It is always great to hear stories from original Z-car owners. Joe A came to ZCarGarage to restore his 1974 260z after 36 years of ownership! He had become familiar with ZCG through our local club, ZONC. After carefully inspecting the car, Rob and Joe sat down and discussed several procedures that would update and improve the car. They decided on a complete engine rebuild with tuned exhaust, and removing all smog devices since the car was over 35 years old.
Here are a few pictures of the engine bay after removing the drivetrain:
The engine was rebuilt with a mild cam and dyno results showed nice gains of 23 rwhp and 13tq!
The engine bay and underhood had to look just as beautiful as the body so William painted everything back to the original exterior color. ZCG provided zinc plating and powdercoating services under the hood and all wiring harnesses were redone:
Here is Joe with a few words on how the Z became part of his life:
“It was January of 1969 and I had just been discharged from the Air Force. …[read more]
It brings me great joy to share this with you because it marks a major chapter in one of the most epic Z car builds I have witnessed. ZCarGarage is building this Datsun 240z for Gary S and it is affectionately called the “Behemoth”. If you are not familiar with this project just click HERE for past updates on paint, suspension, drivetrain, brakes, etc.
The stroked RB28 drivetrain was mocked up and test fitted into Gary’s Behemoth. The engine now resides in Rob’s GoGreen 240z for break-in and tuning before going back to that lovely black engine bay:
Here are some quick videos I shot of the car in action. Turn up the volume, you won’t be disappointed! And if I may, please allow me to personally describe the music this motor makes. To me the sound is very distinctive and exotic. It is loud, nasty and ferocious on start-up and idle. It reminds me of a BRE 240z with those twice pipes cackling, only this RB28 sounds much deeper in tone. It totally contrasts with the smooth, buttery noise produced when cruising. Only Nissan inline-6s sound this way. And that turbo whistling as you roll into the throttle…absolutely intoxicating. When the car shuts down one can actually hear the turbo still spinning through the exhaust!
Enjoy!
Scott S ran the GreenMachine at ButtonWillow Raceway 5/13/11 with Blacktrax. Here is some in-car footage from a friend’s Honda S2000. The blue S2000 being chased is supercharged with ~400rwhp!!!
Watch closely here at 5m50s it looks like Scott induces some fear or panic in the S2k driver 🙂
The Green Machine is still tearing it up on road courses throughout California!
I just got my copy of “America’s Coolest Station Wagons” from Amazon. It is a large paperback with 145 pages of high-quality images. Wagons of all makes/models are featured from bone-stock to customized, beaters, drag racers and of course Anthony’s 2JZ-GTE powered Datsun 510 wagon! Definitely a must-have for car nuts and Datsun fans alike.
This G35 sports a built engine with a complete Vortech Supercharger kit and SI-trim upgrade. A full supporting cast of components were installed by ZCarGarage including:
Stillen headers
Stillen exhaust
Berk Hi-flow cats
600CC injectors
Rob and the ZCG crew extracted significant power gains using the UPREV software and PMAS MAF. A solid 20rwhp and 18rwtq were gained bringing total output to 456rwhp and 364tq!!! Gotta love how the Vortech blower delivers a smooth ramp-up of power as rpm rise.
Jim’s G35 is a powerhouse but braking and traction were two items that needed attention.
We spent a lot of time making a decision about the look and size of the wheels. No offense to Jim but the chromed out Foose wheels were destined for a slammed Chevy Silverado! Take a look:
It is amazing how a wheel/tire combo can transform a car’s aesthetic. 19″ SSR Professor SP3 wheels look absolutely brilliant on the G and allowed us to install much needed larger tires. Icing on the cake was the Stoptech 14″ ST60 front brakes with ST22 13″ brakes in the rear:
