Dan F is a hardcore autocross and road course guy. His weapon of choice: Nissan’s 350 Zed. Last year Dan made the jump to forced induction and we did a full Vortech supercharger install, check it out HERE. Dan came back to ZCG for several performance mods including a Bassani exhaust system, switch to waterless coolant and A/C removal.

Stock vs Bassani exhaust:

Weight reduction: Check. Efficient cooling: Check. Free-flowing exhaust: check. Go get’em Dan!

Today is 5/10 or to owners and fans of Datsun’s greatest little economy car, it’s 510 Day! Here are a few updates on several 510s at ZCG. All three will be driven to the ALMS race tomorrow at Laguna Seca!

Rob drove his Go Green 510 to the shop in honor of 510 day. The SR20DET is currently being tuned with a NISTune ecu:

The Yellow 510 4-door  had an intrusive roll cage and this was removed. She is now sporting 14 x 6 Panasports (+15mm) from the ZCG Datsun 2000, we like the look compared to the 15s:

The head was sent to Rebello and made fantastic L-series NA power. Stay tuned for full report with dyno. For now here is short clip of her in action:

The Turbo Box Flare 510 has been driven hard and the downpipe separated from the turbo, no doubt due to its weight.

The exhaust was welded back and reinforced. I enjoyed driving it to ZCG with no downpipe aside from the fumes The semi-truck hiss from the turbo was music to my ears:

A couple of Datsun enthusiasts just completed a 4500-mile tour of the Southwest in their roadsters and I really wanted to share their epic journey with you. The roadtrip starts with our fearless Datsun Roadster duo of Ted H. from Bellevue, WA and Richard K. from the Netherlands! Ted graciously hosted Richard and guided the tour in his newly acquired Sora Blue 1964 1500. Richard flew from the Netherlands to WA to pickup his newly purchased 1969 1600, drive it to the Solvang Datsun Roadster Show and beyond!

All photos are courtesy of Ted and Richard. Thank you both for truly showing us the meaning of DATSUNS ARE DRIVEN!

April 22-25. Drive to Solvang with visits to Roadsters and owners along the way:

April 28- May 5. South West Loop passing through Death Valley, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, Durango, Grand Junction, Arches NP, Zion NP, Great Basin NP, Yosemite NP:

Torrey Utah to Kanab Utah:

 Kanab Utah to Beatty Nevada:

Beatty NV to Mono Lake CA:

Sacramento to San Francisco. Richard’s 1600 gets shipped back home to Netherlands along with lots of roadster parts!

With Richard flying home Ted headed back home to Washington to complete the journey. Covered bridge in S. Oregon:

Some quick stats about the trip:

Days: 17,  April 22 to May 8.
Distance: 4527 miles for the 1500. 3818 for the 1600.
Not checked closely but about 25 mpg.
Oil consumed/dripped. 1600, 5 quarts. 1500, NONE.
Repairs: NONE.
Tops Up: NEVER, NOT Allowed.
Temperatures. 31 to 102+.

Check out more pictures in the gallery!
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Octavio came to ZCG for bolt-ons and tuning. Here are the goodies: Motordyne MREV 2 lower intake plenum,  5/16″ plenum spacer and JWT pop charger

(Left)MREV2 plenum vs stock and (Right) 5/16 spacer :

To complement the improved breathing the stock intake was replaced with a JWT Pop charger:

The bolt-ons alone yielded gains of 7hp and 14tq to the wheels:

What is even more impressive is how Rob’s UPREV tuning takes advantage of the bolt-ons improving the baseline 251hp/227tq to a final 270hp/254tq to the wheels. Overall gains of 19hp/27tq!

Stephen is a Google employee and came to Z Car Garage on referral by GT-R owner Atila.  Stephen wanted to enjoy some track day fun in his NSX so we upgraded the brakes with a Stoptech Sport Kit consisting of slotted rotors, stainless braided lines and new pads:

Stock vs Stoptech rotors:

We love this Honda. Have fun at the track Stephen!