Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Video of my old 350Z

A friend found a video I made a few years ago showing the difference of atmospheric wastegate dumps on my twin turbo 350Z to the stock Greddy wastegate setup. The open wastegates sound so much more violent...I love it.

He emailed me the video, so I figured I would post it up on YouTube to share with all.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Looking to pick up an NSX.

I have been browsing and researching the NSX for a couple of months now. This week I decided that I am going to buy one in the next couple of weeks if I can. I am keeping the RX-7's, but need something a bit more docile yet still fun to drive everyday and it seems the NSX fits the bill perfectly. They are rare, quick, extremely fun to drive, and reliable with good gas mileage. What else could you want out of a daily driver (other than more room)?

I am looking for a 91-94 with under 100k miles (preferably under 75k miles, but under 100k will do). I have looked at a few in the past couple of weeks...all red though. The one I looked at yesterday is the one that I like the most at the moment because it actually has black interior, only 64k miles, and a well known service history. At the end of the day, this will definitely do and I am seriously contemplating buying it. However, I feel like I should hold out for a silver car.

I absolutely love the way the NSX looks in red with a black roof and black wheels (like the one pictured below), but I never saw myself buying a red car.



I have owned a silver FD RX-7, silver 350Z, and have a silver FB RX-7...so maybe silver is getting too played out. I also have a black FD RX-7 and since the RX-7 and NSX look pretty similar, I'm not sure if a black NSX would be the best choice even though they do look sick. Of the NSX's the colors I would choose (in order) would be silver, black, then red and green tied. But since only 29 green/black cars were made in '94 only, my chances of finding one are slim to none.

Maybe red is my best option...I guess we will see.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Drycell Battery...Out with the old and in with the new.

After killing my Odyssey PC680 and realizing that it might not be the best battery for my car, I decided to pick up a new Odyssey PC925 and get a little extra storage room without sacrificing too much weight (like I would have if I had gone with a Optima Red Top).


It weighs 24 lbs vs. the old battery's weight of 14 lbs. The only problem is that with the HKS v-mount intercooler setup, there isn't enough room in the engine bay for the battery anymore and I had to relocate it. I decided on putting it behind the passenger's seat where the rear bins used to be, running a cable from the fuse boxes back to the bin area with a 150 amp circuit breaker mounted just before the battery for extra protection.

To make sure that everything was electrically kosher, I used 1/0 welding cable. Welding cable is much more flexible, abrasion resistant, and conductive that similarly size power wire for speaker amplifiers. It also costs a bit less too; at $1.92/ft, I got 15 feet for $30 after tax at a local welding supply shop. I do have to say that 1/0 wire isn't light though, weighing in at 0.415 lb/ft adds about 6 lbs in wiring. So now we are up at 16lbs additional weight to the car. Then you have to add weight of the battery tray I whipped up, which I would guestimate to be about a pound and we have a total added weight of around 17 pounds. The weight distribution should be a bit better though with the new location.

Here a few pictures of the completed setup...I know the welds aren't pretty on the battery tray, but I haven't welded 22ga steel before and I suck anyway.