Z Car Garage is proud to be a sponsor of the 2018 Japanese Classic Car Show 9/15 in Long Beach, CA. We look forward to displaying a shop car at our booth, to be highlighted in a separate post. With JCCS only a month away let’s take a look back at our favorites from last year’s event at the Queen Mary; this year the show will be held across the water in downtown!

 

We apologize for the late coverage, enjoy the pictures and video!

The 2017 Japanese Classic Car Show was held on September 23, in Long Beach, CA. This is the original vintage Japanese-car event in SoCal and in its thirteenth year, JCCS has grown incredibly–some 320+ cars covered the lawn next to the Queen Mary. The vehicles themselves remained a fantastic blend of stock and modified, as well as original 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.

  

This year, Z Car Garage was invited to display the OS Giken TC24B1Z powered Datsun 240z, in our own booth!

The OS Giken Datsun 240z Goes to JCCS

Before road-tripping down to Socal the fun started with a shop visit from our Oregon pals Diamond Dave, Eric Straw and Michael Spreadbury. They were also heading down to JCCS to show Eric’s freshly restored 1984 “Tekkamen” DR30 Skyline and Diamond’s SR20-powered Miata. Eric kindly donated his enclosed trailer to transport the S30 while he drove the DR30 all the way down to JCCS from San Jose. Before leaving, we dyno’d the Miata and Rob found 30whp+ from the Autech SR20. Diamond was stoked.

    

TC24B1Z Development

You may have seen the TC24B1Z-powered Datsun 240z (The Behemoth) from its debut at SEMA 2015, and Speedhunters coverage:

   

The TC24 in action:

 

Since 2015 we have been updating the drivetrain and fitment of the TC in Gary’s LHD S30. Several key upgrades included a 6-speed transmission, revised exhaust header, Jenvey ITB with EFI and a OS Giken aluminum oil pan.

  

Using a custom adapter from Hoke Performance we installed a new CD009a 6-speed transmission from the 2003 -2008 Z33:

  

On the Rebello engine dyno this setup made 476hp.  Final dyno numbers will be posted shortly as we are still in the tuning phase.  Meanwhile, enjoy the sounds from the new Jenvey induction:

 

Showtime!

We arrived Friday evening to unload the Behemoth and set up our booth, a first-time experience for ZCG at JCCS:

   

The ZCG booth was a success. We met many great Datsun fans and enjoyed talking cars. Big thanks to our buddy Herbert Pang!

 

The TC24 of course was the star, garnering positive feedback and some nice media exposure:

  

We had free ZCG swag for show goers and on display was our new ZCG Big-Brakes for small wheels. Here’s Glenn Chiou checking them out; after a test drive they would be installed on Glenn’s Fairlady 240Z-L.

   

Our friends from JDM Legends approached us with a film crew to discuss the TC24:

 

Little did we know that this informal chat would be part of a segment on the wildly successful JDM Legends TV show! We are so happy for Eric, Josh, Mauricio and the JDML crew. You can see their JCCS visit in Season 1 Episode 5 HERE.

 

Highlights from JCCS

Enjoy this video I made highlighting the sights and sounds of JCCS 2017:

 

Nissan’s return to JCCS

 

The OEMs participated in record numbers this year. That’s right, in addition to Mazda, Toyota and Honda our beloved Nissan participated again since debuting in 2016 with a great showing of rare and unique vehicles from their vault.

Skylines

Here are few of my favorite Nissans and Datsuns, starting with that not-so forbidden fruit commonly known as the hakosuka Skyline. There was no shortage of C10 chassis Skylines this year and my favorite was Rick Ishitani’s restored 1971 2000 GT-X.  A mint interior, correct spec badging, spot-on stance with re-barreled gunmetal Watanabe wheels stuffed under flares set this one off from the rest.

 

In the JDM Legends display, Ginash(from JDM Chicago) showed his RB-swapped 2000 GT-X. We dig the retro-treatment on the valve cover:

    

More C10s:

  

Kenmeri Skylines too!  This ’73 KGC110 owned by Patrick Soliman has an RB26DETT engine with a Precision 6262 turbocharger. This year he was running rare Riverside Super River wheels:

  

DR30 Skylines!

 

Eric’s 1984 “Tekkamen” or “Iron Mask” Skyline is a rotisserrie-restored, RB26DETT- powered, Brembo-braked masterpiece. Eric met up with the Speedhunters crew and SuperStreet for a photoshoot in Long Beach, you can see both articles below:

Congrats Eric!
Speedhunters
Super Street

  

Z Car Extravaganza

 

Z cars from all generations were in full force with cars spanning the tarmac near the Queen Mary to the bayside lawn.  I’m a big fan of subtle modified Z’s but I can also appreciate pristine, bone-stock examples and the occasional shakotan build.

Stock is good: Series 1 S30 and a fully restored RHD FairladyZ:

  

My favorite modified Z car was from JDM Legends:

   

Matt Kochaon’s 240Z on classic SSR meshies and Rick Ishitani’s Hakosuka Skyline GT-X

  

 

Familiar faces: Glenn’s Fairlady 240Z-L, Chris Forsberg’s 280z and the Bring A Trailer Series 1 240z:

Wild Z Cars

 

Saul Valencia’s 1972 Datsun 240Z was loud and brash with its boosted LS1!

 

Z31s were plentiful too! In both stock and modified examples:

  

The Wild Cards Classic Car Show (WCCCS)

The Wild Cards crew had the coolest rides at the show. You can see them all burning rubber at the Hoonigans shop HERE

 

The Nissan S12 chassis has been growing in popularity. Known as the “200sx” stateside there were some cool examples of both hatchback/coupe bodystyles. S130s were also represented:

Datsun Fairlady Roadsters

The Datsun Roadsters were down in numbers from previous years but the selection still wowed the public.

 

Kevin Desirello of KRD Roadsters built this SR20DE powered ’69:

 

   

Bart Desirello’s SR20DET-powered beast:

 
Ray Lim’s ’70 SPL was fully restored to stock spec, with perfectly fitted SSR meshies:

 

Datsun 510s

 

Matt and Maryanne G drove all the way down from San Mateo, CA in their  Turbo 510. Looking awesome now sporting 16″ Panasports! Matt won 1st place best 510, Congrats!

 

I’ve drooled over of Wild Cards member John Ross Huckins’ 1972 Datsun 510 wagon since we first saw it at JCCS many years ago. It has a 4-link rear end, built SR20DET and tons of neat touches. You can see more on Speedhunters HERE

 

EQUIP 40 wheels and Tartan fabric Recaro seats:

 

This year felt like an incredible number of Dimes were displayed!

      

And finally, Todd Kaneko’s 13B turbo powered Dime with Brembos and VOLK RE30s:

 

More Dime goodness, JDM-L’s Bluebird Coupe:

   

Not a Dime

But extremely rare, cool and placed next to the 510s was this Nissan Laurel. Only at JCCS, people!

 

 

Dogs Love Trucks!

Datsun trucks were kind of scattered about the park area. Jose Tarin’s 521 sported a Toyota BEAMS engine while Jason Taylor’s had an S14 SR20DE:

   

 

Mazda

Mazda commemorated the 50th anniversary of the rotary-engine vehicles. Racing Beat of Signal Hill, California  joined in by several of their memorable rotary powered vehicles.

 

   

Toyota

Toyota always has a huge corporate involvement and brought an assortment of race cars.  This year felt like the AE86s and Celicas were not as numerous but Celica-Supras and Cressidas were sweet!

  

Great showing of RA29 (Liftback) Celicas! The red car had perfect, meaty fitment on Epsilons meshies. Actually, all 3/4 of these Liftbacks sported some variation of mesh wheel…I dig it:

  

My favorite Celica though was his Pro-Street’d beast:

   

This AE86 Corolla had an OEM+ feel:

 

 

Honda

The Neo Classics Hondas were my favorite:

 

Wheels For Fantasy

I personally love going to JCCS because I get to see very rare Japanese/tuner wheels and parts. Preservation of authentic wheels and appreciation of the time and effort spent to find certain specimens that most folks have never heard of in this generation is what I admire most.   My favorite wheel at JCCS: SSR Casablanca 8 on Tommy D’s Starlet:

 

Variations on the mesh wheel from BBS, Epsilon, SSR, Volk, Bahn and more. You can’t go wrong! SSR EX-C below:

 

More Mesh goodness:

     

Many more pictures from JCCS in the gallery!

I was lucky to ride in Eric’s DR30 from Long Beach to San Jose with Michael Spreadbury at the wheel. It was a blast!

 

Thank You JCCS!

It is difficult to run a car show and keep up the quality and interest levels but the folks at JCCS have managed to do exactly that for 13 years! No other show gives you the chance to see obscure, pristine, modified Japanese classics…and we look forward to next year’s entrants. We hope you have enjoyed our coverage and please visit our mega-gallery for more pictures. Special thanks to the ZCG crew, Diamond Dave, Eric Straw and Michael Spreadbury for an amazing weekend. See you September 15 for the 14th Annual JCCS!