Scott is still on the road and currently on the East coast enjoying some beautiful Fall colors. Follow his blog chronicling his travels at http://www.roadsterroadtrip.com/

Mark your calendars for October 26, 2013!  ZCarGarage and Z Owners of Northern California (ZONC) have arranged for a full tour of the amazing Canepa Design Museum and Showroom facility along with a beautiful drive through the Santa Cruz Mountains. The tour is impressive with a full look at how restorations are done on Porsche 959s to vintage race cars that you see at the major Historic Racing events. It is truly a candy store for automotive fans!

Details below:

Never been to Canepa? Check out our reports from past Canepa Tours below!

2012 Canepa Cars & Coffee

2011 Canepa Tour

2010 Canepa Tour

 

We enjoyed driving our Datsuns to the 2012 Japanese Classic Car Show despite blistering 100+ degree weather. This year we flew down to Long Beach to visit the 2013 JCCS near the Queen Mary.

The show started in 2005 with a modest following and over the years spectators have flocked in crazy numbers; this year was no exception and the crowds were a bit overwhelming at times.  We did appreciate the JCCS crew’s new, efficient ticket/entry setup! Weather was beautiful with an incredible array of J-tin from time-capsule survivors to wildly modified restorations.   So let’s get to the stars of the show….

Datsuns were well represented though scattered throughout the main grass and parking lot areas. I love seeing fresh cars as well as familiar faces.  This VG30 510 caught my eye with it’s clean aesthetic and sanitary engine bay:

Who can miss the die-hard Datsun Roadster owners and their beloved open-top sports cars! The SoCal Roadster Owners club lined up their cars with bone stock and modified examples. These guys drive their cars. Mike A has accumulated almost 40k miles in the last year with his S14 SR20-swapped 1968 SPL:

This red late-model roadster had a molded front end, flared bodywork and an interesting dash setup:

If you are a fan of S30s and Z-cars in general JCCS had almost every classic generation displayed.

There were several RB-powered Zs but this triple-Weber carb’d L-series was pretty:

Vintage Skylines abound! JDM Legends built this Prince Motor Company Skyline in race livery:

 Beautiful red Hakosuka,  KenMeri, GC10 and DR30 Skylines:

Z31 300zx’s made a strong showing and my favorite was this Shiro edition on DSM wheels(left).  S12 chassis cars also caught my eye especially this clean RB26DETT-powered hatch:

Datsun trucks might have been the most numerous with tasteful resto-mods and zany creations. I thought this little F20c-powered pickup was over the top until I realized it was also boosted!

Two of my favorite wagons, both sporting SR20DET powerplants but totally different build themes:

Datsun 1200s, Sunny’s and even a few large bumper GXs:

Every year I look forward to seeing JDM wheels both old-school and reproduction. I dub this JCCS as Year of the Mesh! Deep-dish or multi-piece the mesh style was in full-effect from SSR, Epsilon, Bahn, Volk, Work and others:

I spotted these ultra-rare Impul Hoshinos and Riverside Riverge wheels….ps those are replicas on the right, gotcha!

Toyota has always been a huge corporate presence followed by Mazda, and this year Honda even displayed their own rare vehicles. So you’ve probably heard about Nissan celebrating 80 years…why not display the collection at largest gathering on the West Coast? NISSAN are you listening?

Not one but THREE Toyota 2000GT sports cars were displayed, even a LHD model!

One of the craziest Toyota was Scott Kanemura‘s Toyota Hilux. Huge Project Mu brakes, VOLK TE37vs, Stack instruments, and the mighty  2JZ-GTE make this one insane truck:

There were so many cool Toyota Celicas, Starlets and Corollas to list! This TRD widebody Starlet was a very impressive build with 275-width Hoosiers!

Wild engine swapped Corollas? Check! AE86 with turbo F20C and a late ‘rolla with an LS1!

Sinister Crown(with “Yakooza” plates) and one of several Land Cruiser pickups. Many more Toyotas in the gallery!

Rotary fans unite as the RX posse had the largest showing of old-school cars I’ve ever see in one place. This year there were FC Rx-7s and even more stunning examples of first gen FBs…

Honda proudly displayed their own collection of rare cars like a Mugen CRX. Almost ten N600s were lined up against the pretty blue water.

This year late model Hondas(read Accords) were displayed. I’m a huge fan of the 1st through 3rd gen Civics, even EF-era and I’m all for showing off neat, tidy builds with personal touches.  Some of these cars looked simply unkempt and boring. That aside here were my favorites:

Spoon 3rd gen, Bisimoto’s EF wagon, and one of many ultra-clean CRXs:

My favorite car at the show was Garm B’s Subaru 360 microvan. Besides its tiny stature the van is packed full of details!

JCCS wouldn’t be complete without those stickers and vanity plates:

Let’s not forget to give respect to those parking lot warriors who made it down to the show in style. There were some real gems to be found outside of the show like this Dodge Colt and Toyota Corona sedan with a perfect stance:

Thanks to the JCCS organizers for hosting another fun event. It will be interesting to see what next year’s show offers J-tin lovers young and old!
Lots of pictures in the gallery below so don’t forget to click after the jump!
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Is your vintage Japanese car ready for the big show in sunny Socal? We are absolutely stoked to be at the Japanese Classic Car Show this Saturday. Count on Z Car Garage to provide coverage on zcarblog.com and get real-time updates on our Facebook page!

Enjoy our past coverage of this incredible show:
JCCS 2012
JCCS 2011
JCCS 2010

We’ve known Patrick for a long time and when he is not running City Tech Auto Body he is out on the track his Time-Attack prepped Porsche orange 350z. Patrick was running an NA motor then made the jump to forced induction via the Vortech supercharger. He installed the kit himself and visited ZCG for tuning and advice on how to keep the VQ cool during blazingly hot track days ie. Buttonwillow Raceway. Here is an update from Patrick from Round #5 of the Redline Time Attack:

As some of you might know, our Z Car Garage and CityTech Auto Body Sponsored 350z has been through a lot of struggling with overheating problems after we installed the a Vortech Supercharged Kit. We have spent tons of time and testing to make it cool down. Our goal is to make it last through the whole 20mins session without worrying about overheating with full power.

07/20/2013 Saturday: The first practice day of the Redline Time Attack event was at 102F, a perfect day to put a ultimate heat test to our new setup. Compared to our last event which the Z lasted only 2 laps before overheating, we installed a 2nd oil cooler, running 50/50 Methanol water injection and de-tuned. Also, Rob suggested that to remove the aftermarket electric fans and put back the stock fan with shrouds. With all the help from our crew and Z Car Garage, we double checked all the fluid levels are full, adjusted tire pressure and started our first 20mins session. The Z felt great with the supercharged power on the first lap, pulling on every gears to the redline. But will it last full 20 mins without a drop of power? 4th lap passed by, our Nitto NT-01 tires started to get greasy due to the heat, but Oil temperature still stayed at 230F, intake and water temp stay cool without a sign of overheating, no power dropped. We are so amazed because our last event only last 1 ½ lap before oil temp reached 290F. We managed finished with the best lap time of 1’58.8 running CW13 configuration.

07/21/2013 Sunday: This was a much hotter day at 107F. In our first qualify session, everyone was running slower time than yesterday. We managed to qualify at the lap time of 1’59.5 which placed us third in our class. All other vehicles in our class were full race gutted car and our Z still have the full dash, door and windows in place. During the race session, temperature got worse which rose up to 108F. Despite the burning sun and air, the Z’s water and oil temp were both stayed cool and no overheating throughout the entire race session, however, the tires were giving up after the 2nd lap from the heat. We couldn’t get any better time than the qualifying session due to the hot temperature and traffic on the track and ended up the time 2’00.391. We ended up third place in modified RWD Class.

Special shout out to Z Car garage crews for their awesome work keeping the Z at operating temperature while making great power in this extreme operating environment.

The next event will be at AutoClub Speedway, Fontana on Sep 15, 2013. We will be doing some more modifications and possibly installing a full roll cage on the Z. We will keep you guys updated.