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Track Day Sept. 6-7: Sonoma Raceway with Speed SF

Filed under: Events
by Alvin G @ 11:29 pm on August 4, 2014

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Our friends at SpeedSF are running another great track day at Sonoma Raceway September 6-7. We love running our cars with these folks and they go above and beyond to make sure you get tons of track time!
Register now at SpeedSF.com!





Alex’s Supercharged 370z

Filed under: 370z,Featured Cars and Projects,Performance
by Alvin G @ 4:18 pm on August 2, 2014

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Alex T is the owner of this pretty Black Cherry Z34 and he visited Z Car Garage on referral from our boost junkie friend and customer Juan F.  To satisfy Alex’s desire for forced induction we installed a Stillen supercharger kit that was actually used on Grant K’s Nismo 370z.

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Out of the box, this older Stillen kit left plenty of room for improvement so we invested in several upgrades like 1000cc injectors, Aeromotive high-flow fuel pump, pulley and these engine oil/automatic transmission coolers:

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The transmission received a GTM valve-body upgrade and stock bypass valve was replaced with a blow-off valve:

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Fast Intentions test pipes replace factory cats:

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To put the power down more effectively we installed a Quaife limited-slip differential, using the stock 3.36 R&P:

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With all of the modifications and UPREV tuning Rob extracted 435hp/343tq to the wheels. This is a 147hp/104tq gain over stock:

Alex Tat Z34 Stillen and baseline
 

To monitor vitals Alex chose PLX Device’s OBD2 multi-gauge. We first installed this trick, wireless sensor/gauge package on Steve’s G35 with an iPhone interface.  For Alex’s Z34 the multi-gauge was seamlessly integrated into the OEM pod:

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We love the brilliant display and wealth of data that can be accessed:

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Enjoy the Ride Alex!

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Check out more pictures in the gallery:
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Stillen supercharger month continues at Z Car Garage! Our last reports included Daly’s G37 sedan,
David G’s G37 S coupe and today we bring you 2009 David S’ G37 Convertible. The trifecta of supercharged Infiniti G-cars is complete!

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As with previous builds, the Stillen supercharger kit installation is straightforward. A Stillen oil cooler and colder plugs were added:

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From NA to boost!

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Out of the box with the Stillen-supplied CAN tune the ‘vert made 408hp/325tq to the wheels. This is a great improvement of 122hp/75tq over stock but at Z Car Garage we can do better!

David S G37 Vert Baseline and Can Tune
 

Rob’s tuning yielded +12hp peak with smoother delivery all the way to 7500rpm:

David S G37 Vert Can to Final tune
 

With 420whp we also thought it would be prudent to start David off with some fresh tires 🙂
This concludes our Stillen supercharger month at the shop…can we help you boost your Nissan/Infiniti?

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Mike’s Nismo 370z

Filed under: 370z,Featured Cars and Projects,Performance
by Alvin G @ 1:32 am on July 25, 2014

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Mike U visted Z Car Garage back in May for Stillen intakes on his Nismo 370z. The Z was a gift to himself and with just 2800 miles on the odometer he got the modification bug. In addition to the intakes we installed a Fast Intentions exhaust system and Eibach springs:

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Exhaust before/after:

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A few more shots of the system:

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The Fast Intentions system looks great and also frees up some power!

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We saw a 7hp peak gain at the wheels over baseline:

MIke U Z34Nismo Baseline and Exhaust
 

With Rob’s UPREV tuning Mike’s Z34 now makes 315hp/256tq:

Mike U Z34 Nismo Start to finish
 

Eibach springs improve the stance and SPC camber arms keeping the alignment in check:

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We dig the slight ride height reduction:

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Enjoy The Ride, Mike!




5th Annual Saratoga Classic Car Show Report

Filed under: Events
by Alvin G @ 12:33 am on July 22, 2014

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On Sunday I attended the Saratoga Classic Car Show in beautiful downtown Saratoga, Ca. Now in its 5th year running, thousands of car lovers flock to this historic strip of Big Basin Way.  Two-hundred cars line the street with music, vendors, shopping and plenty of fun for families. Despite its huge following I had never heard of this show happening in my own backyard until a friend sent me the flyer. I thought it would be cool to represent Japanese classic cars with the Datsun Roadster so I signed up and enjoyed the day with family.

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I’m a huge fan of muscle cars and Hot Rods so this show was a refreshing break from the J-tin that is close to my heart 🙂 Here are some of my favorites:

From Ford:  “Bullit-esque” Mustang and Pro-Touring Shelby fastback:

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This Thunderbird had a wicked stance and Halibrand-style wheels:

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From Chevrolet: Pro-Touring ’57, trackday Camaro, C1 ‘Vette, Yenko tribute and mean Chevelle:

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The roadster was well-received and I spotted a very clean S30 down the street! Maybe next year we can bring more JDM flair to the show!

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Speaking of roadsters, there was a large contingent of English droptops including this absolutely bonkers turbocharged Sunbeam Alpine:

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Sporting some sweet vintage Enkei 92 meshies with sticky Re-11s this DE-prepped beast even had a “TIGR ETR” plate!  Below: very clean MGA, Tiger and E-type:

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I thought I was out of place with the Datsun and then I saw this beautiful ’68 Audi 100…on bags!

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Such pretty lines it reminded me of BMW’s famous E9 chassis. The Rotiform wheels were perfect:

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I was in Torq-Thrust and vintage wheel heaven. Some of my favorites. I love flat caps on these:

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Check out the gallery for more pictures!

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…[read more]




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