IMSA Bridgestone Supercar Rebuild

[Nismovs]

At the urging of Ace I will be documenting my rebuild/restoration of the Dal-Tech Racing #73 Nissan 300zx Turbo SM-Z. I will be building this car to look as exact as possible from a livery/visual perspective, while the engine/drivetrain/suspension will all be of current tech racing. This will be an extensive and long process as it will NOT be a budget build by any means.

This is my second z32 and I have been researching these cars for many years now, so I know many of the technical aspects to what is required outside of purely race-technology parts for this build.

Onto the car itself. She is a 1990 2+0 N/A T-top, which was converted to a slicktop TT, Fully caged and stripped, full fiberglass front panels, SM-Z body kit, fully-functional brake ducting. In its day it was powered by a VG30DETT built to around 650hp, fully scavenged oil system, fuel surge tank and coolant swirl tank. It retained its N/A rear end with seven different oil-cooled diffs, each geared differently for track layouts. Because it also never ran headlights, the entire intake/boost piping was custom made to run through the headlight buckets and into custom made Stillen Inter-coolers.

The idea of this build is to bring back to its former race-spec glory, with minor changes to allow for it to be driven on the street (modified intrusion bars, wiring, lighting, heat) without affecting its track potential. She will be overbuilt in any area possible for the power I will want to push with her final engine (600hp-low boost, 900hp-full tune)

I'm sure any questions will remind me of things I may have missed or not explained fully, and many of you might recognize the car. I have done a ton of research to find any info possible on the car and where it went after IMSA to end up in my posession. Time for pics to thank you for reading what is hopefully going to be a very successful resurrection of this Chassis.



















































Here are the two best pictures I can find of her in her prime and at work





Thanks for reading!

[MotoCARR]

Subscribed......good luck looks to be a great build!

[Ace2cool]

Awesome, awesome. I'll do some more digging and see if I can come up with anything else...

[Nismovs]

Thanks ace. And yeah it should be a fun time. Things will pick up once a have the parts car I'm eyeing up to get it rolling with a temp engine. Then it can go out for cage work, undercoat, wiring and then all the fun stuff get's added in

[DCaff300ZX]

Holy crap, now that is just too cool!
And, PICS OF YOUR OWN CAR RACING????
Off the hook...I will truly enjoy watching you bring this back to life, best of luck!

[addicted4life]

I tried to buy this but shipping it was $2300 across the country. Damn I wanted it. I hope you can bring it back, its a legend to us!

[Nismovs]

Yeah I had a few guys message me telling me shipping was crazy on it. I was very lucky it was a local car. This weekend I'll finish stripping the car and going through the wiring and labeling everything so I can use it to make the new harness for everything

[MotoCARR]

Where did you buy the car from?

[Ace2cool]

And, PICS OF YOUR OWN CAR RACING????

Hey, I have pics of my car racing too....


Oh, you mean professionally.

[DCaff300ZX]

Yes, but your pic is very cool too!

[Nismovs]

Lower mainland British Columbia, Canada. Was able to track more original parts off the car, but as usual they are all in the states so shipping will suck big time for some of it.

[Ace2cool]

Ouch. How'd it get all the way up there? Wasn't the original owner in Dallas?

[DCaff300ZX]

You find any here in Wa. and I'll pick up and deliver to the border or nearby for you...only cost would be some cool pics when she's done!
OK, and MAYBE a visit OK when she's getting close...

[Nismovs]

No Idea how id ended up in Canada, the only Info I have on that matter is that there is a Capitol Raceway tech tag on the cage from '97, I know the the owner two before me had it for about 10 to 13 years in storage till his divorce. Tracking owners is difficult since the car has no papers, so that my be a mystery forever unfortunately.

I'l def hit you up if I find parts or cars in washington, have to renew my passport soon which will help with that at least. And I plan on bringing it to shows and maybe some amateur race events down there when she is all broken in and tuned properly

[Nismovs]

I'll be heading to the shop today or tomorrow, Is anyone wanting certain pics since it's fully stripped out? I'll be taking pics of the air guides, pedals and such already

[Ace2cool]

Cage mount points. Interested to see how the regulations have changed.

[DCaff300ZX]

Cool idea with pics of changes...I'd love to see ANYTHING that is different about the car in the drivetrain and steering, and especially the suspension focusing on any bits and pieces added for competition handling/etc. that could be fabbed/added as a mod.

Oh, and I am actually serious about seeing this car as you get it going and also any other possible parts help, my buddy who lives with me now lived in Abbotsford and I vacationed in that area as a kid so I definitely am set to come up your way at nearly any time.
Keep us posted!!

[Nismovs]

Well the car has zero drivetrain/suspension. It's currently sitting on a dolly to roll around. Unfortunately I got caught up working on the winter rig and forgot pics. I should be out there tomorrow so I'll grab pics of the cage, air ducting and the obvious chassis deletes.

The parts help will be welcome after I find a clean titled parts car for donor suspension until I start buying the proper stuff to get her track capable

[DCaff300ZX]

I have my 4 stock TT coils hanging around still that I'll donate to the cause. They're sagging a little but would have her on her feet with the arms and such. I may also have the stock FUCAs and RUCAs from my coilover swap.

[Nismovs]

Tempting... First priority is front subframe, rack, etc. With all the parts I need it might be cheaper to just use a parts car. Although Nissan still has front subframes for about $650 CAN

[DCaff300ZX]

And who knows just what pops, and I know you prob want to spend as little possible on what amount to glorified wheel stands...just figured I'd toss that out in case I'm coming that way for any other reason.

[Nismovs]

So I finally went out and picked up the rest of the parts from the guy I bought the car from. List includes:Wheels, three more diffs, 5 more gear sets and multiple rebuilds, custom intercoolers, Bnib OEM 2+0 doors, a bunch of odds and ends for the trans, the Fuel Safe filler neck, two Fuel Safe quick fill cans and the cradle for them. I will be taking better pics and all of the pics of the car tomorrow since it's supposed to be nice out finally. For now here are some teasers for you guys

[Ace2cool]

BNIB doors?? I thought that was a myth....

And I love those BBS wheels.

[DCaff300ZX]

Damn...I've never wished I was someone else before, but right now you are IT.

[Nismovs]

Alright, so I still have to go through and write down all the part numbers for all the smaller stuff and get a tally on how much/cost of each part. For the things I currently have a price on I will list on top of that picture as well as a rough count of each part. I apologize if any pictures are blurry, awesome phone camera, but no built in image-stabilization I will be going back tonight to go through every part number I have so I can take more pics then if wanted.

I now have 1 na trans(unknown if built/rebuilt), 1 stock na diff, and 4 na diffs setup for cooling(2 are emtpy), 5 or 6 different gear sets, enough differential parts to rebuild around 8 differentials, 2 17x11 +12 bbs wheels, 1 17x10 +25 bbs wheels and 1 16x8 bbs wheel which will be turned into a hose reel. As well as the two Nixon Prosport Ltd. Dump cans which I can't find online

Frame rail duct


Frame rail air-guide


Firewall, Strut bar


Driver side door bar


Drive rside rear connection, fire suppression handle


Rear cross brace, fuel cell opening


Rear strut tower mounts driver side


Driver side floor mount foor main hoop


Fire suppression mount, passenger side


Passenger door bar floor and A-pillar mounts


I am sorry for the amount of pics, more are in the next post

[Nismovs]

Part 2

Passenger side closeup of firewall and passthrough


A-Pillar window clips


Connection plates for front roof line


Driver side door bar


Passenger floor pan


Old t-top location


Interior side of custom slick-top


Passenger side new OEM door - $1100 US + matching driver door


Fuel Safe filler connection - $350


Passenger side battery relocation


More in next post lol

[Nismovs]

Part three

Fuel cell cage


Differential oil filter (I think)


Another filter


Passenger rear hard-line for brakes


Trans tunnel


Fuel cell cage, filler neck


Bracket (most likely for differential pump)


Cage pass-through for jack point - both sides


Custom headlight bracket and intercooler pass-through's for Fiberglass covers


Custom intercoolers


Only one more, I swear

[Nismovs]

Part four

Custom intercoolers


Custom intercoolers


Top view of master cylinders - Two brake, one clutch


Tilton peddles


Underside of master cylinders


I think that's enough pictures to hold you all over for now lol

[DCaff300ZX]

THAT'S why I think this is so cool, thanks for all of the pics and I want MOOOOAAAAARRRRRRrr...

[Ace2cool]

Wow, so this very well could have been an original SMZ, since the roof work was custom!

Considering stitch welding the whole chassis while it's stripped down?