It’s Saturday morning here in rainy northern California and I am here with Rob at the shop.  I’m tired of getting angry emails about how the blog hasn’t been touched since we got back from MSA last weekend (Just kidding, we love to hear your thoughts.)  I’ve been working out in the shop all week but have dedicated this morning to updating the blog.  The posts that I’m preparing will be spread out over the next week or so.  Here’s what I’m working on, in no particular order:

ZCG 370z: We have performed a full on assault on the shop 370z and we took home first place in the 370z Modified class.  It now has an intake, cat-back exhaust, springs, and upgraded brakes.  The post will have all the details as well as dyno run information.  This will be the first post that I put up today.

Solvang Roadster Show:   This took place last Saturday before we headed to Orange, CA for the MSA show.  This will include photos from the start of our trip and the all the Roadsters and other cool Datsuns at the show.  There were some pretty amazing cars there and ZCG’s own Alvin G. took home top honors in the Modified 1600 Fairlady class!! Congrats!

Motorsport Auto Show 2009:  The largest gathering of Zs on the West Coast!  The show was amazing and the weather was perfect.  We were surprised to see how many people showed up to display their cars with the current state of the economy and all.  I’ll have some neat background stories of some of the people we met and the cars they brought.  Good times.

GT-R:  The ZCG sponsored GT-R came back to the shop last Tuesday and it has left again.  It’s funny how the car we support spends the least time at our shop.  After a few short days of damage control and a whole lot of hustle the car is off to LA to take place in the Gumball 3000 Rally all the way to Miami.  This post will contain information on most of the upgrades that have been performed over the past week.

Laguna Seca 350z Video 2:  The second installment of some track footage of time spent at Laguna Seca.  Enjoy the Video because that will pretty much be the entire post.  On second thought I may post a list of up-coming track events on this post so that all of our readers can find out how and when to join in on the fun.

350z Borla Header Install and Dyno Results:  I will have all the dyno information as well as over-all thoughts on this header install posted.  Some nice results from a well designed product.

240z Engine Rebuild:  The engine came back from the machine shop last week and I have spent a few hours this week prepping and painting the engine as well as gathering parts for the completion of this job.  I will have photos and hopefully a dyno number for this new engine.

G35 Twin Turbo Custom Gauge Install:  This system is awesome!!  I took a video of the gauges at work and it still doesn’t do it justice.  If the ZCG G35 didn’t have navigation this would be going in our car.  We double checked the boost and AFR gauges and they are incredibly accurate.  Good stuff.

Behemoth RB28 Engine Returns!!! After waiting for parts from Japan for the past few months, the stroked RB28 destroyer has come back to the shop.  Now we will be painting the block to give it the “show” to match its “go.”  We will also be installing all of the N1 factory Nissan race parts in final assembly.

370z Intake and Exhaust Modifications:  We had another car come in this week and we were able to perform the same mods that our shop 370z currently has and then some.  I have full dyno comparisons as well as a ton of photos for this car.  Thanks Tom, blue is the best color.

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST!!!!!

Cosworth Plenum Dyno Results!!!!! Some of you may have thought that I forgot about this post but I needed to wait for the proper time to relase the information that we have discovered on our dyno!!  This post is bound to upset a few people….

Last weekend was amazing.  I have so many stories and so many pictures to share with all of you.  Give me some time to upload the pictures and prepare the posts and you will not be disappointed.

The good news is that we took home a couple of trophies from the MSA show and had a blast talking to everybody at the show.  We met some great people and had some good times.  I should have a few things up by mid week.  ZCG

This car came to the shop a couple of weeks ago with the normal bolt-on mods and a shiny set of wheels to roll down the street with style.  This 2006 convertible with an automatic transmission entered our doorway with a Stillen cat-back exhaust system, Kinteix Velocity Manifold plenum, and a few other nice dress up pieces.  Then came the time to add some real power!!!

The basis of any real power addition with a VQ based drivetrain really needs to come by way of forced induction.  For this reason a Vortech supercharger kit was ordered as a starting point in this build.  Not wanting to stop there and be left wanting more, Rob and the the car’s owner went the full monte and also ordered a set of JWT camshafts, Stillen headers, and a set of high flow catalytic converters.  This isn’t going to be your everyday convertible after this transformation.

After the top half of the engine was taken apart and reassembled with the new bump sticks all of the new exterior power-adders were installed.  This car features the recently improved Kinetix Velocity Manifold and accompanying intake cover, and the new look with the supercharger left us wanting a bit more under hood bite, visually.  The decision was made to paint the engine cover to match the battery and brake master covers and off to paint it went!

While we were waiting its return, the final tune was performed and power numbers were recorded on our Dynojet dynamometer, but this isn’t where this story ends.  This car needed big brakes.  We knew it, the owner knew it, it had to be.  Rob made a call down to our good friends at StopTech Brakes to secure a four-wheel Big Brake Kit for the next day, and guess what… it was just what the doctor ordered.  The color-matched plenum cover went back on and the build was complete.  Wicked

From the dyno sheet you can see that the power gains are very impressive for a VQ35DE with an automatic transmission.  But wait you say, I said this was a 2006?  Yes, unfortunately Nissan did not put the improved “Rev-Up” engine in any of the convertibles for this year.  What’s even stranger is that this generation DE engine uses a few engine castings that are different from the first generation DE, strange.

Anyways, you can see the power is still climbing on the graph but the Nissan nannies step it to limit the fun at just under 6,500rpm.  There are software changes on the market that up the rev-limiter but they have shown to reduce the DE’s reliability down the line, and that is not an option.  We want this car to be enjoyed for as long as possible.

With the car now complete it was given a full detail before the owner came down one last time to take delivery.  This time he brought his son and a few of his friends to enjoy the occasion.  With all the test rides he gave that afternoon there is not a doubt in my mind that we will be seeing him for a set of rear tires very soon.  Enjoy the Z my friends, you have done well.

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

…[read more]

I have updated the “For Sale” page to show that we have sold the 2003 350z Touring.   If you would like to post your car for sale here on ZCarBlog.com please contact Rob Fuller:  rob@zcargarage.com

I will also have a brand new post on the ZCG 370z tomorrow.   We have made some more modifications and have sorted out one of the issues that we had at the track event at Thunderhill two weeks ago.  It’ll be nice to get this car back on the open road again down to the MSA show this weekend.

There is also a post coming about a 350z which received a plethora of upgrades including a Vortech supercharger, StopTech BBK, etc. at Z Car Garage about a week ago.  I will have a ton of pictures and dyno graphs to accompany this post.

Have a great Tuesday!

ZCG

That’s right friends, it’s time for the annual Motorsport Auto Show.   This is the largest gathering of Zs from all years on the west (best) coast and possibly the country!!

Z Car Garage and ZCarBlog.com will be making the trek to the mecca of Z shows this weekend down in Orange, CA.  This show gladly accepts all year Z Cars and has a trophy category for almost every variation of Z, stock and modified.  We will be taking the ZCG 370z on it’s maiden road trip along with one other Z Car Garage show car that is TBA at this point.  I just don’t want to commit to any certain car in writing until I know for a fact what we will be taking.

This show really is one of the standout events of the year and promises to set the bar again in 2009.  I will be posting photos of ANYTHING of interest so make sure to check back in by early next week to see all the Nissan/Datsun madness.

Rob, Meghan, and myself will be representing ZCG so if you see us make sure to say hi.  Yes, I know that this post is a bit ‘last minute’ but I wasn’t sure we were even going until yesterday, I’ll be posting any future events as soon as I am aware so that all of the Z Car Garage faithful have plenty of time to plan.

For now here are a few pictures that I have borrowed from the MSA website to share with you the quality of cars that attend this show.  ENJOY!

LINK:   Motorsport Auto Show website