Yoni has been our customer since 2014 and after having a taste of vintage Z cars at the shop he finally found one to call his own. This green S30 has had a long history with ZCG and before Yoni picked it up he requested intallation of our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes and Z Car Garage CV Axles to make it perfect.
This Z was previously owned by our customer Alan L who purchased it in Idaho in 1995. We worked on this car since the late 90’s and it has many neat parts suiting his taste like a nasty 3L mated to a 4-speed transmission, stock brakes with race pads, Panasports and roll bar. He drove the wheels off this thing not only on the street but at the track too. In 2013 Alan retired to Palm springs and decided it was time to sell, sending it to us to find the Z a new home.
We got it here and installed a Rebello 2.9 with SUs, early 5-speed trans and some cleanup work.
Timing worked out wonderfully as Yoni was jonesing for an S30:
“I got my G37 in 2013 as a gift to myself for graduating college and landing my first “big boy” job. I researched the best garages in the Bay Area and only one stood out: Z Car Garage. I sent my first email to Rob in 2014, and my journey with ZCG has continued since then. Over the years I’ve only brought my G to Rob and his amazing team. They’ve performed all my routine maintenance and a couple major repairs and realized I appreciated the car as it is. It fulfilled it’s purpose for me – a fun, fast, reliable daily driver…
… Around 2019 I considered selling my G. There was nothing wrong with it, but I felt like something was missing for me. At this point I had spent the majority of my career developing electric vehicle technology (and even an electric flying taxi!). Spending so much time thinking about what was coming next made me, ironically, want to drive something more physical. I wanted to be able to experience driving something with personality, something that required actual skill and gave real feedback. I wanted something more rewarding…”
The Butters Effect
After a routine visit to ZCG and seeing all the vintage Z cars, Yoni took our shop demo car “Mrs. Butters” for a spin. It solidified his need for a Z:
“Rob eventually he let me drive one of his personal cars, Butters. The thing about driving Butters for the first time, especially if you’ve never driven a Z car, is that it’s totally unfair. Butters is kind of like the best version of what a Z car should be. It’s not another LS swap, not a restored garage queen, just a solid Z with a big engine and killer brakes. Butters is like the gateway drug of Z cars – you leave expecting all Z cars to be like that.”
Fast forward a few months and Yoni was ready to purchase the green Z. The 3.1L was already transplanted into customer Jason’s ProjectZ and the freshly built 2.9L with SUs and early 5-speed took its place:
Rob dyno tuned the L-series, now making 175hp/190tq at the wheels:
Enjoy the video with sweet L-series music!
The Z was good, but not “ZCG-good”, so we fixed that. Before it went home he had us install our ZCG Big-Brakes, ZCG CV Axles, new Bridgestone S007a tires and more:
“When Rob showed me the car for the first time, I was mostly sold. The car was great, but the stock brakes needed to go (thanks to Butters). The car had a huge binder of records and history that went along with it. The price was right and we agreed that Rob would install ZCG big brakes, CV axles, and some sticky tires before I took delivery. He also took care of a few small items I wanted.”
ZCG Big-Brakes and CV Axles
We handed Yoni the keys to “Mrs. Butters”, our 1971 Series 1 240z shop demo car and he was sold on our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes (for small wheels) and Z Car Garage CV Axles! Butters has a way of doing this to our customers 🙂 Read below for a brief description of these parts:
As fellow S30 owner/racer Glenn C mentioned in his review, on top of braking performance, pedal feel is extremely important and our Big-Brakes deliver. This is a direct result of working with engineers at Stoptech to create a totally bolt-in solution requiring no M/C change or additional proportioning valve/adjustments. All fitting behind a 15″ Watanabe or Panasport wheel (and some 14″ wheels) and retaining factory emergency brake lever! A few details below: Calipers: Stoptech ST42 4-piston front & rear race calipers (Alum 6061 mil-spec Type III anodized) Rotors: 280mm x 20.6 with Alum 7075 hats Pads: Stoptech 309 sport street pads Blog posts documenting all of our customers running the ZCG Big-Brakes can be found HERE. A few closer detail shots of the calipers, rotors and hardware:
We removed the stock brakes and installed our ZCG Big-Brake kit:
Our Z Car Garage CV Axles help transmit power to the ground and ensure smoother operation compared to your standard half shafts. We have over 90 CV axle kits on customer cars and we are stoked with all of the positive feedback.
Yon has CV Axle set #331. Stock half shafts (L) and ZCG units:
ZCG CV axles installed:
Details
A few more items were sorted including bumper over-rider removals, corrected side markers and replaced antenna
Welcome to the Z car family!
Yoni and his super supportive wife picked up car and they were stoked. Now he has a rad vintage 240z to go along with his daily G37 coupe.
“I’m really happy with the car. It’s the perfect compliment to my G, which I am definitely keeping now. It’s also really the best mix of things I wanted in a first Z. A good engine, moderate suspension upgrades, awesome brakes, and nice but not perfect paint. It’s something I can really enjoy driving and sharing with people without being paranoid about keeping it perfect. At some point I’ll be back to have Rob work on the interior with me. Who knows, maybe there’s a set of triple Mikuni carbs in my future. For now though, I’m enjoying the ride.”
Thank you for your continued support an we love working with you Yoni. We are glad that you are now a 240z owner, welcome to the family and LONG LIVE THE Z!
More pictures in the gallery below:
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