24 Hours of Lemons

[SeaHitch]

New to the forum, but had a number of Datsun 240z' going back 30+ years.  Currently have a '71 240 future project car. 

 

A lifetime ago was part of an endurance motorcycle road racing team for 10 years or so.  With the kids out of the house a number of us got back together to kick around the idea of building a 24 Hours of Lemons cars and going racing again.  This is a budget series (if anything in racing can be called budget racing), where the acquistion/build limit is $500.00, if you go over you start the race with penalty laps. The $500.00 does not include safety items, Roll Cage, Brakes, Tires/Wheels, etc.  Anything you can sell off of the car adds to the $500.00 budget.  Plus what ever you can sneak through inspection.  As you race the car, if declines in value and frees up additional development $$. Plan is acquiring and building for the '23 season.

 

From our endurance history we know that whatever you race has to be reliable, light, easily repairable if needed.  Initial thought that came up in our discussion was the late 60's early 70's 510 or 73+ vintage 610.   The 610 is probably the way we are leaning, assuming we can find on.  510's are easy to find for sale, probably out of reach price wise, but can find many 610's for sale.

 

Initial general thoughts about the build. With a finished weight of 2000 lbs or less.

* strip everything we don't need out, including wiring harness, dash, etc.

* L20b Engine, if we can get a reasonable additional 20hp or more.

* I think it was the L16 that had good flowing stock exhaust manifold

* Hitachi SU carbs

* Swap a 5 speed in.  

* New bushings, bearings etc.

* Since brakes are a safety item and outside the budget, and are a big problem item in endurance racing, convert to better disc brakes on all 4 corners.

* Initial build budget, including safety items, $10k or so.

 

Lots of expertise on this forum, thoughts?

 

Also, anyone have a beat up relatively complete 610 that their wife wants out of the driveway?  Or ideas on where to find one?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bilzbobaggins]

I dont think there is that many 500 dollar 610's out there anymore either

 

[SeaHitch]

Bilz,

 

I'm sure there aren't, we will have to take our penalty laps.  Also, if there are parts that are saleable that moves us back towards the $500.00.

 

Only able to find one listed, and that is in pretty good condition.  Hard to get a feel for what the going prices are.

[carterb]

Endurance racing is so much fun!

One thing to consider...  We are running a 510 in the Luckydog Racing League.  We are the only 510 in the paddock.  We usually the only Datsun in the paddock.  (there have been a couple Z cars over the years).  And now that we are SR20 power we are not only the only SR20 powered car, but we are one of the few RWD SR20 powered cars in the USA. 

All this is to say, that when things break or go bump on the track, there is no walking up and down the pits to see if someone else has a fender, brake rotor, distributor, half-shaft, etc.  And when it comes time to repairing the car, there are few junk yard parts or aftermarket suppliers to fit a budget operation.

If you want to race a Datsun, go for it!  We wouldn't have done it any other way and don't plan to switch.

But if you just want to race, I recommend considering other platforms that are commonly raced in your series.

 

--carter

Edited March 14, 2022 by carterb

[SeaHitch]

Carterb,

 

Thanks for the input, much appreciated.  Although not set in stone, we would like to go with a Datsun if possible.  A couple of us have owned a number of 240Z over the years.  Always found them reliable and pretty straight forward to work on.  And although this is a budget series as far as the build/acquisition of the car we will definitely look at having spares for the most likely parts that could take us out of the race. 

 

What may take us off of the Datsun is the difficulty in finding one.  510's are much easier to find and may be our option, but they are becoming more and more collectible as time goes by.  Started thinking about the 610 since they are basically the same platform, but not seeing many advertised.  We have some time to figure it out, or move to another option since we are looking to build for to race in 23.

 

Just looking to get the band back together and have a little fun racing again.  Had a good run in the 80's early 90's in endurance motorcyle racing.  We were often the top finishing privateer team.  At one race a factory team that we were pushing hard, bought all of the new tires in our size from our tire supplier.  Irritated our supplier enough that he hooked us up with another team that he knew had some scuffs we could probably buy. 

 

Got the band back together in 2001 to run the local endurance race.  Rebuilt the then 12 year old bike over the winter and finished second overall in the race with riders that hadn't raced in 7 years.  Lost by 28 seconds and we were closing a second and half a lap at the end.

 

If we can find a Datsun to run we will rely on this forum for a lot of good advice.  Since you are local we might connect if we can.

 

So back to the need for the car and we can go from there.  Have an enclosed race car trailer and a one ton to pull it.  Willing to travel to get.  So if anyone has leads, let me know.

 

 

[SeaHitch]

Carter,

 

I want to thank you for pointing out your Swamp Thing thread, building and racing a 510 in the LuckyDog series.

 

Although, you did ruin my sleep the last couple of days as I stayed up late working through the last few years of what you and your teammates accomplished, on that thread. 

 

Pretty impressive.

[carterb]

Racing is so fun!!!!

[Icehouse]

2 hours ago, carterb said:

Racing is so fun!!!!

 

Yeah it is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SeaHitch]

Plan to get out to Shelton to check things out.  I do need to check that my son isn't playing baseball that weekend.  He's coming home from college for spring break tonight, so I should know the April schedule tonight.

 

I will see about bringing some of the others guys that are interested in building a car and going racing as well.  Looking for a car now, see what we can find.   Saw one that had been listed on 510forsale.com, listed in Canada.  It was already a race car.  Looked like rework needed, but it would have been a good start.  Particularly if the asking price was in Canadian dollars. Will have to pick your brains for what a reasonable price is for cars in different conditions.

 

For your fuel tank/fuel starvation issues have you considered a fuel tank sloshing compound.  May save you from cutting the tank apart.  You normally have to clean the varnish out, etch the metal and then you can use the sloshing compound to seal the tank and encapsulate the rust.  I assume all of the modern sloshing compounds are impervious to the alcohol in the fuel, but you should check.  

 

And yes racing is fun.  I sent carter a pic of the endurance bike we used to run a lifetime ago,  Also used to run poker runs in an offshore boat.  That was a way to really burn cash fast.  60 gallons of race fuel an hour at WOT, 180 gallons to fill.  Running that hard often ended up breaking expensive parts on a regular basis.

 

Hope to meet you guys in person next month.