Trade 260z For? - Good MPG Edition

spitfirebill wrote:

tuna55 wrote:

ProDarwin wrote: The old Z car has one of the worst drag coefficients ever. Chasing high MPG in it will be difficult.

THIS! Hilariously bad, something like .45. What's sad is that the contemporary Corvette (early 70's) was right at .50. Terrible! I can't imagine you're going to get far with a Cd like that.

I believe what you say, but that does not make sense to me, just looking at both of these cars.

Not really... neither car has any sort of underbody aero.. nor do they have any way to keep air from getting under the car in the first place. They both have recessed side windows, rain gutters, mirrors that are just flat chrome plates, and large wheel wells with recessed wheels. Ontop of that, the Long nose/fastback design is not very slippery without some help

+1 for modding the Z for better mileage. EFI, 5-speed, and the aero mods bradyzq mentioned in that order.

Another idea for aero mods: Get some thick plastic sheeting and see what you can do with the wheel wells (keep air from getting in from in front) and add those little flaps in front of the wheels that modern cars have.

mad_machine wrote:

spitfirebill wrote:

tuna55 wrote:

ProDarwin wrote: The old Z car has one of the worst drag coefficients ever. Chasing high MPG in it will be difficult.

THIS! Hilariously bad, something like .45. What's sad is that the contemporary Corvette (early 70's) was right at .50. Terrible! I can't imagine you're going to get far with a Cd like that.

I believe what you say, but that does not make sense to me, just looking at both of these cars.

Not really... neither car has any sort of underbody aero.. nor do they have any way to keep air from getting under the car in the first place. They both have recessed side windows, rain gutters, mirrors that are just flat chrome plates, and large wheel wells with recessed wheels. Ontop of that, the Long nose/fastback design is not very slippery without some help

HydribZ.org also had trouble with that number - so much so that they brought a real Z car to a real wind tunnel. People pitched in. They brought the G nose, various chin spoilers and various wings, and they failed to get the drag (don't remember the exact numbers) below .40. Terrible, still. I think in the end the prevailing theory was that the roof/hatch angle was in the bad zone, and caused a great deal more drag than a Kammtail which it tried to emulate.

A 5-speed swap will get you the biggest gain, along with better rear end ratios. Next i would do the EFI swap. That's gonna about do it for mpg improvement. All the aero stuff isn't going to change it much. We picked up about 5 highway mpg with the 5 speed swap alone with our old 240.

On the swap front, I would do the early MR2. Easily in the mid '30's if you drive it easy. I never approached the MR2 mpg with any of my Miatas. The best I ever saw with them was about 30, but mostly average around 28.

alfadriver wrote: $500 on a MS system, using 280 intakes that have the hardware- that will be tough to pay off. A very important question- are you REALLY willing to part with this car? That may be the real tough part of the question. It's a very cool car.

The more I think about it the more I want to keep the car. I just know if I trade it away for something like a miata I'll be kicking myself in the future, especially since the 260z was only made for one year.

I think I'm going to go ahead and within the next month or so mega squirt the car. I've been wanting to learn the ins and outs of mega squirt for a while, plus it will make turbocharging the Datsun that much easier

Glad we could help...

...Talk you into spending money instead of saving it..

1984rampage wrote:

alfadriver wrote: $500 on a MS system, using 280 intakes that have the hardware- that will be tough to pay off. A very important question- are you REALLY willing to part with this car? That may be the real tough part of the question. It's a very cool car.

The more I think about it the more I want to keep the car. I just know if I trade it away for something like a miata I'll be kicking myself in the future, especially since the 260z was only made for one year. I think I'm going to go ahead and within the next month or so mega squirt the car. I've been wanting to learn the ins and outs of mega squirt for a while, plus it will make turbocharging the Datsun that much easier

i've sold good used examples for $150.

Finally pulled the trigger and started ordering some things I'll be needing for my megasquirt build!! (:

I can already tell this car is just going to turn into another money pit lol

Money pit FTW!

Make sure your Megasquirt can control timing too, not just fuel. Lots of savings/extra torque to be had with optimized spark advance.

Sooo - the "let's see how to save money on my commute" thread turned into the "let's spend a boatolad making this car more fun" thread.

I have the same problem... Decided to put a TDI in my GTI to save money - then ended up doing turbo, nozzles, IC... Can't complain about the 60mpg average over the last 12,000 miles though. I'm spending as much upgrading the car as i'm saving in fuel cost.