On Saturday I joined six other cars for a morning cruise through the Santa Cruz Mountains. The two S30 Z cars with us were running our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes (for small wheels) and Z Car Garage CV Axles!

Glenn’s 1972 Nissan Fairlady 240z-L

 

Glenn Chiou drove his RHD Fairlady Z sporting our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes (for small wheels). He is an avid vintage race car driver/restorer and found our brake kit offers incredible brake feel and performance all fitting behind his favorite 15×8 zero offset Watanabe wheel:

“The most important aspect to me when it comes to braking on a street driven car is feel. Yes, stopping power is extremely important, but also is not that difficult to achieve on an early Z car that is naturally light to begin with. Feel, however, is something that has always managed to escape me and the ZCG brakes deliver. WOW, what a difference. The feel, modulation, power, sharpness was amazing. Hands down the best brakes I had ever driven on a Z car”

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 pictures of the Big-Brakes being installed on Glenn’s Z:

 

Glenn was having fun on the twistys on our cruise (see video below). Learn more about his Z in this Petrolicious video.

 

James’ 1972 Datsun 240z

 

James is running our ZCG BBK (1st gen, 328mm) and  Z Car Garage CV Axles in his turbocharged L-Series beast:

 

 

You can learn more about this 560whp Z on Speedhunters and see it in action on Hoonigan Autofocus. James also had a blast on our Saturday cruise:

 

Saturday Cruising

 

We started our drive in Downtown Saratoga and made it to the coast via Bear Creek and Bonny Doon Rd. Here is a short video:

 

We were happy to enjoy the company of cool cars and cool folks, also joining us:

Dustin’s 510

 

We’ve known Dustin and Courtney for many years. Dustin’s 510 4-door runs a KA24DE and sweet Longchamp XR-4 wheels. The side exit exhaust is loud!

 

Tony’s Mazda RX-2

 

Tony has had this RX-2 for many years. In addition to the full restoration it now has a full (S5) 13B drivetrain with a Ford 9″ rear end! It is mint. I haven’t seen Tony in many years so it was a joy to have him along:

Lloyd’s AE86

 

Lloyd has a very cool collection of cars and this AE86 is the latest. Although it sports an F20C drivetrain (Lloyd promised me it’s not the same car as this one), it has numerous upgrades for a better drive. Gotta love TE37s:

 

Geoff’s BMW 2002

 

Geoff’s no stranger to our Bay Area cruises and also owns a Lotus 7. He was the only German this time with his BMW 2002 on rare Campagnolo wheels:

 

I drove my SR-powered ‘67.5 Datsun Roadster and it was a great way to spend the morning.

 

Yes, that’s a Ferrari 250 GT Lusso flying by on HWY 1!

 

More pictures in the gallery below!
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The Golden Week Kyusha Festival is returning to Northern California again May 9th! This will be a fantastic gathering for Japanese classic cars at the Crane Way Pavillion in Richmond, Ca. Registration will open March 1, for more information visit www.gwkfest.events.

 

Z Car Garage is a proud sponsor of the show, check out my report from last year’s event, and don’t miss this one!

 

In 1974 Mazda introduced the RX-4 wagon with the 13B rotary engine, it’s first debut in the US. Rob found this RX-4 in fantastic shape, it was a real time-capsule! The interior is really impressive with stock panels, seats, and carpeting all intact. Check out the factory air cleaner, and the peace-statement bumper sticker. Rob definitely has a problem: he is addicted to vintage Japanese cars. Find out how he came upon this RX-4:

“While in my early 20s I owned a rotary-powered 510 race car… which made me wanting more so I played with a few 1st gen RX-7s and for a brief period I even owned a 1974 Rx-4 coupe. I am always on the hunt for clean, early Rotary-powered cars. My morning and evening ritual is to cruise Craigslist with my favorite searches. One day I came across an ad for a 1974 RX4 station wagon. I called and arranged a time to see it. It had been sitting in a barn for about 10 years. We hooked up a battery and all the lights worked. The car was really clean so I had to buy it. The following day I had the car towed to ZCG. Once it got to the shop we went to work right away to clean it up and see if it ran.”

“By the end of the second day we got the Rotary Wagon to light off, but it was smoking enough to make Archer St. disappear! The rear rotor seals failed. I was bummed but I knew what this would lead too. The engine was removed and sent to Rebello racing. A few months later the engine was back and ready to go in the car. Using a Racing Beat header and stock carb the piston-less engine put down some nice numbers(188hp/165tq) on the Rebello dyno. A larger carb is on the way!”


The great thing about this wagon besides its functionality is that it’s a hoot to drive!  RWD and the 13B: A legendary motor with 30 years of years of tuning/aftermarket support. Leave it to Rob and the crew at ZCG to get any car running, and performing better than it did from the factory.  ZCG’s dyno shows a surprisingly torquey motor with over 100ft-lbs available from 2000 to 6000rpm!:

Rob drove the Rotary Wagon through the winding hills of Santa Cruz on our last fun run to Canepa Design in Scotts Valley. I was amazed how he hurtled this car around corners at 60-70mph, didn’t see that coming! The rotary sounds distinctive. I had a chance to commute in this wagon for about a week and it was a blast!
Here are few videos to give you an idea what the 13B sounds like:
2nd-gear roll-on from 4500rpm:

Cruising happily on the freeway:

Freeway merging is a breeze!

Rob and the vintage Mazda are featured in the upcoming April issue of the Japanese car magazine “NostalgicHero”!

Rob’s interest in vintage Japanese cars is contagious and word on the street is that there may be an old Subaru hanging out at ZCG, stay tuned!
More pictures below
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The Japanese Classic Car Show(JCCS) was held on Sunday 9/12 in Long Beach, CA and it was incredible. This show started in ’06 at the Queen Mary, moved to a park venue in Irvine for a few years and returned to Long Beach where I hope it stays.

We left the Bay Area at 8am Saturday morning and spent the night aboard the Queen Mary(Hotel). This is an experience in itself and I highly recommend staying here not only for the convenience.

Sunday morning Rob and I gave the roadster a quick wipedown before driving a few hundred feet to the staging area of the show. The JCCS staff really have their act together and made parking a breeze. At first I thought it was impossible to fit all participants in as there were 200+! I parked with 18 other Datsun Roadsters under a tree lined area. We were right across from what turned out to be 61 Datsun 510s! Nissan/Datsun had a strong presence for sure.

Grabbed my goody bag from the registration booth and we started checking out all the J-tin in a semi-orderly fashion. No lawn chair lounging for us! We spoke with Ron Carter, Les Cannaday and John Morton near the MOTUL booth where the BRE 240z and BRE Roadster were being displayed. Morton treated show-goers with a long autograph session. It was great to see him in good spirits!

If there was any doubt about the growing popularity of Japanese vintage cars all you had to do was look at how many spectators lined up for the show, some waited more than 1hr! This is great for JCCS and all of us classic car owners. Having a good venue doesn’t hurt either 🙂

Make sure to check out all of the pictures below at the end. The bar is contantly being raised and the level of detaiI/restoration of the cars these days is tremendous! I can’t possibly discuss all of the awesome cars but here are a few that caught our attention:

Randy Yee’s 240z with an RB26 drivetrain. Super clean, track-day resto. Flat black wrinkle powdercoating.  Simple interior. And what made me go gaga was the BRE-style exhaust system…why don’t we see this more often? Maybe it’s too loud 🙂

Wheels, wheels and more wheels! A JDM-wheel fanatic would appreciate the variety on display. From Volk’s new TE37Vintage wheel, various WORK and SSR wheels, ultra-rare Sakuras(the pink ones), Compmotive, TRD, even CCW showed up on 510s! Lots of Rota RB-R too:

This Nissan Patrol pickup truck was imported from Saudi Arabia!

61 510s, and it seemed like over half had some kind of engine swap. In a sea of SR20s and KAs this Dime built by Mario of TSR really stood out. John Morton was enamored with the engine bay! Lots of attention to detail in this one. Check out the welding. I love 510s

The Nissan 200sx or Silvia (S12 chassis) is often overlooked stateside. These cars were modded out and looking great.Yes, One had an RB26!

The Honda N60 models are coming out of the woodwork. There were about 10, all with mild to wild mods! Lots of CVCCs too.

Toyota and Mazda had a strong showing. Several 1/2Jz-swapped cars, Rotary pickups.

From L to R: This 18RG-powered Toyota looked boosted with period parts. I always liked the lines and B-pillarless body of the Celicas(RA). Fender-flared, wide-tired and mean Starlets are always welcome

This Mazda RX-4 wagon had FD Rx-7 running gear, front suspension bits and a linked Ford rear end…wicked:

I always like to see and hear car stories from owners. Interesting stickers also catch my eye, here are some highlights 🙂

It was an awesome weekend. We traveled 860 miles to see the show, and we did it in a Datsun. The sheer number of spectators and participants at JCCS 2010 reminds us that Japanese Classic Cars are still gaining popularity and recognition. Here’s to JCCS 2011!
UPDATE: ZCarGarage built the 1st place-winning Datsun Roadster in the “Modified” category!

For more information on 2010 Winners from all categories check the JCCS website

Full photo album below so click and enjoy!
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