Bleach

Tall 5th gear (1981-83) and 3.36 gears with stock tire size you'll be at 161mph at 5500rpm

that is, if your particular engine has enough power to push you that fast in 5th gear. wow...

I wonder how much power it would take. L-DUB probably knows.

hoov100

about 200-250HP

Coolie

I suspect that an S30's aerodynamics will be the limiting factor in getting beyond 250. Binky would do about 210KPH I reckon, it certainly gets to 160 easily.

snwbrderphat540

hmmmm..... if i ever get the chance ill let you know how mine does. lol

FubarI33t

I have got up there a lil bit. but not over 120MPH. I hit the 85 limit on speddo. Kept goin. Got as fast as i wanted to go. Droped her in nutral. took 32 secounds to get back to 85. I used the clock timer. My Tach still ain't workin. so i can't give ya nothin but that 32 secounds for a clue. By the way. 5th gear. 81 trans, R180 3:90. what's my RPM at 70mph?

naviathan

My S30 hits 120mph and stops like a brick wall. That's about the limiting point for the aerodynamics in them. My S130 would hit 135mph and the front end would lift, but I think it might have another 5-15mph left if you can keep it down. Now that's in stock trim and stock engine. Get the HP up there and improve on the nose a bit and the S130 might be able to push 150-160mph. How can we get our gear up there to push that further? The aerodynamics are there I think, just need the gears and HP to boot.

naviathan

R180 in a ZX? I think you meant R200, unless you've installed an older diff in your ZX.

FubarI33t

R180 in my 83 yes. I installed it myself. The cv's were shot on my R200. and the R180 was all i had to get her street worthy.

NismoPick

I think I've hit 25mph in my Z before.

Sweets

So I need this setup that will make my car go this fast. What do I need to do to get this in my car? Seriously. I need to know. My gears hinder my car to 122-ish mph, and it sucks. She wants to go faster, but she cant. I have the power potential to pull 160 mph when I get it tuned. Right now it has a 4 speed, and i dont know what rear end... whatever came stock in the 74.5 I imagine.

SHADY280

your gonna need some mods, like a 5 speed, and a 3.54 diff, add a turbo, then go to nevada, or saskatchewan, and try it. i can get to 220 kph in a hurry, to busy around here, and the speedo stops after that.

Sweets

a turbo is on the way, but where do I get a 3.54 diff? Which 5 speed to I use.... 280z, or zx?

NismoPick

280zxt had the 3.54. Study this: http://www.geocities.com/z_design_studio/

Bleach

is that just a random guess?
I was thinking more like 300-400hp
The wind resistance increases dramatically above 100mph so you need a lot to push through, and you would have really tall gearing which hurts your power at the wheels.

NismoPick

Indeed. Cars in general need A LOT of power to get above 150mph. 160+mph.... 300-400hp is a closer guestimate.

here's a cool article:

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/busin...4354/index.htm

naviathan

Not really, the taller your gearing the better your power will be at high speed with a Z. So long as you haven't built your engine for max power at 8000rpms like some of the guys do you can push faster and harder with taller gears and lots of torque.

Sweets

How much does aerodynamics help? Like a g-nose would probably help out a lot wouldn't it? My dad has a Nova with a sb327, making about 400whp. It is in the mid 11's. His has a flat sheetmetal front end (not very aerodynamic looking) and we've got it up to 170-175 mph. Does weight play a role in top speed as well?

naviathan

Actually yes the G-Nose does help, but the limiting factor in the Z is the firewall. It's a straight up and down flat piece of sheet metal that acts like a brick wall. you might not think much of it because it's behind the engine, but all that air that you bring in through the radiator has to stop somewhere or get forced back out somewhere. In the stock form it stops. hence the brickwall. With ZX I think a decent front valence that can keep the air out from under the car would make a huge difference. There's a thread on Hybridz.org that's all about the aerodynamics and they were raising funds to run some wind tunnel testing on different body kits and diffusers and spoilers etc...You may want to take a look.

frank280zx

262 KMH but we have 3.3 gears here