan rotors from Checker Auto Parts, I tried the ones from Nissan once and couldn't tell any difference, except in cost. The pads are a little spendy, but Metal Masters, etc., will wear out a lot quicker and fade more when they’re really hot.
BTW, you need to run ducts from your air dam back to your front brakes. S30 Z brakes are marginal at best, and really benefit from all the cooling they can get. Remove the backing plates from behind your rotors. Run the best brake fluid you can and bleed often. I like the Ford DOT4 heavy duty (high boiling point and cheap and easy to find), but if you wallet allows use Motul 600 or Castrol SRF.
For shoes I use the NISMO ‘green stuff’ pads made by Ferodo. Again, I got mine last time from StrictlyZ, but I think Courtesy Nissan carries them as well. They cost about as much as the front pads, but work well and are kind to your expensive-to-replace aluminum drums. John Coffey (Beta Motorsports) told me that there are only two things to remember about brakes on an ITS Z car: Adjust and bleed. Repeat each session. That may be slight overkill, but I do it anyway. Drill two ¾” diameter holes in the face of your drums ~180 degrees apart for cooling and to make it easy to reach the star wheel. Adjust your shoes to a slight drag. If you invest in a cordless impact wrench the job goes much quicker. Just don’t get one that will over tighten you lug nuts. I use a Makita 12V, I think it will only do about 70 lb-ft with a full charge, then I finish up with a regular torque wrench. I don’t want to strip a lug or warp a rotor between sessions.
OK, enough for today. My wife says that when you get an engineer talking about some technical subject you can’t shut them off. She may be right.
Fire me an email if you want to hear any more, I’ll be glad to share what I know. I get mail at x-ring {at-sign} zcar {dot} com
Ty
Edited for spelling
[This message has been edited by x-ring (edited October 20, 2003).]
