Even though things have been crazy with all of the R&D work we have been doing lately, time has been found to install a few new items on the GT-R and head off to the track!!  The special thing about this particular outing is that it was ONLY for GT-Rs!  Entry was limited to twelve cars and we were lucky enough to make our way into the group.

I would at this point like to mention that we have been working super hard on getting our own ZCG harness bar made and installed in our GT-R.  This track-day is the first time it has seen battle and it worked perfectly.  Our design is much simpler than the competition’s bar (as seen in the AXIS Wheels GT-R) but there will be more on that later on in this post and a follow-up post with pictures tomorrow.

Our day began with Rob, Fred, and myself meeting at the shop in San Jose at 4:30am.  Not much sleep last night.  We packed up our previously prepared “track-day kit” (tools, jack, spare wheels etc.) and headed on our way to Buttonwillow Raceway.  We got to the track at 7:45 and met with the group for a few minutes before the drivers meeting.  Since everyone in the group knew each other, thanks to the small GT-R community, the track rules were fairly easy going and allowed for a ton of freedom.

The plan was to have six cars go out in half hour sessions but as soon as the cars were warmed up they were all out on track.  With such a small group though no one seemed to notice because we would be running track configuration 13 clockwise which has a length of almost 3 miles.  Nice.

Throughout the day cars would pull in and out of the pits as they pleased.  There seemed to be multiple driver, wheel, and camera equipment changes in a few camps besides our own.  It was good to see owners and drivers out and experimenting with the cars.  We personally went through three or four drivers throughout the day and went as far as inviting a professional out for the day to see what our car was capable of in some truly gifted hands.

As you can see from the early photos of the day we were running our one-off set of HRE wheels but tire rubbing issues (due to limited available tire sizes) sidelined the new Nittos we acquired a week earlier.  So after two sessions we were back on the the stock wheels with the OEM Bridgestone run flats.  These tires held up all day in full beat-down sessions without issue.  It’s amazing how professional drivers know how to take care of tires (anyone remember that scene from “Days of Thunder” with Bobby D?)

We managed a best time of 2:02 on the stock wheels and run-flat tires, quite the accomplishment.

Update:  We went through the lap timer this morning and found a 2:00 lap which took place in one of the very last sessions of the day.  How crazy is this car going to be when we get some real rubber?!

Keep reading for the entire event report and more photos.

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We had this beautiful twin-turbo 350z leaving today and the rain was nice enough to stop for a few minutes so that I could get a few pictures.  This car features an APS twin turbo kit with JWT cams and a custom 3″ down-pipes made by us.  It has full Tein coil-overs, Stop-Tech big brake kit up front, and beautiful Volk Racing TE37 wheels.  On street fuel (91 octane here in CA) this car makes over 450hp to the rear wheels.  Awesome.

Unfortunately the Z Car Garage twin-turbo G35 was hit while at a dead stop on US 101 last Tuesday night.  Please do not talk (or text) and drive. The damage to the bumper is obvious but what is underneath is far worse.  As you can see from the photos the main bumper crash structure is completely destroyed along with the bumper support.  The car was hit hard enough that the exhaust was pushed forward and a few of the brackets were broken.  Now we have an exhaust leak and we are hoping that the turbos and manifolds are not damaged.

Don’t worry though, this is somewhat good news!!  We have been wanting to get rid of the tiny 2.25″ Injen system for a long time now and we finally have a reason (and someone else to pay for it!)  Now the plan is to make our own custom system out of 3″ stainless steel.  As far as downpipes are concerned, we were going to use the 3.5″ APS units but there is a chance that we will be making something of our own design here too!!

No decision has been made yet on what rear bumper we are going to run yet (stock or aftermarket) so if you have any suggestions leave a comment and I will look into it.   Hopefully this will be a blessing in disguise and the car will be returned to it’s previous glory as soon as possible.  I’ll put up another post when repairs/mods begin!!

Here are a few photos I was able to take during this week’s torrential downpours.  I hope you enjoy them.

Sorry about the lack of posts in the last week, we have been extremely busy with R&D in the last few days.  Expect to see a few posts with ZCG original product info coming very soon.  All the testing we have been doing lately is really starting to pay off.

Also, from these shots you can see that we have gone back to the stock wheel/tire combo currently because we have a track-day planned in the very near future with the GT-R.  The one off HREs are being mounted up with fresh rubber for the event as we speak.  There have also been a few other changes as the car is going through a small transformation as we look to the future with our GT-R.  Godzilla is on the horizon.

Sometimes it’s the little things that make all the difference.  In this case we have a 1973 240z that was in need of a bumper re-do to make it as beautiful as the early cars.  This car first came to us last year with the idea to re-spray the engine bay and replace the tired 2.4L with a factory long-block 2.8 and a new set of SU carburetors.  It turned into a half restoration that was finished just in time to deliver to the customer for Christmas last year.

It came back to us a few months ago to have the bumpers smoothed and re-chromed with all the over-riders removed and their respective holes filled.  A few weeks ago Rob and I took a trip to the chrome shop to check on the progress and ended up making a few changes to the bumpers to be ensure that we would be happy with the finished product.

The bumpers were finished on Tuesday and I was given the task of prepping and carrying out the re-assembly.  All related brackets were repainted and all new zinc plated hardware was used.  We were also able to source all new bumper rubbers because the both the front and rears had seen better days.

I had a little trouble finding shots of the car before the change but there is one at the San Jose Auto Show from last year where you can sort-of see the front over-riders.  The newest shots show the nice change that took place after all was said and done.  So now the customer has his beloved Z back again just in time to enjoy for Christmas, a nice gift indeed.

Click on the “read more” for tons more photos of this nice 240z

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