We received a large delivery of factory Nissan and one off custom parts from the owner a few days ago.  There is no doubt in my mind that this will be the nicest Z on the face of the planet when it is completed in early ’09.  Here’s a rundown on the newest arrivals:

New dash: The dash has been customized with a “Behemoth” badge to pay respect to the animal that this car is going to be.  The first of the three gauges in the center of the dash has been changed out to house a vintage looking boost gauge.  Two very nice touches in my book.
New door panels: These are one of many hard to find new interior parts, not cheap either.
New side markers and lenses: new in box and super clean
Switchgear for the steering column: new, doesn’t get any better
All sorts of relays and unseen parts: all new unseen parts that make all the difference in a build like this.

AND…. Finally….all the way from Japan….

TOMEI CAMSHAFTS!!! It’s always a good feeling when you open a box and see tons of crumpled newspaper that is entirely in Japanese.  We have been waiting on these for some time and will now be able to finish the stroked RB28 for this build.  You can see the specs by clicking on the photo below.  Please hold the applause because I will post some more photos of the engine when it is completed.  Thank you for your patience.

We should be expecting a paint update sometime next week once the after-new-year’s reality check rolls in.  Check back.

There are a few more pictures after the read more…

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I was browsing around this morning and saw that 370zblog had released Nissan N.A. pricing for the 370.  This is a quick exerpt from their post and the entire article including a statement from Nissan can be found by clicking the link at the bottom.

From 370zblog:

Nissan have now officially priced the 370z for the US market. The base automatic comes in at $31,230 while the base 6 speed manual version will retail at $29,930 just. The touring version will up that to $34,460 or $35,760 with the 7 speed auto.

Nissan is all about reducing the number of options available to streamline the sales process so at launch only a hard drive navigation option and a sport package is available.

The sport package adds 19″ Rays forged aluminium wheels, front and rear spoilers, viscous LSD, bigger brakes and synchro rev match technology in the 6 speed version. All this for $3,000 extra.

Pretty cool news here.  I can’t wait to get my hands on a base version with the sport package like the blue car that I drove to Las Vegas on the Follow the Nissan Z tour.  Wicked.

Original Post:  370zblog.com

Even though things have been crazy with all of the R&D work we have been doing lately, time has been found to install a few new items on the GT-R and head off to the track!!  The special thing about this particular outing is that it was ONLY for GT-Rs!  Entry was limited to twelve cars and we were lucky enough to make our way into the group.

I would at this point like to mention that we have been working super hard on getting our own ZCG harness bar made and installed in our GT-R.  This track-day is the first time it has seen battle and it worked perfectly.  Our design is much simpler than the competition’s bar (as seen in the AXIS Wheels GT-R) but there will be more on that later on in this post and a follow-up post with pictures tomorrow.

Our day began with Rob, Fred, and myself meeting at the shop in San Jose at 4:30am.  Not much sleep last night.  We packed up our previously prepared “track-day kit” (tools, jack, spare wheels etc.) and headed on our way to Buttonwillow Raceway.  We got to the track at 7:45 and met with the group for a few minutes before the drivers meeting.  Since everyone in the group knew each other, thanks to the small GT-R community, the track rules were fairly easy going and allowed for a ton of freedom.

The plan was to have six cars go out in half hour sessions but as soon as the cars were warmed up they were all out on track.  With such a small group though no one seemed to notice because we would be running track configuration 13 clockwise which has a length of almost 3 miles.  Nice.

Throughout the day cars would pull in and out of the pits as they pleased.  There seemed to be multiple driver, wheel, and camera equipment changes in a few camps besides our own.  It was good to see owners and drivers out and experimenting with the cars.  We personally went through three or four drivers throughout the day and went as far as inviting a professional out for the day to see what our car was capable of in some truly gifted hands.

As you can see from the early photos of the day we were running our one-off set of HRE wheels but tire rubbing issues (due to limited available tire sizes) sidelined the new Nittos we acquired a week earlier.  So after two sessions we were back on the the stock wheels with the OEM Bridgestone run flats.  These tires held up all day in full beat-down sessions without issue.  It’s amazing how professional drivers know how to take care of tires (anyone remember that scene from “Days of Thunder” with Bobby D?)

We managed a best time of 2:02 on the stock wheels and run-flat tires, quite the accomplishment.

Update:  We went through the lap timer this morning and found a 2:00 lap which took place in one of the very last sessions of the day.  How crazy is this car going to be when we get some real rubber?!

Keep reading for the entire event report and more photos.

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We had this beautiful twin-turbo 350z leaving today and the rain was nice enough to stop for a few minutes so that I could get a few pictures.  This car features an APS twin turbo kit with JWT cams and a custom 3″ down-pipes made by us.  It has full Tein coil-overs, Stop-Tech big brake kit up front, and beautiful Volk Racing TE37 wheels.  On street fuel (91 octane here in CA) this car makes over 450hp to the rear wheels.  Awesome.

Unfortunately the Z Car Garage twin-turbo G35 was hit while at a dead stop on US 101 last Tuesday night.  Please do not talk (or text) and drive. The damage to the bumper is obvious but what is underneath is far worse.  As you can see from the photos the main bumper crash structure is completely destroyed along with the bumper support.  The car was hit hard enough that the exhaust was pushed forward and a few of the brackets were broken.  Now we have an exhaust leak and we are hoping that the turbos and manifolds are not damaged.

Don’t worry though, this is somewhat good news!!  We have been wanting to get rid of the tiny 2.25″ Injen system for a long time now and we finally have a reason (and someone else to pay for it!)  Now the plan is to make our own custom system out of 3″ stainless steel.  As far as downpipes are concerned, we were going to use the 3.5″ APS units but there is a chance that we will be making something of our own design here too!!

No decision has been made yet on what rear bumper we are going to run yet (stock or aftermarket) so if you have any suggestions leave a comment and I will look into it.   Hopefully this will be a blessing in disguise and the car will be returned to it’s previous glory as soon as possible.  I’ll put up another post when repairs/mods begin!!