One of the best Nissan/Datsun/Infiniti in the Northern California area is the annual Blackhawk auto show put together by the ZONG organization.  This event consists of beautiful cars from all over the state and the winners are decided by the fellow entrants which always makes for an exciting trophy presentation.  We will be bringing quite a few choice cars from the shop as well as unveiling the production version of our ZCG Big Brake Kit for the 240z.

Another great reason to make the trip to Blackhawk is the amazing auto museum.  If have any sort of appreciation for the automobile, or art in general, this place is a must!!  There are cars of all generations from every marque, some of which you may have never heard of.  The rolling artwork here are some of the finest examples still in existence.  You will not be disappointed.

I have heard rumors that ZONC has been in contact with Nissan North America to possibly bring a surprise vehicle, can you guess what it might be?  I’ll fill you in when I get a confirmed yes or no.  Click on the flyer below for all the detail and make sure to check our the photos from last years event.  We hope to see you there!

Link:  ZONC

Link:  Blackhawk Automotive Museum

ZONC Blackhawk Flyer:

More photos from last year after the ‘read more.”

…[read more]

Nissan calls the new NISMO 370z “Possibly the ‘best-bang-for-the-buck’ sports car available today,” and I’m not sure that anyone in their right mind would disagree.  With the base model starting at $30K (add 3k for the sport package) and the touring ringing in at 35+, the NISMO isn’t that much of a stretch considering all the improvements.

The first thing that you will notice is the entirely redesigned body kit that is supposed to clean up some of the aerodynamic drag and possibly decrease some lift, although I haven’t seen any coefficient of drag numbers yet.  Next to catch the eye are the newly designed wheels.  The have an obvious relation to the sport package wheel that has a more traditional 5-spoke approach.

Beneath the wheels are the Nissan Sport brakes.  They don’t mention if these are an upgrade over the braking package on the Sport Package, I certainly hope they are (Click HERE to see why.)  Nissan also claims to have refined the suspension package for the new model and additional chassis bracing.  The new suspension will have “specially tuned springs, shocks absorbers, and stabilizer bars.”  The car will also benefit from a limited-slip differential fitted as standard equipment, this will help put those few extra hp to the ground.

Which brings me to my final point… power upgrades.  Every one knows that the Z33 (350z) NISMO should have come from the factory with at least a small bump in power and it looks like Nissan have learned their lesson.  The Z34 NISMO will feature an 18hp and 6 lb-ft jump to a total of 350hp and 276 lb-ft of torque.  This not-so-subtle increase is due to an enhanced exhaust system and upgraded ECU programing.  This last part about the ECU makes me excited to see what the future will hold as far as tuning modified 370Zs in the future.  Very interesting….

Gallery:  2009 NISMO 370z

Nissan Official site:  NISMO 370z

As always, there will be more info as I get it.  The full press release from Nissan is after the ‘read more.’

…[read more]

Pete and Karen were nice enough to send me a link to the photos that they took during the trip up to Truckee on the ZONC Feather River Run.  I love to see the all the photos that other people take on trips like this because usually I’m the only one with a camera in hand.  Keep up the good work!  I’m also looking forward to the photos from Curtis, who made this amazing trip possible, so be prepared to see at least on more post on this trip.

In ZONC news, there are a few car shows and get-togethers planned in the near future so check the ZONC site for more info.  I’ll also be putting info here on ZCarBlog tomorrow for your convenience.  See you soon.

More photos after the read more! …[read more]

With the Behemoth back in our hands, the time has come to focus on getting the Kurtzee RB build up to speed.  The freshly powder-coated coilovers have now been fitted to the car to make it a roller once again so that we can carry on with the chassis stiffening.  We were really excited to see this car back on the ground after sitting by the wayside for some time, now is the big push!!

The chassis will be modified along the same lines as the Behemoth build so that the nearly forty year old body doesn’t destroy itself the first time we step on the “fun” pedal.  It will also allow us to remove the bolt-in roll bar that was previously installed.  The new setup will help provide a more solid feel in the entire car on the street and on the track, oh man these cars are going to be a handful!!

To prep the car for the cage/stiffening we needed to remove every part of the interior.  This isn’t a difficult task but it can be time consuming because you really need to make sure everything is handled properly to prevent damage and labeled accurately to ensure that the re-installation goes smoothly.

I should have some photos in a week or so when it gets out of the fabrication phase.  The car will then be stripped down even further and sent off to William’s Auto Body to have the engine bay cleaned up and resprayed to perfection.  As with all the RB builds that we do, all the holes and parts that are no longer used with the new engine will be removed or smoothed to provide the cleanest engine bay possible.

As you read a week ago HERE, we recently received all the parts for the ZCG Big Brake Kit that has been a few years in the dreaming/engineering phase and I am happy to report that all of the custom CnC’d brackets have been given a beautiful black anodized finish.  We can’t thank Ken over at Roost Billet Products enough for donating so much of his time and hard work for this project, the quality is amazing and rest assured it doesn’t get any better than this for a 240z.

There are a few more photos after the ‘read more.’

…[read more]

This post was supposed to be up yesterday but we experienced some server issues which have been cleared up.  Sorry.

Volk TE37 wheels are the bees knees.  When our friend who owns this car found a NEW set of TE’s in Los Angeles that were painted black with a polished lip from the factory, he decided it was worth the six hour drive down there to pick them up.  It was a good decision.  Now we just need to get some springs on this thing…Bill?

One of the first posts we did on this car is HERE.  It has made almost 300whp (SAE corrected) with just a few bolt-ons.  Check out the post.

There are more photos after the jump.  Have a great weekend!

…[read more]