My 1973 240z - mods (Pics! :D)

[Meph]

Here's my end result of about a weeks work, on and off. The goal was to reduce the Cd of the Z without taking away from the classic lines.

Ill start with a picture of the car before modification for comparason



Pay close attention to the front airdam as thats where most of modification has taken place.

Here's a shot of the front end after modification



I know the lighting wasnt very good, but overall I feel ive stay true to the styling and not degraded the overall look and feel.

Now heres the same shot highlighting the areas of interest




Blue- Air flow in, there is a 6" x 6" passage for air to the rad

From the bottom up
-Disk vents, blocked
-Lower Grill block from the airdam to the bumper
-Partial upper grill block (will be more visable in other pics)

From here we move into the engine bay



First off, u see the top of the rad has been sealed to prevent airflow around, on both the sides and top.

The upper grill blocks can be seen

Below the upper grill block the airflow to the rad has been "sealed" air is directed to the radiator and blocked from entering the engine bay any other way. This will pool up air at speed creating a pocket and sending more air around the contour of the car. Black fiber board can be seen running from the bumper down to the bottom of the rad in this picture here



Finally, a partial "Belly pan" had been fitted to the air dam, it runs from the front of the dam to appx the rad support






Thanks guys,

I hope this was entertaining for a minute or two of your time. Similar modifications have been shown to lower Cd from .47 to .39, a step in the right direction whether it be for MPG or MPH. If anyones interested the cars powered by a Toyota 1jz and holset turbo

Comments welcome!

[ChazInMT]

Awesome job. Are the headlight covers still available? I bet that would do some serious good smoothing flow.

Thanks for sharing, thats a lot of work you put into documenting what you did.

[jime57]

Pretty car and a nice job of modding. Keep a careful eye on water temperature on hot days. You may have to temporarily remove parts of the grill block.

I agree with Chaz on the headlight covers, if they can be found.

Underbelly work would also help and not change the look of the car. With the spoiler, I'm not sure how much front underbelly would help, but there are probably improvements to be made at the rear.

[SVOboy]

That is a beautiful vehicle

Great colour too.

Always nice to see a sweet car like that undergoing the ecomodding knife.

[aerohead]

In 1974,CAR and DRIVER published a piece,"Crisis-Fighter Z-Car" in which they did some partial streamlining.
They did comparisons with three different front airdams,three different rear spoilers,and I believe they also tested the G-Nose which was offered which included the plex headlight covers.
If you can't find it online I'll dig it out.I may have posted the results in the mod-data sticky,don't remember.

[cfg83]

Meph -

Great job and gorgeous Z! I like seeing the engine bay details. It looks like you got "lucky" because the radiator already had spare mounting bolts to re-purpose, yes?

CarloSW2

[Meph]

hey guys thanks

The engines a 1jz, the rad is from a ford explorer, so all the mounting is done with bolts, drilled thourgh the original rad support. The ones on the top holding the MDF in place, I originally drilled to hold the intercooler, so i improvised.

I have seen the pinto crisis fighter but not the z, ill take a look for it tonight

thanks guy