Our client Jas D listed his 1991 Aztec Red 300ZX Twin Turbo for auction on Bring a Trailer. You can view the auction HERE. Below is our blog feature of the Z, enjoy and happy bidding on this stunning Z32.
To appreciate the 1991 Aztec Red 300ZX Twin Turbo pictured above we must tell you a story of love, heartbreak, persistance and ultimately satisfaction. Z Car Garage client Jas D has been with us since 2014 when we helped build his 1990 Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo. This Super White, 44k original-mile example was treated with all the ZCG touches that make a Z32TT go from wonderful to extraordinary. We dubbed it the “Z Masterpiece” (see more here) as it embodied the total package: Power. Handling. Braking. Aesthetics:
Jas totally Enjoyed The Ride in this Z, adding 28k thrilling miles with ZCG maintaining it over the years:
“My brother and I have been ZCG customers for almost a decade. I met Rob when I called about getting a PPI on what became Z Masterpiece. At the time, a Super White manual came up on AutoTrader (I LOVE Super White-OMG). It was a low-mile, one-owner, meticulously-maintained time-capsule. Rob actually said WOW after the PPI, and we worked with ZCG over a couple years on a few iterations until we got Z Masterpiece. That car was perfect! My dream Z; I loved driving that car EVERYWHERE! It is probably my favorite car of all time!”
Unfortunately, in 2016 the Z was stolen.
“On October 29, 2016, Z Masterpiece was stolen. We cried, we laughed, we got angry, we sulked for a couple months, forgot about it, and then my dad found the car driving into SF on January 25, 2017. The car had clearly been driven like it was stolen. But, believe it or not, all the expensive components were still on there. We sent it to Rob right away, and he helped us turn Z Masterpiece into the Red Devil Z (which I purchased on April 20, 2017 with 66,XXX miles).”
From Z Masterpiece to Red Devil
Persistance paid off, and Jas found a really clean Aztec Red ’91 Z32TT with only 66k miles. All of the upgrades from the Super White, Z Masterpiece were transferred over:
“Rob pulled the motor from the Super White, re-did all the seals/gaskets, and then put the driveline back together into the red Z32TT. Coincidentally, both cars and engines had 66,XXX miles when this was done in summer 2017.”
Let’s take a look at the modifications that turn the already stellar Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo into a superb, balanced sports car.
Engine
Though bone-stock with an amazing 44k miles on the clock it needed some attention. We went through the hydraulics and performed full 60k-mile services.
Jas wanted to improve power and handling and we happily obliged with a comprehensive list of upgrades this year. Starting with the drivetrain, the original transmission was replaced with a brand new(!) unit from Nissan:
The clutch had seen better days so we replaced it with a JWT unit including their heavy duty aluminum flywheel:
A JWT ecu w/boost jets manages uprated NISMO 740cc injectors and the Selin dual MAF. Improved breathing comes from Ash-SPEC inlet piping and dual JWT pop chargers:
On the exhaust side, restrictive original downpipes were replaced with these beautiful Specialty Z 3″ downpipes. Note the divorced wastegate piping:
Following the new downpipes are more parts from SPZ including 3″ mid-pipes and a cat-back exhaust system to replace the OEM setup:
OEM vs SPZ:
More upgrades. We installed 4.08 Leader gears, Ash-SPEC Massive SMICs, 2.5 IC tubing, and SPZ Hi-5 upgraded clutch. The BDE low-profile Z32 motor mounts are a smart alternative to OEM that allows more clearance larger for intakes:
Rob recently dyno-tuned the red Z, making 353hp/353tq to the wheels on 91 octane:
Stoptech Big-Brakes
With all of the speed parts installed next we tackled chassis improvements. Let’s begin with brakes followed by suspension:
We love Stoptech’s products and use them on our own vehicles. Z32s are relatively heavy and with higher hp the stock caliper/rotors can be taxed quite easily. Jas took it up a notch and ordered a Stoptech 4-wheel Big-Brake Kit for his beloved Z. Shown above is the ST40 caliper (front) squeezing 332 mm rotors and at the rear are ST22s on 328mm rotors.
The installation:
Yes, they are pretty but also very functional. Speaking of aesthetics (that are functional, too), the new calipers are nicely framed between the spokes of these sweet VOLK TE37SL wheels, finished in bronze and sized 18×9.5/10.5 in high-pad offset with center caps. We like your taste, Jas. The lightweight TE’s were wrapped in Yokohama tires:
Suspension
The suspension was gone through completely with all new parts. KW V3s are our favorite coil-over setup, replacing the Stance coil-overs that the Super White Z had. Stillen sway bars are also shown:
Stock vs KW V3s installed front:
Rear:
Every little nook and cranny of the suspension was handled. New SPL tension rods, upper front control arms, new rear wheel bearings and HICAS removal/eliminator:
T/C rods, Stillen sway bar, we also replaced the rack bushings:
The Z looks great!
The interior is in great condition as well:
Jas and his brother love the Z. Thanks for letting us be a part of your journey!
“The Red Devil Z is vicious and so fun to drive. It is the quintessential 1990s Japanese sports car – red – gold wheels – TTs – exhaust. It goes fast. It stops fast. It turns fast. Z32TTs are the BEST! We love and respect Rob and the team at ZCG. Rob is a total big brother. He and the team have been with us through the passion and pain.”
**This Red Z32TT will be for sale on Bring a Trailer!**
The quest for the perfect Z is almost complete as Jas just found one of the cleanest Super White z32s on Earth. That means the red car is for sale! Jas is listing it on Bring a Trailer. We will update this post and social media when the auction goes live so you don’t miss out! For now, enjoy the extensive photo gallery below, and LONG LIVE THE Z!
Lots of pictures in the gallery, enjoy! …[read more]
Kevin M visited Z Car Garage for Stillen intakes, test pipes and dyno tuning on his 2013 Nismo 370Z.
He found this V1 Nismo Z34 in September 2020 at a Nissan dealership that was not yet advertised. Being a rare Magma Red model he jumped on it quickly.
A common issue on the 370Z is the internal slave failing due to heat. Thankfully Z Speed Performance makes a kit to convert the internal slave to external (CMAK Upgrade). In January 2021 on his first to ZCG we performed the CMAK upgrade. Since the transmission was removed Kevin opted for a Z Speed Stage 1 Quiet clutch with steel flywheel:
“When I first got the Nismo I was worried about the infamous csc going out. So I looked up for any shops that dealt strictly with Nissan and I was lucky enough to come across Z Car Garage. Transmission work included the Zspeed Performance Stage one quiet clutch kit with C MAK. My Nismo felt almost brand new compared to when I drove it off the dealership.”
We also installed Whiteline diff bushings on that first visit and discussed doing a tune and some hot rod stuff in the future.
In October 2021 Kevin returned to ZCG. We installed CWorks Test Pipes and Stillen GEN 3 intakes:
Dyno Tuning
We specialize in UPREV and EcuTek Tuning to maximize power gains from individual modifications like intake and exhaust upgrades. Rob UPREV flashed Kevin’s Z with the additional ARC license. Baseline power was 296hp/256tq and after tuning it made 338hp/275tq at the wheels, gains of 42hp/19tq. Kevin was happy with the power improvements.
Enjoy this video with dyno runs and exhaust system sounds!
Thanks for your support Kevin, Long Live The Z!
Contact us for tuning!
Z Car Garage offers the ARC (Advanced Racing Controls) license. This add-on service to the existing UPREV Flash allows you to have adjustable launch control, burnout mode, and flat-foot shifting. This is for cars with manual transmission, VDC/cruise control. Call Rob for more details and to schedule your Z/G tuning appointment.
One of the real joys this holiday season is the opportunity to say thank you and wish you the very best for the new year. From all of us at Z Car Garage we thank our friends, family and customers again for another exciting and productive year! Enjoy our 2021 recap and upcoming projects. Please note our holiday closure below:
ZCG will be closed from 12/24/21 and we will re-open for business on 1/3/22.
We had a busy year and though the shop will be closed, we won’t leave you hanging for the holidays. Many zcarblog features have yet to be published like our belated race report from the 2021 Velocity Invitational in addition to client stories.
Before we take a look back at highlights from 2021, here are several exciting projects coming along at the shop:
Jeff and Ryan B’s LS3-powered Z came to us for mechanical sorting. It’s now sporting our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes (for small wheels) and Z Car Garage CV Axles. Ryan successfully ran the Targa California Rallye in blistering summer heat. He recently got a new set of VOLK TE37V wheels full report soon!
The OMS Pace Car
This is a 1972 Official OMS Pace Car Duplicate. It is at present one of only two known survivors . Fifty were originally produced by Nissan Motors to commemorate the DATSUN 240Z being selected by the Ontario Motor Speedway to Pace the 1972 “U.S.A.C. California 500 Championship”. It really is a small Datsun world, as the official OMS pace car is none other than our very own Joel Anderson #49 IMSA GTU 240Z .
This OMS duplicate belongs to our long time customer and friend Linda. She acquired it from a family in SoCal and tasked ZCG with making it a nice driver. Full report soon but it got loaded up today for its journey to Colorado!
Jim’s 1971 Datsun 240z returned for a Rebello 3.2L with triple-Mikuni carbs on a Harada intake and CD009a 6-speed transmission:
David’s 240Z
Long-time friend and client David attended a track day at Laguna Seca. This Z was built over 15 years ago and sill running strong. We prepped his Z for the track, full report soon!
Dyno Tuning your 350z/370z/Q/G
We have been dyno tuning your late model Nissan/Infiniti sports car daily. Bolt-ons, UPREV tuning. Our customers leave happy with more performance. Call us to schedule an appointment! Here are just a few cars:
Aaron’s Q50:
Randy’s 1970 Safari Tribute Z lived an eventful life this year. It was in Los Angeles to be filmed for Nissan’s commercials and also served as Randy’s ride for cruising around Monterey Car Week. We installed a new engine and made some suspension changes. Though it’s back at home in Georgia it will get a full ZCG-style feature.
One of many Z32s we are working on, Steve’s will get a full report soon:
Highlights from 2021
Even though 2021 was crazy year for all of us we still managed to have fun on and off the track. The shop made some really great progress as well.
Enjoy these highlights from the year and Z you in 2022!
Datsunworks
Z Car Garage is excited to collaborate with Datsunworks and develop their brilliant KN20 dual-overhead cam (DOHC) cylinder head designed for the Nissan inline-6 L-Series engine. You can read all about it HERE
2021 was a development year for this drivetrain setup. We continue to extract more power and run longevity testing with owner Gary who has the pleasure of living daily with this beast. More updates to come, but for now enjoy the music this KN20 head provides in the video below!
Dear Zcarblog readers, it’s been a busy year and we are catching up on blog posts, so please enjoy our belated race report from October.
WE LOVE RACING! On October 2-3, Classic Sports Racing Group (CSRG) hosted the Charity Challenge at Sonoma Raceway. Z Car Garage had a blast racing and supporting several client’s Datsun 510 race cars running in B-Sedan Group 9 (John Morton Cup). This vintage racing event was totally free for spectators, thanks to CSRG for putting on another great event!
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. Here is Rob dyno tuning Larry Oka’s B-Sedan:
Video of two Datsun 510 B-Sedans (Rob and Tom) and Kelvin in the second video on the dyno. Enjoy the sweet L-series music!
We also provided testing support for Tom, Kelvin, Ed and Larry at Sonoma. A “test day” offers our clients piece-of-mind and a great way to kick off the actual race weekend. While testing we had an engine failure in Tom’s car and a transmission issue in Ed’s car. Thanks to the ZCG crew were able to resolve both with a spare engine and transmission.
Time to Race!
Z Car Garage clients racing for the weekend included:
We are proud of Tom as he finished 10th in 21-car field and grabbed a personal best, clicking off a 1:58 at Sonoma! Here is in-car video of him putting in work for Sunday’s race:
#71 Ed M
#7 Rob Fuller
ZCG owner Rob Fuller, Bay Area Datsun Dealers tribute car
Rob shares his highlights from the race weekend:
“We had a great group and on the first qualifying run I was able to be quickest out there. Started the Sat afternoon races on pole and Tom/Kelvin were mid-pack with Ed in back. I had a beautiful start but by the 4th lap my throttle cable failed. I was about 1.5s ahead of the pack and got my personal best lap time at Sears. Even though I was bummed at the DNF, I got the best seat in the house and watched my boys Tom, Kelvin and Ed go through the field and have a fun race.”
“Josh and Parker from the PNW duked it out, and on the last lap Josh took the win. I know my 510 wasn’t able to finish the race but at least a Datsun won! Saturday’s position determines your position for the next races so I started last in both sunday am and afternoon sessions. First race was 5 laps and I went from 21st to 3rd place. Second race was 7 laps and I went from 21st to 2nd. Thank you to Z Car Garage for the repair and prep to keep my Datsun 510 on the track the rest of weekend. Happy to get Podium, Hard Charger, and the fastest lap of the race. Was great way to end the weekend after the DNF on Saturday. Thanks to CSRG for another amazing event. Do it in a Datsun 510.”
Here is in-car video of Rob threading through the field, enjoy!
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!
A weekend of great racing and good times
This was our first race event with our new Intech aluminum trailer. It was a game changer, allowing ZCG to have a home base in the paddock for our clients to relax and for us to perform crew duties. Speaking of crew, we are grateful to our team including the Corwin’s (Josh, Keith and Bonnie thank you for keeping us safe all weekend), Meghan and Nick. Nick brought his beautiful Datsun 510 wagon that also put in work as a support vehicle:
There were cool cars everywhere in the paddock:
Big thanks to Meghan for taking photos and video around the paddock. Here is a highlight reel of what it’s like at a vintage race…you should join us next time!
Always happy to see friends and newcomers at these events. Greg H from SCCS was there running a Formula Ford…his first time out he placed 5th out of 4o cars! Now that he’s had a taste of Datsun racing Greg is now interested in a B-sedan of his own!
Datsun Car Corral!
CSRG is awesome. Participants were spoiled with FREE parking in the paddock area and full access to the race for the weekend. Our friend and client Linda Williams of ZONC drove her 1972 Datsun 240Z OMS Pace car! Full report on this historically-significant S30 coming to zcarblog shortly.
Our friends from the PNW were in attendance…great camaraderie and even better racing partners:
Rob with RacecraftNW owner and pal Jim Froula. Yes, the Bluebird Coupe we dubbed Sorabird is now back with Racecraft after being with our client Alex Mcdowell for many fun racing seasons.
We hope you enjoyed our race report from the October 2 CSRG Charity Challenge at Sonoma. Thanks agin to CSRG, the ZCG crew and our clients for a really fun event. The 2022 racing season looks amazing, please join us we will announce the event schedule soon. DO IT IN A DATSUN!
More pictures in the gallery below:
“Performance With Passion”. These are words that describe our work at Z Car Garage and we are passionate about making your Z perform as good as it looks. Photographer Larry Chen commissioned ZCG to transform his beloved SR20DET-powered 1970 Datsun 240Z from an “ok driver” to a no-excuses, multi-dimensional sports car with power, handling, braking, comfort, reliability and performance to match its eye-catching beauty.
Join Rob and Larry as they share the story of Larry’s Z, affectionately called “Ole Orange Bang”, featuring our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes, Z Car Garage CV Axles, chassis preparation, dyno tuning and more. Enjoy the videos with behind the scenes footage and photo gallery below!
Build History
Car enthusiasts and motorsport fans recognize the name Larry Chen as the greatest automotive photographer. Larry has made a career out of his passion for capturing the right moments in racing. We are huge fans of his work since the days of covering Formula Drift, time at Speedhunters, and recent work with Hoonigan Autofocus. Our favorite Larry Chen moment is his photography of Ken Block’s 1400hp Hoonicorn at Pike’s Peak for the filming of Climbkhana.
Larry Chen is regularly exposed to some of the coolest builds across the globe, so you can imagine our joy hearing that Larry’s personal car is a Datsun 240Z. Larry’s Z is a Series 1 (VIN# 2868) that he purchased on his 21st birthday for $3000. He started autocrossing immediately with his buddies circa 2006, and it became an integral part of his life:
“It’s been such a big part of my adult life, and it will continue to be a part of it for the rest. The name actually came from a Mexican drink that we love in SoCal. My car is Orange and it backfired a lot when I got it especially when I was low on gas. So it was only appropriate to call it Orange Bang. On my wedding night instead of being ferried away in a fancy limousine, I drove my beautiful wife home in the Z, after some wedding burnouts.”
Following years of autocross and track use, in 2013 the tired L28 was replaced with an SR20DET straight out of a former Formula Drift car.
Like many enthusiasts, Larry continued to modify and upgrade the Z to fit his needs…adding A/C, coil-over suspension and creature comforts along the way. We spotted a freshly painted Ole Orange Bang at the 2019 Japanese Classic Car Show:
“In 2019 my friends at Bells and Vaughn in Pasadena, California did a full ground up restoration. It has all new paint and it was taken all the way down to the metal. Just this month I picked it up from Z Car Garage in San Jose California. ZCG pretty much went through the entire car and they fixed everything that was mechanically wrong with it.”
When Larry Met Rob: A ZCG Story
We first met Larry when he visited us at the 2018 Japanese Classic Car Show in Long Beach, CA. We talked about Z cars, and how he really wanted to get our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes and ZCG treatment on his personal Z. In 2020 he trailered his Z up from LA to ZCG in February, literally a few weeks before the pandemic.
“I actually found out about ZCG on Instagram and met Rob for the first time in SoCal at JCCS. I inquired about getting brakes for my car since it couldn’t stop even with a Toyota 4×4 conversion and Nissan Maxima rear disk brakes. They were absolutely horrible. There is a reason why people ship their Z cars across the country to ZCG. The passion is there and you can see it on everything they touch.”
While visiting Z Car Garage Larry featured a few of our client cars and did a shop tour for his YouTube channel Hoonigan AutoFocus. You can click on the thumbnails below to watch the videos:
We couldn’t leave our readers hanging without our own ZCG-style feature complete with dyno videos and behind the scenes footage, so if you can’t wait any longer here it is below. Turn those speakers up and enjoy, read on for an in-depth look at our work.
The ZCG Touch
Larry and Rob developed a plan for Ole Orange Bang. The Z had past work performed by many folks including Larry’s buddies. We simply wanted his Z to be a multi-dimensional sports car with power, brakes, handling and comfort. Cosmetics were already handled, it just needed some mechanical love with ZCG-products that you will find on many of our ZCG builds. Let’s begin with the chassis upgrades, then go into dyno tuning/engine bay work and final details like the interior and weatherstripping.
ZCG Big-Brakes and CV Axles
We handed Larry the keys to “Mrs. Butters”, our 1971 Series 1 240z shop demo car and he was sold on our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes (for small wheels) and Z Car Garage CV Axles! Butters has a way of doing this to our clients 🙂 Read below for a brief description of these parts:
As fellow S30 owner/racer Glenn C mentioned in his review, on top of braking performance, pedal feel is extremely important and our Big-Brakes deliver. This is a direct result of working with engineers at Stoptech to create a totally bolt-in solution requiring no M/C change or additional proportioning valve/adjustments. All fitting behind a 15″ Watanabe or Panasport wheel (and some 14″ wheels) and retaining factory emergency brake lever! A few details below:
Calipers: Stoptech ST42 4-piston front & rear race calipers (Alum 6061 mil-spec Type III anodized)
Rotors: 280mm x 20.6 with Alum 7075 hats
Pads: Stoptech 309 sport street pads
Blog posts documenting all of our customers running the ZCG Big-Brakes can be found HERE.
A few closer detail shots of the calipers, rotors and hardware:
We removed Larry’s existing Toyota 4×4 front calipers and rear Maxima setup and installed our ZCG Big-Brake kit front and rear:
He got a new, OEM brake master cylinder as well:
At the rear, the Maxima setup was replaced with our ZCG Big-Brakes. Factory handbrake functionality IS retained!
Larry was impressed with the braking performance:
“The ZCG brakes and axles really give the 240z an update with modern top of the line performance where the Z badly needs it. These cars are lightweight and easy to make fast, but everything else that goes along with it is very lacking. While the 240z is a great car to drive in stock form, there is nothing like having a lightweight turbo rear wheel drive sports car.”
Z Car Garage CV Axles
Our Z Car Garage CV Axles help transmit power to the ground and ensure smoother operation compared to your standard half shafts. We have over 140 CV axle kits on customer cars and we are stoked with all of the positive feedback.
Larry has CV Axle set #328. Stock half shafts (L) and ZCG units bolted in to the Subaru STi LSD diff. The stock suspension parts had been long replaced with Techno Toy Tuning parts. Larry does not have to live with those loose CV axles anymore!
More pictures of the ZCG axles installed, we will discuss the KW coil-overs below:
Wheels By Love20bee
Complementing the new Big-Brakes and suspension on Larry’s Z are a fresh set of Southern Ways Epsilon mesh wheels from Love20bee. It was an absolute pleasure working with owner, Matt K. to adjust the offset on the wheels just before Larry picked his Z up from ZCG.
We wanted Larry to be able to use the KW Suspension and ZCG Big-Brakes to their full potential and put all the power down effectively without clearance issues. The offset was a bit too aggressive causing fender rubbing and excessive camber reducing the contact patch of the sticky Yokohama tires.
Larry’s Z already had a set of KW Coil-overs. Not to be confused with our ZCG-labeled KW Suspension with adjustable rebound and dampening that we’ve developed over several years (releasing soon). We adjusted Larry’s KW’s for best ride and corner-balanced the car using his weight. With the wheel barrels adjusted and suspension aligned Larry can now throw this Z into any corner with confidence. No rubbing, no excuses.
Engine
Larry had a long list of problems he needed resolved with the drivetrain. The SR was running an older AEM standalone setup for racing duty so it would drive roughly on the street: poor cold/hot starting, erratic idling, stalling on deceleration, overheating and the A/C wouldn’t blow cold under hot conditions. Before sorting these issues we cleaned up wiring and hoses in the engine bay. Here is what the cooling setup looked like before:
The oil cooler was mounted in front of the intercooler and there was a small deflector plate placed across all heat exchangers. We re-designed the ductwork with help from TCDesignFab to seal the intercooler/AC condenser/radiator to direct air flow and eliminate heat soak. Serious SPAL fans were added to a new Mishimoto rad:
The oil cooler was relocated below the FMIC:
With air now directed through the heat exchangers the SR operates well under heat soak conditions, even with the A/C on and blowing cold. Even though the SR20 isn’t Rob’s first choice of engine swap it works really well, looks awesome and makes great power. Speaking of looks, we couldn’t resist adding our body-color matching valve cover (like Rob’s 510 and Rb-powered Z cars):
Hardware was removed and re-plated throughout, more pics in the gallery!
Dyno Tuning
We are huge fans of Haltech engine management. We use their Elite line of ECUs exclusively on our EFI engine builds and Larry’s SR received an Elite 1000 unit, mounted on the passenger foot well. Rob dyno tuned the SR20DET using Haltech. Baseline was 245hp/223tq and with Rob’s tuning it made 295hp/277tq at the wheels:
Larry was absolutely blown away by the performance, response and night/day improvement in drivability. Beyond peak gains of 50hp/54tq at the wheels, much of the increased response can be seen in the huge area under the curve from proper wastegate operation. Haltech is so user friendly and the benefits are priceless. You can see the dyno runs and road testing with Larry and Rob in this this video.
Interior
After driving our client James Stephens’ turbocharged 1972 Datsun 240z for an episode of Hoonigan Autofocus, Larry knew right then he had to have a set of Recaro seats for Ole Orange Bang. We removed his old seats and installed a new set of Recaro Pole-Position seats. He loves them:
Any bodyshop can install weatherstripping but Larry really wanted ZCG do tackle it and we happily obliged. One of our favorite upgrades to the interior of an S30 is our ZCG sound deadening package. Usually found in our full-blown ZCG restorations, the result is a less tinny sound and almost Germanic-like “clunk” when you shut the doors. We also refurbished his window tracks to ensure smooth operation:
We are really proud of the HVAC system in this Z. Larry mentioned the A/C wouldn’t blow cold..we tested Larry’s A/C after our ducting upgrades and it blows cold even after full throttle applications and heat soak.
Details
The little things are what we excel at. A common problem with Series 1 cars is exhaust fumes entering the car through the hatch vents and tail lights. We replaced the hatch and tail light seals and sealed the hatch vents. No exhaust smell in the cabin. (below) It made us happy when Larry called out these little details while filming…an OEM Nissan oil filter and re-plated hood latch hardware:
Please check the gallery below for more detail shots, there are too many to list in this blog post!
Enjoying The Ride
Larry picked his Z up from Z Car Garage in February of 2021. He immediately started enjoying Ole Orange Bang by driving to various events and gatherings in SoCal. We were so stoked to see him happy with his Z again.
Getting updates from Larry was rad:
“It finally performs as good as it looks! Rob and the team are so detail oriented. They know these cars inside and out and my car has never driven so well in its lifetime. I can’t wait to bring it back for some more goodies.”
We were reunited with Larry and his Z at this year’s Japanese Classic Car Show at the Anaheim Stadium. The Z was on display in the Leen Customs booth where fans could get his autograph:
Orange Bang with FuguZ and Medusa. We are beyond happy to have our Z Car Garage chassis parts on these high-profile Z cars.
As happy as we were to see Larry driving around SoCal what really made our day was seeing him drive Ole Orange Bang in anger at a local autocross event! He put our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes, Z Car Garage CV Axles, suspension and dyno tuning to work:
“I decided to take a personal day and do a bit of driving for fun. I haven’t auto crossed in almost 15 years. I went to the CornerExit auto-x at California Speedway and it was an absolute blast. Orange Bang held up amazing, and everything @zcargarage did to it paid off. I ended up getting 2nd place in mod class!”
We will have video of Larry ripping through the autocross on our Instagram story. For now, don’t miss the video we made of the Z in action here:
UPDATE 6.30.23
Larry just dropped an amazing video about his Z including its history and canyon driving, enjoy!
Thank You Larry!
Our journey with Larry is just beginning. Thanks for entrusting Z Car Garage with your Z and believing in us. We appreciate all that you do for automotive culture and your work is inspiring. Always Do It In A Datsun and LONG LIVE THE Z!
