Name is Paul Ruschman. LSx truck is my Wife’s ’01 Burb, 1500 4wd, LM7 powered, named Shrek, cause its big an green.
Been a Datsun Z car fanatic since I was kid, got my first Z in 1989 while attending school for my Air Frame and Power-plant certificates, (aviation maintenance tech). Did a lot of autocrossing, hanging with the local 510 and Z crowd in Eugene OR. Constantly tweaking and tuning the car here and there, so much so, that it put a quite strain on our marriage around our 7th year, she stuck it out. (Last year we celebrated our 20th anniversary, marriage is AWESOME at 20 years!)
Any how, did a few custom cylinder heads here and there, word of mouth spread, hired on a performance automotive machine shop, learned tons from the owner and our cohorts at Sunset Engine Development. Soon after that, my good friend and owner of JLS Automotive closed his doors, we purchased the cylinder head equipment and Rusch Motorsports was born. Customizing L-series heads for Datsun enthusiast world wide. The Netherlands, England, Australia, Canada, and in the states. Mark Warner of Grass roots Motorsports and author of HP books “Street Turbo Charging” approached me some years back to build a custom L-22 four cylinder for his Bug Eye Sprite. (pictures of that engine are in his book). We also do SBC and SBF heads on occasion.
Here are a couple of our custom Z car cylinder heads…
Custom Cylinder head building.. What’s involved… - HybridZ
Custom Rusch Motorsports P-90a head…. - HybridZ
Moved to the Portland area, met up with another very close friend, Dave Lum or www.dastuns.com. My other projects over the years included removing the L-28 from my ’75 280-Z and installing a mile SBC 350 and T-5 trans. That car was a FUN daily driver! Ran 0-60 in 4.2 seconds, ¼ mile in 12.3 @ 113 MPH! It was soon after that when the forum HybridZ was formed, dedicated to "extreme performance" Datsun/Nissan Z cars, sometimes other Hybrid Datsun/Nissan projects as well. I was the 13th member, currently an admin. Have owned and built many other S-30 Z cars from early ’70 models to ’78 models. Full on race cars to bone stock drivers, a couple other V-8 Z’s, one of which was built by my father, a ’77 280 powered by a Big Block Mopar 440! Fun tire shredding machine. Also had ’93 Nissan 300-ZX, (Z-32 chassis code) was in the process of an GM LSx w/T-56 conversion, detailed here;
LSx powered late model Nissan 300-ZX, aka Z-32 - LS1TECH
After much deliberation and mocking up in a 300-ZX parts car, I pulled the plug on the project, sold the car moved on to a ’97 BMW M3, which is my current ride and is at this moment received the 5.3 and T-56, detailed here;
Yet another, BMW E-36 LSx conversion... - LS1TECH
Aviation is another one of my passions. Living across from a private air strip, my wife encouraged me to get my privates pilots license and did. My daughters love to go flying, ages 16, 14 and 3, (ran out of brownies one night). I also like to shoot high end air guns and dabble in photography with a Nikon D-70s D-SLR.
Now for the pics…
The original BRAAP car;
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b81/BRAAPZ/280Z2.jpg
w/SBC 350; (excuse the messy appearance, initial start up just happened when that shot was taken.)
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b8...Z-V8Custom.jpg
V-8-Z 12 second timeslip;
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b8...101098best.jpg
The big Block Mopar Z;
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b8...0inz3Small.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b8...urn2Medium.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b8...RNOUTLarge.jpg
My 240-Z race car, converted from triple carbs to Mega Squirt EFI w/EDIS 6!
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b8...l/P2Medium.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b8...backMedium.jpg
One of my custom N-42 intakes, used on my race car;
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b8...7981Medium.jpg
The Z-32;
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b8...vianMedium.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b8...-32/Z32Fog.jpg
With the new JDM fascia;
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b8...ace2Medium.jpg
Current ride;
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b8...a/DSC_3878.jpg
These two cylinder heads went to the Netherlands;
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b8...ds5bwLarge.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b8...d1bwMedium.jpg
The pinnacle of my engine building. 540 CID Big Block, Twin Turbo, intercooled, MPFI, endurance Jet boat. On only 12 lbs of boost, 1168 HP on the dyno at Sunset Engine development!
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b8...rts/J-3top.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b8...ts/JB540TT.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b8...ts/JustinB.jpg
One of my favorite flights. Take off from Troutdale, KTTD, fly up to and around Mt. Hood, over to Hood River and back to Troutdale through the Gorge! Therapeutic flight.
Flying around Mt. Hood.
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b8...od11Medium.jpg
Columbia river gorge from the air;
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b8...rge4Medium.jpg
Landing at Troutdale;
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b8...lotsMedium.jpg
BRAAP.. BRAAAAAAP…..BRAAAaaaaaaaaa………..
