John B referred his buddy Hilton to Z Car Garage for dyno services on his 2012 Camaro ZL1. Chevy’s latest and most powerful incarnation of the Camaro comes from the factory with 580hp/556tq at the crank from its supercharged V8.
How will she do on the ZCG dyno? Hilton’s ZL1 has only the following mods: a Rotofab cold-air intake and SOLO high- flow cats. The beast was weighed in at our favorite trusty scale: 4160lbs! Yes, that’s significantly heavier than our beloved GT-R.
The Camaro made 522hp/502tq to the wheels. Look at the power delivery with over 450lb-ft. of torque from 2500rpm to redline!
Matt A bought his first Datsun 510 at the age of 14 and he’s been hooked ever since. Having owned around ten 510s in various stages since he was a teenager it’s safe to say Matt is a die-hard Datsun enthusiast. We’ve known him from the days of the famous All-Datsun Meet at Mt. Shasta (over a decade ago) and now he’s got this beautiful 510 that we are really impressed with.
Matt visited Z Car Garage earlier this week to dyno his KA24-powered Dime. Before we show you the results let’s take a brief look at the car’s interesting history. In 2010 Matt purchased the 510 from Marty Smith (of 510garage.com fame) and it was a nice shade of teal. Matt loved the car but couldn’t get the Rebello 2150cc and Mikuni’s to run at their best.
Wanting all the benefits of a modern driveline Matt decided to swap in a KA24DE and go through the entire car from paint/body to chassis/interior. The car was completely re-wired with a new fuse block and the KA was rebuilt before installation. Matt finished the interior himself and he is now going through the suspension and brakes to freshen things up. Car has a few goodies like coil-overs on all four corners, full cage, 4:11 LSD with CV axles, and Wilwood brakes.
Here is the Dime on our dyno followed by a short video:
The stock KA with intake/exhaust/header made great power! 156hp/162tq to the wheels with over 140tq from 2500 to 6000rpm:
We wonder how much power could be gained from a tune as the KA runs a bone stock ECU. Matt is on the fence about leaving it NA or going turbo. Either way but we look forward to seeing his 510 again soon. Enjoy The Ride Matt and thanks for making our day!
How do you start the New Year off on the right foot? Drive your Nissan/Datsun! Today I joined Rob and Lou for a nice drive through the South Bay foothills. Rob and shop dog Kane drove the 820hp ZCG 300zx Twin Turbo, Lou drove his 470hp R32 Skyline GT-R and I drove the 460hp Datsun 510.
Our route included stops at both Uvas and Calero Reservoirs with a nice mix of long sweeping curves and windy, single lane farmland roads with picturesque bridge crossings:
At Uvas Reservoir we met a nice gentelman and his tubbed ’66 Chevelle:
Before departing we made our final stop to admire just how “right” Lou’s R32 looks with the new VOLK TE37SL wheels. Amazing car!
We hope you can enjoy driving your car in 2015. Follow the blog and Facebook for upcoming fun runs!
Click after the jump for more pictures! …[read more]
Marc H found Z Car Garage online and wanted to see what we were all about. After visiting the shop he dropped off his ultra-clean, low mileage 2008 350z for power and suspension goodies:
We love the HR engine found in the latest Z33s because they respond extremely well to simple bolt-ons and UPREV tuning. We started with a with Bassani cat-back exhaust followed by JWT dual POP charger intakes :
On the dyno, Marc’s 350z baselined at 271hp/245tq to the wheels. The Bassani exhaust netted a peak gain of 7hp and significant midrange gains in torque:
The JWT intakes added an additional 4hp:
This graph illustrates the benefit of UPREV tuning when adding bolt-ons. More power everywhere, all the way up to 7500rpm for peak gains of 19hp/8tq for a total of 290hp/253tq to the wheels:
Marc wanted to improve handling and braking so we installed Eibach springs, Hotchkis sway bars, and Whiteline T/C rod bushings followed by a full alignment. Factory Brembo brakes were upgraded with Stoptech Sport Kits all around:
Sway bars:
Marc was very pleased with the results and has been enjoying his Z. He told us he would be coming back to ZCG and we will happily oblige!
Kevin B has been a long-time customer of Z Car Garage and we have had the pleasure of maintaining and modifying his gorgeous Cherry Red Pearl 300zx Twin Turbo and supercharged Fox-Body Mustang GT.
Kevin recently picked up this sweet 2013 Mustang GT (Track-Pack) and immediately began taking it to open track days throughout Northern California. We are fans of the 5.0 Coyote drivetrain with big power from the factory and a capable chassis.
Here is an initial baseline dyno followed by a run after a K&N air filter. The air filter alone gave us solid gains of 9hp/10tq for a total of 379hp/367tq to the wheels. Very impressive numbers!
After tracking the car with much success Kevin noticed excessive front tire wear. The front suspension has no provision for camber adjustment so we installed Maximum Motorsports caster/camber plates to dial in more negative camber. Further suspension upgrades included Koni yellows followed by a full alignment. We also installed some Forgestar wheels for track days:
Kevin came back for more track-related items like brake ducts, a front splitter, tow hooks and differential breather. During hard racing the fluid in the rear end heats up and expands. Combine that with extreme cornering and the fluid can spit out of the factory breather vent and all over the track. With this expansion take, the fluid flows up into the tank and then back down when it cools.
Front brakes can also benefit from extra cooling so we installed a brake ducting kit from Ford Racing. This helps to reduce front brake temperatures by ducting air to the brake rotors and even uses the factory fog light openings! Fresh rotors were also installed and brake fluid flushed/replaced with Castrol SRF. OEM Brembos squeeze Stoptech 309 pads:
The installation is seamless!
A Boss-302 style front splitter was installed:
It was great to see Kevin at a SpeedSF track day at Laguna Seca. We hear the Z Car Garage license plate frame is good for another 10hp! Thanks for letting us make your track days more enjoyable!
