Brian K is an avid Datsun fan and talented machinist. He is also the man behind our Z Car Garage CV Axles. When he’s not enjoying Datsuns, Brian owns/operates KaD Models machine shop in Berkeley, CA. In addition to the fully restored yellow S30 shown above, here are a few cars in his stable:

 

  

We are proud of Brian as his 1967 Nissan Patrol was displayed last weekend at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance! Brian visited Z Car Garage for a few things on his Z including our Big-Brakes for small wheels, door seals and dyno tuning.

Finding the ’72

Let’s start with a brief history of Brian’s 240z. It’s an early ’72 built in 11/71, early enough to still have vertical defrosters and elastic strapped seats. Brian bought the car with the intention of doing a period correct restoration with some current tech modification.

In June of 2016 I found a very good candidate for this build. A factory 112 colored 240z. The car was purchased in Los Altos and driven home. For 5 months I drove the car and made notes of trouble areas. In December I stripped it, sent the body to the body shop and engine to Rebello.

   

Meanwhile I had my 1967 Datsun 2000 to build so I was happy knowing I had storage. The body work took a solid 14 months and the engine was ready in about the same time. The engine is a numbers matching “purists” build making 302hp on the engine dyno. The transmission is a zx 5 speed…a rebuilt Craigslist find:

  

The clean aesthetic and details in the engine bay showcase Brian’s restoration skills:

 

Z Car Garage CV Axles

 

With significantly more power than stock, upgrading the stock half shafts adds piece of mind as well as smoother operation. Power is sent to an open 3.54 R200 courtesy of Junkyard Jenn, and transferred to the rear wheels via Z Car Garage CV Axles. Brian installed the CV axles himself (with our blessing) 🙂 Note the Z story exhaust, more on this later:

  

Brian visits Z Car Garage

Upon completion of my ’67 Datsun 2000 I had the opportunity to meet Rob at ZCG for a dyno tune that Alvin set up. This was my first face to face with their shop. What I found was a lot of Datsun/Nissan passion and a shop that is well presented. I found many similarities in speaking with Rob. When researching brakes for Z cars I found many types…and because of the web I found all sorts of confusing and conflicting arguments. I knew ZCG made a big brake kit but my temporary Konig Rewinds were to be replaced with my still in process 15″ Volk Racing centerlocks.

 

ZCG Big Brakes for Brian’s 240z

A couple months later there was a write up on Glenn Chiou’s Fairlady 240Z-L…this was about big brakes for small wheels and that’s all I needed to hear. From what I know of Rob and ZCG, they don’t sell things until they are sure to perform better than other options with little chance of failure. My car wasn’t yet running but I made an appointment for the install.

Brian came in to ZCG and we installed the ZCG Big Brakes, replacing the factory disc/drum setup:

 

Front:

 

Rear, including the fully-functioning parking brake:

   

A few more detail shots of the 4-wheel discs:

   

Brian also had a few things on his mind and we took care of them:

When I arrived at Zcar Rob asked if there was anything else he should be aware of or I was concerned about. Mind you I had had the car together for all of 8 days and 78 now 134 miles. I gave him a list: Speedo drive is not engaging, precision rubber door seals are making me cry, one stripped rear stud and exhaust hitting things issue.

The Z story exhaust system was hitting the chassis so we re-aligned it eliminate rubbing:

 

ZCG Door Seals

Brian was having trouble with door fitment so we put the ZCG door seals on it:

All doors were aligned to make it open/close nicely. Before/after:

  

Brian was happy with the results and he doesn’t let just anyone work on his cars. Actually, he’s always done it himself:

I was a Honda then Chrysler ASE mechanic prior to becoming machinist. This was the first time I was leaving my car in the hands of another shop aside from Factory maintenance on my late model cars. Was I worried…. slightly. I left though in a loaner. I received pictures throughout the day on status and was invited to pick the car up and run a dyno tune. There were some issues that I was sent away as homework so the dyno tune although showing a healthy 235 whp was full of scatter. 

You can watch the dyno run and hear the Z story exhaust in this video below:

 

Getting Brian back on the road

Brian was heading back to our shop for a quick dyno tune on his way to the Mt. Shasta Datsun Roadster Meet when a last minute setback occurred:

I was invited to return the following Wednesday before the annual Mt Shasta Datsun roadster meet. I’d opted to bring the 112 z and my 67.5 2000. The previous weekend I I had driven many miles, had done a Fun Run had put an additional 600 miles on the car. While running down 880 I was zipping along in 5th gear and just before exiting to ZCG I was in neutral. I knew right away…. someone forgot to stake the nut. It was 730AM and the day was not going well. I arrived at Z car and Rob greeted me and said let’s do this… I said I have bigger problems. 5th isn’t with us anymore but I think the nut backed off and I am pretty sure it’s okay but no dyno. Rob said “ do you want me to yank it and put it back together today?” 

Brian indeed had an early Z 5-speed and they are known to have the mainshaft nut back off resulting in 5th gear loss:

  

We removed and replaced the transmission, got on the dyno at 3pm and put him back on the road to Shasta where the Z won 2nd in its class! Thanks for trusting us to work on your freshly restored beauty. More pictures in the gallery below and you can follow Brian on Instagram. Enjoy The Ride Brian!

For reports on other customer cars running Z Car Garage Big Brakes and CV Axles, please visit the links below:

Z Car Garage Big Brakes
Z Car Garage CV Axles

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Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion here we come! Nissan is the featured marque and we are amped! Z Car Garage is running 5 race cars:
#46 BRE Datsun 240z makes its return with John Morton behind the wheel:

  

#9 Hakosuka and #52 Bluebird and #38 280zx all piloted by Alex Mcdowell:

  

#49 Joel Anderson IMSA GTU 240z returns to RMMR since 2015 with Rob Fuller at the wheel!

Lots of fun events to enjoy during the week, big thanks to Ann from ZONC for making a great schedule so you don’t miss a thing!

 

Here is a video to get you excited, enjoy!

 

 

Z Car Garage is proud to be a sponsor of the 2018 Japanese Classic Car Show 9/15 in Long Beach, CA. We look forward to displaying a shop car at our booth, to be highlighted in a separate post. With JCCS only a month away let’s take a look back at our favorites from last year’s event at the Queen Mary; this year the show will be held across the water in downtown!

 

We apologize for the late coverage, enjoy the pictures and video!

The 2017 Japanese Classic Car Show was held on September 23, in Long Beach, CA. This is the original vintage Japanese-car event in SoCal and in its thirteenth year, JCCS has grown incredibly–some 320+ cars covered the lawn next to the Queen Mary. The vehicles themselves remained a fantastic blend of stock and modified, as well as original and restored. This is the most important show for Japanese cars, and the Z Car Garage crew keeps coming back every year to soak up the sun, see old friends and drool over some spectacular vintage builds.

  

This year, Z Car Garage was invited to display the OS Giken TC24B1Z powered Datsun 240z, in our own booth!

The OS Giken Datsun 240z Goes to JCCS

Before road-tripping down to Socal the fun started with a shop visit from our Oregon pals Diamond Dave, Eric Straw and Michael Spreadbury. They were also heading down to JCCS to show Eric’s freshly restored 1984 “Tekkamen” DR30 Skyline and Diamond’s SR20-powered Miata. Eric kindly donated his enclosed trailer to transport the S30 while he drove the DR30 all the way down to JCCS from San Jose. Before leaving, we dyno’d the Miata and Rob found 30whp+ from the Autech SR20. Diamond was stoked.

    

TC24B1Z Development

You may have seen the TC24B1Z-powered Datsun 240z (The Behemoth) from its debut at SEMA 2015, and Speedhunters coverage:

   

The TC24 in action:

 

Since 2015 we have been updating the drivetrain and fitment of the TC in Gary’s LHD S30. Several key upgrades included a 6-speed transmission, revised exhaust header, Jenvey ITB with EFI and a OS Giken aluminum oil pan.

  

Using a custom adapter from Hoke Performance we installed a new CD009a 6-speed transmission from the 2003 -2008 Z33:

  

On the Rebello engine dyno this setup made 476hp.  Final dyno numbers will be posted shortly as we are still in the tuning phase.  Meanwhile, enjoy the sounds from the new Jenvey induction:

 

Showtime!

We arrived Friday evening to unload the Behemoth and set up our booth, a first-time experience for ZCG at JCCS:

   

The ZCG booth was a success. We met many great Datsun fans and enjoyed talking cars. Big thanks to our buddy Herbert Pang!

 

The TC24 of course was the star, garnering positive feedback and some nice media exposure:

  

We had free ZCG swag for show goers and on display was our new ZCG Big-Brakes for small wheels. Here’s Glenn Chiou checking them out; after a test drive they would be installed on Glenn’s Fairlady 240Z-L.

   

Our friends from JDM Legends approached us with a film crew to discuss the TC24:

 

Little did we know that this informal chat would be part of a segment on the wildly successful JDM Legends TV show! We are so happy for Eric, Josh, Mauricio and the JDML crew. You can see their JCCS visit in Season 1 Episode 5 HERE.

 

Highlights from JCCS

Enjoy this video I made highlighting the sights and sounds of JCCS 2017:

 

Nissan’s return to JCCS

 

The OEMs participated in record numbers this year. That’s right, in addition to Mazda, Toyota and Honda our beloved Nissan participated again since debuting in 2016 with a great showing of rare and unique vehicles from their vault.

Skylines

Here are few of my favorite Nissans and Datsuns, starting with that not-so forbidden fruit commonly known as the hakosuka Skyline. There was no shortage of C10 chassis Skylines this year and my favorite was Rick Ishitani’s restored 1971 2000 GT-X.  A mint interior, correct spec badging, spot-on stance with re-barreled gunmetal Watanabe wheels stuffed under flares set this one off from the rest.

 

In the JDM Legends display, Ginash(from JDM Chicago) showed his RB-swapped 2000 GT-X. We dig the retro-treatment on the valve cover:

    

More C10s:

  

Kenmeri Skylines too!  This ’73 KGC110 owned by Patrick Soliman has an RB26DETT engine with a Precision 6262 turbocharger. This year he was running rare Riverside Super River wheels:

  

DR30 Skylines!

 

Eric’s 1984 “Tekkamen” or “Iron Mask” Skyline is a rotisserrie-restored, RB26DETT- powered, Brembo-braked masterpiece. Eric met up with the Speedhunters crew and SuperStreet for a photoshoot in Long Beach, you can see both articles below:

Congrats Eric!
Speedhunters
Super Street

  

Z Car Extravaganza

 

Z cars from all generations were in full force with cars spanning the tarmac near the Queen Mary to the bayside lawn.  I’m a big fan of subtle modified Z’s but I can also appreciate pristine, bone-stock examples and the occasional shakotan build.

Stock is good: Series 1 S30 and a fully restored RHD FairladyZ:

  

My favorite modified Z car was from JDM Legends:

   

Matt Kochaon’s 240Z on classic SSR meshies and Rick Ishitani’s Hakosuka Skyline GT-X

  

 

Familiar faces: Glenn’s Fairlady 240Z-L, Chris Forsberg’s 280z and the Bring A Trailer Series 1 240z:

Wild Z Cars

 

Saul Valencia’s 1972 Datsun 240Z was loud and brash with its boosted LS1!

 

Z31s were plentiful too! In both stock and modified examples:

  

The Wild Cards Classic Car Show (WCCCS)

The Wild Cards crew had the coolest rides at the show. You can see them all burning rubber at the Hoonigans shop HERE

 

The Nissan S12 chassis has been growing in popularity. Known as the “200sx” stateside there were some cool examples of both hatchback/coupe bodystyles. S130s were also represented:

Datsun Fairlady Roadsters

The Datsun Roadsters were down in numbers from previous years but the selection still wowed the public.

 

Kevin Desirello of KRD Roadsters built this SR20DE powered ’69:

 

   

Bart Desirello’s SR20DET-powered beast:

 
Ray Lim’s ’70 SPL was fully restored to stock spec, with perfectly fitted SSR meshies:

 

Datsun 510s

 

Matt and Maryanne G drove all the way down from San Mateo, CA in their  Turbo 510. Looking awesome now sporting 16″ Panasports! Matt won 1st place best 510, Congrats!

 

I’ve drooled over of Wild Cards member John Ross Huckins’ 1972 Datsun 510 wagon since we first saw it at JCCS many years ago. It has a 4-link rear end, built SR20DET and tons of neat touches. You can see more on Speedhunters HERE

 

EQUIP 40 wheels and Tartan fabric Recaro seats:

 

This year felt like an incredible number of Dimes were displayed!

      

And finally, Todd Kaneko’s 13B turbo powered Dime with Brembos and VOLK RE30s:

 

More Dime goodness, JDM-L’s Bluebird Coupe:

   

Not a Dime

But extremely rare, cool and placed next to the 510s was this Nissan Laurel. Only at JCCS, people!

 

 

Dogs Love Trucks!

Datsun trucks were kind of scattered about the park area. Jose Tarin’s 521 sported a Toyota BEAMS engine while Jason Taylor’s had an S14 SR20DE:

   

 

Mazda

Mazda commemorated the 50th anniversary of the rotary-engine vehicles. Racing Beat of Signal Hill, California  joined in by several of their memorable rotary powered vehicles.

 

   

Toyota

Toyota always has a huge corporate involvement and brought an assortment of race cars.  This year felt like the AE86s and Celicas were not as numerous but Celica-Supras and Cressidas were sweet!

  

Great showing of RA29 (Liftback) Celicas! The red car had perfect, meaty fitment on Epsilons meshies. Actually, all 3/4 of these Liftbacks sported some variation of mesh wheel…I dig it:

  

My favorite Celica though was his Pro-Street’d beast:

   

This AE86 Corolla had an OEM+ feel:

 

 

Honda

The Neo Classics Hondas were my favorite:

 

Wheels For Fantasy

I personally love going to JCCS because I get to see very rare Japanese/tuner wheels and parts. Preservation of authentic wheels and appreciation of the time and effort spent to find certain specimens that most folks have never heard of in this generation is what I admire most.   My favorite wheel at JCCS: SSR Casablanca 8 on Tommy D’s Starlet:

 

Variations on the mesh wheel from BBS, Epsilon, SSR, Volk, Bahn and more. You can’t go wrong! SSR EX-C below:

 

More Mesh goodness:

     

Many more pictures from JCCS in the gallery!

I was lucky to ride in Eric’s DR30 from Long Beach to San Jose with Michael Spreadbury at the wheel. It was a blast!

 

Thank You JCCS!

It is difficult to run a car show and keep up the quality and interest levels but the folks at JCCS have managed to do exactly that for 13 years! No other show gives you the chance to see obscure, pristine, modified Japanese classics…and we look forward to next year’s entrants. We hope you have enjoyed our coverage and please visit our mega-gallery for more pictures. Special thanks to the ZCG crew, Diamond Dave, Eric Straw and Michael Spreadbury for an amazing weekend. See you September 15 for the 14th Annual JCCS!

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Yesterday we dyno tuned Glenn Chiou and Taz Harvey’s B-Sedan Datsun 510 race cars. Both will be running at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion in just a few weeks!

 

Glenn is an avid Datsun enthusiast having owned and raced several cars. You might remember his VIPS 240z vintage race car from the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion last year where he ran it alongside our hero John Morton. We also dyno-tuned the Z in preparation for race week. Look for #39 at this year’s RMMR!

 

Taz is a veteran Datsun racer, having completed the Carrera Panamericana in both a 240z and 510, built by our friend Troy Ermish. You might find the #51 510 familiar as the previous owner was Wayne McAttee!

 

Like all race cars that get dyno’d at ZCG, these 510s left with more power and peace of mind! Enjoy the dyno video below and listen to the L-series sing!

 

 

Love for the Z is strong in Northern California

The Z Owners of Northern California (ZONC) hosted their Annual Car Show in Brisbane, CA on July 28, 2018. Attendance was down from last year’s show, but didn’t stop Nissan/Datsun fans from bringing out their rides on a warm Saturday.

 

 

This was a relaxed, relatively small gathering of enthusiasts that I joined with my Datsun Roadster. I left San Jose and drove ~40minutes just past SFO to the Brisbane Marina. I stopped for a quick photo op near my office before rolling into the show after 10am:

 

    

Highlights from the show

Still to this day, 240Zs are the most represented model in the club. Expansion over time currently includes all recent Z models and the GT-R, but also reaches back in time to include the Datsun Roadsters and 510s.  37 cars were displayed this year, each one of them special and showing pride of ownership. The only models missing from the show was the S130 280zx and GT-R.

 

From showroom stock to wildly-modified the S30 selection was diverse. This was a wild one: an IMSA-bodied Z!

  

Two showrooom-stock examples:

  

Check out the period EMPI split-rim wheels on this Safari Gold S30:

 

Modified Z’s with trick suspensions, triple side-draft Mikuni’s/Weber’s and modern paint schemes. This Sunshine Yellow Z was the only car sporting fender flares:

 

A solo 1970 Series1 Z:

    

260z and 280z

ZCG customer Joe A showed his pretty 260z (full report on the blog soon):

  

Linda W’s 1978 280z

 

 

Winning Best 280z and Best of Show was this ultra-clean fully restored example:

 

People

  

We like this show because of the laid-back atmosphere and good folks that organize it. There was a great raffle, awards presentation and having banners for each model was a touch of genius. The banners will be displayed that will be carried on at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion next month!

Z32

  

4 Z32 300zx cars were displayed, all in different colors. Joe K and Kevin N’s Z32 Twin Turbos are both top-level examples of highly modified yet tasteful machines.

   

Old-school Racing Hart wheels house massive Brembo calipers on Kevin’s silver beauty:

  

Z31

 

 

The lone Z31 300zx was a 1984 Anniversary Turbo model!

Z33

 

Five 350z and 1 Z Roadster were in attendance. It was a pleasure seeing ZCG customer Dan Fulton and his track-prepped 350z:

  

Z34

6 370z cars including 1 wild NISMO Z:

 

510s

 

Three Datsuns 510s showed up, each sporting different powerplants and body styles. The crowd favorite (and winner) was Matt’s 510. This boosted KA24DE Dime also won Best Paint:

  

Jose’s SR-pwoered 4-door with an S13 SR20DET (note S13.5 valve cover!) 18″ SSR SP3 wheels and Brembo brakes from MArio of TSR:

 

The last time I saw Jose we both attended the Spocom Show in 2015. Since then he has added many titanium parts to the engine bay from ChasingJ’s and had the SR tuned by our friend Sebastian at SpecialtyZ. It’s now making 410whp!

 

The RL411 Bluebird

Our customer Kevin M brought his 1967 411 sedan, we will have a full story on this build soon!

Roadsters

 

This year we had three Datsun Roadsters. My 1967.5 SPL/SR20, Dave Premo’s 1967 2000 and John Baker’s 1969 2000. Dave’s SRL is car #406 finished in Turquoise sporting a full Mikuni-Solex “competition” package and 4:11 rear end. He is also Solex-tuning expert offering Mikuni parts and service:

  

John Baker’s 69 SRL is a concours-level example with rare parts like a day/night mirror.  The diminutive 5.60 bias-ply tires look just right! This roadster was featured in Automobile Magazine with John Morton behind the wheel!

   

A few more of the cool details. John won Best Roadster!

  

I had to get some rolling shots of this roadster, it looks so good on the road!

 

Vanity plates

It’s no secret Z car owners have the best vanity plates! Some notables:

 

Parking lot finds

The beautiful venue is also a public park so plenty of folks stopped by to check out the Z’s. I spotted two S-chassis rolling through:

   

See you next year!

Spending the day at the ZONC Annual Car Show was a welcome experience that reminded us to, in the words of the late Mr.K, ” Love cars. Love people. Love Life.”  We look forward to the next show keep an eye on our event updates and Z you soon! Don’t forget to check out our picture gallery below. Big thanks to the ZONC organizers!

 

 

 

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