Happy Monday to everyone!

Today we are putting the finishing touches on the 3.8L 350z with the GReddy twin turbo kit and I am getting very anxious to take that beast out on the road.  All that is really left is some fine tuning on the Haltech EMS.  On the initial rundown and test drive the fuel map turned out to be quite rich and needed a touch up in the mid-range.  Even with the rich condition, the car is very powerful and has immense amounts of low-end torque.  I don’t have any dyno figures yet because we are updating our Dynojet hardware to make sure that everything is as new as it can be to give our customers the best and most reliable results.  We’ll have to settle for street tuning until the new dyno tower arrives.

Also on the war path for today is the red 280ZX restoration car.  I’ll be picking up the newly dyed interior pieces a little later today and the car should really start flying together.  This project has been with us for a very long time and it’s going to be a little strange once it all comes together.  I washed it this morning and ended up standing there admiring all the work and time that we’ve put into it.  It’s really a special car and we can’t wait to deliver it to the owners.

I have a few more things to fill you in on so check back a bit later in the day!

I’m going to start this off with all the photos that somehow relate to ZCG and what we do here.  The next set of photos after the “read more” are going to be of other cool and not so cool things that were seen.

The show seemed to be smaller this year but maybe it was just the sense of imminent doom in the auto industry.  Spectator turnout was lower than normal for the weekend but Saturday afternoon was absolutely packed, maybe everyone carpooled?

Overall the event was a great sucess for us.  All of the stickers and most of the flyers would dissappear everytime we bent back to check on the cars.  We are spreading the word of the Z.  Thanks again to all the owners who loaned us their beautiful cars.

Click below for way more pics

…[read more]

At Motoring J Style earlier this year we were lucky enough to be pulled aside by a writer (Telly Sahara) and photographer (Akio Hirano) for Vintage Auto magazine published by Lightning.  They were very interested in shooting both the ZCG RB 240z and 510.  We were happy to oblige and a meeting time for the next day was set!

When we met the next morning they began to take shots of the entire shop along with some of the other vintage cars that we store for ourselves and customers.  We then set out on a mission to find a few suitable locations to shoot the two “Go Green” Datsuns.  They wanted to keep to the green theme and luckily I knew where we could find the most well manicured grass this side of a Montecito golf course.  The only thing stopping us from shooting there were three large concrete pylons made to prevent this exact thing.  Lucky for us, Datsuns are extremely skinny vehicles!  Picture SUCCESS!

Next we went to a nearby condominium complex that has a nice round-about.  We were able to jam up traffic for the next few hours while we positioned the cars in every position possible.  The photos that came out of this set look great and were well worth the effort.

After returning to the shop the photographer asked Rob if he could drive the 510.  Wow, he has more courage than I do.  Rob never lets anyone drive his 510 (usually only shop employees), but he felt in his huge Datsun heart that it was the right thing to do.  And it turns out that he owns a high horsepower N/A SR20 510 in Japan that he uses for drifting.  They came back about twenty minutes later with huge smiles on their faces.

Good times were had by all on this day, and it was well worth the trip from Japan.

Sorry but I couldn’t find any links for an offfical site for Vintage Auto.  Your best bet to find this issue is to go to your local Japanese book store.  Happy hunting.

Please give me a few moments today to go through all the photos from the road trip with the 370z.   The pictures are amazing.  Check back in a few
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Z Car Garage is once again in the spotlight with a beautifully restored 240z.  In the November issue of Sport Compact Car there is an article titled “Zip Code” featuring Kurt Ikerd’s Z.  Throughout the five page spread is a well done write up and some amazing photos taken by the infamous E. John Thawley III.  This issue is worth buying for this article alone.

Within the last week this car is beginning a new phase in it’s life.  The wheels have been changed and the entire drive train has been removed.  Kurt and the entire Z Car Garage crew has huge plans for this car in the near future so stay tuned right here as I will be documenting the entire rebuild.  All I have to say is wow.

Note:  These photos are just a few that I have taken this year, THEY ARE NOT FROM THE ARTICLE.  John Thawley’s are much nicer.  ENJOY

Sport Compact Car Magazine

John Thawley, Motorsports Photographer