Gio

Well, she's gone. :cry: . Bright side #1: she was picked up today by a fellow 300ZX member, Zairs, who you could see here if the camera was any better: and there she goes for her new life up in Cambridgeshire. Hope she gives Zairs (and his lady friends) as much fun as she gave me :p He'll be turning out at forum events so say hi to him and my old Zed. Bright side #2: LEO is trundling along nicely and an auto Z is just the thing for the A40/A406 commute. Cheers - Gio not2Zedsanymore

Which pic's that mate? Your rear end (pardon the familiarity :D ) does use some of those visual cues to reduce the "fatness" appearance. Because of how you've done the two-tone, there's a thin black panel and below the bumper, there's that other dark strip between the exhausts - so it isn't as imposing as if it was all red. If you were after making the rear end look lower and, to an extent, wider, then putting the accent stripe back and maybe another one where the bumper has been smoothed into the rear would do that. But that would work against the smoothed look you've already created. All design is a balance of ideas and engineering is the art of compromise. Thank god for photoshop so you can try things!

Hehe - no shame in that Darrell, you were up against a quick cut and paste job from an earlier email so I cheated, really :D

It's all about the standard design "trick" - or optical illusion. It's the same reason Trinny shouldn't wear vertical stripes and Susannah shouldn't wear horizontal ones. The unadorned rear end of the Zed is quite large and imposing. Stick horizontal stripes on it and that makes it look wider and lower. The standard rear end treatment has long thin lights and that black panel into which they are set and other visual cues like the spoiler and the horizontal infill in the bumper. Take those away by smoothing or replacing the long thin lights with round ones spaced further apart and that is one reason why the rear end then starts to look bigger - the vertical is more noticeable and the whole rear looks taller. Also, clear rears (like 99 spec) look better on lighter cars. Nothing to beat them on silver, white etc but - again using well-known visual perceptual effects - if you want the rear lights to blend into the car when not being lit, then if you've got a dark car, the pre-99 red/amber will be less obtrusive that the 99 red/white. Or smoke them if you want to make them really subtle.

Hallo mrsoup & welcome. Here are some links to buyers' guides and tech info. The current issue of Japanese Performance has a buyers guide in it with FunkySi's gorgeous white Zed. Or there's this one http://www.300zx.co.uk/tech/BuyingZ.htm and http://www.300zx.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=28072 . Plus a great site here with more http://www.300zx.org.uk/z32_info.htm and lastly the Australian forum has loads of tech stuff http://tech.aus300zx.com/buy.html Lots of people would rather convert to manual than fix the autobox. Me, I just sold my manual and bought an auto and it drives very nicely (fingers crossed that's not going to be famous last words :D ) Cheers - Gio

Anybody who shops in Asda only has themselves to blame. I could never see the point of Asda and now it's owned by a bunch of union bashing rednecks... Still, at least it keeps the riff-raff out of Waitrose.

Even back in the '60s, there was a "joke" Q - how do you confuse the DVLC? (as it was then) A - ring them up and ask them what day it is. (Little bit of political satire there :rofl: )

:D link courtesy of the ever-knowledgeable Mr.F :bow:

CarlZ - what a nice man :D Power to the people...

Miles to the tank depends on how brave you are after the little orange light comes on! Tank is 72 litres / 15.8 gals. I've never put more than 63l/13.8g. (There's a big risk of damage if you let the fuel system run dry so don't play chicken with your petrol light.) On my TT manual mpg varies from 16 to 25 with average 20 so best miles per fill-up was around 300. On my NA auto it's 20 to 28 av 24 and best per fill around 350.

Well, it's not bad for a Yank tank! :) And yes, you're right, the Jun Z32 kept its VG30DETT engine. OK, it's not a standard production car like the Ultimate Aero. But it was in some form of production class "E/BMS" (whatever that is) and the record in that class is still unbroken. I think it might be petrol 4 stroke / rear wheel drive / front engined or something like that. Any Bonneville anoraks out there who know?

As LeGrath says :D 419.84 km/h, 260.88 and over 1,000 ps. :bow: more details here http://www.junauto.co.jp/democar/jb-z32/index.html?en

Series 1, 2, 3 did Series 4, 5 didn't came back for Series 6 with white clocks. More info here http://www.300zx.org.uk/model_variations.htm

hehe :D oh and, DaveMac, there's nothing wrong with the Nissan VQ even if the French did nick it for their strange wagon. http://www.nissan-motorsports.com/EN/SPECIAL/RACING_VQ/index.html

Where's FunkySi when you need him? Best advice on BOVs is here http://www.twinturbo.net/ttnetfaq/FAQpages/bov.html And you said it yourself:

Car's looking top dollar, FunkySi - good work there, that man.

Oh dear, all the rest of your post was clear, cogent, based on the truth and well-argued. And then this slur. All I can say is (to quote one Alec Wright, onetime team manager of Team Green) "when the flag drops, the bullshit stops". Result? 300ZX wins, 350Z doesn't :cool: And one of the tyres was full of Finilec. Cheers - Gio TwoZeds

but it does have the "Power" setting http://www.300zx.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=12383&highlight=auto+hold

Yes that rear size is quite difficult and more expensive. That's why I went back to Jspec all round! And the right size is 245/45 not 234/45 Also, this may help http://www.300zx.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=86312&highlight=tyres

They should have got you to write the piece as well and then you could have been paid for it!

Hmmm - according to Enthusiast's Companion, 300ZX Turbo 2+2 Euro spec was tested by Car back then at 5.7s 0-60mph

Yes it's a good write up - text should be OK in the pdfs, though.

5 bloody newsagents yesterday with no luck so I had to go back to that hellhole on the North Circular that is Tesco's this am. Sorry about the quality of the jpgs as the *&%^ scanner will only do pdfs so the jpgs aren't native. After I have beaten up our IT manager later, I'll try again. Or you could even buy a copy! (support the press supporting us) Quite right too :D Thank you Ian, Classic Car Weekly http://www.classic-car-weekly.co.uk/ and, of course, Craig David. PS - just found out IT manager is skiving today so you're going to have to buy copies, you cheapskates ;)

http://www.300zx.org.uk/model_variations.htm

when you're chewing on life's gristle, don't worry, just whistle things will always turn out for the best