Shop Talk for
Z-Car enthusiasts!

Click here to go to the Z Car Garage home page...Click here to go to the Z Car Blog home page...
Performance Parts for Nissan, Inifiniti and Datsun Cars
Search:

Lennie’s 500hp Honda S2000

Filed under: Featured Cars and Projects,Performance
by Alvin G @ 10:05 pm on October 15, 2012


Lennie came to ZCG to troubleshoot his supercharged AP2 Honda S2000. He even installed the blower himself with the following supporting mods:

SOS S/C kit w/Novi Paxton 1200 oil-fed blower
3″ Reichard Racing UltraGrip pulley
AEM EMS 1052U
ID2000s
FBM hanger (dual FB340 pumps) with stock feed kit
Fuel Lab 6 micron fuel filter
InlinePro fuel rail
AEM FPR
-6AN SS fuel return line
Peterson Breather can
Dual diverter valves (Forge Splitter and TurboSmart Kompact)
Berks test pipe
Stock exhaust
Stock exhaust manifold
Stock internals

Rob and the ZCG crew helped solve the problem, tracing it back to a spark issue. Now it was ready to roll on the dyno:


This little Honda roadster put down some impressive numbers: 491hp/319tq at the wheels! Not bad for a 2.2L 4-cylinder. Gotta love that 8400rpm rev too:

Here is a video clip of the dyno run, enjoy!





Canepa Cars & Coffee Pictures

Filed under: Events
by Alvin G @ 7:27 pm on October 13, 2012

Today we gathered a small group of vintage Datsuns and visited Cars and Coffee hosted by Canepa Design. Our drive started from ZCG and took us through the beautiful winding highway 17 up to Scotts Valley.
We had 12 cars in our caravan including three S30 Z-cars, Matt’s Turbo 510, three roadsters, VW bug, Sprite, TR-6 and Gary’s Skyline.

Here is a short video of the ride capturing most of the cars from inside Rob’s  RB25DET-powered 240z:

When we arrived, Canepa’s parking lot was packed with exotics and plenty of eye candy. A few cars that caught my eye included a Gullwing Benz, Ariel Atom, Hertz Mustang, Peter’s Skyline, and a pretty Alfa Giulietta:

Canepa was kind of enough to open the entire shop and museum to the public. Jaws dropped and minds were blown as folks toured the facility…

This Ferrari-powered Gatto had a sexy body and one of the most exquisite interiors I have ever seen:

Back to the parking lot there were more hidden gems to be found. This Sprite had something different under its bonnet: a 20V Toyota 4AGE drivetrain!

We had a great time visiting Canepa and look forward to more Cars and Coffee events here. Thanks to all that made the drive up to Scotts Valley! Don’t forget to check the gallery for more pictures!

On the drive back I spotted a caged Miata with helmet-wearing drivers…any idea who these masked crusaders are?  🙂

…[read more]





Trick Pony Update: More Power!

Filed under: Featured Cars and Projects,Performance
by Alvin G @ 10:45 pm on October 10, 2012


When we last reported on Jeff V’s Mustang GT, ZCG had installed coil-over suspension and a Vortech blower with great results. The ‘Stang turned the ZCG rollers to 535hp/461tq at the wheels:


Jeff came back to finish the suspension off with sway bars and get even more power with a cold-air intake, fuel pump upgrade and tuning.  Here are the new sways with endlinks:

Cold-air intake:

After fuel pump upgrades and tuning Jeff’s Mustang now makes just over 600rwhp!





David’s Nismo Z34

Filed under: 370z,Featured Cars and Projects,Performance
by Alvin G @ 9:30 pm on October 7, 2012

David D came to ZCG for several upgrades on his Nismo 370z. The car already had a GTM Supercharger and VOLK CE28N wheels finished in Mag. Blue.

A full Berk cat-back exhaust was installed. Here are the mufflers, mid-pipes and crossover:

Installed:

The Z got a new clutch and Z Speed T/O bearing:

Finally, Hotchkis sway bars front and rear:

I love the CE28Ns on the Z34!

 





24hrs of LeMons Report

Filed under: Events
by Alvin G @ 10:18 am on October 4, 2012


Here is Tom R’s report from his 24hrs of LeMons race experience last month, enjoy!

To do well at 24 Hours of Lemons racing you need a variety of things: Reliability, decent speed, decent drivers, no severe penalties, strategy, and some degree of luck. On September 15th and 16th, “The Tartan Brigade” took our 1980 280zx to Thunderhill Raceway for a third attempt at glory. To be clear, we recognize that we are all mid-level drivers, and a class win is likely not in the cards for us regardless of the car we are driving. However, our goals are always to finish in a respectable position, in one piece, and with a big smile on our faces. We achieved two of these goals, but failed pretty miserably in terms of position. The escapade went something like this.

The weather at Thunderhill in September is bound to be unforgiving, with daytime temperatures consistently in the mid 90’s, and the only flowing water visible being that leaking from some poor sap’s exploded radiator. So it was with no great surprise that from midday on Friday, during the practice session, we knew we were in for a battle as we had to be towed off the track for the first time (of four times throughout the weekend) as the car lost all power while driving down the back straight. Still plucky and filled with questionable optimism, we tentatively diagnosed the problem as being caused by a failing ignition module. We swapped it out for a spare we brought, but my confidence in it was immediately shaken by the unmistakable Sharpie lettering on it: “Good?” Low and behold, by the time Friday’s practice day was over, we had received our second tow of the weekend, and began to worry that we might be looking down the barrel of a black-flag solely for being on a first name basis with the tow truck driver. With the sobering thought that the race could be an abject failure for us soaking into our minds, I wandered through the pits, practically on my knees, begging any fellow racers to share with us any excess flexible ducting they may have such that we could get some more “cold” 97F air to the ignition module come race day. And, sure enough, the Lemons spirit of camaraderie prevailed as a team running a late 80s RX7 was kind enough to hand over 4’ feet of dryer ducting. As though it were as valuable as gold, we used all the key Lemons-specific tools to mount the ducting in place (tin snips, zip ties and duct tape, only JB Weld going un-used in this case.) Looking like we had somehow run over a silver elephant’s trunk, we now had what we hoped would prove to be our salvation…

At 9am on Saturday morning, the butterflies were working overtime in each of our stomachs, a mixture of boyish enthusiasm and utter dread that our “fixes” may not have done the trick to keep our baby cool and operational. We waited as long as possible to get our car on the starting grid to minimize the chance of overheating the ignition module before even seeing the green flag… …[read more]





« Newer ArticlesOlder Articles »