A quick update

Yeah, it's been awhile. You didn't really care anyway, and quite frankly, none of us has been very excited to get back to the 300ZX. It smells bad, it looks stupid, it sounds like shit, and it's riddled with oxidation. What could possibly go wrong in a 24 hour endurance race? Plus, winter weather isn't exactly complementary to automotive repair and modification, so we relegated the Z to a parking lot in Flint, MI all winter in order to test its LeMons-ness. The general idea: If it got stolen, it didn't belong in the 24 Hours of LeMons to begin with. And if it doesn't get stolen or shot at in Flint, it truly blends in with its surroundings - bleak, hopeless and nearly useless.

Thankfully, after 4 long and colt months, no one was dumb enough to steal it. Shockingly, no one even shot at it. We could have used some more speed holes for weight reduction. It could have something to do with the completely stripped interior, or the giant rusted out holes in the car which anybody below 200lbs could squeeze through...or our finest piece of anti-theft technology, a disconnected ground somewhere that's causing the battery to die within minutes if the car isn't running. Or the fact that it's just a terrible car.

The good news is that we'll be getting out the welder and putting on our thinking caps as we head down the stretch with a goal of getting at least most of the car together before the entry deadline in June. The bad news is that the car is still a rusty piece of crap, and will probably need 100lbs of steel gusseting to hold it together. The floorpan isn't exactly connected to the rest of the car...is that important?

What kind of ideas do we have for our theme? Well, I don't want to give it away before the entry deadline, but I'll drop two hints - it's going to have a working afterburner with what I can only describe as a 'hell flame' (read: NOT one of those stupid $100 flame kits that shoots out very low temp yellow flame), and working variable swept wings which will change their angle depending on whether the car is going in a straight line (swept back) or in a turn/braking (unswept). You can probably guess what we're generally shooting for, but we're going to do it up better than anyone has before. We're going balls on for the coveted 'Dangerous Banned Technology' award, us being engineers and all. And, of course, we're going to wow the crowd, judges and competitors with our mix of stupidly-dangerous-but-cool-looking crap and ingenious ideas. Stay tuned --