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.
