Commuter Week continues at Z Car Garage. We take average transportation and make it exciting! Chris C hails from from San Francisco, CA. He commutes in his Infiniti FX35 that we performed several upgrades to last year:
Based on our service with the FX he asked us to step out of our comfort zone and take care of his fiancee’s Ford Edge. We happily obliged. With 84k mies on the coloc came in for a little refresh including new tires, springs, shocks, brake pads and address a few nagglish issues she’s had.
KYB shocks up front/rear with H&R lowering kit. The springs drop ride height by 1.75″/1.5″, respectively:
Stoptech brake pads front/rear but not our usual favorite “309” item. Instead we used the Stoptech “105” pad which is made for daily driver usage. Note the huge fender gap at stock ride height:
After the H&R lowering kit the Edge looks great, here is a before/after:
We love to help folks improve their ride so they can Enjoy The Ride!
It is no secret that Z Car Garage is known as the dyno house for vintage race cars in the Bay Area. Since 2015 we have been following Glenn Chiou’s heroic restoration of the #39 race car piloted by Loren St. Lawrence in the 1970’s. The best part, to us, is that Glenn is doing the restoration by himself and with the help of several key Datsun folks like Troy Ermish and Les Cannaday at CDM.
Being an automotive enthusiast of meticulous nature, Glenn took the hard road of replicating this vintage race car as if it were built in the 1970’s, right down to the exact livery. No easy task! You can follow the restoration in detail on his blog HERE.
Glenn’s goal was to run the car at Sears Point/Sonoma Raceway in June. With race day fast approaching and his first time out on the track with his completed Z, he wanted to make sure the engine was running safely. ZCG stepped in with dyno tuning to ensure his A/F and timing were correct:
Here is the dyno run, she sounded healthy!
Glenn’s first race day at Sears Point was successful and drama-free!
We are happy to report that Glenn also ran the Z at PIR a few days ago with a podium finish…38 years later on the same track his car was raced in 1977!
Glenn, we admire you and your passion to keep the spirit of racing Datsuns alive. Thank you for bringing #39 back to life and thanks for bringing her to the shop.
Daniel M came to ZCG to add a few touches to his commuter: a 2007 Infiniti G35 sedan. With 69k on the clock we installed a Stillen Gen. 2 cat-back exhaust system, UPREV tuning and Hotchkis sway bars.
Before/after of the Stillen cat-back exhaust system:
The exhsust looks and sounds great:
UPREV tuning yielded gains of 9hp/7tq to the wheels:
The popular classic car insurance provider Hagerty features Z Car Garage this week on their site. Take a glimpse of the shop through the lens of photographer Courtney Cutchen and read about Rob’s history with Z cars in the article HERE.
Big thanks to Hagerty and Courtney and… Long Live The Z!
Filed under: Events
by Alvin G @ 2:05 pm on July 5, 2016
If you are a fan of vintage racing come out to Laguna Seca August 19-21 for the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. Interested in VIP Car Corral passes for your Nissan/Datsun/Infiniti? Please see flyer below for more information. The car corral pass allows you to park with fellow enthusiasts and it is literally footsteps away from the track and venue, unlike general parking. See you there!
