On July 10-12, the Classic Sport Racing Group (CSRG) hosted the David Love Vintage Races. Our favorite feature race was the Group 8 class with 20 sedans battling at Sonoma Raceway. It was a great weekend filled with competition, camaraderie and plenty of Alfas, BMWs and Datsuns sharing the track. Enjoy our report with in-car footage and photos from contributors Kurt Boden, Trent Barr, Nick Dockery and ZCG Crew Nick F and Josh C.

Z Car Garage Supports Three Datsun 510s!

 

2020 has been a strange year and we were fortunate to be racing again at Sears Point in the David Love event. Z Car Garage both participated and provided support for several Datsun 510 race cars.

Here is a video with sights and sounds from the paddock, samples of in-car footage of Rob Fuller, Tom Dockery, Glenn Chiou and Mike Anderson:

 

#7 Rob Fuller

ZCG owner Rob Fuller, Bay Area Datsun Dealers tribute car

    

Rob Fuller has not been in the Bay Area Datsun Dealers 510 since last year’s John Morton Cup. This car was purchased from Larry Oka as an IT car, slowly transforming into a B-Sedan. We sorted out the front suspension and this time the rear was attacked. From Rob:

“We installed the weight jacker set to adjust springs for ride height and a DP Racing sway bar that has the same design as the BRE car. Since the shop was slammed and customers come first, we enlisted our friend and fellow racer Troy Ermish to dial in the rear setup. Josh did final prep on the car and we were ready to go. The car did awesome with the back end of he car making all the difference in the world: instead of hopping around uncontrollably I was able to feed it throttle and negotiate the car in/out of corners. We went from middle to front of pack with Troy and the fast friends from RacecraftNW. Good times.”

 

You can see footage of Rob in the second race here:

Here is a great video with multiple angles showing Rob battling with Steve Walker (BMW 2002):

 

#7 Kelvin

 

Let’s talk about our clients. Three weeks before the CSRG event we got a call from Kelvin and he was testing his 510 that he just got from a local shop. It was sputtering and running poorly and by chance Larry Oka was also testing and referred Kelvin to us. We got him on the dyno and the engine failed. With a quick call to Rebello the engine was sorted, installed back in the the 510 and we handled all the prep work to be ready for the race weekend.

 

Kelvin had a successful race experience, finally:

“Kelvin has dealt with some issues on the car and this was the first time he had a good time with it. We were really happy for him. That’s why do this: we want more people at the race track driving, not fixing. It doesn’t allow to you to build confidence as a driver. You need to have a car that is reliable and works well so you can focus on you as a driver. Kelvin was super pumped. On test day I drove both Kelvin and Tom’s cars and they are fantastic examples of what a B-sedan can be. All they need to do is knock those numbers down”

 

Stay tuned for a full report on Kelvin’s 510. His friend Ed M was so impressed with our work that he wants ZCG to prep his sedan as well. Look for full report soon!

 

#72 Tom Dockery

Tom Dockery drove his  Ex-Norm Balzer 510. This car made its debut in May 2019  and we are excited to share its full story and profile Tom’s journey into racing soon.

   Tom’s 510 has an FIA engine so it revs really high making it peaky and hard to drive. Per Tom’s suggestion, a shorter gearset would put him in the powerband and sure enough…always listen to your driver! Tom really got faster and it was great seeing him out there. Car has been flawless.

 

510 Friends!

Many notable Datsun 510 racers were in the group, all sharing the competitive spirit.

#33 Glenn Chiou

Glenn drove the Ex-Finn/Harris U2.5L Trans-Am ’68 510. This car made its debut in May at the SVRA event at Laguna Seca. Glenn did an admirable job (as always) getting this historically significant 510 back on the racetrack!

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Glenn was fast. He charged all the way to the front of the pack, only seconds within Jim Froula and Rob. In-car from Glenn:

 

It is also worth noting that Glenn is one of the few “privateer” racers in the field. He sets up his own race car in his garage and his crew are friends Erich and Lloyd. We want to congratulate Glenn on the birth of his son! Kudos for racing and being a father!

#38 Troy Ermish

Troy is a phenomenal driver. He helped set up our 510 rear suspension too:) Watching Troy wheel his blue 510 his a thing of madness, finesse, skill and beauty. He took 1st place!

 

#52 Jim Froula

Race car driver and restoration specialist Jim Froula of Racecraft in the Ex- Harry Stewart Datsun 510. Jim was kind to let us pit with his gang. He’s also a fierce competitor.

  

David Love race results can be seen below:

 

A Memorable Racing Event

 

It was so wonderful to share this experience with our friends and CSRG family. We look forward to another B-sedan event and special shoutout to Troy Ermish, ZCG crew including Nick F, the Corwins Josh and Keith. Running all of the cars above would not be possible without them. Rob is excited for future events:

“Of all the vintage racing I’ve done and been around, the B-Sedan group is where it’s at. It’s competitive, fun and you always have someone to race with. We will attempt to do this again August 8-9 at Laguna Seca. Glenn and I are gathering ~25 cars!. Look for B-sedan to become one of the featured groups with CSRG, SVRA and even HMSA/RMMR!”

 

More pictures in the gallery below!
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Z Car Garage wishes you a Happy 5/10 Day and Happy Mother’s Day! We enjoyed driving our 1971 Datsun 510s on a beautiful day in San Jose. Turbo6, our 80’s revival, is back on the road and running great with its turbocharged 6-cylinder L-series. Look for a full report soon:

 

Rob, Meghan and Tank were in the SR20DET-powered 510:

 

A few photo-ops in Downtown San Jose:

 

We got the Bay Area Datsun Dealers race 510 out too!

 

Enjoy The Boost in this video of the 510s in action. We hope you can Do It In A Datsun today too!

 

This weekend at Sonoma Raceway (October 4-6) CSRG is hosting the Charity Challenge featuring the John Morton Cup. The race is for Historic B-& C Sedans and includes our hero and legendary driver John Morton.  Don’t miss this event it promises to be an epic gathering of vintage Datsun racers! Check out the schedule below, Group 9 is the one to watch for B-Sedan action:

 

The Historic B & C Sedan Challenge will be joining The John Morton Cup (through CSRG), and it was created by our friends and fellow racers Glenn Chiou and Dave Stone. Check out their site for more info on the series HERE

Z Car Garage Supports Five Datsun 510 Race Cars!

We will be providing race support for the following five Datsun 510s this weekend, enjoy this video preview of them below:

There will be a field of 38 B-sedans with 12 Datsun 510s mixing it up at Sonoma Raceway. John Morton is Grand Marshall and will also be racing a Datsun 510!

 

#7 Rob Fuller

ZCG owner Rob Fuller will be piloting the #7 Bay Area Datsun Dealers car

#51 John Morton

John Morton will be driving the #51 car owned by Taz Harvey.  You might find this 510 familiar as it was built by our friend Troy Ermish and the previous owner was Wayne McAttee! Car is currently being prepped at ZCG!

 

#80 Howard Swig

Howard Swig is driving the #80 Red Farmer car (also owned by Taz). Swig is an Auction Manager at Bring a Trailer and this 510 was purchased via a BaT  back in 2014 (link). Car is currently being prepped at ZCG!

 

#72 Tom Dockery

Tom Dockery is driving the Ex-Norm Balzer 510. This car made its debut in May and we are excited to share its full story and profile Tom’s journey into racing soon.

  

#52 Alex McDowell

Alex will be driving the 1967 Bluebird Coupe.

 

510 Friends!

Many notable Datsun 510 racers will be in the group, gunning for the trophy. We look forward to the challenge!

#33 Glenn Chiou

Glenn will be driving the Ex-Finn/Harris U2.5L Trans-Am ’68 510. This car made its debut in May at the SVRA event at Laguna Seca. Glenn did an admirable job (as always) getting this historically significant 510 back on the racetrack!

  

#93 Dave Stone

Dave Stone will be driving the #93 Ex-Frellsen 1973 National Champion 510. Dave is fast!

 

#52 Jim Froula

Race car driver and restoration specialist Jim Froula of Racecraft is running the Ex- Harry Stewart Datsun 510. Can Jim’s large shoe size give him the advantage this time?

   

Join us at Sonoma Raceway this weekend for the John Morton Trophy race and enjoy some B-sedan action!

#DATSUNDOMINATION

At Z Car Garage we love dyno tuning vintage race cars that are being brought back to life in addition to event veterans. Stan T came up from Socal on referral from fellow racer Steve Link to get his Datsun 1200 back on the race track.   

The Datsun 1200

A few words on the 1200 for the uninitiated, as this small but feisty little Datsun surprised many. The car was Nissan chassis code B110, sold in Japan 1970-1972 and in North America in 1971-1973. Known in the states as a “1200” from its 1.2L engine size and referred to as “Datsun Sunny 1200” in Japan, The 1200 had a rich racing history with success both here and abroad with much of it prowess coming from a lightweight chassis and potent A12 powerplant.

Stan bought his Datsun about 10 years ago as a barn find, tired SCCA H Production racecar. The SCCA logbook that came with the car showed only two races ever entered. It was mostly stock, with a bolt-in Autopower roll cage. Stan tells us about his build and desire to build it with period parts wherever possible:

“Back in the day, one could literally build a Datsun 1200 racecar out of the pages of the Datsun Competition parts catalog. Everything from engines to gearboxes to LSD rear ends was available. Factory teams and independents flocked to the Datsun nameplate, using the available go-fast bits and pieces. My thought with this project was to build up a tribute car in the vein of the original SCCA C Sedan class cars from the 70s, using parts from the Datsun Competition catalog as much as possible. No later, larger engine. No bigger rear axle. Everything was to be as close to period as possible, everything was to be restored with an eye towards authenticity and durability. No Tilton or Wilwood braking systems…I re-fabricated the braking system using historical pictures as a reference.”

“I’ve searched for several years gathering bits here and there from around the world. It was a tedious process – racers naturally use up parts, parts which were not plentiful to start with, and the stockpiles of available pieces had grown smaller over the years. The F5C56A close ratio 5-speed transmission came from New Zealand. A quick shifter and some engine parts came from Japan. Reproduction tail lamp housing gaskets came from a fellow 1200 enthusiast in the Pacific Northwest.”

What about that cool two-piece rocker cover?

“The one-off alloy rocker cover was CNC milled by a genius 1200 owner who took pity on my plea for a two piece unit that would make valve clearance adjustments considerably easier in the pits and back at the shop.”

Race prep advice came from retired 1200 racers who provided a treasure trove of knowledge. The engine was built by master machinist John Edwards in Costa Mesa who, when he was an automotive shop teacher, persuaded Nissan to donate dozens of the A12 engines to the school district for training purposes. 

“This engine is an old SCCA warhorse that was run for years in the San Francisco region. The engine features a ported GX head and a slew of NLA Nismo bits along with trick “modern” pieces like ARP head studs & rod bolts and B-Projects rocker arm collars. It is being resurrected for vintage racing, using a bit more moderate state of tune for longevity and reliability. (if 12.8:1 compression can be called “moderate”)”

Below is a video showing Stan’s A12 motor on the R&D SimTester. It has a variable speed electric motor connected to the flywheel end of the crankshaft, spinning the motor. An oil line connected to the inlet side of the oil pump pressure feeds clean oil to the engine. The tester allows a ‘clean room’ run in of the freshly built engine to bed all the assemblies in, check for oil leaks, find weak/stripped bolts, ascertain clearances of rotating bits at various speeds etc. without generating heat and racket:

 

Stan adds the final steps of his build before dyno tuning:

“Final assembly and fabrication was done by Vinny Torres at Steve Link Racing in Anaheim. While the parts chase was going on, I stripped the body down to a bare shell and had it soda blasted back to bare metal, then repainted it the way it was when I bought it. During that phase, heavy rust was discovered in the cowl area which demanded attention, and after the heavy undercoating was stripped off, it was found out that the front clip of the car had been replaced at some point in an amateurish fashion, requiring a trip to the body shop alignment table to tug things back into some semblance of square.”

 

Dyno Tuning

With the car on the dyno Rob and Josh went to work checking things over in the engine bay. They set the timing correctly, worked on the A/F ratio and fixed a few items in the engine bay.    

  The car made fantastic power screaming to 8500rpm: 

 It was a win/win and Stan was more than pleased:

 “1^st dyno run (blue) showing how poorly the engine ran when I brought it in, then the last dyno run (red) showing the Helen Keller Miracle Worker version, where at the end of that run we all high-fived each other and shouted “Done!” Watching Rob & Josh work together was like watching a couple of master musicians in a recording studio bouncing musical ideas off of each other, with each building on the other’s talents until all of a sudden everything clicks, and a hit is born. They make it seem almost effortless until one steps back and realizes the personal database of tuning knowledge they have has been amassed through thousands and thousands of dyno runs and hundreds of days at the track all feeding back on each other. All the while I stood there awestruck, just happy not to get in the way and to learn a few things while watching the masters at work.”

 

 

Thank you Stan for bringing your 1200 to ZCG. We look forward to your next race!

 

We are extremely happy for our friend and fellow Datsun enthusiast Tom D and his newly acquired B-sedan Datsun 510. This is a historically significant race car built and run originally by Norm Balzer.  Here it is at Road Atlanta in 1977:

 

Tom brought the 510 to Z Car Garage to have it prepared for the upcoming race season:

“I bought the car rough three years ago from Steve Link with the help of Dave Stone. Since then I exchanged information with MaryLee Balzer (the original builder and owner’s widow) and Jon Koobation, the last guy to campaign the car. Both kept all the records and materials associated with the car.  They graciously gave me all of it, even Norm’s race jacket (so cool). My plans are (with Rob and ZCG support) to get the car track ready.  The car will be campaigned with its original livery and as much of the original equipment as possible, including the FIA prepped L18.”

 

 
The car was wildly successful on the West Coast.  Many, including Larry Oka referred to the car as the “other BRE car” since it was built with the help of Mac Tilton and hardware from the BRE garage as the Trans Am series ramped down.  Tom plans to run several events this year including CSRG April at Infineon Raceway, The HSMA Festival of Speed in Late May,  The Rolex in August and the CSRG Charity Event in October. We are currently breaking the car down for race prep. It is shockingly original and a treat to see!

 

 

Enjoy that twin-Mikuni carb’d L-series sing!

A Rich Racing History

Purchased from a local Datsun dealer in 1971 for a one dollar, Norm Balzer took this Datsun 510 which was damaged in shipping straight to the garage to create one of the most successful B Sedan race cars on the West Coast.  With help from Mac Tilton, many parts were sourced from the BRE garage.  Norm raced the car from in B Sedan from 1973 until 1979 and then later as a GT2 entry in 1980.

Willow Springs 1976 and RA in 1979:

  

Jon competed with the 510 in GT2, GT3 and IMSA/GTU Special Group 2 from 1981 to 1992, amassing a number of first place finishes including a win in IMSA SP2 at Laguna Seca in May of 1983. Together Norm and Jon took this Datsun 510 to the podium forty times with thirteen first place finishes and six Southern Pacific Division Championships. Overall they competed in eighty-six races between 1973 and 1992.

 

 

Stay tuned for an in-depth look at this historical Datsun race car!