I wanted to get this post up again because reserved spots in the Z-car Corral are filling up quickly!  Getting the weekend pass for $65 is a deal by itself, and then you throw in great parking at the Z-car Corral and a parade lap around the full Laguna Seca circuit and you would be a fool not to attend!!

Z Car Garage will be bringing AT LEAST four cars from the shop and we have verified that other customers and friends have already signed up.  This is going to be an amazing race weekend with all your Z friends and we hope to see you there.  Visit the Z.O.N.C. Website to sign up TODAY!!!

I love seeing new concept cars.  This one especially peaked my interest because it is a Nissan product.  I’ve been sitting on these photos for some time as this car was released at the 2009 Geneva Auto Show.   Nissan is going to be taking the Infiniti brand name to Europe for the first time and was looking to make a splash with the “Essence” concept.

The drivetrain of the Essence concept is what intrigues me the most so far.  Power comes from a twin turbo’d, direct fuel injection, 3.7L V6 that has been paired with a newly designed electric motor called the ‘3D Motor.’

Infiniti press release excerpt:

Essence previews a new type of electric motor, called 3D Motor, that was designed to meet tough requirements on size and power output. The result is a particularly slim, disk-shaped motor that has twice the torque of a conventional unit. Its design was achieved by 3D magnetic field analysis to optimize the layout of the electromagnetic coils and permanent magnets.

In Essence, the motor is positioned between the engine and transmission and provides 160PS (158bhp), drawing power from a compact lithium-ion battery pack in the boot area. Because the 3D Motor operates in both propulsion and power regeneration modes, the battery pack is kept charged up.

With the 3D Motor putting out 158hp, and the 3.7L V6 putting out 434hp, the Essence nears the 600hp mark at the crankshaft.  I’ll take two please.

The exterior design is that of a very liquid and flowing 2 door coupe/hatch.  I can’t help but think that there is some sort of homage paid to the early Z Car with the sloping hatch and C-pillar design, call me crazy.  In the end I really like the design and execution of the Essence and I wouldn’t be surprised if we started to see some of this technology and a few of these design cues in forth-coming Infiniti models.  Traditionalists may not approve, Rob, but that’s why it’s a concept.

I would like to thank Autoblog.com for the photos and some of the info on the Essence concept.  If you would like to read the entire press release make sure that you click the link below to the Autoblog post.

Autoblog.com Infiniti Essence Concept post

It’s Tuesday here at Z Car Garage (and everywhere I guess) and we have another busy day ahead of us.  We are still working on getting some ‘real world’ results on the Cosworth plenum and the full results post will be up in a couple of days once we finish testing and tuning on the dyno.  So far the results have been interesting…

We were able to do a small amount of testing with the new Cosworth plenum at the end of the day on friday and we were showing some nice gains.  Now we are back on the dyno and will be swapping the plenum around to a few cars to see how it performs with different modifications.

Cars to be tested today:

2003 350z: Stock engine, aftermarket cams,  APS Twin Turbo

2005 G35:  Built Engine and APS Twin Turbo

2003 G35:  Stock engine, JWT cams, APS Twin Turbo (ZCG G35)

2005 350z: Stock engine, Vortech supercharger

Testing later this week:

2005 G35: Stock engine, JWT Twin Turbo

All of these cars have other modifications (exhaust, cams, etc.) that will be gone over when I post the full Cosworth report here on ZCarBlog.com.  More good things are coming friends…. Happy Monday

Christmas came to Z Car Garage today as we finally received a pair of the much-anticipated Cosworth plenums.  The new design was created to maximize air flow and to make sure that it is distributed to each cylinder as efficiently and evenly as possible. For right now they are made to fit the VQ35DE, non Rev-Up and Rev-Up, engines.  I’ve been told that there is no plan to build a system for the VQxxHR engines yet.

The main body is made of cast aluminum with machined gasket surfaces for a quality seal and partially machined runners for improved flow.  As you can see form the pictures there are two carbon fiber end caps, one on each side of the manifold, to direct incoming air into the boldly pronounced air horns which lead down to the cylinder heads.  These carbon caps are extremely thick and look to be able to stand up to the abuse that any boosted VQ engine can put out.  They are a far cry from the thin, and almost flimsy, original caps that we saw at SEMA in 2007, could this redesign be part of the 16 month delivery delay?

We will be fitting the two plenums that we received on to a pair of turbocharged G35’s by next week, one with a stock VQ35 engine and a JWT (Jim Wolf Technologies) twin turbo kit and the other on a fully built engine with an APS twin turbo system.  I will have more photos and installation impressions by early next week as well as dyno numbers as soon as we get them fitted to the cars.  Maybe the ZCG G35 will be getting one as well…..  Have a great weekend!!

If you are interested in purchasing a new Cosworth plenum please contact Rob Fuller through email at Rob@zcargarage.com

For those who purchase locally there is even a chance that you could see your car’s dyno results right here on ZCarBlog.com