If you are a fan of vintage racing come out to Laguna Seca August 17-19 for the Monterey Motorsports Reunion. ZCG is hosting a VIP Car Corral for your Nissan/Datsun/Infiniti. To park in the corral you MUST purchase the corral tickets through ZCG! It is only $10, allows you to park with other Datsun owners, and it’s literally footsteps away from the track and venue, unlike general parking. See you there!  You can download the flyer in .pdf format below: Monterey Motorsports Reunion – 2012
Pictures from last year’s event are HERE

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:

 

We had a great time today at the ZONC Brisbane Nissan/Datsun/Infiniti Extravaganza! Early morning fog burned off and gave way to a spectacular sunny, warm day near South San Francisco, CA. Our caravan to the show from ZCG was only four cars deep but we still enjoyed the ride: Mark’s ’66 Datsun Roadster, my 67.5 roadster, Tom N’s GTM 370z, and Gary’s screaming 1971 Skyline:

Cars were parked on lush lawns of the Bay Trail just at the edge of Brisbane Marina. There were plenty of Z-cars to drool over:  S30s, 280zx, Z31s, Z32s, Z33s, and Z34s. Oh, and just a few GTRs 🙂

 

I’ll take my Datsun 510 in some shade of blue please!

We had three Datsun roadsters this year. Mark’s ’66 1600 has a 2L (U20) drivetrain that has been turbocharged with EFI! Mark did all of the design/fabrication/install himself on this fully-restored custom:

Mike drove his gorgeous 67.5 1600 that exemplifies how this car would look as it rolled off the showroom floor 45 years ago…with a few creature comforts added to make it an awesome driver:

My favorite S30 was this totally modified 240z. It had little details throughout the car from chassis, engine bay to interior. Check out the firewall, hidden throttle cable(!), extensive carbon fiber, custom fuel cell in spare tire-well, tucked side-exit exhaust, just to name a few. Oh, and it’s hard not to see that Rebello 3.2L on display:

Kevin Neely rocked his uber-clean Z32TT and I spotted a cool rear diffuser on this wingless 300:

 

Dan F. displayed his “Track Rat” that recently got the full Vortech supercharger treatment at ZCG and host of other mods to keep the the rat(and Dan) happy on the race track and auto-x courses:

 

R33 Skyline GTR V-spec, anyone? This one had some eye-catching wheels and a clear timing cover on its RB26:

 

Even the parking lots had some nice J-tin including this odd couple: A Datsun 1200 and Opel, separated at birth?

Here is a short clip of Gary’s Skyline making sweet 3.2L L-series noise:

Big thanks to the ZONC staff for organizing the event!  Check out the gallery for more pictures!

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Come join us at ZCarGarage Saturday morning to caravan to the Brisbane Car Show!
We will meet at the shop 7:30am sharp and depart shortly after.
ZCarGarage
140 Archer St.
San Jose, CA 95112

Pictures from last year’s show are HERE