Shop Talk for
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We are putting the finishing touches on the caravan plans to Laguna Seca on this Saturday and Sunday for the Rolex Grand-Am series weekend. I will have a main post up by mid-day Wednesday to give all of you plenty of time to plan. We would love to have as many of you join up with us as possible for the ride so don’t be shy, and if you have any questions just leave them in a comment here on ZCarBlog and I will address them.
After hearing the news that the ZCG 370z made some pretty nice power gains, a new customer came in and wanted to do the same for his blue 370z. To up the ante a bit he also ordered a set of Berk high flow catalytic converters (HFC’s) to replace the stock units and hopefully make some more power, let’s find out.
We knew exactly what to expect from the install and everything went off without a hitch. We obviously had to perform a few minor tweaks with the Stillen pieces just like we did on our shop car to get the fitment to be acceptable. After all parts were installed the car was strapped to the dyno and we went about our business to get some numbers. After all was said and done the car picked up 27whp and 14wtq for a total of 302whp and 247 ft/lbs of torque. Which means the Berk HFC’s add roughly five to six horsepower when you compare the numbers of the ZCG 370 which goes without the HFC’s, for now….
The really nice thing about these simple bolt-on modifications is that the performance of the engine is increased over the entire power band. I don’t know of anyone in their right mind who would turn these gains down for the price. 300+ whp with THREE bolt-ons, not too shabby for a couple hours work.
Special thanks to Ken at Roost Billet Products for making those killer ZCG plates for all of our show cars and cars without plates. You rule Ken.
I tend to check my mail every second or third day on average but in this case I wish I had done it sooner. Why, you ask? Because my Monterey Festival of Speed tickets at Laguna Seca have arrived from the great people at the Z Owners of Northern California (ZONC).
The packet came with a three-day ticket to the event, a three-day Z Owners Corral parking pass, as well as a track map and directions. All for $65!!! What a deal! But wait there’s more… on Sunday the entire Z Owners Corral is scheduled to do a parade lap around the full circuit.
I’m unsure if there are still spots available but it is very worth checking into over at ZONC.org. I will post up any new info as well as a time to meet up if there is a convoy down to the track (probably leaving from Z Car Garage.)
Long Live the Z
Official website: Monterey Festival of Speed
This is a two part series because we attended two different shows on the same trip. I simply have too many pictures for one huge post. This first installment includes the drive from Z Car Garage in San Jose, CA to Solvang, CA where the annual Roadster show is held.
This year we decided to take our new 370z on it’s first road trip along with the recently completed 1982 Datsun 280zx 2+2 non-turbo restoration car. Both cars were still receiving their finishing touches right before the trip so we were anxious to get them on the road to see how they would perform. The ZCG 370z had taken on some massive changes in an effort to enter it in the Modified 370z class at MSA, all of the modifications can be found HERE. The 280zx restoration is a completely different story. This is a car that has been taken back to completely stock in almost every area and better than stock in all the others, and it was up to me to get it through the weekend in one piece and maybe even bring home a trophy for the owners.
We left the shop pretty much right on time, strange for us, and got on our way with a group of six cars: the ZCG 370z, the 280zx restoration, two nicely modified 350Zs, and two 240Zs that have been shown love in all the right places. Three old and three new, good to go. The weather was perfect on the ride down and all the cars performed flawlessly all the way to Solvang.
A restored 1982 280zx 2+2 non-turbo isn’t what you would expect to take on a road trip of this sort, especially if you know anything about Z Car Garage. We love turbos, torque, horsepower, high revs, and the smell of an uncorked exhaust on 100 octane. This car is about none of those things. First, the car is totally stock. Stock engine, stock suspension, stock brakes, everything. So it goes without saying that it won’t be setting any sort of records around Nürburgring. Second: Included in the stock parts list is a 3-speed automatic transmission, great. This puts the (rev limited) max speed of this car somewhere in the range of 105-110 mph, not that I could really tell at that point because the speedo is limited to 80. How in the world am I going to keep up with all of these other modified cars.
In reality I had nothing to fear. Everyone in our caravan was quite responsible on the way down and it allowed me to relax a little and enjoy breaking in the 280zx. This car is a roadtripper’s dream! It drives so comfortably that you have no trouble seeing why these cars were so popular when they came out, they truly were one of the nicest cars on the road. On to Solvang.
The Solvang show is one of the largest gatherings of Datsun Roadsters in the country and you can always expect a few crazy innovations every year. 2009 was the year of the turbo’d Roadster. There were turbos bolted onto everything from the stock U series engine all the way to the newest SR20DET engines out of S15 Silvias that were never even brought to the case.
Many of you know that Z Car Garage had a hand in restoring and modifying one of our good friend’s Roadsters and placing a modern SR20 engine in it some years ago. I am happy to report that he once again brought home a 1st place trophy in the “Modified 1600” class. Congrats Alvin!!!
The best of show honors went to the Michael Spreadbury built SR20DET monster of a car. As always he and the Spriso crew have brought new technology and innovative engineering solutions to the Roadster world. Nice job gentlemen.
Back to the trip…
After walking around the show for awhile and talking to some of you loyal readers we headed into town to grab some local grub. Eye spy with my little eye a Nissan R32 GT-R, the real deal. I walk up to the car and instantly recognize it as a car that I have seen at a few events in years past at Laguna Seca. We take pictures and move on with a smile after seeing a beautiful GT-R. Next on our rare car sightings list is a late fifties Ford Fairlane with the RARE “Skyliner” retractable hardtop option. The owner was even nice enough to put it trough its paces for us. Very cool, and the engineering alone is worth the price of admission.
We then gather our group of now four cars, the 240Zs were going to stay awhile longer, and we get on the road towards LA and our hotel for the night. MSA 2009 is waiting for us on the other side of dawn….
Part 2 is coming soon…. click on the ‘read more’ below to see all of the pictures.
This car came to the shop a couple of weeks ago with the normal bolt-on mods and a shiny set of wheels to roll down the street with style. This 2006 convertible with an automatic transmission entered our doorway with a Stillen cat-back exhaust system, Kinteix Velocity Manifold plenum, and a few other nice dress up pieces. Then came the time to add some real power!!!
The basis of any real power addition with a VQ based drivetrain really needs to come by way of forced induction. For this reason a Vortech supercharger kit was ordered as a starting point in this build. Not wanting to stop there and be left wanting more, Rob and the the car’s owner went the full monte and also ordered a set of JWT camshafts, Stillen headers, and a set of high flow catalytic converters. This isn’t going to be your everyday convertible after this transformation.
After the top half of the engine was taken apart and reassembled with the new bump sticks all of the new exterior power-adders were installed. This car features the recently improved Kinetix Velocity Manifold and accompanying intake cover, and the new look with the supercharger left us wanting a bit more under hood bite, visually. The decision was made to paint the engine cover to match the battery and brake master covers and off to paint it went!
While we were waiting its return, the final tune was performed and power numbers were recorded on our Dynojet dynamometer, but this isn’t where this story ends. This car needed big brakes. We knew it, the owner knew it, it had to be. Rob made a call down to our good friends at StopTech Brakes to secure a four-wheel Big Brake Kit for the next day, and guess what… it was just what the doctor ordered. The color-matched plenum cover went back on and the build was complete. Wicked
From the dyno sheet you can see that the power gains are very impressive for a VQ35DE with an automatic transmission. But wait you say, I said this was a 2006? Yes, unfortunately Nissan did not put the improved “Rev-Up” engine in any of the convertibles for this year. What’s even stranger is that this generation DE engine uses a few engine castings that are different from the first generation DE, strange.
Anyways, you can see the power is still climbing on the graph but the Nissan nannies step it to limit the fun at just under 6,500rpm. There are software changes on the market that up the rev-limiter but they have shown to reduce the DE’s reliability down the line, and that is not an option. We want this car to be enjoyed for as long as possible.
With the car now complete it was given a full detail before the owner came down one last time to take delivery. This time he brought his son and a few of his friends to enjoy the occasion. With all the test rides he gave that afternoon there is not a doubt in my mind that we will be seeing him for a set of rear tires very soon. Enjoy the Z my friends, you have done well.
There are a few more photos after the ‘read more.’
