A few years ago I noticed a super clean white 300zx (NA) with tan interior always parked in the garage at my work. It made me excited to see another Z brother and I wanted to meet the owner or at least leave a “nice Z!” note on the car because it was in such good shape. Eventually I met the owner, Amir, at a conference and turns out that he has always been a fan of the Z32 since it was released in 1990! I mentioned ZCarGarage to him and soon enough this pretty Z32 was getting some love at the shop.  Amir’s Z came to us with 114k miles on the clock and virtually no major problems during it’s ownership. Routine maintenance was performed and a few choice performance parts were installed including:

-Powertrix tension/control arms
-SpecialtyZ exhaust system
-Twin-Turbo Z32 wheels
-power steering hoses
-timing belt service
-full steam cleaning of the underbody

 

SpecialtyZ exhaust system:

 

Powertrix parts:

 

New tension rods installed:

The dyno revealed impressive numbers for this 20-year young Z.  197hp/184tq at the wheels for a bone stock engine with 114k miles!

 

We have a feeling that Amir might have caught the mod-bug so stay tuned for more pictures and updates.

Long Live the Z32!

If you have been keeping up on our 370z exploits, good for you.  If you haven’t then HERE is some mandatory reading.

We were planning on taking the car to the Motorsport Auto Show (MSA) from the beginning and if you know us then you are aware that there was NO WAY that we were going to take a stock car.  We made a few phone calls to the people that can make things happen and the ZCG 370z turned into a monster overnight.

We decided that the first change to the car needed to be in the suspension department.  Eibach springs was a first choice because of their pedigree in the industry and we shortly had a couple of boxes at our door.  They are advertised to lower the car 0.9″ in the front and 0.8″ in the rear.  The springs are a progressive rate set-up front and rear to help with ride quality and in the handling department.  The looks are vastly improved as the photos show and I’m happy to report that there is a noticeable decrease in body roll and mid corner stability seems to be improved; it’s a nice improvement considering that the ride quality is not any more harsh than before.

The next call we made was to our friends down at StopTech Brakes, and we went for the big boy of brake kits.  You can remember that we ran into problems with the stock brake system after a few sessions on the track so we felt the need to step up here.  It was the week of the MSA show so we needed to request overnight delivery if we were to finish everything that week and when we unwrapped the boxes we were overjoyed.

Before our eyes lay the latest and largest kit that StopTech has to offer for the 370z.  It includes 6 piston front calipers with 380mm rotors in the front and 4 piston calipers and 355mm rotors in the rear.  The rotors are a slotted two piece design to aid in performance and replacement.  I don’t even know where to begin to describe the feeling these brakes give when you slam on the “stop” pedal, it’s not worth testing the limits on the street so we will be heading back to the track with haste very soon.  Bummer, I know, more track days for work.  Where will it end.  Haha

Now comes the time for improved power.  We ordered the Stillen cat-back exhaust and the new Gen-3 intake system to help our car breathe better on both sides of the engine.  Before I even get to any sort of dyno results I need to say that everyone here at Z Car Garage was let down by the fit and finish on these two products.  The exhaust rubs and hits in at least two or three places, its painfully annoying.  The intake system comes with no brackets of any sort and the front part is left to bounce around to rub on and destroy anything it pleases (see video below.)  We have made our own brackets and changes to the intake to prevent any sort of serious damage, we were even forced to wrap the air conditioning lines on the driver’s side to prevent the intake from inevitably rubbing through.  Stillen is a huge company with tons of R&D time in these products, I don’t understand how they could ship a part like this and expect owners to be satisfied.

As far as power numbers are concerned, it is an improvement.  On the graphs the blue line is the car returned to its totally stock form for a baseline.  The red line is after the intake only.  The final green line is with the intake and exhaust.  Each change gains around ten wheel horsepower and a moderate torque increase as well.  Too bad horsepower poor fit and finish.  I have heard from our sources that they have made improvements to the exhaust fitment, and not to defend Stillen, but these were some of the first parts on the market for the 370z.  We here at Z Car Garage just want our customer base to get the the best product they can, and the product that you deserve.

As far as future upgrades to the ZCG 370z are concerned, I will be posting the solution to our other track event failure sometime next week with test data to follow as soon as we get back to the track.

Here is the video of the intake that is supplied without any brackets.  We ended up making our own.  Enjoy the random music in the background.

Bassani has emerged as a new player in the 350Z and G35 exhaust market. They have been making performance exhausts for anything with wheels for more than 30 years and are committed to the highest levels of quality and performance.

The Bassani system has been through extensive dyno testing to bring the best overall performance gains, not just a high peak number. One of the most outstanding features of the exhaust is that it does not trade off sound quality to gain performance. The throaty sounds seems to get better every time the engine is started.

Enjoy the video below and see what your Z is missing!!