This is a two part series because we attended two different shows on the same trip.  I simply have too many pictures for one huge post.  This first installment includes the drive from Z Car Garage in San Jose, CA to Solvang, CA where the annual Roadster show is held.

This year we decided to take our new 370z on it’s first road trip along with the recently completed 1982 Datsun 280zx 2+2 non-turbo restoration car.  Both cars were still receiving their finishing touches right before the trip so we were anxious to get them on the road to see how they would perform.  The ZCG 370z had taken on some massive changes in an effort to enter it in the Modified 370z class at MSA, all of the modifications can be found HERE.  The 280zx restoration is a completely different story.  This is a car that has been taken back to completely stock in almost every area and better than stock in all the others, and it was up to me to get it through the weekend in one piece and maybe even bring home a trophy for the owners.

We left the shop pretty much right on time, strange for us, and got on our way with a group of six cars: the ZCG 370z, the 280zx restoration, two nicely modified 350Zs, and two 240Zs that have been shown love in all the right places.  Three old and three new, good to go.  The weather was perfect on the ride down and all the cars performed flawlessly all the way to Solvang.

A restored 1982 280zx 2+2 non-turbo isn’t what you would expect to take on a road trip of this sort, especially if you know anything about Z Car Garage.  We love turbos, torque, horsepower, high revs, and the smell of an uncorked exhaust on 100 octane.  This car is about none of those things.  First, the car is totally stock. Stock engine, stock suspension, stock brakes, everything.  So it goes without saying that it won’t be setting any sort of records around Nürburgring.  Second: Included in the stock parts list is a 3-speed automatic transmission, great.  This puts the (rev limited) max speed  of this car somewhere in the range of 105-110 mph, not that I could really tell at that point because the speedo is limited to 80.  How in the world am I going to keep up with all of these other modified cars.

In reality I had nothing to fear.  Everyone in our caravan was quite responsible on the way down and it allowed me to relax a little and enjoy breaking in the 280zx.  This car is a roadtripper’s dream!  It drives so comfortably that you have no trouble seeing why these cars were so popular when they came out, they truly were one of the nicest cars on the road.  On to Solvang.

The Solvang show is one of the largest gatherings of Datsun Roadsters in the country and you can always expect a few crazy innovations every year.  2009 was the year of the turbo’d Roadster.  There were turbos bolted onto everything from the stock U series engine all the way to the newest SR20DET engines out of S15 Silvias that were never even brought to the case.

Many of you know that Z Car Garage had a hand in restoring and modifying one of our good friend’s Roadsters and placing a modern SR20 engine in it some years ago.  I am happy to report that he once again brought home a 1st place trophy in the “Modified 1600” class.  Congrats Alvin!!!

The best of show honors went to the Michael Spreadbury built SR20DET monster of a car.  As always he and the Spriso crew have brought new technology and innovative engineering solutions to the Roadster world.  Nice job gentlemen.

Back to the trip…
After walking around the show for awhile and talking to some of you loyal readers we headed into town to grab some local grub.  Eye spy with my little eye a Nissan R32 GT-R, the real deal.  I walk up to the car and instantly recognize it as a car that I have seen at a few events in years past at Laguna Seca.  We take pictures and move on with a smile after seeing a beautiful GT-R.  Next on our rare car sightings list is a late fifties Ford Fairlane with the RARE “Skyliner” retractable hardtop option.  The owner was even nice enough to put it trough its paces for us.  Very cool, and the engineering alone is worth the price of admission.

We then gather our group of now four cars, the 240Zs were going to stay awhile longer, and we get on the road towards LA and our hotel for the night.   MSA 2009 is waiting for us on the other side of dawn….

Part 2 is coming soon….  click on the ‘read more’ below to see all of the pictures.

…[read more]

It’s Saturday morning here in rainy northern California and I am here with Rob at the shop.  I’m tired of getting angry emails about how the blog hasn’t been touched since we got back from MSA last weekend (Just kidding, we love to hear your thoughts.)  I’ve been working out in the shop all week but have dedicated this morning to updating the blog.  The posts that I’m preparing will be spread out over the next week or so.  Here’s what I’m working on, in no particular order:

ZCG 370z: We have performed a full on assault on the shop 370z and we took home first place in the 370z Modified class.  It now has an intake, cat-back exhaust, springs, and upgraded brakes.  The post will have all the details as well as dyno run information.  This will be the first post that I put up today.

Solvang Roadster Show:   This took place last Saturday before we headed to Orange, CA for the MSA show.  This will include photos from the start of our trip and the all the Roadsters and other cool Datsuns at the show.  There were some pretty amazing cars there and ZCG’s own Alvin G. took home top honors in the Modified 1600 Fairlady class!! Congrats!

Motorsport Auto Show 2009:  The largest gathering of Zs on the West Coast!  The show was amazing and the weather was perfect.  We were surprised to see how many people showed up to display their cars with the current state of the economy and all.  I’ll have some neat background stories of some of the people we met and the cars they brought.  Good times.

GT-R:  The ZCG sponsored GT-R came back to the shop last Tuesday and it has left again.  It’s funny how the car we support spends the least time at our shop.  After a few short days of damage control and a whole lot of hustle the car is off to LA to take place in the Gumball 3000 Rally all the way to Miami.  This post will contain information on most of the upgrades that have been performed over the past week.

Laguna Seca 350z Video 2:  The second installment of some track footage of time spent at Laguna Seca.  Enjoy the Video because that will pretty much be the entire post.  On second thought I may post a list of up-coming track events on this post so that all of our readers can find out how and when to join in on the fun.

350z Borla Header Install and Dyno Results:  I will have all the dyno information as well as over-all thoughts on this header install posted.  Some nice results from a well designed product.

240z Engine Rebuild:  The engine came back from the machine shop last week and I have spent a few hours this week prepping and painting the engine as well as gathering parts for the completion of this job.  I will have photos and hopefully a dyno number for this new engine.

G35 Twin Turbo Custom Gauge Install:  This system is awesome!!  I took a video of the gauges at work and it still doesn’t do it justice.  If the ZCG G35 didn’t have navigation this would be going in our car.  We double checked the boost and AFR gauges and they are incredibly accurate.  Good stuff.

Behemoth RB28 Engine Returns!!! After waiting for parts from Japan for the past few months, the stroked RB28 destroyer has come back to the shop.  Now we will be painting the block to give it the “show” to match its “go.”  We will also be installing all of the N1 factory Nissan race parts in final assembly.

370z Intake and Exhaust Modifications:  We had another car come in this week and we were able to perform the same mods that our shop 370z currently has and then some.  I have full dyno comparisons as well as a ton of photos for this car.  Thanks Tom, blue is the best color.

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST!!!!!

Cosworth Plenum Dyno Results!!!!! Some of you may have thought that I forgot about this post but I needed to wait for the proper time to relase the information that we have discovered on our dyno!!  This post is bound to upset a few people….

I have updated the “For Sale” page to show that we have sold the 2003 350z Touring.   If you would like to post your car for sale here on ZCarBlog.com please contact Rob Fuller:  rob@zcargarage.com

I will also have a brand new post on the ZCG 370z tomorrow.   We have made some more modifications and have sorted out one of the issues that we had at the track event at Thunderhill two weeks ago.  It’ll be nice to get this car back on the open road again down to the MSA show this weekend.

There is also a post coming about a 350z which received a plethora of upgrades including a Vortech supercharger, StopTech BBK, etc. at Z Car Garage about a week ago.  I will have a ton of pictures and dyno graphs to accompany this post.

Have a great Tuesday!

ZCG

That’s right friends, it’s time for the annual Motorsport Auto Show.   This is the largest gathering of Zs from all years on the west (best) coast and possibly the country!!

Z Car Garage and ZCarBlog.com will be making the trek to the mecca of Z shows this weekend down in Orange, CA.  This show gladly accepts all year Z Cars and has a trophy category for almost every variation of Z, stock and modified.  We will be taking the ZCG 370z on it’s maiden road trip along with one other Z Car Garage show car that is TBA at this point.  I just don’t want to commit to any certain car in writing until I know for a fact what we will be taking.

This show really is one of the standout events of the year and promises to set the bar again in 2009.  I will be posting photos of ANYTHING of interest so make sure to check back in by early next week to see all the Nissan/Datsun madness.

Rob, Meghan, and myself will be representing ZCG so if you see us make sure to say hi.  Yes, I know that this post is a bit ‘last minute’ but I wasn’t sure we were even going until yesterday, I’ll be posting any future events as soon as I am aware so that all of the Z Car Garage faithful have plenty of time to plan.

For now here are a few pictures that I have borrowed from the MSA website to share with you the quality of cars that attend this show.  ENJOY!

LINK:   Motorsport Auto Show website

I have updated the for sale page which now shows that our amazing Datsun 1200 has found a good new home.  I believe that one of the other cars has also been sold, I will verify this by tomorrow and update everything.

If you would like to post a car or other Z related parts please contact Rob Fuller through email: rob@zcargarage.com

In other news we are coming really close to finishing the Red 280zx 2+2 restoration.  There are a few big shows coming up and the plan is to show the car as much as we can until it is delivered to the owners.  Rob and Fred have really put in some long hours to make sure that the final build is as close to perfection as possible.  Now it’s time to show some results!!

The Behemoth RB28 build is still progressing at William’s Autobody and the engine is still waiting on a few final parts from Japan before it gets sealed up before assembly.  We can’t wait to get going and I’m sure the owner is just as anxious.

There are also a couple of other engine jobs that should be done in the next couple of weeks so look for a few pictures and some dyno results on those projects.  There are a couple of Z32TT 300zx cars as well as a freshly built L28 that will be going into a 240z that has been some time in the making.

On the 370z front we will be installing the new Eibach springs in our shop 370z in the next few days.  I will have photos and a driving report when this takes place.  I will also post an update on the modifications and repairs after our “track day issues” that took place last weekend at Thunderhill Raceway with Speed Ventures.

That’s all for this Tuesday/Thurday update.  Please forward us any suggestions so that ZCarBlog.com can be the best it can.  Thanks

Long Live the Z

Z Car Garage

P.s.  Don’t forget to have your taxes post-marked by tomorrow!!  (if you live in the U.S.)