Hello I am new to the site!

[chelle]

Hiya.. i'm new to the site - here's a engine pic with hood off. Under all the mods is about 30% of a 1977 280z
Chelle

[300ZXttZMAN]

Welcome to Nico club! My name is Mark!


I made you your own thread! So that everyone can see your new here!


Post more pics of your car it looks good so far (if that actually is your car). .

[chelle]

oops.. thanks for the thread

here's what i wrote:

Thanks

here's more info /pics
It started out as a 77 280z, then it was made into a "Alpha 1" 250 GTO replica by Ferrari dealer Joe Alphabet. It was sold to a man in Arizona to be his son's high school car. I got it from an ebay auction about 10 years after it had been converted and it was showing it's age.. drove it about 3 years as it was, then decided to go all out and make it better.
At that point it was a left hand drive hatchback and had a nissan 6 cylinder and 90" wheelbase.
I cut off everything forward of the firewall, including part of the firewall and floor, lengthened the wheelbase 4.5" to make it correct wheelbase. I extensively reworked the entire front body to make it more accurate, including lengthening it, recutting the hood opening, relocating and reshaping many of the lights and vents. Removed the hatchback and fashioned a trunk, switched it to right hand drive and installed a V12 and 6-speed from a BMW 850. The BMW computers were tossed in favor of an Electromotive Tech3r. The engine was converted to dry sump to allow it to sit lower in the chassis.. rear diff is from an Infinity, added a 22 gallon fuel cell.
I pulled it in the garage in Feb and it was painted with engine in and everything in by july but it took another year to make it work and be drivable (i worked like 50 hours a week so only had nights and weekends for the car). All in all it was a pretty straightforward build.
of course like anything it's never done.. this winter I plan to redo brakes, suspension, and fabricate new doors so the door openings can be made more correct. The doors really need to be about 6" shorter in length. It's still never going to be a perfect copy, my goal was to make it more like a street rod version of a 250 GTO.. reasonably close body, but modern drivertrain and suspension..
More current shot of the engine


Parked in the garage


Interior:


Rear:


Here's a profile image, original GTO and mine, with grid to more clearly show why I want to make the doors smaller on front, rear, and bottom, and reshape the door glass frame to make the back edge rounded at the top

Finally a shot showing what the nose looked like as an Alpha1 over the modified nose

And some videos here in the Ferris Bueller's day off garage (it's like 15 min from my house) me pulling it out, moving it for different camera shots we did that day

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nzsDiWLQqo[/youtube]

on road:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neZ3a8cHKRE[/youtube]

and here's the Today show segment that it was featured in:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRBgoIIhfJM[/youtube]

And he wasn't really pushing with his foot, I was off camera pulling it back as seen here:

[gmac708]

Welcome to NICO
Wow. That is one amazing looking car and you have done some pretty complex modifications. Great job. Bravo!

[chelle]

Thanks so much! I have been a member of Hybridz for long time.. still finding my way around here