The BEHEMOTH has returned!!! The Paintwork is amazing.

After being sent to the talented hands at William’s Autobody this black beauty has come back to Z Car Garage.  While it was away we have been amassing enough spare parts to complete two cars so the next assembly stages should go pretty quickly, remember that the goal is to unveil the two RB powered cars at the Historics at Laguna seca in just a few months.

I really hope that the pictures you see here help you to understand how much work was done to get the car to this point.  A few of the reflection pictures that I took ended up looking like the car had been chrome plated.  The mirror-like finish carries over into the engine bay where every hole, bracket, and weld that was’t necessary was smoothed or removed entirely.  Special attention was paid to the frame rails to make sure that they were as straight and as perfect as they could be.

The 2.8L stroked RB engine is patiently waiting in the back shop for it’s new throne in the engine bay.   We will be putting a smooth coat of black paint on the engine block to match the rest of the car.  This project is going to need to move really quickly from here on out to make our self inflicted deadline for the Historics.

I will have many many more posts on this car as we make progress into this huge project.  Until then enjoy these pictures.  Z Cars Rule.

More photos after the “read more.”

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Cars of this caliber do not come up for sale very often.  This 1973 240z is a two-owner, original-paint beauty that was just purchased by a close friend of Z Car Garage to replace another Z he has owned for 15 years.  The new 240z has just over 87,000 original miles and it shows.  There is no rust anywhere on the shell and the interior parts that see the most use are still in great condition.

All of the original manuals and even the window sticker were included in the deal.  Make sure to see the pictures of the options sheet and the extremely cool Datsun “Dial Your Mileage” tool.  Other options include factory air conditioning, a center arm rest, and floor mats that cost a whopping $9.50.  Hahaha, those would be a $200 option today.  The total original price comes in at $5,299 which is steep for its day until you realize the performance that it delivered.

There are more detailed pictures after the “read more.”

Under the hood you will find the original L24 engine with a pair of aftermarket downdraft Weber carburetors.  I got a chance to drive it today and it cruises along like a dream.  It really drives absolutely beautifully.  The stock 14 inch wheels obviously leave room for improvement in the handling department but you can’t beat them in the looks.  This car is the real deal.

After my short test drive Rob and I decided that we should put the car on the dyno to see what power it is putting out.  All I can say is that this thing needs to ditch these carbs.  It runs out of breath as soon as you roll into the throttle.  There are already plans in the works to give it some more “Umph” using period correct modifications.  There will be more updates on this car and hopefully it will stay in the Z Car Garage family for a long, long time.

There are more pictures after the “read more.”  Enjoy this new addition to the family!

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We have been getting tons of cars in and out the door like crazy as well as making some huge progress on some of the larger projects that are here.  I will have posts coming almost every day for the foreseeable future.

ZCG

Unfortunately, we will not be taking the 370z up to the weekly Wednesday Night Drags series held at Infineon Raceway today.  I’m sure that there will be a few Z people up there if you do plan to attend but we won’t be going as a shop outing.  Hopefully next week we will be able to make back up to the strip to push the ZCG 370z a bit further into the 13s.

HERE is the post of the last trip to the drags

HERE is the Wed. Night drags official site

In other 370z news we have recieved a set of sway bars for our car and should be installing them very soon so look for a few pictures and a write up when that takes place.  Other than that we are waiting on a final wheel choice to put some track rubber on the car and get back out to one of the road courses within a few hours of the shop.

Stay tuned and happy Z-ing

We can’t thank everyone who attended this event enough!  The entire crew at ZONC was amazing and we look forward to the next event with them very soon, Jack and Yolanda special thanks to you.  The caravan down to Laguna Seca on both days was a real blast and I’m happy to report that we had no serious issues.

Another special thanks needs to go out to all of the people who drove some very long distances to join up with us for the races this weekend.  A few of you came from the Sacramento area which is a good drive but there were others who came down from Oregon and Washington.  A good friend of ours brought his ’71 Datsun 510 wagon down from Oregon after a few serious modifications.  The radiator was recently relocated to the rear of the car to make way for a new air-to-air intercooler for the turbo’d drivetrain that came from a Toyota Supra.  (Feel free to leave any comments about putting a Toyota drivetrain in a Datsun in the comments section.)  The kicker here is that he only put on 15 miles before making his way down to meet us.  Talk about commitment.

Like I said earlier,  the drive to the track went great on both days but when we got to the track on Sunday we were blown away at how many Zs were there.  I believe the final count was near 65 cars for the corral.  The Porsche club only had 20ish!  Awesome!!

Our parade lap took place right around noon.  It is always a good experience to get to drive on a track but Laguna Seca is a whole different animal.  The racing history here is immense and Nissan has certainly had its fair share of the limelight here.  The look on people’s faces after the TWO parade laps were over brought a smile to my face, especially for those who have never been on track.  There were so many people interested in doing a track day after this event, it’s a good thing that the Z is up to it!

For me the racing took a back seat to spending time with all of the Z owners that attended.  The MX-5 race on Saturday didn’t produce the carnage that I had predicted, those guys can really drive in close quarters.  The Mustang Challenge race was arguably the most exciting event of the weekend.  Lots of door to door racing and that  V8 rumble will really get your heart going.  I didn’t stay for the entire Rolex Daytona Prototype race so that we could get back to the bay area a bit early but I can’t wait to catch it on one of the greatest inventions ever, the DVR.

We will be hosting more and more Z events at Z Car Garage and ZONC has quite a few shows coming up so make sure to check back here for all the info.  Thanks again to all who attended and to all the readers of ZCarBlog.

Long Live the Z

Follow the “read more” for all the pictures that I took at the event.  The pictures from both days are in the gallery and they are in the order that I took them.  I know that there were a ton of friends with cameras at the event so I will try to get some of their pictures too.  Enjoy

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