WE LOVE RACING! On March 24-26, Classic Sports Racing Group (CSRG) hosted the David Love Vintage races at Sonoma Raceway. Z Car Garage had a blast racing and supporting several client’s Datsun 510 race cars running in the B-Sedan Group. It was a great weekend filled with competition, camaraderie and plenty of Alfas, BMWs and Datsuns sharing the track. Enjoy our report with in-car footage and photos

 

Z Car Garage Supports Five Datsun 510s

It is our pleasure to bring more enthusiasts into the world of vintage racing. Our services do include full race support and car-preparation to help make client’s race days seamless and worry-free so they can focus on driving. One of our specialties is dyno tuning. Before a race weekend we confirm that your car is running well and make necessary adjustments while on the chassis dyno.

Video of two Datsun 510 B-Sedans (Rob and Tom), Enjoy the sweet L-series music!

ZCG clients running at the David Love Vintage races included:

#8 Gabe Rothman

Gabe has been an avid track day weekend warrior for five years and we will highlight our preparation of his B-Sedan 510 soon. Let’s hear his race report from Sonoma:

“This year’s David Love Memorial, as always was a first-class event attended by the usual fun and friendly rabble of vintage racing enthusiasts. The weather was perfect, with clear blue skies and comfortable  temperatures, but cool track temps which made for ideal racing conditions.”

 

“While I had a few ups and downs over the weekend, I had far more ups highlighted by setting a new personal best of 1:53.9 en route to a 4th place finish in the Saturday feature race. This time represented a 2-second improvement from my previous best. It just goes to show that the best mod is the driver mod — track time rules all! I can’t take all the credit though. As always, I received phenomenal trackside support from Rob Fuller and Z Car Garage, who were there to help me fine-tune the car and provide valuable insights and advice. Rob, in particular, is an invaluable resource. His insights are always tailored to suit the driver and have helped me rapidly move to the front of the B-Sedan field despite this being just my second season in the car.”

Watch Gabe putting in work with his Personal Record session, volume up and enjoy!

#72 Tom Dockery

Tom Dockery drove his  Ex-Norm Balzer 510. This car made its debut in May 2019  and we are excited to share its full story and profile Tom’s journey into racing soon.

Tom made a triumphant return to last year’s 2022 CSRG Season Finale after the car was down for repairs. He’s getting back into the rhythm of things and we are happy to see him behind the wheel again. Let’s hear his race report…

 

“The weekend didn’t start as planned, as work issues forced a late arrival to the Friday practice day. I managed to get on rack for the last practice of the day, but the combination of track conditions and my absence from Sonoma Raceway produced really slow and sloppy laps. Saturday, morning practice was an improvement and I was able to find a better Sonoma rhythm. Qualifying race in the afternoon was interesting mostly because the Mini’s were thrown into our group.  There were a few of the Mini guys running similar lap times with me so the were certainly in the mix at the start. Sunday I put on new tires and I continued to find more speed and faster lap times. I look forward to picking up where I left off at the end of April when the SVRA event comes to the Sonoma.”

 

Here is in-car video from Tom’s 510 with a cool rear-facing camera angle, enjoy!

#7a Kelvin Tse

Kelvin’s 510 features our Z Car Garage CV Axles and dyno tuning. He and his brother Kenny both had a total blast with us at the David Love event.

 

#64 Kenny Tse

Photo by Josel Cobangbang

Kenny drove the Ex-Ted Gruner B-Sedan 510. He had pretty serious goals this year and he was picking up the pace really well.

 

#7 Rob Fuller

Photo by Josel Cobangbang

Rob Fuller piloted the Bay Area Datsun Dealers tribute 510. Here is his report from the race weekend with in-car video:

 

“Once a year we get to attend the David Love. There was a good mix of 19 cars in Group 3 Sedans (2002s, Alfas, 510s and Minis). ZCG supported 5-cars total: myself, Tom, Gabe and Tse brothers Kelvin and Kenny. Cars in the field: Parker and his dad Bruce were fast in their Alfas. Parker’s car was acting up so I opted to start from the back rest of the weekend. We’ve been making changes to the suspension setup in BADD 510 and its working well…very slippery on Friday from recent rains, better over weekend.”

 

“Honorable mention goes to Kenny who picked up the pace towards his goals, Kelvin and Tom getting back into the swing of things. Gabe joined the ZCG team last year and his car had alot of issues we’ve been sorting them out with each event. It’s been a blast watching him excel…he makes great decisions, listens and he’s fast. He was up in the front of the field and we are super excited to see how he does at the SVRA events. Gabe’s car has a 2L in it so it’s a pretty heavy car but man he is wheeling it. Really proud of him and all the guys. We had a great spot and  the vibe in this ZCG pit is filled with friends, family and fun. great time. Kudos to the CSRG people they put on such a great event. Excited to be a part of their organization.”

 

Enjoy this in-car video from Rob’s 510 as he starts from the very back of the race group:

You can see more of Rob’s race videos from the CSRG event (and other race) on his YouTube Channel. Give the guy a thumbs up and subscribe while you are there!

 

Mrs. Butters as Pace Car

 

Our 1971 Series 1 240z shop demo car “Mrs. Butters” was Pace Car at the David Love event. It features our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes, Z Car Garage CV Axles and KW suspension. Rob is stoked:

“CSRG has been gracious in letting ZCG provide pace cars for the race events… since it was raining and we did ‘t get our RZ34 in time we thought it appropriate to have Mrs. Butters do the duty…pretty cool to have Butters out there with pace car lights leading the track. Even the Pace Car driver really enjoyed her.

Photo by Josel Cobangbang (L) and Geoff Pitts (R)

 

Rob also test drove a few cars for clients to give feedback. Big thanks to Meghan for taking photos and video around the paddock. Here is a paddock highlight reel of what it’s like at a vintage race…you should join us next time!

 There were cool cars everywhere in the paddock:

More photos in the gallery below! See you at Sonoma April 27 and Laguna Seca May 4 for SVRA’s double-header vintage racing events!

 

Join us for the 2023 Vintage Racing Season!

Z Car Garage is amped for more racing this year. Here is list of events we will be attending in 2023, including CSRG and SVRA . Please join us!

March

March  3^rd to the 5^th    SVRA  Thunderhill

March 24 to 26^th          CRSG   Sonoma

April

April 27^th to 30^th           SVRA   Sonoma

May

May 4^th   to 7^th               SVRA   Laguna Seca

June

June  23rd to 25^th           CSRG   Laguna Seca

August

August 12-13                    Monterey Pre-Reunion
August 16-19                    Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion

September

Sept 8^th  to 10^th              CSRG   Sonoma

October

Oct. 13-15.                     CSRG Laps For Laguna

Novemeber

Nov  3^rd to 5^th                 CSRG   Thunderhill

Nov 10^th to 12^th              Velocity Invitational

…[read more]

Z Car Garage is featured in Nostalgic Hero’s coverage of the Z Owners of Northern California (ZONC) 50th Birthday Celebration at the Blackhawk Museum in Danville, Ca. You can view the article HERE.

 

We had a great time attending the event and Rob Fuller displayed his #49 Joel Anderson IMSA GTU Datsun 240Z. Our client and fellow racer Glenn Chiou displayed his FAR Performance 240Z while Linda Williams displayed her 1972 Datsun 240Z OMS Pace Car Duplicate:

 

Z Car Garage also displayed the 2023 Nissan Z!

 

You can see our full report from the ZONC celebration with even more photos and video in this blog post HERE. Thanks to Hisahi Masui from Nostalgic Hero!

 

 

Happy New Year from Z Car Garage! We are excited for 2023 and have many projects to share with you. Enjoy these photos from the shop today, Friday 6 with full reports coming to zcarblog.

Rick’s BRE 240Z tribute track car

 

Rick’s BRE-inspired Datsun 240Z track car just received our first set of Z Car Garage KW coil-over suspension from our latest batch. Clients that have already placed an order: kits will ship soon pending an instruction manual first. We also finalized the CD009 6-speed transmission swap on Rick’s Z that also features our (Race) Z Car Garage Big-Brakes.

Cameron’s Z32

 

Cameron’s Z32 is here for maintenance work and downpipes, inlet piping, larger intercoolers all from Specialty Z. Cameron has been bringing his 300 to us for many years and we we are really glad to have him back.

Nissan/Infiniti

 

We continue to maintain and upgrade late-model Nissan/Infiniti sports cars. Sean’s 370Z is in for an engine replacement and Mark’s 350Z got an alignment and UPREV dyno tune today.

 

Transcendental Racing IMSA Datsun 240Z

 

The Transcendental Racing Datsun 240Z is getting ready for The Real Ralph Newman to hand-apply its livery on Monday with owner Randy Jaffe here from Atlanta. Our man William is here today to do some buffing on the fresh paint.

S30 Z Cars

 

Outside in the parking lot we’ve got more S30 goodness. Mike’s yellow V8-powered Datsun 280Z sports a real G-nose and Tremec 5-speed. We just removed the transmission  and replaced the clutch to prepare this Z for its new owner. Beau’s orange Datsun is 280Z coming together. Fresh from paint featuring Z Car Garage Big-Brakes, Z Car Garage CV Axles, T3 suspension and more. This 280 has many 240Z parts retrofitted and it will be cool hot rod.

 

Ken’s green Series 1 Datsun 240Z (#1762) is getting our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes, Z Car Garage CV Axles, KA24 5-speed transmission and Fujitsubo exhaust. The L28 now has Jenvey ITB EFI managed by a Haltech 750. With a cam, dyno tuning and exhaust Rob gained 40hp! Shown on the lift next to Beau’s Z is Eric’s Infiniti FX35 sporting upgraded suspension and R35 GT-R wheels in today for routine maintenance.

 

More to come watch for updates on our Instagram and Facebook pages!

 

LONG LIVE THE Z!

 

In November 2019, racing legend John Morton and co-driver Rob Fuller piloted the #46 BRE Datsun 240z in the HSR Classic 24hr race at Daytona International Speedway. The team was heading for a class win until the second session when a Chevron panicked and cut hard right in front of John Morton, causing the Z to flip up in the air landing on its roof.

 

Team manager and owner Randy Jaffe sent the Z back to Z Car Garage for repairs and improvements and it is now back on the road in fighting form. Enjoy our report with photos and video chronicling the rebuild from dyno tuning to applying the famous livery on the BRE Datsun 240Z.

Racing at Daytona

  The Classic 24 race featured six race groups with 4 (1hr) sessions and cumulative time deciding the winner. Each session had a 3-minute pitstop with mandatory driver exit during fueling. It was an incredible sight to see the #46Z out on the high banking with serious race cars like the Smith Motorworks 1980 Porsche 935 K3:

  

Despite heavy rain the team carried on, making changes to the car and improving with each session:

Randy:  “As you drive into the infield at Daytona and look at that 31% banking it’s super intimidating and as Rob stated you cannot look straight out of the car as it’s always bending left and he has never experienced that before. Rob did an amazing job of adapting to not only the car but to the track within a few laps as he cut down six seconds. John Morton has not run Daytona in over 20 years and he got right in the car and turned a great time which is what professional race drivers do! At 77 years old it’s just amazing how he is so calm and so smooth around these tracks!”

  

The bad weather and lack of track experience didn’t hold the team back. Rob was ecstatic not only about the Z’s performance, but also being able to co-drive with his hero:

Rob: “Ben from Retrosport with Alan Terpins’ 1979 Porsche 935 MOMO car kicked ass and won their class. They were clocked on the front straight under braking at 188mph. The BRE Z did 156mph top speed and our lap times (Morton and Fuller) were within a .1 of each other. I can’t describe the feeling of going from total fanboy to being a co-driver with John Morton. All of this comes from Randy Jaffe’s generosity, drive/passion to celebrate this car and era. These heroes that were making history and didn’t even know it 50 years later. Watching people from all over the world  find John Morton to have him sign something, shake his hand, tell him a Datsun story. It’s surreal.”

 Unfortunately our hopes of a first or second place finish in class were cut short at the second session. John Morton got an epic start and as they all went into turn 1 on the first lap (at night) a Lola T 70 lost its grip, then a Chevron panicked and cut hard right in front of John. There was nothing he could do and the car was so low that it flipped us up in the air and onto the roof:

   

John Morton was able to exit the Z safely, without any injuries. The Z was towed in, covered and our race ended. We all had hashbrowns and coffee late night at Waffle House:

Randy: “Of course all of us were freaked out wondering if JM is OK and Sylvia was a cool as a cucumber. When he returned to the paddock from the care center we were all gasping as we were not aware of his status! Racing icons such as Jochen Maas, Ray Everham, Bob Leitzsinger came over to check on JM as we covered the car. The roof was caved in like a V and almost down on the dash. Body panels were a mess, a broken control arm, sail panels were wrinkled, front rad support bent and various other pieces destroyed on the front end… all of us went to lunch the next day on Daytona Beach and I ordered upside down dessert for Morton and we all had a lot of laughs knowing he was OK. He relived his racing career at the table and it was either #6 or 7 for flipping cars and 1 airplane event!!”

You can see video with in-car footage of both John Morton and Rob Fuller and the crash in our 2019 report HERE. Enjoy the triple-Mikuni carb’d music and wild banking of Daytona!

The BRE 240Z Rebuilt at Z Car Garage

 The #46Z  was shipped from Georgia back to ZCG for a rebuild after damages from the Daytona crash. We know that owner Randy Jaffe goes to 11, and this was his chance to correct every little detail on BRE car as it was raced in 1970. Our goal: make this Z absolutely perfect. Let’s dive into the restoration.

Bodywork

 

Bodywork and paint was handled by our man William from William’s Auto Body. We provided OEM parts from our stash like the hood, fenders and new Euro front bumper. Everyone wanted to see this the Z revived and even Nissan donated parts including original headlight covers, BRE spoiler and fiberglass headlight buckets for a Series 1 car.

We obsessed over the paint and livery: the shade of red is not the same between the BRE Datsun 510 and Z cars!  There was a heavy focus on the “Datsun” script, its location and kerning on John Morton’s name on the doors. The BRE livery was applied by The Real Ralph Newman. You can see his hand-painting details in the time-lapse video below. Ralph nailed it.

 

Suspension

 

Suspension parts original to the 1970 BRE 240Z chassis that John Morton raced were re-installed.

Drivetrain

 

The engine was refreshed while it was out along with the supporting drivetrain components. The Z was going to be aesthetically and mechanically ready to race again. The original, multi-piece heat shield was re-plated:

 

Like many race cars, the Z got a set of our Z Car Garage CV Axles (set #00240):

 

The BRE Datsun 240Z in Back!

Enjoy this video showing a walk-around, dyno tuning, warm-up and more!