I’ve added a sale section (top, center) to the blog that will allow us to offer cars and other parts for sale to all of our readers.  I will post a message like this on the main page whenever I make a major addition or change to the items in the sale section.

Right now there are two cars for sale with more things to come!  If you would like more information on any items in the ‘for sale’ section or if you would like to post an item for sale contact Rob through rob@zcargarage.com.

FOR SALE

That’s right!  Valentine’s day is hear already which means that the trip to Hearst Castle with the Z Owners of Northern California (ZONC) and the NSX club of America (NSXCA) is taking place this weekend.  Hopefully the event will have a nice turnout even though the rainy weather and the Valentine’s weekend hotel rush are trying to put a damper on things.  A couple of us here at ZCG were able to get in at the last minute due to a few cancellations.

I will be updating the blog with photos and what-not by early next week so that everyone will be able to participate in the good times.  DRIVE SAFELY EVERYONE!

ZONC website

Yesterday we installed a set of Stillen high-flow catalytic converters (HFCs) onto the 350z that received the Injen Intake system and the Unorthodox Racing lightweight pulley last week.  We’ve seen how these HFCs have improved the power band in the past on other cars but it’s always nice to back up good results.  Again, this car is equipped with a Nismo exhaust system, unlike the other car with these mods which has a Bassani exhaust.

The Stillen high flow cats are a high quality piece but as with all exhaust modifications where the stock catalytic converters are removed we were interested to see if there would be any increase in exhaust rasp.  As you remember this was a small issue that we had to resolve on the red HR car that had the Bassani true dual system with an x-pipe.  The Nismo system is much different, it comes from the cats into a 2.5″ to 3″ Y-pipe (stock is 2″ to 2.5″.)  From there is a single 3″ pipe, with resonator, back to a factory style (but larger diameter) rear muffler.

This car with the HFCs installed exhibited almost none of the rasp that has become associated with the dual exhaust cars.  While the exhaust note was very nice, you can see from the dyno graphs that this car was a few horsepower short of the Bassani 350z.  The cars were dyno’d on different days but all the results are SAE corrected to get them on as even a playing field as possible.  In their uncorrected forms, both of these cars are putting down over 300hp to the wheels. Very impressive.

Below you can see the run comparison with and without the HFCs.  The Stillen cats gain around 10hp and 10lb/ft of torque at the wheels throughout the rev range.  That’s certainly power you will feel on the road which makes this change almost mandatory from a performance aspect.

Here are the graphs that show this customer’s entire power gains over the past week or so and the comparison between the this car and the earlier Bassani equipped car.

We are trying to get the ball rolling with a header and camshaft comparison for the HR engines and maybe an turbo install in the near future to show all of you what is really possible with all available modifications.  We can’t wait to make more “RELIABLE” power from the HR series.

Link:  Other HR related posts

We are still progressing on our R35 GT-R harness bar and the second revision will be tested for the first time in another customer’s car at Laguna Seca on Thursday.  This newest revision should make the installation of the harness bar itself even easier for owners at the track and we can’t wait to test it out.  It should be installed by early afternoon today.  As before, we are holding off on showing pictures of the bar until it is ready to be fully released.  Hang in there friends.

Getting back to the ZCG GT-R… The car is still at SSP as it seems they have run into some issues when the car hit the 700wtq mark.  I’m still waiting to hear more on the situation and I will update you when I find out.

We also received a set of COBB Tuning sway bars for our car when it comes back from SSP.  They are high quality bars with two levels of adjustment for the front and three for the rear.  These will be put on as soon as possible because we have a few track days planned for this car as well in the near future.  It will be interesting to see how these change the handling characteristics of an already amazing car.

Fresh in from Japan are the five sets of Panasport 3 piece lightweight wheels that were ordered for the on-going RB project cars.  We are now one step closer to making all the cars rollers.  As you can see from the photos there are three black sets and two silver.  The craftsmanship and appearance are going to suit these highly modified 240Zs perfectly.

These wheels are ordered in a custom offset just for Z Car Garage and will allow us to fit as much as a 255/40/R17 tire without flaring the fenders.  With the large diameter of these wheels the cars will need to receive coilovers because the stock spring and strut combo intrude fairly deep into the wheel well, of course this will be getting done anyways to allow us to change the spring rate to best suit the new drive train and the owners requirements.

As soon as a tire choice is made and we get them mounted on a car you should expect to see some more pictures of these works of art.  There are some more pictures after the “read more.” Enjoy

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