Filed under: 510,Events,Racing
by Alvin G @ 5:10 pm on May 10, 2022
Z Car Garage wishes you a Happy 5/10 Day! We love driving Datsun 510s on the street and at the race track. Here are a few 510s at the shop today, with more photos in the gallery below. Hope you get to Enjoy the Ride in your Dime today too!
Filed under: 510,Events,Racing
by Alvin G @ 5:10 pm on April 20, 2022
Z Car Garage is excited to go vintage racing two weekends in a row! On April 21-24, Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) will host the Trans Am SpeedFest at Laguna Seca. On April 28 to May 1, SVRA will host the Sonoma Speed Tour at Sonoma Raceway.
Details for this weekend’s Trans Am SpeedFest at Laguna Seca are HERE. Come out and watch some exciting B-Sedan/Trans Am race action!
Here is a video of the race cars we prepared this week with dyno passes and a walk around the shop. Enjoy!
Z Car Garage Racers
Z Car Garage will be racing and supporting several client cars at both events:
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.
Dear Zcarblog readers, it’s been a busy year and we are catching up on blog posts, so please enjoy our belated race report from October.
WE LOVE RACING! On October 2-3, Classic Sports Racing Group (CSRG) hosted the Charity Challenge at Sonoma Raceway. Z Car Garage had a blast racing and supporting several client’s Datsun 510 race cars running in B-Sedan Group 9 (John Morton Cup). This vintage racing event was totally free for spectators, thanks to CSRG for putting on another great event!
Z Car Garage Supports Five Datsun 510s!
It is our pleasure to bring more enthusiasts into the world of vintage racing. Our services do include full race support and car-preparation to help make client’s race days seamless and worry-free so they can focus on driving. One of our specialties is dyno tuning. Before a race weekend we confirm that your car is running well and make necessary adjustments while on the chassis dyno. Here is Rob dyno tuning Larry Oka’s B-Sedan:
Video of two Datsun 510 B-Sedans (Rob and Tom) and Kelvin in the second video on the dyno. Enjoy the sweet L-series music!
We also provided testing support for Tom, Kelvin, Ed and Larry at Sonoma. A “test day” offers our clients piece-of-mind and a great way to kick off the actual race weekend. While testing we had an engine failure in Tom’s car and a transmission issue in Ed’s car. Thanks to the ZCG crew were able to resolve both with a spare engine and transmission.
Time to Race!
Z Car Garage clients racing for the weekend included:
We are proud of Tom as he finished 10th in 21-car field and grabbed a personal best, clicking off a 1:58 at Sonoma! Here is in-car video of him putting in work for Sunday’s race:
#71 Ed M
#7 Rob Fuller
ZCG owner Rob Fuller, Bay Area Datsun Dealers tribute car
Rob shares his highlights from the race weekend:
“We had a great group and on the first qualifying run I was able to be quickest out there. Started the Sat afternoon races on pole and Tom/Kelvin were mid-pack with Ed in back. I had a beautiful start but by the 4th lap my throttle cable failed. I was about 1.5s ahead of the pack and got my personal best lap time at Sears. Even though I was bummed at the DNF, I got the best seat in the house and watched my boys Tom, Kelvin and Ed go through the field and have a fun race.”
“Josh and Parker from the PNW duked it out, and on the last lap Josh took the win. I know my 510 wasn’t able to finish the race but at least a Datsun won! Saturday’s position determines your position for the next races so I started last in both sunday am and afternoon sessions. First race was 5 laps and I went from 21st to 3rd place. Second race was 7 laps and I went from 21st to 2nd. Thank you to Z Car Garage for the repair and prep to keep my Datsun 510 on the track the rest of weekend. Happy to get Podium, Hard Charger, and the fastest lap of the race. Was great way to end the weekend after the DNF on Saturday. Thanks to CSRG for another amazing event. Do it in a Datsun 510.”
Here is in-car video of Rob threading through the field, enjoy!
You can see more of Rob’s race videos from the CSRG event (and other race) on his YouTube Channel. Give the guy a thumbs up and subscribe while you are there!
A weekend of great racing and good times
This was our first race event with our new Intech aluminum trailer. It was a game changer, allowing ZCG to have a home base in the paddock for our clients to relax and for us to perform crew duties. Speaking of crew, we are grateful to our team including the Corwin’s (Josh, Keith and Bonnie thank you for keeping us safe all weekend), Meghan and Nick. Nick brought his beautiful Datsun 510 wagon that also put in work as a support vehicle:
There were cool cars everywhere in the paddock:
Big thanks to Meghan for taking photos and video around the paddock. Here is a highlight reel of what it’s like at a vintage race…you should join us next time!
Always happy to see friends and newcomers at these events. Greg H from SCCS was there running a Formula Ford…his first time out he placed 5th out of 4o cars! Now that he’s had a taste of Datsun racing Greg is now interested in a B-sedan of his own!
Datsun Car Corral!
CSRG is awesome. Participants were spoiled with FREE parking in the paddock area and full access to the race for the weekend. Our friend and client Linda Williams of ZONC drove her 1972 Datsun 240Z OMS Pace car! Full report on this historically-significant S30 coming to zcarblog shortly.
Our friends from the PNW were in attendance…great camaraderie and even better racing partners:
Rob with RacecraftNW owner and pal Jim Froula. Yes, the Bluebird Coupe we dubbed Sorabird is now back with Racecraft after being with our client Alex Mcdowell for many fun racing seasons.
We hope you enjoyed our race report from the October 2 CSRG Charity Challenge at Sonoma. Thanks agin to CSRG, the ZCG crew and our clients for a really fun event. The 2022 racing season looks amazing, please join us we will announce the event schedule soon. DO IT IN A DATSUN!
More pictures in the gallery below:
Filed under: 240z,r32,R35,Racing,z32
by Alvin G @ 5:10 pm on November 9, 2021
Z Car Garage Shop Update for 11/9/21
We are doing final track preparation for this week’s (November 11-14) race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca hosted by the Velocity Invitational. Z Car Garage will be participating and providing support for several client cars. We are excited to be racing in Group 7A (1966-1977 IMSA GT):
We will be supporting our client Randy Jaffe who recently acquired the Transcendental Racing Datsun 240Z. This famous 1976 IMSA-GTU Championship-winning 240z will be driven by ex-driver Brad Frisselle’s son, Brian Frisselle:
