I was pointed towards a link on the Edmund’s Straightline Blog the other day that gives us a view into one of the 370z designer’s mind.  Randy Rodriguez penned the original 370z sketch and it turns out that he grabbed some inspiration from a few exotic Italian motorcycles.

While the 370z was in it’s early design phase Randy was piecing together a MV Agusta F4-750 and it is easy to see how one beautiful two-wheeled machine was able to lend a few design cues to a four-wheeled one.  There were also influences from a Ducati 749/999 upper triple clamp that was morphed into the final design of the sport-package wheel.  His MV Agusta motorcycle now sits behind his desk at Nissan Design America in San Diego when he isn’t out putting it through it’s paces.

Many of you know that we here at Z Car Garage ride motorcycles or have close ties to them and it is always nice to see our two passions come together in a car that we get to enjoy, the 370z.  In a side note, I’ve had the chance to own a few Ducatis and still own a 2006 749s, small world…

There are a couple more photos after the ‘read more’ including one of the Ducati 749s that I own.  Enjoy and thanks to Edmunds Insideline for the Nissan info and a few of the photos.

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Here are the results from this morning’s plenum swap.  The results are… ummm… about what we expected.

This car is a 02/06 350z with an automatic transmission.  There is an extensive list of aftermarket components on this car ranging from a carbon fiber diffuser to a custom painted roll cage, but this post has nothing to do with any of these mods, it is about the before and after dyno numbers.

The plenum install went off without a hitch and the car was back on the dyno in no time.  This mod was a straight plenum swap with no fuel or timing changes made (the owner did not want to install a Uni-Chip or other tuning hardware at this point.)

Run 003:  Stock Nissan Plenum (BLUE)
Run 005:  Cosworth Plenum (RED)

On to the dyno graph you can see that the Cosworth plenum LOST a healthy amount of horsepower and torque through the entire rev range except between 5,800-6,000 RPM where it gained two, yes two, horsepower.  The design of the plenum just doesn’t seem to work on lightly modified normally aspirated cars.  Unfortunately this is a loss that will really be felt when driving the car.  This plenum is so beautiful that we really wanted to make a ton of power with it so that we could improve the looks and performance of the engine.  At this point I would find it really hard to recommend this to a customer.

Mind you that this is the first normally aspirated car that we have installed the Cosworth on.  My full post with all of the boosted car tests is still to come this week.  That post will include all of the dyno results and all other pertinent test data.  Very, very interesting….

We are working are a few updates this week for all of you Z-car fans:

Behemoth RB28 240z: I went to William’s Autobody on Monday and saw the progress on this car and i was amazed.  The entire interior of the car has been painted gloss black to match the under hood and exterior.  As of yesterday the exterior paintwork has begun and I will be headed up there to check out the progress.  I will have photos up by tomorrow evening.

Cosworth Plenums: I’m still gathering more information for this post to make it as accurate as possible.  We will be installing one on another customer’s car today and I should have some dyno numbers and graphs by tomorrow.

240z Upgrades: We are doing work on a 240z here that is currently equipped with an odd dual down-draft Weber carburetor setup and will be swapped over to triple 44mm Mikuni carbs.  We are also installing a Motorsport Auto 6-into-1 ceramic coated header.  These modifications will remove all of the performance robbing SMOG equipment and will also enhance the engine appearance greatly.  The baseline dyno showed that this car has a really strong torque curve and we will be hoping to keep that intact while bringing the horsepower up to match it.  I should have the final numbers and photos by the end of the week.

Hot Import Nights in San Mateo: There is an import and tuner show in the bay area this Saturday night from 5pm-11pm at the San Mateo County Event Center.  We were going to be showing off a couple of our cars but the show has sold out and we couldn’t pull any strings to get us in the event this time.  Come meet us at the show and check out what the aftermarket scene has to offer.

HIN San Mateo website

There are a few other things on our plate this week so check back soon.  Happy April FoolZZZZZZ.

We all knew it was bound to happen and I’m happy to announce that as of last Thursday Z Car Garage has an official ZCG 370z.  The car is going to be used as a platform to show everything we offer for the latest Nissan Z.  We will be bringing the car to all upcoming Z events and as many other shows as we can get to, and don’t think for a minute that we aren’t going to put the hammer down on the track!!

We decided on “Solid Red” to make the car stand out in the sea of bland colored vehicles and to let everyone know as soon as they see it that THIS IS THE ZCG 370z.  As you can see from the photos we can’t ever leave a car alone.  Our crew immediately added a set of stock R35 GT-R wheels to our car to set it apart from all the others while we wait on building a custom set of wheels.  We have so many amazing plans for this car and we can’t wait to share it with all of you!  Can you tell that I’m excited!?

ZCG took control of the car with 150 miles on the odometer and it is close to 350mi already, and yes we have already had the car on our dyno.  The car will be dyno’d every few hundred miles so that we can monitor how the engine is loosening up.  You can see the attached dyno sheet for the for the power curves but we are happy with the base numbers of 272 rwhp and and 233 rwtq.  I realize that the car isn’t broken in yet but it was good to get some super early baseline numbers to see what we are working with from the factory.

We have plans to offer the 370z community ZCG exclusive modifications and performance parts in the near future and are really excited to begin work on this new project.  More updates will be here at ZCarBlog as they happen!

There are more photos after the ‘read more.’  Enjoy!

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Something big has happened at Z Car Garage over the past few days and I just need a little more time to prepare the AWESOME post that it deserves.  IT WILL BE UP BEFORE MONDAY.  I promise.  You may break into song when you see what has happened.

The Cosworth plenum post is still coming.  We are working with Cosworth and a few other outside sources who have used the product to verify that our findings are correct.  Hang in there.

There is also a Behemoth RB28 update coming in the next few days.  We are making a ton of headway on the paint and bodywork.  We are trying to get the car back to the shop as soon as possible but we will never rush the project to decrease quality.  This car will be simply amazing.

Have a great weekend!!  Hugs from ZCG