It is always great to see friends over the holidays. Gary Savage stopped by Z Car Garage from Florida and shared these photos from his visit, enjoy!
(above) Randy Jaffe’s BRE Datsun 240Z.
The iconic, 1976 IMSA GTU Championship-winning Transcendental Racing Z is at Z Car Garage! This early 1970 production 240Z has an exciting history battling against factory-backed teams with names like Jack Scoville, Brad Frisselle and John Morton behind the wheel.
The chassis was also highly-developed by a team of All-Stars including Joe Cavaglieri (Crew Chief), John Knepp (engine), Trevor Harris, Mac Tilton (suspension) and Yoshi Suzuka (chassis, roll cage and body). Current owner Randy Jaffe has commissioned Z Car Garage to bring this Z back to period livery, refresh the chassis and drivetrain components, and re-assemble the interior before traveling to its new home in Atlanta.
The Z came with many spares, period photos and even original molds for the bodywork!
Getting the livery sorted has begun, with a proper “Frisselle” windshield banner (left) based on period photographs (right)
Here is a short video of the Z as it arrived to the shop early this week. Dyno testing with video coming soon!
Always Meet Your Heroes
The “Frisselle” car captivated us for many years. We watched it race locally and and eventually shared track time with previous owner David Martin (RIP) at major historic events. (Below, Left) David Martin and Rob Fuller (#49 Joel Anderson car) in the Corkscrew and (Right) Rob with David and Brad Frisselle at the RMMR 2018.
You can imagine how excited we are to have this iconic race car at Z Car Garage. Big thanks to Randy for always believing in us. More photos from my brief visit:
Enjoy these videos we’ve captured over the years racing with David Martin piloting the Transcendental Racing 240z:
In a moment of sheer happiness, Rob Fuller can be seen driving the #47 Brad Frisselle Z through the paddock back in 2015!
A David Vs. Goliath History
Ever wonder about the history behind this famous 1976 IMSA-GTU Championship-winning 240z? Check out www.my240z.com. Our friend Glenn Chiou created this website to document the racing provenance for previous owner David Martin (RIP):
Glenn’s impressive knowledge of historic Nissan/Datsun racing is bolstered by hundreds of scanned photos, some never seen before along with stories from ex-drivers Brad Frisselle, Jack Scoville and John Morton. We are even given new insight on the R&D effort that went into the Frisselle car making it by far, “the best race engineered 240z in its period”.
So if you want to know “what’s it all mean?” check out www.my240z.com!
We love to see our parts installed and used on client’s cars. Race car driver, restorer and Datsun Historian Glenn Chiou is running our ZCG CV Axles in this IMSA GTU 260z race car!
Glenn is preparing for the upcoming Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion event at Laguna Seca. A half shaft failure is not something he wanted to worry about while racing so he replaced them with ZCG CV Axles. Glenn installed set #367 himself with ease:
The Different Drummer Z
Glenn Chiou is our client, fellow racer and friend. He was one of the first to run our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes on his RHD 240Z and actively vintage races both 510 and Z cars. You may have seen Glenn’s FAR Performance 240Z in VIPS Restaurant livery as raced in the 70’s by Loren St. Lawrence. Glenn restored this race car himself and it is now going back to Bay Area Datsun Dealers livery as raced by FAR Performance privateer Walt Maas.
Glenn’s got a passion for re-telling the stories of legendary privateer Z car racers and his current restoration project is the Different Drummer Racing Z raced by Greg Sorrentino. This is a really cool race car with great history and build details behind it.
Chassis # RLS30-000024 is a July 1973 pre-production Datsun 260Z chassis that was sold by the factory for one dollar in 1975 to Different Drummer Racing, owned by Greg Sorrentino of Troy, Michigan. It was one of the very first Datsun 260Z chassis and was built by the legendary American fabricator, Ron Fournier. This Z car has been consistently raced for the last 40+ years in IMSA GTU, SCCA Trans-Am, and C-Production/GT-2 classes.
In 1975, the Datsun Competition Department agreed to support Greg Sorrentino’s IMSA GTU racing efforts by providing him a pre-production Datsun 260Z. Once in Sorrentino’s hands, it was left to his all-star lineup of builders to help him build a frighteningly fast IMSA GTU car:
Chassis preparation was to the skilled hands of legendary metal fabricator, Ron Fournier
Suspension duties were left to Mac Tilton
John Knepp of Electramotive Engineering built the motors for Different Drummer Racing
The DDR Z in action at Portland International Raceway in 1979:
You can read more about the official history on this Z as documented by Glenn here:
As usual, Glenn’s painstaking efforts and diligence result in a faithful restoration…where parts are not available he has gone to extraordinary lengths to re-create pieces from historical photos…all from his garage at home.
Thanks for your support Glenn! We we will be rooting for you at the Monterey event!
Z Car Garage CV Axles
Over 130 sets of our ZCG CV Axles are installed in client’s cars all over the world. For more information please visit our detailed post our HERE. Below are just a few examples of race cars running out CV Axles:
Race car driver and restoration specialist Jim Froula of Racecraft is running ZCG axles in several of his cars:
Set #246 – installed May 2018 on the “Harry Stewart #52” Datsun 510:
Set #247 – installed April 2018 on the 260z
Set #248 – installed on Adam Carolla’s “Greg Sorrentino #90” Datsun 510.
Larry Chen from Hoonigan Autofocus is back in Alpharetta, Georgia visiting Randy Jaffe’s Nissan/Datsun collection. In this episode they discuss several historically significant Datsun 510 race cars. Enjoy!
We have several exciting projects at the shop that will get full reports on zcarblog.com. This is only a brief sample, please tune into our Instagram story for more sights and sounds.
Return of the #46 BRE Datsun 240Z!
The BRE #46 Z is back from paint by our man William and it is finally getting the hand-painted livery applied at the shop as I write this. You may recall that the Z was flipped on to its roof with John Morton at the wheel racing at the 2019 Classic 24hr race at Daytona International Speedway
The Z will be re-assembled, dyno tuned and tested in a few weeks at Sonoma with our hero John Morton and Rob Fuller! Super amped to see #46 back in fighting form and very happy for owner Randy Jaffe. Check our IG story to see the livery being applied by hand, this is a lost art and incredible to watch.
1970 Salt Flat Racer Datsun 240z
This historically significant 1970 Datsun 240z was built by a team of Nissan employees to compete at Bonneville in the F/GT class. In 1976 their efforts resulted in a new land speed record of 166.037 mph, which stood unbroken until 1985. This Z resided in the Nissan Museum and is now in the care of Randy Jaffe. Lots of neat details the Z 432R seats and G-nose. More to come! Big thanks to Randy and Nissan for letting us bring this Z back to life. We just finished the exhaust and dyno tuning,
One of many Z32s we are working on, Steve’s will get a full report soon as well as the Stillen SMZ:
Jim’s 1971 Datsun 240z returned for a Rebello 3.2L with triple-Mikuni carbs on a Harada intake and CD009a 6-speed transmission:
Several S30 Z cars are getting our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes (for small wheels) like these two 280zs:
This is a 1972 Official OMS Pace Car Duplicate. It is at present one of only two known survivors. Fifty were originally produced by Nissan Motors to commemorate the DATSUN 240Z being selected by the Ontario Motor Speedway to Pace the 1972 “U.S.A.C. California 500 Championship”. This one belongs to our long time customer and friend Linda. More to come!
B-Sedan Datsun 510s!
Larry Oka’s B-sedan is getting built and prepped with our Z Car Garage CV Axles. The Corky Bell 510 is also scheduled for a full restoration:
R32 Skylines!
Mike’s R32 GT-R is back for turbo, fueling and exhaust upgrades, full report soon! #TETUESDAY
We just got this really clean R32 GTS-T in:
Dyno Tuning your 350z/370z/Q/G
We have been dyno tuning your late model Nissan/Infiniti sports car daily. Bolt-ons, UPREV tuning, “popcorn” maps. Our customers leave happy with more performance. Call us to schedule an appointment! Here are just a few cars:
LONG LIVE THE Z! Check out our Instagram story for more updates!
