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…

 

Tommy L recently picked up this 2009 GTR and it is the highest mileage R35 we’ve seen at the shop with 72k miles on the odometer! The Solid Red paint is also a welcome change from the ubiquitous silver/grey cars on the road. Tommy came in to have new Stillen AP rotors and Stoptech 309 pads installed:
Stock rotors front and rear:

Stillen AP rotors front and rear:

Here are more shots of that pretty red paint:

Ranjan works at Google and owns this beautiful 2004 Daytona Blue Z33 with only 50k on the clock! After giving much thought to buying a newer car he decided to improve his Z instead and came to ZCG for a full Vortech supercharger install. When you believe in the Z great things can happen! The blower is a polished V-3 unit and several supporting mods were installed including Stillen headers, JWT cams, Bassani exhaust, GTM oil cooler, ZCG bypass filter, heat shield and CAI. Here is a before/after of the install:

Just a few shots of the build showing the FMIC and ZCG cold air intake…check the gallery below for more detailed shots of the installation!

The Unichip is mounted on the kick panel and GTM oil cooler location is shown:

JWT cams really wake the motor up and complement boost, check out the difference in cam lobe profiles:

Stillen headers compared to the stock unit and the popular Bassani exhaust are installed:

JWT Clutch and flywheel go in for peace of mind and performance with the supercharged engine:

Boost is good. The dyno reveals significant gains as revs increase with 155hp/88tq over stock for a grand total of 402hp/329tq at the wheels!

With all of this new found power Ranjan soon realized that the Z was not balanced anymore :0 It needed some brakes. Stoptech to the rescue with their 332mm BBK up front and Sport kit in back:

With brakes to match the increase in power we think Ranjan will enjoy owning and driving his Z even more 🙂
You can see more detailed pictures in the gallery below, enjoy.

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Atila B. started out as the proud owner of a 2003  Lemans Sunset Z33.  Although he loved the Z he eventually stepped up to a 2009 GT-R and enjoyed taking that R35 to open track events for about 2 years. When the press announced that Nissan was coming out with an even more powerful, upgraded GT-R, Atila waited patiently and ordered this stunning silver 2013 beast you see before you!

This GT-R will not be relegated to car shows and cruising, Atila wants to take it to the track so ZCG prepped and upgraded the braking system. New rotors, brake pads, stainless flex lines and Motul brake fluid were installed:

The GT-R can now be happy in its native habitat…tearing up the apexes and straights at a Northern California racetrack near you!

 

 

The good folks over at Japanese Nostalgic Car gave ZCarGarage a shout out on their blog! Go HERE to check out their great pictures and coverage of the Bayline show. They also featured our very own Lou S’ RHD S30 which recently got a fire-breathing L-series stroker motor…stay tuned for an update but for now here is short teaser clip of the beast in action: