We have been working on Jared C’s 350z since he purchased it. He absolutely loves this Z car but does not get to drive it all the time. So when the occasion arrives and he gets behind the wheel, this Z is driven hard.

  

Last time when we checked in on Jared’s 350z it was making above average power/tq both NA and with the Vortech. Recently Jared let us know that he was at a point in his life where he wanted to make as much power as possible. We happily obliged. In June of this year after passing a smog check we began the power upgrades, starting with the Garett 900 hp FMIC assembly:

  

We installed our ZCG cold-air intake:

  

Jared’s Z had been tuned for 91 octane and for the power levels he wanted this would be a limiting factor due to conservative timing.

 

We proceeded with a 100 octane tune and made 443hp/360tq at the wheels:

 

With more power we also wanted to ensure that rest of the car was safe and in good shape. We changed the oil and replaced the Vortech fluid. The Stoptech BBK from his last visit was a very wise upgrade!

  

Enjoy The Boost Jared!

 

 

 

If you tuned in last time to Gary’s Pulsar GTi-R we increased the power with a downpipe and several bolt-on parts:

  

Gary has been commuting and enjoying the newfound power in the Pulsar, but now he wanted to take the “cush” out of the ride. After some research he located BC Racing coil-overs for the RNN14 stateside and visited us for the installation:

 

Here are the coil-overs installed, before/after for the front/rear:

   

A full alignment followed the coil-over installation and we set the ride height so it looked good and handled well. Gary is super stoked!

 

 

 

Jason S had his 2012 370z supercharged at a performance shop in the Sacramento area. He then tracked us down to install a smaller pulley and raise the boost level followed by UPREV tuning to replace the base CAN tune.

Once we got his car into the shop we realiZed there were several things to handle before increasing the power. First, it is important to put in a colder spark plug in a car with forced induction and we used our proven GT-R units. When going from 280whp to 400whp we wanted to make sure nothing was rubbing so the following items were addressed:

All vacuum and boost lines were secured to keep them from popping off:

   

We corrected wiring at the ART pipes where a wire was touching the exhaust:

  

We corrected orientation of MAF housing:

    

The oil cooler lines were secured to prevent from rubbing anything on the front end:

  

We rectified the flaky wiring to the intercooler pump that allows water to flow into the cooler. No more on/off issues with the pump. With all of the clean-up work sorted we installed the smaller supercharger pulley and UPREV tuned the Z:

  

ZCG has performed many Stillen s/c kits and it’s a wonderful way to pump up your Z with minimal hassle and great power gains. Thank you Jason for letting us sort out your Z!

 

 

Dan J has been with Z Car Garage for all of the maintenance and performance modifications on his 2015 GT-R. You may remember his last few visits when we installed the AMS Alpha Kit and brake/suspension upgrades:

  

We love that Dan not only owns a lovely supercar but drives it hard. Whenever we see him it’s either at ZCG or a track day! Dan is getting faster on the track and at his last Laguna Seca event he noticed transmission temps starting to rise.

 

To make sure there were no further temp issues he visited us to install the HKS DCT cooler kit. This kit works extremely well and we can’t stress the high quality of this product. Everything fits as if it were an OEM part. It’s that good. Here are a few pictures of the installation:

 

Factory oil cooler assembly:

  

Aluminum oil lines:

   

Oil cooler, air ducting, kit-supplied washer tank tank installed:

    

See you on the track Dan!

 

Hello and good morning Dear Zcarblog readers! We have many customer car and event reports to bring you this week, so let’s get to it.

If you are a fan of Japanese classic cars there’s a good chance that you have visited Japanese Nostalgic Car. JNC’s senior minicar correspondent and all-around J-Tin guru is Ricky Silverio and he is also a Z-car owner! Here is his pristine, 10k-mile 2003 350z Track model that we will be performing services on soon:

   

Enough about Z cars let’s talk about the other steed in his stable…Ricky recently visited Z Car Garage with his 2017 Mustang GT:

“Although the public knows the shop specializes in Nissans, I am aware of the broad range in specialty that ZCG possesses. What really stands out in the cars no one knows about is the DSE equipped Camaro that was done a few years ago as well as the myriad race and special projects. That’s what makes me know that ZCG is a misnomer as everything can be accommodated at the shop.”

 

 

The Premium-package equipped Mustang came to us with only 226 miles on the odometer and we happily obliged Ricky’s request to begin modifying it. Ride height and handling were addressed with an Eibach Pro-kit:

 

We discussed Ricky’s driving preferences and intentions (neutral, good turn in, street-use) when choosing alignment settings following the new spring installation. He was stoked:

“Although I chose mild springs I was surprised that brake dive was eliminated, turn in was very crisp and the car became more tossable. Firmness was slightly higher but the difference is huge which surprised me. But I must add the alignment specs really made the difference and ZCG delivered as always!”

 

What’s next for the Mustang? Since Ricky is comfortable with ZCG, on his next visit we will perform a baseline dyno and intake/exhaust mods. Ricky will have joined the ranks of a rather peculiar correlation between Z car owners and Mustangs demonstrated by our customers Jeff V, Kevin B and Scott L. Z/Mustang associations aside, Ricky is a car enthusiast with a love that started with Japanese cars and encompassed all:

“I love all cars and although I have been versed in Japanese cars since the day I was born, I dig everything! I used to have old minis and European Ford escorts and my uncle was into restoring old 60s American cars (Mustangs too) so that’s where my love for muscle cars were born.”

Here is Ricky’s ridiculously clean, 30k-mile NA Miata sitting on Enkei RPF1s and tasteful interior upgrades:

  

Ricky and I had some lively discussions about his latest Ford purchase and the new S550 Mustang’s design.

“The S550 Mustang chassis when it came out gave me the best of both worlds. Iconic car and platform but now with IRS and finally true world car engineering and refined elegant and beautiful design. The Americanness of the car can be found in its size (I’m still getting used to its length and width) as well as its V8, typical ford panel fit, rattles and various hard plastic surfaces. Other than that the experience is vastly different as the car really is a now a “normal” globally accepted and designed car. From its IRS, Getrag 6 speed, it feels more European / Japanese in dynamics.”

 

We both agreed that the new Mustang is the spiritual successor of the S15 Silvia, an “S16” if you will or the car Nissan should have built!  Ricky then took it up a notch drawing a connection between an old school Toyota and the Ford:

“Totally agree Alvin that by subliminal design (even chassis code with an S and 5) that with the Ecoboost the Mustang truly channels the S15 Silvia! With the V8 it even channels the true first release of the original Celica Liftback (twin cam 2 liter) which the US never got, especially in white”:

 

“That’s what does it for me. It channels those Japanese cars but also caters to the heritage of the Mustang which is what inspired the Japanese cars in the first place! Imagine Japanese cars inspired by the original Mustang, and now the newest Mustang channeling the qualities and design of the cars that were inspired by it. Mind blown.”

 

Even though we are a Nissan specialty shop we never leave our customers hanging with their other rides. We love the new S550 and Ford is one of those companies that gets it. More to come as we work on Ricky’s Z33 and GT!