It is no secret that Z Car Garage is known as the dyno house for vintage race cars in the Bay Area. Since 2015 we have been following Glenn Chiou’s heroic restoration of the #39 race car piloted by Loren St. Lawrence in the 1970’s. The best part, to us, is that Glenn is doing the restoration by himself and with the help of several key Datsun folks like Troy Ermish and Les Cannaday at CDM.

 

Being an automotive enthusiast of meticulous nature, Glenn took the hard road of replicating this vintage race car as if it were built in the 1970’s, right down to the exact livery. No easy task! You can follow the restoration in detail on his blog HERE.

 

Glenn’s goal was to run the car at Sears Point/Sonoma Raceway in June. With race day fast approaching and his first time out on the track with his completed Z, he wanted to make sure the engine was running safely. ZCG stepped in with dyno tuning to ensure his A/F and timing were correct:

 

Here is the dyno run, she sounded healthy!

 

Glenn’s first race day at Sears Point was successful and drama-free!

 

 

We are happy to report that Glenn also ran the Z at PIR a few days ago with a podium finish…38 years later on the same track his car was raced in 1977!

 

Glenn, we admire you and your passion to keep the spirit of racing Datsuns alive. Thank you for bringing #39 back to life and thanks for bringing her to the shop.

 

Long Live The Z!

 

 

The popular classic car insurance provider Hagerty features Z Car Garage this week on their site. Take a glimpse of the shop through the lens of photographer Courtney Cutchen and read about Rob’s history with Z cars in the article HERE.

Big thanks to Hagerty and Courtney and… Long Live The Z!

 

 

We recently put Gary’s C10 Skyline up for sale. After a long, memorable journey Z Car Garage thanks Gary for importing this hakosuka and sharing his build. Though it is tough to part with this iconic 2-door we are excited for the new owner, Alex M.

Alex was looking for a street-prepped C10 Skyline for several years. After consulting with Skyline expert Eric B. over at JDM Legends he was referred to our black Hako at ZCG. Thanks Eric!

Sure enough, the race car Alex was referring to was the C10 Skyline prepared and raced by Jim Froula of
Racecraft! You can see the race-prepped Hako and our #49 IMSA Z below at the Rolex Monterey Historics last year:

  

The car was also raced at the 2014 Historics and several tracks on the Pacific Coast. It is a sweet Hako:

   

Alex flew across the country to check out our Skyline at ZCG:

“When I arrived at Z Car Garage, I saw the Hako outside, and took a moment to admire her, before walking into the shop. Rob greeted me at the door. We walked around the car, and then took it for a drive. I was sold, if it wasn’t from the moment I heard about it on the phone, hearing the car, and driving it sealed its fate. It felt like it was meant to be.”

 

 

Rob gave Alex a tour of the shop and took him for a spin in a few of the shop cars.

“My favorite other than the Hako was Ms Butter Z. A wolf in sheeps clothing, the entire look and feel of the car was magic.”

 

Alex is the proud new owner of the black C10 Skyline. You might be wondering where the car now resides…it is still at our shop!

 

  

Alex has big plans for the car and wants ZCG to carry out his vision.  We won’t divulge too many details but Alex wants to make the Hako “very special”.  Stay tuned 🙂  We are really excited to see the car going to a Skyline fanatic. In addition to the race and street Hakos, Alex also has a Kenmeri Skyline from JDM Legends.

“The one thing I love about Z Car Garage, and is apparent from the moment you speak with Rob, even more so when you see the shop, is the energy over there is great. They love these cars, and their passion is so infectious. I love it over there, and I’m very lucky to work with them.”

Thanks for the kind words Alex and we look forward to working with you. Enjoy The Ride!

 

 

Happy 510 Day! Rob made a few changes to the turbo setup on his SR20DET-powered dime:

  

Earlier this morning in celebration of 5/10 day the Go Green made a few dyno passes. Traction was becoming an issue!

 

 

We hope you are enjoying your Datsun 510s today too!

In April I drove my Datsun Roadster from San Jose down to SoCal to run the Touge California rally hosted by Japanese Nostalgic Car.  We had a blast and chronicled the grueling, 200 mile journey. Check out JNC’s fantastic coverage as well:

 

After completing the rally on Saturday, I originally planned for a Sunday visit to the Petersen Museum in LA on the way up to San Jose. What I didn’t envision was making a stop at Nissan Design America, and here’s how I got there!

While on the Touge I met fellow Datsun Roadster owner John Sahs. His gorgeous blue 1965 Datsun 1500 Roadster was hard to miss:

The 1500 was nearly stock, down to its G15 1.5L engine and rare, OEM hubcaps.  In place of the factory 4-speed John was running a 5-speed from the burlier 2000 model, cleverly hidden by the original 1500 shifter/trim. John is on the left, wearing Datsun-matching shoes:

   

At the end of the rally we were treated to dinner at Mazda Headquarters. There I learned that John was a lead designer over at Nissan Design America!  He suggested we take our roadsters to Nissan for a mini-photo shoot, citing the building’s interesting architecture as a nice backdrop.

 

Sunday morning I hopped in the roadster and drove a few minutes South to La Jolla to meet up with John. We took some fun photos. Although he didn’t bring his roadster,  John was kind enough to show me around and I was thoroughly impressed. Thank you John!

 

 

I left La Jolla around 9:30am heading to LA for the Petersen Museum Japanese Cruise in. I arrived just as cars were leaving the venue, even missing my fellow SoCal roadster owners by a few seconds. The Petersen Museum has an enormous parking garage and almost each level was packed with eye candy both old and new.

Just an R34 Skyline in Bayside blue sitting on BBS wheels:

 

The Nissan/Datsun presence was fantastic! I was excited to meet Dominic Le, creator of this now-famous “hakotora”…

 

It is a 1974 Datsun Sunny truck with a Skyline front end, full SR20DET drivetrain, TE37V wheels and CF everywhere. Lots of details on this one! Dominic was featured on Jay Leno’s Garage.

   

4-door Hakosuka with rear, molded flares and barreled SSR MK2s:

 

Nissan Cedric 130 from the Petersen Museum’s own collection:

 

Bluebird Coupe and Hakosuka 2-door both sitting on Watanabe wheels:

 

S12 (200sx), S13 (240sx) and S14 Nissans:

 

Toyota, Honda,  Mazda, Subaru all had great showings as well so please check out the gallery!

 

After checking out the remaining cars I continued my trek home to San Jose to complete my ~1300-mile, 3-day roadtrip! Found this S30 sitting behind a gas station off I-5:

 

Enjoy the pics, and stay tuned as I report from another April car event: The Solvang Datsun Roadster Show!

 

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