Z-Car Blog » Forbes http://www.zcarblog.com Shop talk for Z-car enthusiasts Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:48:36 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 More Track Day Prep: StopTech Rebuild http://www.zcarblog.com/2009/12/26/uncategorized/more-track-day-prep-stoptech-rebuild.html http://www.zcarblog.com/2009/12/26/uncategorized/more-track-day-prep-stoptech-rebuild.html#comments Sat, 26 Dec 2009 21:44:51 +0000 Forbes http://www.zcarblog.com/?p=3760

You all have seen this car here before and I’m sure you are aware of it’s on track antics, if not then see the links below for a refresh.

This car sees tons of track time.  In fact it pretty much only sees track time, and like most track cars, after awhile things need to be refreshed.  In this case the StopTech Big Brake Kit was in need of a few new parts to prepare it for the Norcal UFO trackday the following weekend.

As you can see from the pictures, the hats for the two-piece rotors have seen some massive heat.  Enough in fact to destroy the original black anodizing.  These parts, while discolored, are still perfectly functional.  The rotors on the other hand had seen better days and were replaced with new ones.

The other part of this rebuild comes in the form of replacing the main seals for the four pistons in each caliper.  From the pictures you can see that the old ones were covered in debris and brake dust and were starting to weep, not a good thing when a race car relies on repeatable pedal pressures for optimum performance.

The seals were replaced with the new gray pieces and the entire system was reassembled and given back to the owner just in time to thrash on it at the Thunderhill Raceway.  Pics of the track event are still to come and are well worth the wait.

See all the photos of the entire rebuild after the read more (there are 30 or so)

Merry post-Christmas

ZCG

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It’s been awhile since we’ve posted anything on our shop 370z, mainly because the shop has been crazy busy with customer cars.  If you remember the last time we took the car to Thunderhill Raceway we experienced less than satisfactory performance out of the car in stock form.  This led to the addition of HUGE StopTech brakes, bigger swaybars, and lowering springs from Eibach.

What we didn’t advertise is that we’ve had an oil cooler of our own design on the car for some time and the track day last weekend was it’s first real test of the second version.  More on that in the full Norcal UFO track day post a little later this week.  Another change we made is to put the R35 GT-R wheels back on the car.  You may have seen pictures of the car when it was stock with these wheels on it but it is now a whole different animal now that it is lowered.  the stance and look are now perfect in my eyes, take a look at the pictures to judge for yourself.

Special thanks go out to Vlad for taking the awesome night-time shots of the Z last week.  Good looking out!!

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]]> http://www.zcarblog.com/2009/12/17/events/zcg-heads-to-thunderhill-too.html/feed 0 It’s About Time!!!! More Stoptechs http://www.zcarblog.com/2009/12/15/performance/its-about-time-more-stoptechs.html http://www.zcarblog.com/2009/12/15/performance/its-about-time-more-stoptechs.html#comments Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:00:28 +0000 Forbes http://www.zcarblog.com/?p=3718

This beautiful ’06 350z belongs to a good friend of the shop and he has been taking it to the track for a couple years now.  The time finally came last week to make the brake upgrade that it desperately needed as this car had the base brakes and not even the optional Brembos.

Fred has installed about a hundred-thousand of these (rough estimate, ha) and it flew right on the car with no hassles.   I have included a few of the before photos to see how the kit compares to stock.   We stuck with one of their new street pads for now because of the expected rain on the track day and the Volk CE28s are still shod with street tires.

Besides the newly added StopTechs, this car sports a Jim Wolf POP charger on the intake side and a NISMO system on the exhaust side.  The Volk CE28s have also been color matched to the car for the perfect look.  Now all we need to do is get Alvin to put some slicks on this mother and give some of our other friends the beat down at the track!!

I’ll have some more info on this car when we get to the actual track day post at the end of the week!  View all of the photos from the install after the read more.

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]]> http://www.zcarblog.com/2009/12/15/performance/its-about-time-more-stoptechs.html/feed 0 Posts for This Week http://www.zcarblog.com/2009/12/14/uncategorized/posts-for-this-week.html http://www.zcarblog.com/2009/12/14/uncategorized/posts-for-this-week.html#comments Mon, 14 Dec 2009 22:30:38 +0000 Forbes http://www.zcarblog.com/?p=3717 I have a ton of things to post this week!  I know you are all anxious to see the great photos from the Norcal UFO track day last Sunday but before I put those up I’m going to make a few posts on a few of the cars that we took.  The first is going to be up in a little bit.  Hang tight.

Forbes

]]> http://www.zcarblog.com/2009/12/14/uncategorized/posts-for-this-week.html/feed 0 No Z Left Untouched http://www.zcarblog.com/2009/12/11/performance/no-z-left-untouched.html http://www.zcarblog.com/2009/12/11/performance/no-z-left-untouched.html#comments Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:59:04 +0000 Forbes http://www.zcarblog.com/?p=3600

Once again I’m here to proclaim how a few small changes will increase your affection for your Z ten-fold.  This formula of parts has been proven time and time again on the Zs that we have worked on.  Here’s the rundown:

  • Bassani true dual cat-back exhaust with X-pipe
  • Jim Wolf Technology (JWT) POP charger
  • Eibach Pro Kit springs
  • Hotchkis adjustable swaybars front and rear (4-way adj. in the front, 3 in the rear!)
  • VOLK Racing GTS wheels
  • Toyo Proxes tires
  • LED tailight swap
  • SPC adjustable front upper control arms
  • SPC adjustable rear lower control arms

Having done all of these changes in a short time frame this car has transformed drastically from it’s former stock self.  It now has the looks, performance, and handling that the Z deserves from the start.  This car is ready to be the partner in crime the owner has always wanted, until he catches the “boost” bug…

See more photos after the jump

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