If you were wondering where the 350z that you have seen lapping Thunderhill, Laguna Seca (twice), and which received a MotorDyne single exhaust has gone….. it blew up!  This car has seen HARD use at the track since the first day of his life and the engine finally let go.  It looks like the crown above the rings on cylinder five had just had enough and decided to bounce around the chamber for awhile.

A “new” VQ35DE was sourced and swapped in with all the goodies that were taken off the old engine.  We then went off to the dyno and we seemed to have found seven more horsepower and eight ft-lbs of torque at the wheels.  Unfortunately the track-day season is mostly over but keep your eyes peeled for this car in your mirrors at the first events on the calendar next year.  DOOT!!

Many of you know the huge impact that Mr. K has had on our lives.  For those who don’t, Mr. K is the person responsible for the both the original Datsun 240z and 510.  Holding those credentials makes him a very important person in my book.  So when I came across an article on Autoblog the other day I was astonished to read that he preferred driving his Nissan Versa over the 350z that he owns or even the new 370z!!

Most of his feelings seem to stem from the fact that modern day sports cars have gotten too heavy and are now overly controlled by computer systems.  At one point he goes on to mention that the Mazda Miata is more of what a modern 240z should be like.

Another point that he makes against modern Z cars is that they have gotten too expensive.  The high price point really drives away the customers that the Z was initially designed for.  The original 240z had an MSRP just over $4,000 back in the early seventies before options, now the price can regularly top $40K!!  I can see his point.

The article goes on to mention that he would like to see the “Datsun” moniker return to future sporty cars from Nissan.  I haven’t really thought of Datsun ever coming back, but why shouldn’t it!?  It would be a great way for Nissan to branch out and offer cars at a lower price point in the future, sort of like what Toyota did with Scion.  Seemed to work pretty well for them.  Maybe we will see a lightweight sedan come back to the market and channel some vintage 510 styling.  I’d buy a couple of those, rear drive of course.

Thoughts?

Side note:  Mr. K’s 100th birthday was on the 15th of this month, so happy belated B-day to him.  He’s still a feisty old dog isn’t he!?  Good for him.

Source:  Autoblog.com by way of Autonews.com

Image source:  Chicago Sun-Times

We have done a couple of these modifications before to other HR equipped 350Zs with great results.  This round of upgrades differs in two areas.  First off, this is the first set of headers that we have done on an HR car, and secondly, this car is an automatic.

The other changes we made to the car were the tried and true Injen intake system and a pair of Stillen high-flow catalytic converters, both of which we have installed on numerous cars that have come through the shop.  Both of these parts have made nice gains in the past so we pretty much knew what to expect here.

Looking at the dyno graph you can see that the automatic transmission is certainly using up a little more power than in the manual cars but the power gains are more than noticeable.  The car is now more powerful throughout the entire rev range and the torque curve in the middle is now gonna give that push in the back that we all love when you stab the throttle.

I have a feeling that we will be seeing this car again for another round of modifications.  Now that we are an Up-Rev software retailer maybe we will get the chance to play with the fuel and timing tables to get the car where it needs to be.  We can’t wait to get the chance.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Treasure Island meet last weekend.  I was so happy to see the twenty-ish cars at the shop to make the drive together.  Also thanks to everyone who helped set up and organize the event and to Rob who was nice enough to provide doughnuts and coffee for everyone in the morning as well as the raffle prizes (dyno pulls and shop gift certificates.)

It was a real blast to see all of these Zs on the road.  I ended up not driving so that I could ride with Rob and take pictures.  He had taken the T-tops out of his 300zx twin turbo which made for some great photo opportunities and an even better sun burn for me, haha.  Treasure island was a bit chilly but the good conversations about Zs kept my mind off of it.

I will be posting some information on another get-together real soon, so I hope to see you all then.  Enjoy all the pictures after the read-more!!

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I want to start off by thanking everyone who showed up for the ZONC Z Car Corral on Saturday.  It was a pleasure to see all of you!!

The weather was perfect early on Saturday and I was pleased to see that we had 8 cars a the shop ready to join us on our caravan down to Laguna Seca to meat up with the rest of the group.   Unfortunately the most of the drive to the track takes place on Highway 101 so there isn’t much room for spirited driving, we still managed to get to the track in under an hour and a half.

Once arriving it seems like the rest of the car clubs enjoy getting up much earlier than ours did because all of the other corrals from Porsche, BMW, Ferrari, and others were already nearly at capacity.  Porsche had the most cars by far, easily understandable because they were the featured marque this year.  When will it be Nissan/Datsun’s time!?!?  Are you gonna show up when it happens?  I sure am.

While the practice sessions were underway in the morning hours we walked the paddock area in search for automotive gold.  There are amazing cars at every turn at this event, and you don’t even need your sense of sight to appreciate them.   I can’t even count the times that our group stopped by a running car just to listen to the engine note and to smell the burning race fuel.

After lunch we settled into our seats just outside of turn four to enjoy the racing.  While we appreciate the older racing cars that were up for the first few races, we were simply patiently waiting for the last two races of the day which were the 1964-1971 FIA Mfg. Championship cars (mainly Porsche 917s) and the 1981 -1990 FIA Mfg. Championship cars and the IMSA GTP cars.

You can imagine that when seriously priceless cars are raced that the track time is little more than glorified pace laps,  NOT TRUE!!!!  The cars were wheel to wheel in every sense and there was certainly rubbin and bumpin going on.  The drivers wanted to win, after all when would all of these cars ever be on track again together?  It was truly a sight to behold.

I have found a video of the winner of the IMSA GTP race and it can be viewed after the “read more”.  The video is taken from inside the pilot’s driver’s helmet.  I want one of these cars.  There is also a gallery of the photos that I took on Saturday (the only day I attended unfortuantely.)  I will try to find photos from Sunday from someone who attended.  Hopefully we can get our group numbers a little bit higher next year to show how much support is out there for Nissan/Datsun products.  See you there.

(the photo below was of a really clean 240z that was just sitting by itself in the vendor’s area, we had to check it out.  haha)

Complete gallery and video after the ‘read more’

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