just some thought about Z

Originally Posted by 280z/300zx

Regardless of how much power the 240z has the answer is no. The only reason is that the 240z has the areodynamics of a brick. If I remeber correctly the drag co of the 240z is either .43 or .45. About the fastest you can get a 240z up to safely is 130-135. After that air starts buliding up under the hood and causes enough lift to cause the front wheels to loose traction. You'll hear a lot of people claim to go faster but one thing old Z owners tend to forget is how inaccurate speedos in old cars are to begin with, especially when the car is now 30+ years old. My 280z will beat my 300zx from 0-130mph but if you ask which car I would rather go 130mph in it would be my 84 300zx all the way. The 300zx has a much better drag co of .34 if I remember correctly. At about 110mph my 280z windshield wipers start to flap a little and you can see the hood doing the same. At about 130mph the windshield wipers have moved on their own up the winshield about half way and the hood is fluttering pretty decently now.

Now obviously in Wangan his car is lowered which helps but still, the answer is no. The fastes S30 Z (1970-1978) is by a guy named Tony D. over on another Z forum He has a decked out 260z built for the bonniville salt flat high speed runs. We are talking G-nose conversion, flat skinny wheels and tires, etc. The fastest the car went was 164mph and I beileve he is pusing over 600hp.

The 240z or S30 Z's in general have a very flat firewall which isn't conducive to filtering air out of the engine bay, the windshield sits too tall, the windshield wipers cause huge amounts of drag, the front end is way to open with no ducting for airflow, side mirrors are huge drag limiters, etc. The S30 is one of my favorite car desigsn but it's definetly not very areodynamic. If I remember correctly the old VW buses from the 60's actually have very similar drag co. to the 240z. Beileve or not, LOL

Disclaimer: my numbers might be slightly off as it has been a long time since I've been active on the older Z boards but they should be pretty close to accurate.