Every year we have a local Holiday light show called the Fantasy of Lights at Vasona Park. It’s a drive-through event and I always wanted to take my family in the roadster.
Last week we did it! Fun for the wife and kids and a bit emotional for me…15 years ago Rob Fuller handed me the keys to this newly SR20-powered Datsun and it’s been an integral part of my life ever since.
Enjoy the video:
Happy Holidays🎄 and Happy New Year! We hope you you can Enjoy The Ride with family and friends.
We are happy to see more Z car owners enjoying innovative products from Z Car Garage. The Bring a Trailer Datsun 240z recently visited us for a ZCG Big-Brake kit installation after an eventful driving season. We found and prepped this car for BaT Co-Founder and CEO Randy Nonnenberg just in time for an epic road trip to The Mitty. If you missed the introduction to this Z please visit our initial blog post HERE.
Keeping up with the BaT 240z
Before we get into the Big-Brake kit details, let’s catch up with the BaT 240z since it left our shop heading to Road Atlanta in April. The Z’s first duty was to serve as photo/chase car participating in the Copperstate 1000 rallye in Tempe, AZ:
The journey to The Mitty was more than a destination where Datsun was the featured marque. Along the way, the Z would visit “BaT Alumni” and fans for interviews to share their automotive stories. We were stoked to see the Z made it all the way to Road Atlanta!
BaT’s entire Mitty road trip is wonderfully documented in several installments HERE, enjoy this video too:
Rallye Prep Services
After the 4000+ mile road trip the BaT Z came back to us for sorting and a refresh. Despite losing 5th gear in Nashville, Randy was able to cross the finish line at Road Atlanta using 4th. At the shop we confirmed the mainshaft nut had backed off (very common on early 5-speeds) creating situation where all the gears become misaligned. We removed it and installed a really nice 280z 5-speed transmission.
A few more items needing attention that we sorted:
-all fluids
-fixed headlight switch
-replaced/rebuilt hatch strut
-A/C wiring and power switch corrected + system re-charged (performed in-house)
Back in April, Randy and Rob both agreed on returning the Z back to its original aesthetics before the epic road trip. We swapped out the air dam for a factory valance and installed the stock steering wheel, but we didn’t have time to replace the dated black mirrors. On this visit we tackled the installation of factory Nissan mirrors:
Removal of the black plastic mirrors and installing OEM units required minor bodywork. Our man William took care of the 112 paint. Hard to beat these beautiful mirrors on the S30, more pics in the gallery!
With the Z sorted, Randy and his father drove it on yet another rallye in July, the Faultine 500.
ZCG Big Brakes
In September we met BaT at the Porsche Rennsport Reunion at Laguna Seca. Randy and the crew discussed using ZCG products on their Z as it had an older Wilwood brake kit. The plan was to install and run our ZCG Big-Brake kit for the Targa Baja California rallye coming in October.
As fellow S30 owner/racer Glenn C mentioned in his review, on top of braking performance, pedal feel is extremely important and our Big-Brakes deliver. This is a direct result of working with Stoptech to create a totally bolt-in solution requiring no M/C change or additional proportioning valve/adjustments. All fitting behind a 14″ Watanabe or Panasport wheel! A few details below:
Calipers: Stoptech ST42 4-piston front & rear race calipers (Alum 6061 mil-spec Type III anodized)
Rotors: 280mm x 20.6 with Alum 7075 hats
Pads: Stoptech 309 sport street pads
Blog posts documenting all of our customers running the ZCG Big-Brakes can be found HERE.
Randy brought the Z to the shop and we removed the existing Wilwood setup:
Front setup:
The proportioning valve that was required for the old Wilwood kit was removed: ZCG Brakes do NOT require a proportioning valve!
Big-Brakes at the rear as well. The Z had a weird hydraulic parking brake and this was removed so we could install the factory brake lever setup.
Randy’s Z now has a fully functioning parking brake:
Before leaving the shop we replaced a failed u-joint in the driveshaft and balanced it. We were stoked to hear how well the Z and the Big-Brake kit performed on the Targa Baja California rallye in October:
“Big thanks to Rob Fuller and his team at Z Car Garage for preparing our 1972 Datsun 240Z which ran flawlessly the entire time at sustained high RPMs and in hot weather. Prior to the event he outfitted the car with his custom in-house developed Z brake kit which provided excellent stopping power and near-perfect pedal feel. After it was all over, we woke up early Sunday morning in Ensenada and drove 600 miles straight back to San Francisco!”
Thanks to Randy and the crew at Bring a Trailer for the support and sharing their Z car experience with the world. They are truly Enjoying the Ride, proving that Datsuns ARE DRIVEN!
The 2018 Japanese Classic Car Show was held on September 15, in Long Beach, CA. This is the original vintage Japanese-car event in SoCal and in its 14th year, JCCS has grown incredibly–over 430 cars covered the lawn of Marina Green Park. The vehicles themselves remained a fantastic blend of stock, modified and restored. This is the most important show for Japanese cars, and the Z Car Garage crew keeps coming back every year to soak up the sun, see old friends and drool over some spectacular vintage builds.
ZCG Displays Two Z Cars!
Z Car Garage displayed two customer cars at the show: Randy Jaffe’s 1970 Datsun 240z and James Stevens’ 1972 Datsun 240z. Randy’s Z was completed in time to be our booth car. This Series 1 S30 started as a project car 4-years ago with paint/bodywork performed by Bryson Richards of Classic Livery. The Z was shipped to us from Georgia for finishing Randy’s vision of a wild show/go race car:
Inspiration for the Jagermeister livery came from Randy’s obsession with Porsche, and the Max Moritz Racing Porsche 934.
We will take an in-depth look at this Z in separate post, but here are a few key details. Providing room for the 275/315-width tires is an authentic Pandem Rocketbunny aero kit. Randy channeled his passion for racing into this build and the chassis is virtually identical to his #46 BRE Datsun 240z, using zinc’d DP Racing suspension parts. The engine is a big displacement L-series running 13:5:1 compression, triple-Mikuni ph44s, a Fujitsubo header and glorious BRE-style exhaust. Running gear includes a close-ratio ZX transmission, OS Giken LSD for the 4.11 R180, our ZCG CV Axles and ZCG Big-Brake Kit (race version).
We are happy to report that Randy’s Z won 1st place, Best 240z in a class filled with incredible Z cars!
James’s 1972 S30 was displayed with fellow Z car owners in the show. At the heart of this beast is a turbocharged L-series managed by Haltech. Chassis upgrades include custom full-length subframe connectors, our ZCG CV Axles and Big-Brake Kit (328mm) behind Volk TE37V wheels.
A stack instrument cluster was integrated into the gauge pod, viewed from leather Recaro Pole Position seats. This Z has a very unique sound. We recently tuned it on E85, dyno results and videos coming soon!
We are very happy for James as he won the award for Best of JC Speed!
Stay tuned for in-depth reports on both of these Z cars coming to zcarblog.com.
Showtime!
Our friend and talented racer Troy Ermish transported both of our Z cars (and his 510) down to Long Beach Friday afternoon. Below is a video of the Z’s loading from the shop:
We unloaded early Saturday morning from the expansive parking lot near the new venue in Marina Green Park. Immediately we could tell this location was larger and more vendor-friendly than The Queen Mary of past shows. Our booth was situated in a great spot, at the mid-point of the show with our neighbors from OS Giken. …[read more]
We are excited to sponsor and be a part of the 2018 Japanese Classic Car Show this Saturday 9/15 in Long Beach. Stop by the Z Car Garage booth to see our Big-Brake kit for small wheels, CV Axles and pick up some free swag.
On display in the ZCG booth is one of our latest builds, Randy Jaffe’s 1970 Series 1 240z:
We are also very proud of ZCG customer James S’ 1972 240z. He will be driving his turbocharged L-series down to JCCS and displaying it with fellow owners.
The show takes place from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm in Marina Green Park, and it is the highlight of all J-Tin shows! Catch a glimpse of what JCCS is all about in our report Last year’s show. Z you there!
Lou S is no stranger to Z Car Garage, having built several cars with us since we opened our doors in 2004. Although the red Z shown above is the focus of this blog post, let’s spend a moment recalling Lou’s 1973 Fairlady Z . You might recognize this RHD Z from local Bay Area fun runs and car shows over the years. What started out as a fairly stock car evolved into a canyon-carving street machine as we began modifications in 2011:
The Z featured a 250whp Rebello 3.2L engine, 240sx KA24 5-speed, Recaro seats, LSD, full-suspension, our ZCG Big-Brake Kit and Panasport C8 wheels.
Enjoy this short video showing the mellifluous sounds coming from the 3.2 engine:
The pretty triple Weber carb setup on the 3.2L was pictured on SpeedHunters and the Z was a feature car in JNC’s booth at the highly-successful Bayline show:
Enter The Monte Carlo
Lou enjoyed his Fairlady Z for many years and after ZCG’s 2nd SEMA build in 2016, Lou was inspired to take his car to the next level. The 3.2L drivetrain was sold to our customer Tim Ng to be used in his ’72 S30 build. We are currently building an IMSA-flared body Fairlady Z featuring wider Panasport C8 wheels and a stroker RB engine backed by either a close-ratio 5-Speed or 6-speed.
While Lou’s Fairlady Z was being torn down, Rob had been daily-driving his Monte Carlo Red (#905) 1970 Series 1 S30. Rob had this car for a few years and every time Lou saw it he would hound Rob to sell it to him. Here is the low vin (6143) S30 back when Rob acquired it, before a cut and buff, stock hubcaps and refreshening:
Lou finally acquired Monte Carlo from Rob. While the Fairlady Z sat in storage Lou was driving around in the bone-stock Monte Carlo. We thought, why not take the pieces in storage and upgrade Monte Carlo? ZCG went to work and transferred all of the suspension, wheel/tires and Big-Brakes from the Fairlady Z to Monte Carlo:
Z Car Garage Big-Brakes
Lou has our ZCG Big-Brake kit. Not to be confused with our current Z Car Garage Big-Brakes (for small wheels), this Big-Brake kit was our initial setup from over a decade ago. This 328mm sized kit requires 17″ diameter wheels and the massive ST-42 calipers are finished in bright red. We actually did all the R&D in-house for this setup…using a 280ZX master cylinder and our own mounting brackets. Full suspension (Coil-overs) and ZCG Big-Brakes F/R replace OEM parts:
Another look at those massive ZCG Big-Brakes!
The 280z 2.8L engine received a 5-speed transmission with new clutch/flywheel.
5-speed transmission fitment required trimming the shifter area as early cars came with 4-speeds:
While the Z was on the lift we also addressed a few engine bay items like a new brake booster:
The interior also got attention with nicer, complete seats from our parts supply. The original seats were badly torn:
The resulting transformation is impressive. From a stock, early series 1 Z to a hot rod with killer brakes, suspension and footwork that is familiar to Lou. We know these upgrades to Monte Carlo will keep him Enjoying The Ride while his Fairlady Z gets built.
We love Lou’s passion for Z’s and he is a Z car fanatic. Thanks for letting us work on Monte Carlo!
