Our good friend Anthony S. is a hardcore Datsun enthusiast and owner of this sinister 510 wagon. We first met Anthony years ago at the All-Datsun Meet at Mt. Shasta. He started visiting the shop frequently, driving this wagon all the way from Oregon to San Jose, CA and we attended many events together. Anthony built this 510 from the ground up himself, and it has been constantly evolving. He started with a rather unorthodox inline-6 cylinder engine, the Toyota 7M-GTE:

 

This single-turbo setup spun the ZCG dyno to almost 400rwhp! Anthony is a track nut and the 510 has seen many days running hard at Portland Int. Raceway. Suspension and brake modifications include Brembo calipers up front, a linked Ford rear end and massive 255/35 tires in front with 285/35 rears.

 

The car has gone through some serious development including a full 2JZ-GTE engine, rear-mounted radiator setup and larger fender flares–all fabricated by Anthony himself!

 

In his quest for more power Anthony recently visited us again for BC cams and Haltech tuning.   We started with a baseline of 399hp/332tq to the wheels. After the cams it made 447hp/347tq:

 

 

With Haltech tuning final numbers were 461hp/362tq at the wheels:

 

More pics of Anthony’s fabrication work:

 

This Dime looks so sinister on the road with its gargantuan tires just barely contained by the fender flares, we love it!

 

Thank you Anthony for letting us be a part of your 510 build!

Interested in seeing more pictures of Anthony’s 510? Check the links below and Enjoy The Ride!

 

Anthony Gets Published
Happy510Day
America’sCoolestWagon

 

We love the latest version of the Nismo 370z. In fact this is the aesthetic that should have been released from the start! Although the Nismo Z has improved cosmetically the drivetrain still summons the same 350 horses and 276 lb-ft of torque it has offered since the package first appeared in 2009(!).

 

Power junkies need not fear, Z Car Garage is here to help. With only 22k miles on the odometer, Rasheed B came to us with his stunning 2015 Nismo Z finished in Pearl White for a full Vortech supercharger kit.

 

Here are a few pictures of the Stillen Black Series supercharger kit installed:

 

Stillen 25-row oil cooler:

 

How does it perform?

 

Bone stock from the factory, the Z put down 295hp/242tq. The Stillen supercharger added 84hp/58tq to the wheels with the kit-supplied CAN tune:

Rob’s tuning yielded even more power with final numbers of 420hp/320tq, improvements of 125hp/78tq over baseline.

 

This Nismo 370z now has more power to back up those aggressive looks! Enjoy The Ride, Rasheed!

 

 

James L is from San Francisco and visited ZCG to get Stillen intakes and an UPREV tune. This is one of the first Q60’s we had our hands on:

 

The Gen3 intake installation is straightforward:

 

Before/after

 

UPREV dyno tuning time! Baseline numbers for this 2013 Q60 were 295hp/253 to the wheels:

 

The intakes add +6hp peak hp:

 

UPREV tuning however optimizes both power/torque curves with gains throughout the rev range.Total power is now 308hp/256tq to the wheels:

 

 

 

No, dear readers your eyes aren’t deceiving you! That is a 1972 Chevelle coming out of Turn 9 at Laguna Seca and here is the story behind this icon from the 70’s.  Owner Dave T was scouring the internet for dyno shops when he found Z Car Garage. With an endorsement from his co-worker an e-mail was sent and we happily obliged to dyno the Chevelle. We love muscle cars!

 

Dave had assembled this engine entirely by himself and wanted to see the difference a new exhaust system made. The stock exhaust consisted of OEM cast-iron manifolds, dual pipes w/o crossover and generic turbo mufflers. Baseline numbers were 277hp/326tq to the wheels. The new exhaust system included Hooker SBC headers, Pypes X-pipe and Race Pro mufflers. This helped produce 330hp/356tq to the wheels!

 

Here is a video of the dyno run:

 

 

What we love most about the car is that it was meant to be a ‘grandma’s sleeper’ that could work at the road-track, the drag-strip and as a daily driver.  It still has its original bench seat and column shifter. Dave has logged over 11,000 miles on the motor and recently completed a track day at Laguna Seca!

 

 

A few details on the engine build:

383CI
Intake Manifold-RPM Air Gap
GMPP Hot Camshaft
COMP Cams Valve Springs
GM Bow-Tie Vortec cylinder heads
Compression ratio 9.543
TH-350 (TCI)
3000 rpm flash stall converter (TCI)
3.08 rear, Eaton posi

 

Dave actually built the engine before he found the car. After the successful engine run on the stand, his dad encouraged him to find a car for it:

“He said, why don’t you get a Chevelle like you had in high-school- that was the best car we ever had. I had received a 1972 Chevelle Mailbu from my parents at the age of 16. It was blue with a white vinyl top. I had an accident in it and some time after that the cam/timing gear let go and although I tried to replace it the engine never ran right and we ended up donating it to the high-school auto shop class.”

 

 

He then found a ’72 on Craigslist in un-modified condition, shown above in the original owner’s driveway. The car has been repainted it’s original shade of green, and that’s it. In went the new motor and he’s been driving like mad.

 

Here is Dave putting the Chevelle through its paces at the Sear’s Point Drags (Sonoma Raceway). His first time out he ran low 13’s!

 

 

Thanks for bringing your Chevelle to us we enjoyed working with you Dave!

 

 

Marc H found Z Car Garage online and wanted to see what we were all about. After visiting the shop he dropped off his ultra-clean, low mileage 2008 350z for power and suspension goodies:

 

We love the HR engine found in the latest Z33s because they respond extremely well to simple bolt-ons and UPREV tuning. We started with a with Bassani cat-back exhaust followed by JWT dual POP charger intakes :

 

On the dyno, Marc’s 350z baselined at 271hp/245tq to the wheels.  The Bassani exhaust netted a peak gain of 7hp and significant midrange gains in torque:

The JWT intakes added an additional 4hp:

 

This graph illustrates the benefit of UPREV tuning when adding bolt-ons. More power everywhere, all the way up to 7500rpm for peak gains of 19hp/8tq for a total of 290hp/253tq to the wheels:

 

Marc wanted to improve handling and braking so we installed Eibach springs, Hotchkis sway bars, and Whiteline T/C rod bushings followed by a full alignment. Factory Brembo brakes were upgraded with Stoptech Sport Kits all around:

 

Sway bars:

 

Marc was very pleased with the results and has been enjoying his Z.  He told us he would be coming back to ZCG and we will happily oblige!