| On a street car I would leave it. You have a race car, not a street car. I would remove it. However I would have designed the rear termination point differently than you have knowing that your where going to remove it. It looks like your termination points go straight to the factory sheet metal & that there is no additional provisions. The area in question will not really help much in the event of a roll over or rear end collision. I have seen both (roll over & rear end collisions, both around 75mph at the time of occurrence) on Z32s specifically that have the area in question removed with a roll bar or cage welded in & that area was not deformed at all, the fuel tank was perfectly fine, etc. Additionally the area that is above the rear shocks is more for mounting the plastic body panels & less for load structure. Any attached metal helps rigidity, but there can be a point of diminished returns meet. With adding a welded in cage you reach that point very quickly. Welded in tube/pipe is far stiffer than that sheet metal, adding foam, or an aluminum strut tower brace. Any tube that is not required by the racing organization (when a cage is required) can be of smaller diameter or thinner wall. Even if its smaller & thinner, fully welded in is still far superior to the spot welded 16g sheet metal, foam filled or not. If you do remove the sheet metal, evaluate adding in additional plating around the shock tower. You can make more room for what looks like a rear mounted radiator setup & redistribute the metal/weight/structure to places that have a higher function. For what its worth I have discussed cage design with a couple of higher up officials in NASA (North America) & they express that their concern is most with side impact to the driver. More so than a roll over or front/rear impact... As mentioned above ZonaZ has his removed in his track Z, you can see more pictures of the process here: ZonaZ's Track Z I have mine removed in my track Z, you can see more pictures of the process here: induetime's Track Z & here: QFAB Induetime's Track Z Another 300zx/350Z local guy has his removed on his 350Z, seen here: JRspn's Track 350Z The Pro Drift K-Sport 350Z has its rear sheet metal removed, see it here: K Sport Suspensions's Track 350Z I work part time as a fabricator at a local shop along with my own thing on the side & have worked on most of the cars pictured above along with many more that I don't have pictured. I have removed lots of sheet metal around that area on Z and many more with no ill effect. Some of the cars are still active in Pro Drifting circuits, Professional SCCA, Professional Time Attack, etc.
~Induetime~ "Lag Less"
First Stock Turbo to break 500WHP on boost alone.
New track car project "Diseaze":
http://arizonazproject.wordpress DOT com
Custom fabrication for the Z32: search QFAB on Facebook
More custom fabrication: search FuturFabrication on Facebook
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