Z Car Garage is excited to participate in the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion August 23-26 at Laguna Seca. We will be driving and supporting several vintage race cars, including this special 1979 Datsun 280zx raced by Jim Fitzgerald. “Fitzy” is the winningest driver in SCCA history with an astounding 350+ wins in his career.

 

He was never afraid to trade paint to get the win: in 1980 at the C Production Runoffs at Road Atlanta he was seen slamming doors with Freddie Baker in his E-Type on the front straight, on the pace lap! Video of the action can be seen in this HERE. Following this race, the ZX became known as the “Designated Hitter” car.  Fitzgerald died in 1987 after crashing his 300zx Turbo in the Trans Am series race.

 

Comedian/Paul Newman fan Adam Carolla purchased the ZX in 2009, and put it up for sale with our friends at Bring A Trailer last July. Our customer Alex McDowell won the auction and Rob and I visited Adam’s shop in Los Angeles to pick up the car. The Fitzy car was awesome to see in person, from the livery to wide Panasports it got my heart racing. We loaded it up onto a trailer courtesy of expert Datsun-restorer/historian Les Cannaday:

 

Before leaving, Adam’s crew was kind enough to let us peruse his car collection.

This place just might be Xanadu for Datsun nuts:

 

Adam is a big Paul Newman fan and it shows! Bonus points for a poster showing our #49 IMSA GTU 240z RMMR!

The ZX arrived safely at Z Car Garage (thanks Les) :

Fast forward to 2018, the Jim Fitzgerald 280ZX gained acceptance to race at the RMMR with Alex McDowell behind the wheel! ZCG began race preparation.

 

Rob dyno-tuned the L-series beast and it sounds fantastic. See the dyno and unloading in this video below:

We will have another feature for each of the race cars running at the Historics! Don’t forget to purchase your tickets for Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion 8/23! Enjoy more pictures in the gallery below: