Shop Talk for
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The high-flow catalytic convertors had failed so we replaced them ART pipes from Motordyne:
HFCs vs ART pipes:
Enjoy The Ride Ruben!
How do you start the New Year off on the right foot? Drive your Nissan/Datsun! Today I joined Rob and Lou for a nice drive through the South Bay foothills. Rob and shop dog Kane drove the 820hp ZCG 300zx Twin Turbo, Lou drove his 470hp R32 Skyline GT-R and I drove the 460hp Datsun 510.
Our route included stops at both Uvas and Calero Reservoirs with a nice mix of long sweeping curves and windy, single lane farmland roads with picturesque bridge crossings:
At Uvas Reservoir we met a nice gentelman and his tubbed ’66 Chevelle:
Before departing we made our final stop to admire just how “right” Lou’s R32 looks with the new VOLK TE37SL wheels. Amazing car!
We hope you can enjoy driving your car in 2015. Follow the blog and Facebook for upcoming fun runs!
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:
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!
Here at Z Car Garage we LOVE to drive our cars on the racetrack. Open “Track Day” or High Performance Driving Events (HPDEs) are excellent venues to familiarize yourself with a car and its limits while having fun in a safe, controlled environment. Two of our customers recently shared their first track-day experiences with us and they had a blast!
We supercharged Robert C’s G35 last year and he decided it was time to do his first track event at Laguna Seca Raceway. He’s added these gorgeous RAYS Gram Lights 57Xtreme wheels since his last visit:
“Rob!
Just want to tell you I had a incredible day at Laguna. David Ray is a great guy and awesome teacher. We spent the first three session working on line, smoothness and consistency with both until I had all 11 corners worked out. The 4th session we put it all together as he pushed me and it was phenomenal! When I IR’d the front rotors after the session I was over 500 degrees and they were smoking. Happy to report brakes are still great and no warpage on the rotors. Ironically David mentioned doing an ST40 upgrade which we already quoted earlier so know that is still on the radar for my next track day. Nice to have someone just back up a buying decision without asking. I did graduate to Solo and was told to register for Group B next time so pretty pleased about that. On the upside I have marked “Drive my car at Leguna and hit the corkscrew” off my bucket list. On the even bigger upside I’ve added “1) Go drive Laguna more. 2) Drive Infineon. 3) Drive Thunderhill and 4)Drive Buttonwillow.” to the list.
David had praise for the current work done on the car and I have to agree. The work you and team have done since October last year has made this car even more enjoyable and something to proudly run on a track. The car had zero issues and feels no worse from the day.”
Robert C.
In October we added some bolt-ons and tuned Garth J’s 350z preparing him for a day at Thunderhill Raceway:
“Hi Rob,
Thunderhill track day was awesome a few weeks back. Car felt great. The Bridgestone S04’s were a major upgrade. Thanks for preparing the car for a great experience. I’m thinking about auto-crossing next season.Will be needing some routine maintenance in the new year. Can we schedule something mid January? Happy Holidays.”
Garth J.
Ready to experience your Nissan/Infiniti on the track? We can help!
Three for Thursday! Here are 3 owners that visited Z Car Garage for upgrades so they could Enjoy The Ride. Thomas C was experiencing brake fade/overheating with the Akebono caliper setup on his G37 Sedan. We installed a Stoptech Sport Kit with our favorite SS309 pads:
Slotted rotors also help shed heat, before/after shown below:
We also UPREV tuned the G now making 291hp/247tq to the wheels:
Rich M wanted firmer shifts from his automatic-equipped G37 Coupe. We installed a TransGo shift kit followed by UPREV tuning:
TransGO kit:
The dyno plot reveals the benefits of UPREV tuning and the TransGo kit. Firmer shifts are evident by the absence of the “loop” (blue curves) seen with OEM automatic-equipped Z/Gs. Huge peak gains of 20hp/18tq to the wheels and increased area under the curve everywhere means this is power you can feel!
Garth J brought his 2003 350z to us for Stoptech lines, 5/16″ plenum spacer and MREV2 lower intake, and new Bridgestone PP S-04 tires:
With the intake mods and UPREV tuning Garth’s Z picked up 7hp/5tq to the wheels. More importantly are the mid-range and top-end gains:
