The Blackhawk Museum in Danville, CA has been hosting Cars & Coffee every first Sunday of the month. From what we have seen in the media turnout has been phenomenal with some really impressive cars.

 

We would like to gather a group of Datsuns/Nissans to show their cars at the event on Sunday, June 7. If we can get a firm number of attendees in advance the nice folks at the show will tape off an area for us to park! Interested in parking with your fellow owners? Please contact alvin AT gmailDotCom or simply reply to our Facebook page or Instagram (#zcargarage) posts. All Nissan/Datsun/Infiniti cars welcome, see you at the show!

 

 

 

We hope everyone had a chance to enjoy 5/10 yesterday in their Datsuns! To celebrate the occasion we drove our Dimes up to Uvas Reservoir. Our good friend Anthony drove down from Oregon to drop off his Datsun 510 Wagon for tuning. You might remember this flared, Supra-powered beast from being featured in America’s Coolest Wagons in 2011:

 

The car has gone through some serious development including including a full 2JZ-GTE engine, rear-mounted radiator setup and massive fender flares–all fabricated by Anthony himself! We will have full details on the blog soon.

Joining us was Rob in his SR20DET 510 and Lou with his new 2014 GTR Track pack. Kane, the ZCG shop dog Enjoyed the Ride too! Before heading out we stopped by the scales on De La Cruz to satisfy our curiosity. All three cars surprised us…
Anthony’s 2JZ Datsun 510 Wagon: 2888lbs

 

 

Lou’s 2014 R35: 3880lbs

Rob’s SR20DET Datsun 510: 2240lbs

 

From the scales we cruised up to Uvas Reservoir.  Watching Anthony’s Dime in motion is impressive. The incredibly huge ToyoR888s (285s!) at all four corners look absolutely menacing from every angle:

 

The weather was great and we had a blast on 510 day. Check the gallery for more pictures!

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No, dear readers your eyes aren’t deceiving you! That is a 1972 Chevelle coming out of Turn 9 at Laguna Seca and here is the story behind this icon from the 70’s.  Owner Dave T was scouring the internet for dyno shops when he found Z Car Garage. With an endorsement from his co-worker an e-mail was sent and we happily obliged to dyno the Chevelle. We love muscle cars!

 

Dave had assembled this engine entirely by himself and wanted to see the difference a new exhaust system made. The stock exhaust consisted of OEM cast-iron manifolds, dual pipes w/o crossover and generic turbo mufflers. Baseline numbers were 277hp/326tq to the wheels. The new exhaust system included Hooker SBC headers, Pypes X-pipe and Race Pro mufflers. This helped produce 330hp/356tq to the wheels!

 

Here is a video of the dyno run:

 

 

What we love most about the car is that it was meant to be a ‘grandma’s sleeper’ that could work at the road-track, the drag-strip and as a daily driver.  It still has its original bench seat and column shifter. Dave has logged over 11,000 miles on the motor and recently completed a track day at Laguna Seca!

 

 

A few details on the engine build:

383CI
Intake Manifold-RPM Air Gap
GMPP Hot Camshaft
COMP Cams Valve Springs
GM Bow-Tie Vortec cylinder heads
Compression ratio 9.543
TH-350 (TCI)
3000 rpm flash stall converter (TCI)
3.08 rear, Eaton posi

 

Dave actually built the engine before he found the car. After the successful engine run on the stand, his dad encouraged him to find a car for it:

“He said, why don’t you get a Chevelle like you had in high-school- that was the best car we ever had. I had received a 1972 Chevelle Mailbu from my parents at the age of 16. It was blue with a white vinyl top. I had an accident in it and some time after that the cam/timing gear let go and although I tried to replace it the engine never ran right and we ended up donating it to the high-school auto shop class.”

 

 

He then found a ’72 on Craigslist in un-modified condition, shown above in the original owner’s driveway. The car has been repainted it’s original shade of green, and that’s it. In went the new motor and he’s been driving like mad.

 

Here is Dave putting the Chevelle through its paces at the Sear’s Point Drags (Sonoma Raceway). His first time out he ran low 13’s!

 

 

Thanks for bringing your Chevelle to us we enjoyed working with you Dave!

 

 

 

The Solvang Datsun Roadster show took place last weekend. Now in its 28th year, this gathering continues a tradition of uniting owners from all parts of the world in a little town just outside of Santa Barbara.  I drove my roadster down from San Jose and arrived Saturday morning to a very wet downtown Solvang. Despite the showers we had 77 Datsuns in attendance and eventual sunshine.

 

For the last 3 years The Solvang Roadster Show has been organized by the great folks of SoCal Roadster Owners Club. They have carried the torch well, providing a fun time for all and keeping things interesting like creating show categories with sponsors. This year the new “race” class was sponsored by the popular historic driving group SVRA, and the display was pretty epic!

 

This 1962 Fairlady SPL212 was given a full transformation into a road-racing beast. The man behind this one-off roadster is Jeff Silvey, a long-time Solvang show attendee and talented fabricator. He’s known for his bright red, L-series powered hot-rod SPL212 and sweet turbo-diesel powered NL320 truck. The latter was actually the tow rig for the racecar, how cool is that?!

 

Back to the racecar…from the outside there are a few subtle mods like the front air dam, “gills” and speedster cover that catch the eye. Add the 16″ vintage Volk GT-U wheels and you know this isn’t the stock, 48hp Fairlady from the factory. With red/white paint somehow it all works very well. Then you peek underneath that tiny hood and see an S15 SR20DET sitting almost a foot back and a myriad of custom fabrication takes over.  From the full Silvia rear suspension to custom a-arm setup up front Jeff went bezerk with this build. We dig it, see more detailed shots in the gallery:

 

Other notable race cars included our friend Ron Carter with his 1967 2000 race car and Gary Wasserman’s factory lightweight SRL.  Ron recently got accepted to run at the Monterey Historic Races coming in August!

 

The show brings roadsters lovers from all over the world including British Columbia and Mexico.  For those hardcore Datsun enthusiasts that insist on Enjoying The Ride this means towing a small trailer!

 

 

I have a soft spot for Datsun 1500s (I have a 1500 grille on mine), especially these ’63-64 3-seat models. This year we had four beautiful examples, including an original owner who was a Solvang resident. He even showed me the original purchase order spec’d with the factory hardtop!

 

 

Solvang showcases everything from highly modified to pristine stock examples of roadsters. John Baker’s ’69 2000 and this ’67 SPL were great examples of stock roadsters, right down to their stock steel wheels:

 

Speaking of stock, Mike Young brought this fantastic 67 2000 for display showcasing his great restorative skills. White/red is one of my favorite combinations and really got the stance right on this SRL with the slightly larger Libra-style wheels:

A few more 1600s, including Mike’s stroked and Mikuni-carb’d hot rod.  Watanabe wheels, EMPI steering wheel and red/black interior are great choices.  Eagle eyes may notice the 2L gauges, shift plate and trim ring. Watch the video to hear it run!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJIVRqm8Pfo
 

A pleasant surprise was this “short-nose” Skyline coupe or “hakosuka”. These cars were powered by G-series 4-cylinder engines unlike their larger L-series 6 cylinder brothers that we are starting to see stateside. Sitting nicely on Hayashi Techno Phantoms this classic J-tin ticked all the right boxes with pillar-less windows and a proper surf line left intact! Check the gallery for other “non-roadster JDM” finds.

 

An incredible amount of high windshield 2000’s inhabited the show this year with very diverse examples. Solex, SU and even motorcycle quad-carb induction setups hooked up to U20s. Scoville/BRE stripes, fresh paint jobs and custom interiors worthy of Pro-Touring muscle cars were also seen:

 

A properly executed engine swap into a Datsun Roadster is always nice to see as the bar increases each year.  These (for lack of a better word)  “resto-modded” roadsters blend modern drivetrains with vintage lines while adding personal touches from the builder/owners.  Here are three examples that stood out:

Looking for more power but wanting to stay NA, Mike Anderson’s ’68 SPL sports an SR20VE. Using Nissan’s version of VTEC, this VVL combination is good for 200hp NA. With help from Kevin Desirello of KRD it dyno’d at 215wrhp! Limited production Volk TE37v SL wheels are one of my all-time favorites.  Mike took me for a spin and this engine in such a light car is phenomenal.

 

Jon Frampton’s 1967.5 SPL stole the show with a total frame-off restoration and SR20VE-T/6-speed drivetrain. That’s right, a turbo was added to an already ballistic engine! Another one of Kevin Desirello’s creations, this roadster came to him needing only transmission work and suffered an extreme case of “Hey, while we’re there”…

 

It’s hard to believe this car was once candy red and decked out in 90’s era style. Beautifully applied #531 Beige Grey Metallic paint and a very subtle but custom interior by Bill Dunn (Overhaulin’) helped win Best of Show.  Jon himself is famous for restoring and “modernizing” roadster gauges…his work is sensational!  Check the gallery for more shots…there are plenty of neat details to see!

 

Finally, Ted’s 1966 SPL is a familiar, though still impressive roadster. Built by Michael Spreadbury of
Spriso Motorsports, this S15 SR20DET powered beauty glistens with Plymouth Prowler paint:

 

Sitting perfectly atop 16″ Watanabe RS-8 wheels with a massive dish out back on a 225-width tire, this one oozes cool. Ted is currently driving her thousands of miles on a Southwest tour!

 

We had a blast at Solvang and always look forward to next year. Big thanks again to SoCalROC for putting on another wonderful show!

 

If you didn’t attend please watch this excellent drone footage of the show from fellow roadster owner Mike Anderson. Don’t forget the picture gallery after the jump and…

Enjoy The Ride!

 

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Nick P came to Z Car Garage to fix a blown head gasket on his 280zx.  We decided on a full cylinder head rebuild with a revised cam profile from Rebello, otherwise it was built close to factory spec. Teardown pictures below indicate obvious failure:

 

 

The rebuilt cylinder head:

 

We added a new 6-2-1 exhaust header from MSA and finished it off with the ZCG exhaust system:

 

The intake manifold and associated smog/efi plumbing were cleaned up:

 

With the engine freshened we put the Z on the rollers…141hp/142tq to the wheels is healthy!

 

Next we turned to the suspension. Nick wanted us to install his TechnoToyTuning (T3) coilovers, RCA’s and T/C rods:

 

Old struts out and coil-overs in!

 

T3 camber plates up front:

After an alignment and fender roll the Z sits perfectly without rubbing or scraping. We dig the RB-Rs on this!