Scott W. came to ZCarGarage for some bolt-on goodness on his Nismo 370z. We started with JWT intakes:

The intakes produced modest gains of +5hp/3tq at the wheels:

Next up we installed some Berk Hi-Flow cats:

The HFCs gained 6hp/3tq at the wheels

With UPREV tuning, cats and intakes the Z now makes +16hp/7tq for a grand total of 317hp/261tq at the wheels.

 

The Datsun roadster you see above is the creation of Todd Green. He is one of those die-hard Datsun guys that still races a vintage Japanese car against modern sportscars in the highly competitive SCCA Solo autocross series.  On the race track Todd is known as “Todzilla” because of the way he drives…and wins! In 2005 Todd won the SCCA National  Championship in EP class with his Datsun, a tremendous accomplishment considering the level of competition. Here he is in 2005:

The roadster has an interesting racing history from over four decades ago when it was raced as the Barton Special.  Todd recalls how he eventually acquired the car:

“When I was 11 years old my father and brother raced (Solo2 or gymkana as it use to be called) a 510 with all of the BRE parts but it had the interior in it and was driven on the street to and from events. My oldest brother got a 2000 from a junk yard and we made it into a regional DP car. He did solo with it for a couple of years, then got married and sold the car. Since then I wanted to race a 2000 and win a National Championship,” and 35 years later, he did!

The car was set up to E prepared regulations with U20 Carillo rods, Cosworth pistons, Ported head, tulip valves, cam, double disc Tilton clutch, UC tranny, 4:88 gear, 240Z brakes on all four corners, 3-link with a Watts link designed by a friend of his, coil-overs, and 7″ Panasports with cantilever tires. It made about 170hp at the crank:

Beneath those sexy handmade fender flares and bodywork is a full tube-frame chassis that Todd built from scratch. About the only thing OEM Datsun are the clutch master cylinder, uprights and spindles, trunk lid and doors. The best part is that he did all of the fabrication work in his garage with a Mikita 90 degree grinder, cheap drill press, a file and his trusty 34 year old Lincoln Tig 250.

“We got a steering rack from a Rover and fabricated a new one, steering arms, tie rods and column for the car. Fender flairs were made from riveting aluminum flashing to the fenders and laying several layers of fiberglass weave over the flashing, then drill out the rivets and peel the flashing away. Take a cheese grater and file to shape the fiberglass.”  It looks fast and mean just standing still.

The VQ35HR Madness Begins

“I got moved to DP and had to race Miatas (which have more HP than my 15:1 Hot rod engine) and I had to weigh 300 lbs more than they do.”  The SCCA got rid of A Prepared and B prepared and came up with X Prepared: 1200lbs min. weight with +200lbs for every liter of displacement.  Lots of high hp and high $ machines to compete with. In other words, it was time for the U20 to be replaced by something with more power: enter Nissan’s VQ35HR.

We all know that this engine can be uncorked with minor bolt-ons and make 300whp easily…this car weighs under 2000lbs ! It now has a quick-ratio rack from an Australian stock car, Wilwood brakes, one-off zero-scrub front end, over 700 ft. of tubing, Toyota rear axle and gear drive, 4:88 gears and Goodyear 23.5×11.5×16 slicks on very wide custom Panasports.
The handmade exhaust headers showcase Todd’s fabrication skills. 18″ tubular mufflers finish them off. We can’t wait to hear this thing at full song:

The XP class is said to be filled with $100k cars but Todd has spent a little more than a new Nissan Versa on this VQ-powered Datsun Roadster. “I have an SRL311 that looks just like the racer without the larger fenders and wheels. It has been idle since 1989 because I have put all of my time and money into the racer.” Will it be enough to win another championship? With his driving skills, winning suspension and more power we hope to see Todzilla on the podium! Thank you Todd for keeping the Datsun spirit alive.

You can see more pictures in the gallery below:
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James H came to ZCG for chassis upgrades on his black 350z. The Z already sported a sharp NISMO bodykit and 19″ wheels:

The suspension was upgraded to coil-overs with Eibach springs, SPC front/ rear control arms and Hotchkis sway bars followed by an alignment:

The brakes were treated to a Stoptech Sport Kit consisting of slotted rotors, 309 pads and stainless flex lines.  Here are the brakes and suspension before/after for the front and rear:

James felt the Cusco diff was a little too tight so the clutch pack was changed to bring the lock-up down from 100% to 60%. New differential bushings were also installed:

Mazda’s 3rd generation (FD) RX-7 is one of the sexiest looking sports cars to come out of the 90’s. Ok, second to the Z32 🙂 Lou S found this silver FD in a Monterey garage with 80k miles on the clock. It had been sitting since 2006 and needed some ZCG TLC. Lou plans to do an LSx drivetrain swap and we think it will be a great complement to his brilliant Right-Hand Drive 240z.

The ocean air surrounding the car rusted out the suspension and exhaust so these were removed and replaced. Here is the new Racing Beat exhaust:

New shocks/springs and a Stoptech big-brake kit were installed:

MMM…Stoptechs! We love the new stance how the red calipers pop through the period OZ Monte Carlo wheels…

Note how much larger the rotors are compared to stock. The rear calipers were treated to same red as the front:

 Stay tuned for more updates as Lou’s RX-7 transforms into a large-displacement beast!

Steve S. is our kind of enthusiast: extremely meticulous and passionate about his car and it shows. A litte over two years ago, he bought a low mileage Ivory Pearl G35 coupe, but something was missing: Power. Through his intense research on the G35 and the 350z forums, he came across ZCarGarage. To increase his power, his initial source of inspiration for going with the Vortech Supercharger was from a write up found on Z Car Blog entitled Little By Little: G35 Gets the Job Done.

Steve’s main reason for going with the Vortech Supercharger was after the test drive with Rob. Here is how the car stands with the beautiful 20 inch D2forged wheels with Z CarGarage special touches.

To feed that power urge Steve chose a  Vortech Supercharger. Steve’s ultimate goal was to keep everything simple, clean and somewhat unique.

 

You are probably thinking, “what do you mean somewhat unique?” With most forced induction gauge set ups, many would use the 3 gauge pillar for displaying any combination of Boost, Air to Fuel, Oil Temp, Water Temp, etc.

Steve came across a nice find with PLX Kiwi Wifi. This device connects to your OBDII port and retrieves information from your car’s computer as well as from PLX sensor boxes and wirelessly transmits real time car vital information to his iPod touch. The iPod touch is located in the display compartment.  Check out the clean install:

 

The other cool feature with this device is that it gives you a description of the Check Engine Light as well as clear all codes.  ZCG was able to figure out a way to play downloaded videos off of the iPod touch through the stock Bose head unit.   Many hours were spent cleaning up the Innovate A/F gauge located in the ashtray compartment. With all compartments closed, it looks completely stock:

The V3 Vortech supercharger is fully polished with supporting mods including Tomei headers, Upgraded intercooler, ZCG Cold Air Intake, JWT cams, upgraded clutch/flywheel, Bassani exhaust with Berks HFCs and a ZCG oil cooler.

 

On to the tuning process…where Rob works his magic. Check out the progression of tuning over the past 2 years:

Boost/Serpentine Pulley Progression:
Note: SS Box and Vortech FMU with 3.12 serpentine pulley……..416hp and 336tq at the wheels on 91 Octane

 

Upgraded to the following items: DW600cc inj, Walbro Fuel pump, GTM 56mm radiator/Fan and Shroud, and UpRev Software with PMAS HPX………91 octane

 

Next upgrades: Larger Intercooler and 2.87 serpentine pulley yielded 443hp/353tq on 100 octane:

 

At this point, some may have been content with the power, but Steve was now hooked on pushing for “More Boost“.

Now the best for last. The changes made for this tuning process are listed below, but keep in mind this is still the “Stock Motor” on 100 octane fuel.

725cc injectors, Aeromotive 340lph fuel pump, GTM MAF, changed Cog Gear, and ARTs Test Pipes and 100 octane.  The results are impressive!…501 whp / 399 tq SAE or 514 whp / 409 tq STD: We think Steve is happy 🙂

 

Will Steve’s boost addiction continue? We will have to wait and see…