What a weekend! On Saturday we enjoyed a day in Solvang, Ca for the 24th Annual Datsun Roadster show and on Sunday drove back up to Laguna Seca to catch some vintage racing.

We always drive our Datsun roadster to the show but with a baby on the way we decided to play it safe and leave the Datsun at home.  Instead we drove the ZCG 370(still keeping it Nissan) down to Solvang where it was welcomed into the show! If you have never been to this small town just outside of Santa Barbara it is really worth visiting. There is something for everyone here: shopping, food, wine-tasting, outdoor activities, and the last weekend of every April a huge gathering of Datsuns 🙂

This year’s show brought Datsun owners from all over the country and even the Netherlands! There were 68 cars including roadsters, 510s, Zs and others from showroom-stock examples to wildly modified beasts. Here are a few show highlights from a roadster-owner’s point of view; it’s not hard to see that we love our cars and there is a dedicated following to keep them on the road!

Mike Young is known as a top Datsun restoration specialist and he won Best in Show with his fully restored and concourse-correct 1967.5 2000. This is the most coveted model of all Datsun roadsters with less than 1000 cars produced and even fewer still in existence. Mike has great attention to detail and it shows throughout the car even in the engine bay:

A gentleman from SoCal fabricated an entire roadster frame/chassis with custom front and rear suspension with the intent of selling to the masses. Check out the rack and pinion steering, tubular A-arms with coil-overs and linked rear end:

Engine swaps from modern vehicles are common into roadsters. Although Nissan drivetrains are popular leave it to Datsun roadster owners to buck the trend. Here is a beautiful ’67 1600 that has a full GM Eco-Tec drivetrain found in the Pontiac Solstice. I really liked the white faced aftermarket gauges:

Speaking of engine swaps and gauges…running the factory speedometer and tachometer (mechanical) with your late-model engine swap(electronic) of choice has been difficult/near impossible to do. Enter roadster owner and aviation gauge specialist John Frampton. Not only does he fully restore a 45 year old speedometer gauge to new, he takes it up a notch and modifies the gauge internals to work with late model engines. Brilliant. Here are 2 examples of his “electrified” gauges. A set of 67.5 gauges on the left, and ’66 on the right. Both are getting signals from the SR20 drivetrains underhood. Eagle eyes will notice the digital odometer in place of the mechanical one 🙂

Here is a small sampling of pretty cars with different paint jobs and wheels. Panasports and Libras are common but the new Rota “Rb” model has made it’s debut on a few cars:

People. It’s what makes the Roadster Show so much fun. Datsun folks in general are cool people. We help each other out. Tuning carburetors is a black art to most of us. Getting them to run smoothly and efficiently is not easy…unless you are this guy. Can’t tune your SUs properly? …[read more]

***ATTENTION DATSUN FANS***
There are TWO exciting Datsun events this weekend!
Saturday, 4/30    
The Solvang Datsun Roadster Show is being held in beautiful downtown Solvang, CA.

Sunday, 5/1
A record number of Datsuns will be racing at Laguna Seca with HSR on Sunday, 5/1

If you are a Datsun fan and love vintage racing come out to Laguna Seca this weekend! On  5/1 the Historic Sportscar Racing group is bringing an exciting event with plenty of historic race cars and several notable Datsun racers! If you can’t make the Solvang Datsun Roadster Show (held on Saturday) this is another way to get your Datsun fix! We will do our best to attend on Sunday afternoon where the Datsuns are running in group 3. We also want to be there to cheer on our favorite Datsun Roadster racer, Ron Carter!

So just how strong will the Datsun showing be? At least TWENTY 510s, Zs, and Roadsters! Come on out to ‘Seca and watch these Datsun vintage racers mix it up with exotics and other wicked metal 🙂

Yes Zcarblog readers, even those larger Nissans get ZCG love! Here is Rob with the story on this FX45:
Thad N and his wife Dana are big Nissan fans. Thad found a really clean FX with all the right stuff for making his commute a pleasureable experience. Living in the Santa Cruz mountains with all of those curvy roads this FX certainly gets put through its paces.
Thad has added GTspec bracing to stiffen up the chassis and intake to let that amazing V8 sing its song going in and out of the twistys.

His FX still had too much body roll in and out of the turns, and was also lacking in the brake department.
Solution 1: Eibach Pro-kit. A slight drop with some added spring rate allowing the FX to feel more solid during cornering.

Solution 2:  STOPTECH Big-Brake kt( BBK) kit with matching rotors and 309 pads in the rear. The stock rear calipers were also color matched to the fronts in red.

The new stance and big-brakes peeking out of the stock wheels turn this FX into a sleeper:

This FX is born again. Thad’s impression after the upgrades:  “the FX was amazing!!!”  After Dana drove she called to tell me that her G35 sedan needed to be upgraded ASAP.
So stay tuned this Nissan family has more upgrades on the way 🙂

We featured Ashley’s Z33 Roadster back in November ’10 when her Z-obssessed husband brought the car in for Tein springs and dual-JWT pop chargers. The car still sports the same tasteful drop but now sits on a mint set of 19″ Volk Progressive Spoke wheels(discontinued) in gloss black with polished lips.


ZCG also installed that neat “Z” emblem which doubles as a LED side marker, here is a short video of it in action:

Ashley’s husband is none other than Scott S, fearless driver of the GreenMachine. Scott also owns one of the baddest Twin-Turbo Z32s on the planet. I will do a feature on his car soon, but here is a teaser of his latest set of wheels on the 300:

We had another fantastic track day with NCRC at Laguna Seca Raceway. The ZCarGarage group included Scott S (Green Z33), myself (silver 350z), Allen B (grey Vortech350z), Walt p (Blue GT-R), Rob (red370z), Tom D (gray G35 TT), and Kurt I (blue Z06, don’t worry he has a real Z too). There were at least 3 other Z33s, a 370z, a Datsun 240z, 2 GT-Rs and a very clean Nismo Z33 in the paddock…a great day for Nissans 🙂

The paddock was filled with lots of wicked metal.  Some highlights: BMW was very well represented with all years of M3s and a bunch of 135is. A lone Ferrari 458 spent an inordinate amount of time parked with race numbers….hmmm.  Bobby T showed up with his newly painted Carrera; this car used to be an interesting shade of brown so good job Bobby! A tube-framed Mercedes 300SL, I wish I had seen this LS1-powered Miata in action, and incredibly fast green 240z.

The weather and track conditions went from damp and foggy in the morning to warm and dry in the afternoon. Our friends were spread out in all three of the run groups, and everyone had a chance to “mix it up” through the various turns of ‘Seca. Walt P was tearing it up in the Open(race) group with his 1-month new GT-R, kudos to him for putting the 530hp beast to the test straight from the dealership!

This was Allen B’s 2nd time at ‘Seca and he came armed with sticky Toyo R888s on SSR-Comp wheels at all four corners of his Vortech’d Z. I love that car. Tom D’s Twin-Turbo G35 sounded wicked on the front straight. This car has been boosted for over 40k miles and he is still tracking it, daily driving it, and enjoying it!
Scott S continues to amaze us all at his driving ability in the Green Machine. He tested several sets of race rubber including some BFG R1s, but ended up going back to that sweet, sweet, Hoosier. Scott was running 1:46s on them, even with some braking system issues.

I drove my Z in the Point-by group and also had my friend Chis W drive the Z in the Solo group. That’s right, double-duty for my Z again! Big thanks to ZCG for track-prepping the car to handle the beating! Between Chris and I the Z had no issues at all. Brakes were awesome. Stoptechs were made for ‘Seca. Chris was a beginner and this was his first time driving at an open track event. My friend Glynn D instructed him throughout the day and Chris went from being a spectator to competent lapper. He had a blast. There might be a Z-car in his future now. Here are a few pics of him courtesy of GotBlueMilk.com

At the end of the day the crew from ZCG dropped by and we gave everyone ride-alongs. The last session of the day is one that is always bittersweet for me. Half of me is tired from the day of driving but the other half is wishing it wouldn’t come to an end. Laguna Seca will do that to you 🙂  So keep an eye on the blog for upcoming track days and see what it is all about. You will love your car even more.

Stay tuned for video footage from the track. Lots of photos in the gallery too!

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